The Ohio State University

onCampus

• Help
• Buckeye Link
• Map
• Find People
• Webmail
• Search

  Search Ohio State Go

Employees volunteer for hands-on role in moving university forward

Posted on | November 18, 2009 | 1,664 views |

By Adam King

Richelle Simonson found herself far outside her comfort zone, standing inside a circle of chairs at the Longaberger Alumni House in front of a sizeable group of fellow OSU employees, most of whom she had never met.

She had the group’s rapt attention, though, as she talked about changing the way they approached their jobs and how to better collaborate with one another through understanding personality types and removing real or perceived obstacles.

Simonson had just finished her own training on these and other concepts, and this was her first foray as a newly minted facilitator — an OSU employee who volunteers to help President Gordon Gee change the workplace culture one unit or department at a time. Simonson is one of 22 facilitators who have been recruited and trained to host sessions across campus to help build a high-performance workforce, an integral part of Gee’s six imperatives needed to bring the university from excellence to eminence.

“There’s a unique opportunity for us right now to get even better,” said Simonson, senior director for strategic services at Facilities, Operations and Development, who has been at OSU for 18 years. “It’s about attaining whatever our maximum potential is. It’s a huge undertaking. It has long-ranging ramifications, it won’t be easy and it will take a lot of work and commitment. But the institution is ready, and I think Ohio State is an outstanding place to work and I believe in it.”

Her belief in OSU is so strong she was willing to put aside her own fears of whether she could successfully present the concepts, many of which Simonson had fundamentally ingrained in her work ethic. But never before had she seen the concepts packaged in a way many could so easily understand.

Yet going through the training, Simonson found her own bedrock foundation was able to shift in new ways.

“For me I’ve changed in that I’m still being assertive and willing to push agendas forward, but I try to do it in a way that embraces everyone, no matter what their style is,” Simonson said. “I’ve had to be much more conscientious in that this is how I’m a controlling style and this is how I approach this. Those competing personality styles, they approach it from a completely different perspective.

“Because of the culture-shaping process, I’m actually very quickly able to identify where they’re at in their style or their approach and adjust mine accordingly so that we can be more effective. I also do a lot of coaching and feedback now with people I might not have approached in the past.”

It’s that personal buy-in to the culture shaping that is critical for facilitators to be effective, said Todd Suddeth, program director for the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male, who began facilitating in October.

Working at the university since 2002 has been an “incredible journey,” he said, because it’s made him a better person and raised his quality of life. He felt driven to give something back and believed helping shape the OSU culture would deliver the biggest return on his time investment.

“Work performance is something I’ve always been interested in,” Suddeth said. “One of the main things I want people to take away from these retreats is just be curious as to the direction President Gee wants to take the university, curious about what culture plays in any organization and how culture shows up in what we do at the university and curious about thinking differently: What can I do? What can I do better? Can the sessions be effective in making me an effective employee and make my teams more effective? Will I have better relationships with my coworkers? A lot of that starts with being curious and actually trying something different.”

Those who agree to become facilitators take a big leap toward trying something different. They have to take two weeks off from their jobs to go through intensive training and then lead two-day “unfreezing retreats” as well as follow-up half-day sessions that reinforce the concepts they teach. The facilitators also meet with each other once a month to go over their successes and struggles.

And the president himself seems pleased with their results.

“When I first met with the facilitators last spring, I told them that they were like drum majors — setting the direction and leading the charge,” said Gee. “They are doing a superb job as champions for positive and lasting change at the university, helping to create a campus culture that isvibrant, innovative and fully supportive of shared successes.”

Peer-to-peer interaction

A key element to making OSU’s culture change a success is having university employees teach the sessions. The facilitators live and breathe the current culture and understand university jargon.

“The trust level is higher if you see fellow employees who have bought into the process and taken time out of their regular work schedules to do this,” said Todd Suddeth, who started facilitating in October. “Those going through the sessions might say, ‘If this person is taking time out of their schedule, there must be something to this and this person must believe in this process. Since they have experience working here and they see this is something that can work better in their department, maybe I should take this seriously to improve what’s going on in my area.’”

New facilitators are likely to be recruited in 2010, and Richelle Simonson, who became a facilitator this year, said it’s important those new trainers come from all employment levels.

“Having a good mix of facilitators is going to strengthen this program,” she said. “It was a huge growth experience for me. But I also learned that there are a tremendous number of talented people on this campus who are fundamentally committed to making us better. They come from all walks of life and backgrounds, but at the end of the day, there’s a love for this campus and people want to do what’s right so individuals and teams can grow and the institution can achieve whatever its destiny is.”

Comments