Monday, May 28, 2007

My Strengths Journey

These last few weeks I have had a lot of opportunities to interact with people who are new to the strengths philosophy. Some are faculty, some are researchers, some are career counselors, some are administrators. It has reminded me of my own "strengths journey," as I have seen myself in some of the persons I've encountered.

When I was first introduced to the strengths philosophy by Chip Anderson almost ten years ago, I guess you could say I was a skeptic. It sounded too touchy-feely, Pollyannish, and seemed way too similar to some of the things that came out of the ill-fated self-esteem movement from the 80's. I remember asking Don Clifton what the coefficient alphas were for each of the scales--and in fact I really wanted to see all of the StrengthsFinder factor analysis results! Give me empirical evidence that it works--that was what would convince me (and I don't even have Analytical in my top five!).

At the time, StrengthsFinder had just been piloted (it even had 35 themes then) and the empirical evidence was sketchy. Promising, but sketchy. So I joined with some other universities in collecting some evidence over the next couple of years. One thing about higher education is that it is difficult to randomly assign students to conditions--or even to have a control group. So the evidence we collected was quasi-experimental at best. But it, too, was promising. First-year students appeared to be more confident, got better grades, enjoyed their classes more, and even were more likely to stick around for a second year when they had participated in a strengths-based first-year seminar.

But it was the student focus groups that changed my own view of the power of the strengths approach. Hearing students' voices articulating how they saw life differently--how they saw themselves and others differently--was what eventually "sold" me on the strengths philosophy. Even though Chip had distributed those wacky "strengths-colored glasses" to remind us that the strengths approach was a different lens through which to view the world, it was hearing students talk about how they saw their relationships, their majors, and their academic goals in a whole new light that was most convincing for me.

And I suppose that's connected to why I'm a faculty member. I live for those "aha" moments when students' eyes light up, when they really get it in a whole new way. That's what makes my job rewarding and meaningful--knowing I've opened a door for students. As Sonja Gravett from South Africa says, "informative learning changes WHAT students know; transformative learning changes HOW they know and WHO they are." That's what I've always wanted to happen in my classroom--I want to change students from the inside out in ways that are valuable and important to them. And the strengths approach does just that. Watching their eyes light up when they realize they have the seeds of success already inside them, that they have something to contribute to our mutual learning, that what college will add is the knowledge and skills to move them to levels of excellence--THAT is why I use a strengths approach to teaching. It energizes me; it makes my job much more fun and rewarding--and it changes my students in ways that matter for a lifetime.

It took me about three years to really get this idea (I'm a slow learner!). I still want the empirical evidence, I still love to read about coefficient alphas and principal components analysis, and I still push universities to randomly assign students to a control or experimental group when they are starting to using StrengthsQuest on their campus. But the bottom line is that I've seen lives changed--and in fact, my own approach to teaching has changed as a result. And that is what makes all the difference.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Research Webinar this Tuesday

This Tuesday at 11 am Pacific time Gallup is hosting a webinar on research that has been done and is currently underway to test the impact of strengths-based interventions. Contact Irene Burklund at irene_burklund@gallup.com for information on how to join me for this. I'll be talking about the types of outcomes that a strengths-based intervention OUGHT to produce, will describe some of the research results we have found so far, then will focus on how you can design powerful research projects on your own campus to determine whether or not the strengths-based intervention you implement actually makes a difference!

So many campuses are adopting a strengths-based approach to various programs -- advising, first-year seminars, student leadership programs, residence life education programs -- yet few are determining in advance what outcomes they want to see. Even fewer design the most powerful interventions and test them with powerful research designs. So this is your chance to get in on the ground floor and collect the kind of evidence that your Provost and faculty will want to see before deciding to adopt a full-scale strengths program.

I look forward to hearing your voice on Tuesday!

Noel Academy Grand Opening

A few weeks ago the Noel Academy for Strengths-Based Leadership and Education celebrated its Grand Opening. What a great time that was! There were three separate symposia that were held during the three-day event: one on Positive Psychology on Campus, one on Strengths, Calling, and Vocation, and one on K-12 Education. Shane Lopez was the keynote speaker for the Grand Opening and did a terrific job of painting a picture of where the strengths movement is heading in the next few years.

The Power Point slides from the various sessions are available on the Academy's website at www.apu.edu/strengthsacademy.

