This newsletter covers what happened in November and will give you a heads up on what to look for in December and the months following.

In this issue:

There is so much to be grateful for, even during these stressful times. I am thankful to Academy members who trusted me to serve as their president as we strive to transform the Academy. I thank each member for giving freely of their time and talent to accomplish the Academy’s 2025 vision and mission. And I am also appreciative for challenging and insightful conversations that I have had with some members.

A recent conversation with a couple of my leadership mentees gave me pause and an opportunity to appreciate them for who they are. They continue to push their growth edge as they plan for leadership positions of increasing responsibility. Our conversation was free-ranging and centered on their growth as emerging leaders. The question on the table was “How do leaders facilitate unanticipated change?”  We spoke about a leader’s way of being in navigating unknown terrain, given that the COVID pandemic has created isolation and change. Our exchange did not reveal a formula. However, it resulted in the articulation of some actions they could initiate and grow as part of their leadership style. After much reflection and discussion, they distilled their thoughts into the acronym LEAD.

L=Love: Leaders love many things – the people that they engage, their craft, and what they can accomplish. In the words of Vincent Van Gogh, “What is done in love is done well.”

E=Empower: Leaders empower others by sharing their vision, ensuring that they have the tools to be successful, and supporting their goals as individuals and team members.

A=Appreciate: Leaders appreciate the knowledge, skills, cultures, talents, and perspectives of all team members. They strive to be inclusive and seek diverse input continuously.

D= Deliberate: Leaders reflect on priorities, plans, and outcomes. They readily accept the risks and the challenges essential to leadership.

Our conversation yielded some insights, as well:

In reflection, the words of the historian John Buchan framed our leadership conversation:

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”

I am grateful for all that my mentees and I have learned together. It gives me pleasure to honor the memory of Vern, my greatest mentor, by sharing his wisdom.

LEAD on!

Recent Board Meetings

Remember, you can find out the Board’s current work by checking the Academy Board Meeting Agendas and Minutes posted on the Academy members’ page:

October 2020 minutes (approved)

November 2020 minutes (not yet approved)

Summary of November Board meeting work:

In November, the Board

• Adopted Financial Policies

• Approved the 5-year Budget Projection

• Received updates on plans for 2021 Annual Conference, noting vacancies on the Committee in the areas of assessment and technology

• Discussed further refinements for the Academy Newsletter Advertising Policy

• Approved the dates of January 2-4, 2021 for the virtual winter meeting

• Endorsed the use of AoPE as the standard acronym to use in written documents

• Determined the timing of board members to complete the Conflict of Interest form, required annually

• Received updates on Strategic Planning's Operational Planning

REMINDERS:

Board members and Committee chairs should have completed their quarterly performance plan reports. If not, please do so as soon as possible, finding information on where to find the form and to whom to send the completed form in the November Board meeting minutes

If you are interested in helping with the planning and implementation of the 2021 annual conference, particularly in the areas of assessment and technology, please contact Patrick Barlow

The Next Board Meeting:  Wednesday, December 9, 2020 (10:30 am EDT)

All Academy members are welcome to participate. You will be able to find the agenda for the meeting as well as the needed information to attend through Zoom on the Academy Member site.

Are you interested in helping to shape the future of the Academy? We invite you to join a planning team and share your expertise. Feel free to contact me or any other member to get involved.

The Strategic Planning Committee met on November 4 with a focus on how the Academy can become more developmental in (a) elevating our PE performance, (b) connecting with new and continuing members around their engagement preferences, and (c) developing a monitoring system to support documentation of plan outcomes. All teams are implementing action plans and seeking other members to join them.

Key highlights include:

⇒ The DDO team (goal 2) led a developmental centering exercise that prepared participants to work collaboratively on spiritual and team-based levels.

⇒ The Membership team (goal 10) has developed a membership survey to secure information on member interests. All Academy members are invited to participate in the survey process.

⇒ The Communications Team (goal 4) will collaborate with members of the Membership team to create a Communication/Social Media Plan for the Academy.  All members are invited to participate in this developmental effort.

For meeting notes, see Strategic Planning 2020 site: http://www.processeducation.org/moo/moodle/mod/folder/view.php?id=592

Join a team and assist us in achieving the Academy’s 21st-century vision of becoming "a recognized leader in the transformation of education through performance-based learning and growth.”

Links to the Strategic Plan and the priorities for this year are below.

