Last week I spent several days in Seattle for CASE Summit. This is always one of my favorite conferences because it focuses on horizon issues for marketing, alumni, and advancement leaders.
The agenda included general sessions, breakout discussions, and lots of one-on-one conversations about the work.
Key Takeaways
Here are four takeaways that I heard during the sessions. These aren’t part of a specific session but are common themes that emerged across the conference.
New Ways of Working
Multiple speakers talked about new ways of working. This theme had several layers to it. First, many new employees coming into the workforce want increased flexibility. There is a desire to not be in the office every day, and employees want to work from home or on location. One keynote speaker shared that her company implemented a four-day work week to help manage this flexibility. She argued that foundational changes around meetings (let it be an email), and AI allows the team to be productive and get their work done in four days. Another speaker shared that he found value in being in the office each day, as we have students spending thousands to be on campus. He felt it was important to have the campus feel alive and busy.
My take: I think the new norm will be some aspect of a hybrid work environment. I think the four-day work week will be challenging to implement in higher education. Additionally, for leaders, we need to develop our own philosophy about how our leadership style works in a hybrid or remote environment. This will help us be prepared to lead in these spaces. For example, I ask those working from home each day to share their three priorities for that day. This allows us to align on output, and if there’s misalignment it’s correctable before frustration or deadlines are missed.
Our Success is Needed
Higher education has been around for thousands of years, and it has survived many challenges before. That is a sign of hope for our profession and should be reassuring that our work has value and purpose in the world. I heard a keynote speaker (not in our profession) share that she was rooting for higher education. She noted her profession depended on higher education graduates, so she had a vested interest in its success. In another session, a presenter said higher education hasn’t been able to unify around a successful message about our value. This presenter felt this was because we were too competitive with one another for students.
My take: I related to both aspects of this theme. At my institution, we talk about the work we do in preparing our regional workforce, and that’s something I’m really proud of. However, I wonder if our profession doing enough to help the industries we support know that our success is directly related to their success. Additionally, in our latest commercial and campaign, we talked about the broader impact in a subtle way. It was our way to talk about this, but we did this alone and didn’t have a way to unify that message with others.
No Longer Assume We Have Trust
Another keynote speaker encouraged higher education leaders to shift their frame of mind. She said that, historically, higher education was assumed to have trust. She suggested that is less of a factor, and we would be well served by assuming we have to earn trust with a student, alumni, donor, etc. Her strategies to help our profession earn trust involved being authentic in our work and finding ways to build community. Then, the session I helped lead (with Jesse Pisors) talked about how to build collaboration between the advancement and marketing function. We spent a good deal talking about the key work these two functions do to build trust for the institution, which is critical for raising funds and institutional momentum.
My take: This really resonated with me. In thinking about trust, everything we do either adds trust or erodes trust. I had never thought that current students may not trust us initially, but I think about the world they’ve experienced (COVID, rising costs, online education, heavy marketing) and can better understand their skepticism.
Generational Leadership is Here
Another topic was the idea of struggling to lead a multi-generational shop. Several sessions talked about how to create harmony among multiple generations. In the session, the topics focused on providing support for different working styles, technology needs, and mental health support. Additionally, another session talked about how many boomers are living and working longer. As a result, there can be five different generations in the workforce. Additionally, as younger leaders move into more senior roles, companies will face even more transition, so it is important to begin finding ways for these groups to work together more intentionally.
My take: Managing team members across multiple generations is a challenge and will likely remain a challenge for some time. As a leader, I have three generations of team members, and I have to work on how to make the environment work for all. As an early tech adopter, I have to manage this area the most because some on my team love technology, while others are anxious about it. Both sides of that spectrum do phenomenal work though.
What Did I Miss?
If you attended CASE Summit, what topics stood out to you as important? How are you thinking about those over the course of the next few months?
Feel free to leave a comment and join the conversation. If not, I hope to see you in Nashville next year!
2 responses to “Insights from CASE Summit: Trends in Higher Education Leadership”
Great summary! One sub-topic that I think is really timely is a new understanding of fundraising campaigns. There is debate about whether we need traditional comprehensive campaigns in the future. I enjoyed being part of this discussion.
So very true! I’ve heard that trend and continue to see it being debated in the space.