If any of you are interested in being put on the mailing list for either the Positive Psychology on Campus group or the Strengths and Calling group, let Shawna Lafreniere know by e-mailing her at slafreniere@apu.edu. I will be sending out a survey to all on the Positive Psychology mailing list to determine the level of interest in continuing to communicate with one another and work together on a possible research project--and to see who can connect with us again at the Summit in DC this fall. If you are planning to attend the Positive Psychology Summit (now called the Global Well-Being and Engagement Summit) at The Gallup Organization's headquarters in Washington, DC this October, Shane Lopez will be organizing a Positive Psychology on Campus track during that conference. Knowing who you are and that you are interested in connecting with like-minded others will help us get the word to you about conference plans.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Your Own Sphere of Influence

In thinking some more about faculty ownership issues, I want to encourage you to think about your own sphere of influence. As with any change process, there are usually about 10% of the faculty who are right with you from the beginning. These are usually the folks who are strongly committed to students and are already thinking about ways of helping them learn most effectively. There may be some "Maximizers" in this bunch who just naturally see the world through a strengths lens, as well! Then there will probably be about 10% of the faculty who will never be with you on this issue, for a variety of reasons. Maybe they're too near retirement, maybe they're too tired or too busy, maybe what they're already doing is working great for them, maybe the way they see the world is through a lens of improving weakness--and they're highly committed to that lens. Forget about them! No need to waste your time and energy trying to win over these 10% -- unless you have Woo and just can't resist the challenge :)

But that leaves almost 80% of your faculty who will give you a chance to win them over. Some of that 80% are very close to the "early adopters" group and it won't take much to persuade them to try a strengths-based approach to teaching or advising. And let's be honest--some are nearer to the "no way" 10% that will never try this approach. They will need lots of evidence and probably will need to have a positive experience of it themselves and plenty of time to think about it before they'll give it a try with their students. The rest are somewhere in the middle--and will need to be cultivated in different ways.

The point here is that change takes time and a variety of strategies. It takes good communication with the right people at the right time. It takes a winsome appeal and persuasive evidence. You might think about those faculty with whom you already have good relationships and ask them to "pilot" this approach and give you feedback.

But the most important thing is to work within your own sphere of influence--model a strengths-based approach in your own classes or student programs, in your own personal interactions with students and other faculty and staff, in your own way of building a team in your department. As people begin to experience YOU engaging your own strengths as you relate to them and as you accomplish your goals, they may be intrigued and want to find out more. And then you can say, "I'm glad you asked!"

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Getting Faculty Ownership

Today I'm responding to one of the comments that was posted. The question asked how to get faculty buy-in to strengths-based interventions or programs. There is no easy answer to this question--Provosts across the country would love to know how to get faculty buy-in on anything :)

Since I have been a faculty member for the past 25 years, let me simply share what gets my attention and leads to ownership for me. I think there are three basic principles at work here: (1) I pay attention to things that interest me or that solve a problem I have; (2) anything that saves me time and especially that results in me spending less time on tasks I don't enjoy and more time doing the things I love will get my attention; and (3) I want to see compelling evidence that what you are suggesting will actually work!

Faculty's first and foremost allegiance is to their discipline, usually. I wish it were otherwise--I wish our primary allegiance was to our students and their learning! And for some, that is the case. But for many of us all our training and educational preparation was focused squarely on our disicplinary expertise. Few of us were trained to teach--and even fewer were trained to advise students. We've had no courses in teaching/learning theory, no background in higher education. We know what we were taught--and we tend to teach the way we were taught. We typically were the brightest and best--abstract thinkers and researchers for whom critical thinking is an art form. So our tendency is to critique everything--that's what we do best. That can be a little intimidating to others! But once you know that it is what makes us excellent--that critical thinking is faculty operating out of their own collective strength--then you also know the way to our hearts :) In a word--"prove it!" If you can show me that what you are suggesting is solidly grounded in theory, has empirical evidence to support its effectiveness, and will help me accomplish goals that matter to me, you will have my buy-in. Now that's a social scientist speaking--Humanities profs may frame it a little differently in terms of the "evidence" they'd like to see. But all of us hunger for evidence that something will actually impact student learning. Anything that can help me reach my students and will result in higher levels of learning and academic performance has got my vote.

Many of us faculty are finding it harder each year to reach this generation of students. We've noticed a sea change just in the last four or five years, with students spending the majority of class time texting or IMing one another or checking e-mail and surfing the net. [Not in my classes, of course--but I hear that other faculty have trouble with this :) ] So anything that helps me engage my students will get my attention. And that's where the strengths approach holds enormous potential--but more about that next time!