Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

Consider organizations as organisms consisting of living beings whose level of effectiveness and productivity rely on the health of those who are part of them. Organizations, specifically higher education, are referred to as “institutions” They project the idea that they are machines, consisting of processes and structures, and forget that higher education is made up of human beings working together. The reality is that for “institutions” to be effective and efficient, the members of their workforce must be individually healthy so the organization can be healthy.

One of the topics often discussed in the world of student affairs is the concept of work/life balance. The issue revolves around the idea that because the staff is overworked, emotional, mental, and physical stresses take their toll, leading to individual and organizational problems. Often, the discussion is framed as workers’ rights vs. management issues. But, if framed in the way I had suggested above, this should not be the case. For the organization to function effectively as a whole, it needs to consider its workers’ health, and it should strive to create an environment where the staff is engaged, meaning they both feel like they’re contributing to the organization. They feel satisfied in doing so. As a leader of an organization, I don’t claim to know the answers on how to create this environment, but I do seek ways towards this effort. What I know is that the demands and pressures from mandates, customer expectations, taking care of the staff, and keeping the organization running are often too much for the current staffing level. I scoff at the idea of administrative bloat, especially when it comes to the idea that there is way too many technical and administrative staff at universities. However, consider the ending of the Perkins Loan program and the new Prior-Prior Year change in the financial aid application process. The are just two changes in the financial aid system that require universities to respond to accommodate them immediately. In an ideal world, there would be sufficient time and staffing to meet these demands, but unfortunately, that is not the case. These changes require staff to work above and beyond regular hours, including evenings and sometimes weekends. By no means are these complaints but rather a statement of the reality of the pressures experienced by staff, potentially impacting their health.

The management and the staff must share the challenge and responsibility of keeping the organization healthy. For management, efforts must be made to provide an environment where staff feels like they’re thriving and not merely surviving or even worse. Different folks have different motivations, and it’s up to the management to determine how each employee feels valued. Some like a job that allows them to make enough money and they don’t have to work beyond 8-5 to enjoy their lives away from work and with their families. Some are motivated by intellectual challenges and a sense of accomplishment. Some also see their work as beyond work – their passions drive them to make a significant difference in this world. Then some are motivated by all of the reasons mentioned. The challenge and responsibility then is for management to meet those motivations to the best of their ability while meeting the demands required of the organization.

The staff themselves need to be responsible for their health as well. They need to be their biggest advocate when it comes to making sure their needs are met. This means communicating with their supervisors about their boundaries and recognizing their limits. Sometimes, staff may feel the need to be heroes/martyrs, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the organization. In the long run, this is not the most effective way to contribute to the organization. For one, heroes who take on more responsibilities than they should sometimes prevent others in the organization from growing. Also, they become the only individuals the organization must rely on. While this may be a good feeling to have, the reality is that heroes may not be able to enjoy their lives outside work because they are always in demand, even during their vacations. As for martyrs who feel the need to suffer to show their value to the organization, it is not sustainable as working long hours and spending emotional energy can just lead to burnout. They are also just hurting themselves by setting expectations that are not sensible. For example, a person who constantly works 70+ hours a week may set themselves up for scrutiny when they start to lessen their work to a manageable 40 or so hours a week as their productivity level will decrease.

Staff must also take care of their physical and mental health. These include taking on activities to promote wellness, such as exercising, hobbies, and interests that take their minds off work.

Organizational health is a shared responsibility between management and staff. For organizations to be effective, they must view themselves as more than institutions consisting of tasks and processes but rather as living organisms consisting of human beings who have emotional, mental, and physical needs.

How are you promoting a healthy organization?

I have read employees leave organizations because of their managers. One of the most frustrating situations that lead to employees looking for other jobs is because they don’t feel heard by their managers, who expect to guide and protect them. As managers, sometimes we are too focused on getting the tasks done that we fail to notice the cues (subtle or overt) our employees share to let us know of their concerns. And when we do notice their concerns, we fail to realize that they may not be looking for answers from us but just to say, “I hear you.” Acknowledgment is a very powerful action, yet as managers, we don’t do enough of this. I’m guilty of that sometimes, and it’s a shortcoming I’ve realized that I’m now conscious of in my relationships at work. Have you ever observed yourself or others doing this in your workplace?

• An employee brings up a concern to their manager and is told they are being too sensitive.
• An employee is in the middle of stating their concerns to their manager, who is cut off by the person they are talking with.
• An employee proposes an idea to their manager, and their ideas are immediately met with “yes, but…” instead of “yes, and ….”

I’ve been that employee whose ideas have not always been acknowledged, and I’ve also been told I’m guilty of being the not-so-receptive manager. Because of the pressure of having to complete tasks, we forget the human element of our work which include building positive relationships with those we work with and showing they matter and are valued. Part of this relationship building could start by taking the time to acknowledge others.

