Category: Rumblings

Differentiating Experience Journeys

November 17th, 2022

It is my goal throughout this whole process to document things as they occur and to not wait until I have “all the answers”. Its a true design process where I am designing/iterating/prototyping/testing/designing/wash and repeat.

How did this start? I came up with this idea to redesign the higher education experience and wrote a proposal and gave it to my Dean. It was three pages – two about what I planned to do and the last page on why I was uniquely qualified to run this project.

See – I have long argued that events and education are the exact same. What is an event? Two or more stakeholders coming together for a common purpose. What is a class? Two or more stakeholders coming together for a common purpose – which in this case is learning/application of knowledge, skills, and abilities. If teachers were designing their courses effectively, each one would be custom created around that days learning objectives. Don’t just do a powerpoint about site selection – go do a site visit. (Also, don’t ever do powerpoints in general.) This makes [good] event planners/designers/strategists some of the most engaging and innovative teachers.

I also have a background in hospitality. Why is this relevant? We have a rule in hospitality that you should first and foremost take care of your employees. If they feel taken care of, they will take care of the guest. This isn’t just money (though being able to pay your bills is obviously important) – its a positive and empowering work environment. Your employer cares about you and your goals and ambitions and growth. They personalize and customize the job to you/your schedule/your interests as much as they can. You job craft and co-create as much as possible.

Following this rule and my experience in hospitality, it never made much sense to me why universities are almost solely concerned with the student experience. If the standard student has to have 120 credit hours to graduate, that means they are physically in the class/interacting with the teacher 1,920 hours over the course of their degree, with an additional 1,920-3,840 hours in homework and outside of class activities. That 1,920 is 80 full 24-hour days. 80 days with a teacher. [Of course, online asynchronous courses adjust this a bit…]

Yet, what I find is that most universities don’t prioritize this focus on their faculty and the faculty’s happiness. It’s not even happiness, its helping faculty grow, find their purpose, and apply their purpose. Allowing them to job craft and co-create to be a mutually beneficial experience. If the university would take care of the faculty, then the faculty would take care of the students. It wouldn’t always be a fight. People would be more engaged – at all levels.

The university eco-system has MANY stakeholders. I have decided to design the experience journeys for three of them. This includes faculty, students, and staff. The faculty and student experience journeys are being designed at the same time. I have been having SO much fun doing this!

I will detail them out more in the next few blog posts – but I am starting with doing 1:1 in-depth interviews with each faculty member individually. Yes, this takes time. But one thing I have found post-pandemic is that faculty are not only burned out, but feel like no one is listening and no one cares. This isn’t just at my school, but all the Facebook groups, all my friends at other institutions, everywhere. This is such a critical step of the process. I have conducted nearly ten 1:1 interviews lasting between 2 and 2.5 hours each. The information is RICH and the insights and ideas are brilliant. It’s going to lead to incredible things!

Concurrently, I am having my senior design students redesign the student journey. In particular this semester – they are designing the experience journey of high school seniors and college 1st years (aka freshman). They have identified 4-5 key events that happen in each of these years and then have been going through the event design canvas process to design these events to be transformation. I am so excited to share these steps in more detail later!
So it begins…

November 10th, 2022

Where to even begin?

Hi, my name is Kristin. I have one passion in life and it’s to transform higher education to be transformational. I have an interesting background of hospitality, event and experience design, tourism, marketing, and academia. I am out to redesign the higher education experience for faculty, for staff, and for students.

Of course, there is a LOT behind those statements. There is a lot that goes into them. A lot to be taken out of them. It’s just…. a lot. Am I trying to save a ship that’s sinking? While I am in it? Not that it should matter, but definitely still on the tenure-TRACK. I worked at another university for awhile before I came to be current one. I didn’t take any time towards tenure, so I now submit that book sometime next year.

I have an epic Dean and she has an incredible vision and she supports me in my crazy ambitions. Am I still in all the quarantine Facebook groups for students? Absolutely. Do I follow the professor is out page as well? Yep. (Am I in absolutely way too many Facebook groups…..definitely.)

What led to this? Not to repeat “a lot” – but ya. Higher ed saved my life. I know that it has and can continue to do that for others. I have a large dream and an actionable mindset. I value impact and transformation.

I was very fortunate to get a job offer over the summer for a higher level administrative role in another country. It really made me pause and evaluate my life. I wrote out all the lists of pros and cons. I wrote out the grass is greener on the other side stories. I interviewed my friends and friends of my friends. Was a double promotion worth all that it entailed? I wrote out my purpose in life and how that position aligned with my purpose.

I love academia because it attracts entrepreneurs with a bit of a low risk mentality. You create and own something with a steady paycheck and decent benefits. When I started I listened to society and all the societal expectations about moving up the ladder, yadda yadda. Then I unlearned myself and societal expectations. And then I didn’t want that anymore.

I love my position and my life. If I could do anything different going forward, it would be a bit more of a management consulting role. <….Que this project and this site…..> So I realized that the things I loved about the position offered was the potential for impact, change management, designing and defining culture, project management, and ALL THE PEOPLE. I love people and facilitating transformational change. What I didn’t love was an admin position, all the HORRIBLE time-wasted and life-sucking meetings, and putting out fires all day. I didn’t love the idea of a position that would keep me so occupied in the policies and regulations that I wouldn’t have the capacity to design and implement the change that was so needed.

After I turned down the job and decided to stay put for the next 18 months of so (can you guess what happens then?), I said…. Why can’t I do this? My Dean is incredible and has such a great vision, but is lacking capacity to design and implement (see admin notes above….) I can serve that capacity.

So I put together a proposal and here I am. I have time dedicated now to redesigning higher education. And I want to detail out the process of what that looks like for the everyone to see and benefit from. No, this isn’t IRB approved. And no, it won’t be written up in a theoretical Tier 1 journal. But, processes and tools will be developed and grounded in the most incredible research. And I am so excited to share some findings with you all along the way!

Category: Rumblings

Differentiating Experience Journeys

So it begins…