Current Strategic Plan (2020-2025)  http://www.processeducation.org/docs/sp2020_2025a.pdf

Current Priorities  http://www.processeducation.org/docs/sp2020_2025_priorities.pdf

All Members are invited to help us Plan and Deliver this virtual Winter Meeting, January 2 – 4, 2021.

Join us as we plan for the Academy’s first virtual Winter Meeting, which is scheduled at the beginning of the New Year. The working theme for the meeting is “Planning through Change”. The agenda focuses on activities that implement the priority strategic plan initiatives. We are striving to improve our current and future performance as facilitators, leaders, and members of learning communities. We welcome your input in designing and delivering a session at our virtual Winter Meeting. Look for future communications about the Winter Meeting.  We want to hear from all members.

Check out the preliminary agenda on the Academy Forum: http://www.processeducation.org/moo/moodle/mod/forum/view.php?id=20

Feel free to contact President Joann Horton at Joann@processeducation.org or President-elect Ingrid Ulbrich at Ingrid.M.Ulbrich@gmail.com or other members to add to our meeting planning process.

We look forward to hearing from you!

An Invitation to Emerging Leaders (new department chairs, directors, coordinators)
 
Purpose: To offer a leadership workshop that engages emerging leaders (i.e., chairpersons, directors, coordinators) at institutions in addressing topics that expand knowledge and expertise while supporting their growth and development. The Leaders Workshop will be 60 to 90 minutes based upon the needs of the group. It should be informative and fun!

Request: Emerging leaders (new chairpersons, directors, coordinators) who are willing to share their knowledge, experience, and perspectives to plan and deliver an Emerging Leaders Workshop.  

Background: We are planning the Academy Winter Meeting on January 2-4, 2021. We invite the participation of new and emerging leaders to explore leadership approaches that would directly benefit them as well as others within the Academy. We invite you to become a member of the planning team and determine the workshop focus and outcomes.

Possible topics include challenges that departmental administrators face as new or emerging leaders, such as problem-solving, conflict resolution, teamwork, or planning. Planning for the event should take approximately 6-8 hours, with the majority of the work done in Zoom team meetings facilitated by the Academy President.

Cost: Free to members who plan to participate in the Emerging Leaders Workshop or Academy Winter Meeting.

We invite all interested persons to participate in the virtual Academy Winter Meeting on January 2-4, 2021.

As we watch the seasons change from the warmth of late summer into the colder reality of winter, the Conference Planning Committee wants you to know that we are dedicated to presenting a warm and welcoming Conference environment on June 24-26, 2021.  We continue to meet to refine the plans for an active conference that welcomes everyone to join our community of dedicated educators and leaders from across the globe. We are working to design a conference that will invite new membership, stimulate vigorous discussions, and share insights about how to meet the challenges of learners in this time of ever-evolving challenges.

You can help the Academy push the envelope on improving our educational and institutional practices! Consider inviting colleagues who have not experienced the power of Process Education. The Call for Proposals is now open on the Conference Home page and we invite all of you to make a proposal based on our theme and issues related to:

→ Social justice and institutional discrimination

→ The challenge of designing and delivering effective courses in an online environment

→ How to make a campus experience (physical or virtual) inviting, personal, and meaningful

The deadline for all proposals is February 1st, 2021. During the month of March, the committee will assess the proposals collected to determine which proposals will help us create the experience we have described above. By early April we will inform all of the proposal authors about the results. The committee is currently reviewing the conference fee structure and registration process with the intent to open registration for the conference in the next few weeks.

Please consider joining us for this energetic, engaging virtual conference. It will be an inexpensive, accessible, and enlightening experience for our community.

Visit the 2021 Conference website and stay tuned!

One of the areas I have been focusing my growth on recently is becoming a stronger facilitator. In the lens of knowledge forms, I tend to think of knowledge as a process, and have primarily referred to the facilitation methodology. However, being a facilitator is a "way of being", in which case the appropriate model is a profile of a facilitator.

To close out the year we take a closer look at module 3.2.2. Profile of a Quality Facilitator, which was written by Peter Smith, longtime Treasurer of the Academy. Libby Mahaffey, the Academy's Finance Officer, has found this article to be very helpful and writes:

"Quality facilitation is integral to leading a team.  I use information from this module to discuss the role of the facilitator in strategic management and planning. The facilitation rubric can be incorporated in the student’s self-assessment of their facilitation skills."

As we wrap up another semester of higher education it may be time for all of us to assess our facilitation and move from Rangers to Change Agents.

The Self-Growth Community has spent the Fall exploring ways to overcome impediments to self-growth. A recent session focused on creating targets for performance. With targets, you identify what you want and then design a growth plan to achieve that.