Image courtesy of ExtremeHealthRadio.

It’s easy to get caught up in our world and the challenges we face, which could lead to thinking we are the only ones going through difficult times. Sometimes, we might think we’re the only ones working after hours and the only ones who must face so much work for our inadequate resources. This could lead to thinking we are unfairly being asked to take on the burdens of our organization on our own. This kind of thinking happens when we don’t take the time to connect with other folks in other parts of our organization. In IT, we are often asked to work after hours and on weekends because that’s the only time we are allowed to do some maintenance work and not disrupt the work of our customers during business hours. I personally don’t do much technical work anymore, given my management role, but for years, I worked after hours and on weekends to complete parts of my job. There were times when I got frustrated, but there was one thing I did that gave me perspective on my situation. It’s a practice I still do today – talk to other folks in other units in my organization about the challenges they are going through.

Admittedly, there have been times in the past when I have over-valued the importance of my role in IT when it comes to providing services to the students and the campus community. As an IT organization, we’ve created significant systems that have improved the efficiency/effectiveness of how the staff does their work. We’ve also created systems that helped students learn and assist them in their lives outside the classrooms. As the dependency on technology grew over the last few years, so did the demands on IT. At the same time, the resources to meet the demands have not been able to keep up. This is the daily challenge I face now as the director of my IT organization. It’s daunting, indeed.

However daunting my challenges are, when I speak with other colleagues in our student affairs organization, I gain perspective on how my challenges compare with others. As I am reminded, we are all facing a not-so-unique challenge of too much work and dealing with much more complicated situations but with insufficient resources. But, on the other hand, I am also reminded that I don’t have to deal with the aftermath of tragedies, not at the personal level at least. When I speak with my colleagues, I am reminded that they are the ones that must make the calls to parents to inform them their child just committed suicide, or they must be the ones the campus community must look up to as the strong ones to lead them through a crisis when they are suffering at the same time. During these conversations, I am reminded that as challenging as my job is, I cannot even imagine the impact my colleagues’ jobs must have on them. I am dealing with computers; they sometimes must deal with human tragedies.

For the last three months, I committed myself to losing weight towards better fitness and as a challenge. In the past, I had gone through two separate personal challenges when I ate at least 1 salad for a meal/day for 100 as well as 40 consecutive days. I had set out to lose 20 pounds by the July 31st when I started on April 28th. I did meet that goal one day later than I had planned, but nevertheless, I consider it a successful attempt. This post is about some lessons I’ve learned the last three months that contributed to meeting my goal of losing weight. Overall, I needed to have the motivation and attitude to want to lose weight. I also needed some support, strategies, and tools to lose weight. Wanting to lose weight without the tools and strategies to go through the process and vice versa would not have worked.  What I will share below seem to be common sense and they are. The key is to actually committing through the process. Here are some lessons learned:

Find motivations/inspirations that will drive you to start and maintain your effort. Why are you trying to lose weight in the first place? For me, it’s because I hated hearing my doctor tell me I have to lose weight every time I went for a visit. He warned me about potential health issues if I maintain or increase my weight. I also got tired of not being able to find clothes that fit me. I just didn’t like the way I see when I looked in the mirror.I remember Anthony Robbins, the author, write something like “people will only change  because their situation is so painful they want to change or the perceived benefit of the change is so great they want to change.” In my case, I found my situation “painful” enough for me to change.

Find supporters. My wife’s support was key in my weight loss. She and I love to eat and try new food. She can also cook some amazing dishes I request. These dishes are not always healthy but nevertheless, she accommodated my requests. We both committed to changing our eating habits which involved some extra work and opting not to eat what we had enjoyed. For one, she prepared fruits and vegetables which I brought to work for snacks. She also prepared breakfast (scrambled egg white with spinach) I ate before leaving home. This was in place of donuts and pastries I bought at work. While we both enjoyed eating rice and desserts, we chose to minimize the portions we ate or just stopped eating them altogether. During the last three months, we rarely ate rice and even if we did, it was measured so that it was no more than 1 cup per meal.

Develop strategy. Maintaining a sustained effort, which includes daily routines, in the last three months was key. As mentioned above, I was mindful of what I chose to eat and it required some preparations. When my wife and I wanted to eat at restaurants, we looked at their menu online first to plan what to order. Also noted above is the preparation of healthier food to snack on throughout the day. I also found opportunities throughout my work day (and weekends) to have some physical activities. For example, instead of sitting at my desk during my lunch break, I would walk around the campus and go to the beach. Instead of driving to meetings across campus, I opted to walk instead. I also went to the golf course, either just by hitting some balls at the range or playing a couple rounds of golf with some friends. In short, I ate more of the right food at lesser portions and committed to more physical activities.

