As you ponder the future of flexible/remote work within your unit and/or institution, here are some suggested steps and associated questions to address in proactively paving a path forward:
1. Reflect on how you’ve altered your operations while working remotely. Be honest and thorough in assessing both the benefits and drawbacks of the remote work that you’ve experienced. What has worked well and what hasn’t? How has your work changed/evolved? What metrics do you have available that you could share? What testimonials or other feedback have you received on the service your unit has provided?
2. Tell your story of how you’ve continued serving the campus and meeting your mission and goals. What has been the ultimate impact of your efforts and how have you risen to the challenges of the past year? How has the added flexibility aided in your efforts and have you demonstrated an improvement in service as a result?
3. Seek input from your team and constituents. Find out what their thoughts are on flexible/remote working. What changes, workflows, etc. might be needed to make things work even better moving forward? What expectations do your faculty, staff, and/or students that you serve have for your service offerings moving forward?
4. Don’t sacrifice quality. As a community of online teaching and learning professionals, we hold dear and advocate for quality in the online learning experience. Let’s make sure we likewise don’t sacrifice the quality of service that our constituents have come to expect of us. If you need to provide in-person support and service, find a way to do that in a creative and flexible way.
5. Equip, empower, and expect great things from your team. Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel in their book, The Long-Distance Leader introduce a “Three-O” model, suggesting that leaders think about outcomes, others, and ourselves in managing team members no matter where they are located. From those three perspectives, what steps are we taking to equip and empower our team members and support our colleagues remotely. How do we communicate our expectations and provide accountability for our team members while also maintaining the culture of our organization?
6. Consider adopting a “remote-first” approach. What are the elements of your operations that you can default to offering “remote-first” and “in-person second” to provide added flexibility for your team and constituents? I personally am sticking with virtual meetings moving forward to provide maximum flexibility and accessibility for my team and our team will be continuing to rely on our virtual collaboration platform (Microsoft Teams) for all our cross-team discussions and collaborations.
7. Set the example of what’s possible. Embrace change and don’t revert back to prior operations simply because “that’s how things were done before.” Rather, be intentional and not afraid to continue pushing beyond the status quo.
The bottom line is…our lives and the world around us have been significantly altered by the events of the pandemic. The ways in which we work are among these changes we’ve experienced. What steps can you take to help pave the path forward for remote/flexible work on your campus? As a faculty member for the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) 2021, I hope you’ll consider joining this leadership development opportunity to further hone your leadership skills as well as take an active role in helping guide the future of our field.
Resources
Craig, R. (2020, September 18). What the work from home revolution means for higher education. Forbes.
EAB. How the teleworking trend will transform college campuses. Office Hours with EAB Podcast.
Eikenberry, K. & Turmel, W. (2021). The long-distance teammate: Stay engaged and connected while working anywhere. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Eikenberry, K. & Turmel, W. (2018). The long-distance leader: Rules for remarkable remote leadership. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Govindarajan, V. and Srivastava, A. (2020, March 31). What the shift to virtual learning could mean for the future of higher ed. Harvard Business Review.
Grajek, S. (2021, January 29). EDUCAUSE QuickPoll results: Post-pandemic plans for remote work. EDUCAUSE Review.
Kim, J. (2020, March 16). Will covid-19 permanently shift how higher ed thinks about remote work? Inside Higher Ed.
The Chronicle of Higher Education. (2021, March 25). Higher ed’s remote-work experiment.
Zackal, J. (2021, February 12). Remote work is more of a possibility beyond the pandemic. HigherEdJobs.
Jason Rhode currently serves as Executive Director of the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) at Northern Illinois University (NIU). In his role he serves all members of the NIU community who have a teaching role as well as functions as chief online officer.
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on the Online Learning Consortium’s blog and is reposted here with permission.
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