Our discussion kept referring to many PE principles. Not surprising, because we know these work for students in our classrooms! As faculty we are mentors, creating growable moments for our students. As self-growers we become our own mentors, and likewise can create growable moments and self-growth experiences for ourselves. Here’s what we discovered.

⇒  Self-assessment is, of course, a critical tool for growth. Self-assessment is strengthened when it focuses on explicit criteria for performances.

⇒  PE resource have tons tools to help us identify those criteria! Profiles have embedded criteria, and rubrics are the staged development of performance. So use these to identify aspects where the next step of growth is desired, to create action plans for pursuing the growth, and criteria for assessing it.

⇒  If there isn’t a profile or description for an important performance, you can create it. People who have held roles you may be entering can be a great resource.  Ask them for their top 10 list of what you need to know to do high level performance.

⇒  Make performances, descriptions, and criteria your own by framing them your own words.  This practice builds metacognition of what that performance is, which will help you coach it for yourself and in others.

⇒  Shift from energy-draining self-evaluation and perfectionism to recognizing growth! This energizes, increases productivity, and creates opportunities to increase the effectiveness of others.

We are pleased to now feature blog content from Richard Stone... Thanks, Rick! You're welcome to visit his blog as well and fill out the contact form on his site if you'd like to subscribe to his weekly blog.

Reading fiction not only changes brain functioning while we’re reading, but it’s also measurable hours and, in some cases, days later. Using fMRI scans, Gregory Berns[i] from Emory’s Center for Neuropolicy began exploring the lasting impact of reading a novel. Berns was particularly interested in the brain’s left temporal cortex associated with receptivity for language, wanting to see if the heightened connectivity while reading a novel in the evenings continued into the next day and perhaps persisted for days following putting the book down. This isn’t such a far-fetched idea if you have ever picked up a book and couldn’t put it down, or you binge-watched five seasons of your favorite TV series on Netflix over a weekend. You know what it means when the mood and feel of the book or show color your experience of everything else you’re doing, often for days.

It turned out that this heightened state of neural functioning did persist during the days that subjects were reading the novel at night. Berns dubbed this “shadow activity,” likening it to the muscle memory that we develop from the repetition of a motor task like shooting a basketball from the foul line. This heightened activity also showed up interestingly in the sensory-motor region of the brain. Neurons of this region have been associated with making representations of sensation for the body, a phenomenon known as “grounded cognition.” Just thinking about running, for instance, can activate the neurons associated with the physical act of running.

It would seem that reading about someone running has a comparable impact. “The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist,” Berns says. “We already knew that good stories can put you in someone else’s shoes in a figurative sense. Now we’re seeing that something may also be happening biologically.” The jury is out how long these effects last, but we can only imagine the impact on the neural connectivity of someone growing up in a culture where reading stories or listening to oral tales is a daily activity. The implications for the role of fiction in education seem to suggest that even if you want your kids to excel in STEM—the sciences, technology, engineering and math—a regular regime of fiction could significantly enhance their emotional intelligence and capacity to empathize with others.

Of even greater importance is how fiction could alter how we see and interact with people different from ourselves. Many of us lament the media bubble we live in, interacting solely with people like us and consuming stories and news oriented to our political persuasion. Many pundits suggest we need to create spaces to sit and listen respectively to others with dissimilar political persuasions so we can develop a greater level of empathy for their plight and worldview. But that’s not practical for most of us, especially if you live in a region of the country where the population is fairly homogeneous. Could fiction be a viable substitute for diversity training? Berns’s research suggests that we can begin the journey to welcoming the stranger by opening the covers of a book where they reside fictionally and walking a mile in their shoes metaphorically. These stories can change our physical biology and, in turn, create a psychic space where understanding and empathy are possible, altering forever our country’s political landscape.

[i]Brain Connectivity Vol. 3, No. 6 Short- and Long-Term Effects of a Novel on Connectivity in the Brain, Gregory S. Berns, Kristina Blaine, Michael J. Prietula, and Brandon E. Pye, Published Online: 9 Dec, 2013 https://doi.org/10.1089/brain.2013.0166

Your Feedback:

Great article. I've wondered about this in my own personal development. This points to the importance of external feedback as a supplement to self-assessment, especially in areas where we may be relatively blind. I'm not sure if articulating an ideal performance with each SII would address the problem, but it's worth a shot. There is also an ever growing catalogue of ideal performance descriptions being developed in various PE research that could be leveraged in some situations.

— Thomas Nelson

Academy of Process Educators
www.processeducation.org