Use tools to support your effort. I also used Weight Watchers system and its mobile app.  Weight Watchers assigns a number of daily points to use and different foods have corresponding values based on their nutritional values. For example, fruits and vegetables are worth 0 points while meat, pastries, and processed food are worth more. To me, Weight Watchers is more than being aware of what I ate but rather, it was a behavior modification system. By keeping track of what I ate and also guiding me towards food that are healthier (and smaller portions), this changed how I viewed food in general. Another app similar to Weight Watchers is LoseIt! This app doesn’t assign points but it does count calories for the food you eat as well as calories lost from activities.I also use my iWatch and MapMyWalk mobile apps to monitor my daily activities.

Don’t expect results overnight. I didn’t see much result the first week or so and I almost gave up. I didn’t lose any weight that first week and I became discouraged but my wife kept on encouraging me to not give up. After the second week, I lost a couple of pounds and that gave me some hope and motivation to continue.

Have fun doing it/Don’t suffer (too much). To be able to sustain an effort that is not easy to do for an extended period of time without having fun along the way probably doesn’t work. In my case, I made a game out of the process. If I knew I had a planned big dinner, I planned what I could eat during the day so I don’t go hungry and still save my points for dinner. I do have to mention one significant change I made is that I began to snack between meals. When I felt hungry, I ate fruits, vegetables, or cinnamon rice cakes. I’m not sure if this change resulted in how my metabolism works.I also kept track of my activities, such as number of steps for the day, and I tried to meet the goals I had set for the day. As mentioned above, I also started playing golf more or just walking around the campus more often as I knew these activities contributed to my weight loss. A side benefit to these activities was that I felt mentally better. I used the time to relax and think about ideas and dream about the ideal future for my wife and me.

My motivations and the methods I used worked for me though it may not work for you reading this post. So, find what works for you using the general advice I shared.

My wife and I had lunch at Chinois in Santa Monica last week for my birthday. The food was as delicious, and the portions were served family style. We were very impressed indeed! The customer service and the sense of teamwork I observed amongst the staff were more impressive. Frankly, I’ve been to some fancy restaurants, and I don’t mind paying a lot of money for quality food, but it’s the experience and customer service that determine whether we go back to the place.

As one who leads a higher ed IT department and always looking for ways to provide better customer service, I observe and try to learn from watching how the staff works at restaurants and other business establishments. Here are some of my observations:

• The staff worked as a team. We initially had a server take our order; she was very enthusiastic and welcoming. Other staff delivered our food, water, and whatever we needed. This observation from other restaurants is nothing unique but how they all seemed to treat us as their customer, not the “other stuff” that stood out. They were conversing with us, and there was a sense of continuity of service, not disjointed as I’ve experienced with other restaurants.
• The staff were cheerful and took the time to talk with us. Even though the restaurant was busy, the staff took the time to talk with us. They didn’t seem rushed or feel like they were forced to talk with us.
• The hostess and most staff seem to know many customers who came in that lunch. As soon as the customers walked through the door, they were greeted with hugs and/or pleasant greetings as if they’d known each other for some period of time. The hostess was particularly nice and welcoming. She was very cheerful and seemed to enjoy what she was doing.

After our lunch, my wife and I spoke with the hostess, Natalie, complimenting her and the other staff on how well they treat their customers, including us. She was gracious, and we spoke for a bit about why the staff seemed to work well together and the reason behind the good customer service. Here’s what she told us:

• Most of the staff have worked there for years, including her. She mentioned she was in her mid 30’s and started working there when she was 19. She also mentioned she wrote her thesis on the restaurant for her grad school.
• The attitude comes from the top, Wolfgang Puck. The hostess also mentioned that Puck often visits the restaurant in the late hours before closing and genuinely interacts with the customers. As she told us, he enjoys talking with customers, and it’s not a chore for him to do so. Puck sets a tone and example for his staff to follow.

From our conversation, one thing that stood out to me was the following:

• The staff feels a sense of ownership. The hostess feels like this is her restaurant, even though it’s owned by the famous chef Wolfgang Puck. She says the staff has strong pride in their work and the restaurant. This was their place.

I was thinking about this sense of ownership the hostess shared with us and how it relates to my work. Looking back at my experience and my observations of my colleagues through the years, I feel employees contribute more to their work if they have a sense of ownership in what they do and, even better, of their organization. Part of that sense of ownership is the idea that their voices are valued and what they say matters in how their organization is managed and its future direction. They are also allowed to take action as trusted employees. This also means they are given the leeway to make decisions without always waiting for management approval.

Based on our good experience at Chinois, we will definitely go back again to try the other dishes. We are also looking forward to dining at Spago in Beverly Hills, another restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck.