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Organizational development (a.k.a. “reorgs”) often get a bad rep.

❌The two Bobs from Office Space

❌George Clooney from Up In The Air

❌The arrogant consultant with the binder who comes in knowing the answers before he’s even asked one question

But org dev projects are some of my favorites to work on, despite the many misunderstandings about them.

They involve psychology, ethics and motivational philosophy. They force you to dive head first into formal and informal power structures, relational dynamics, your origin story and your vision toward the future. In short, they’re incredibly complex, which means the payoff at the end is big.

Melissa and I got deep in this episode. Of course, we talked about all things continuing education. But we also talked about meeting lifelong learners where they are during the pandemic and how we’ve both changed in the last year. Melissa is one of my favorite people to meet up with during conference season because I find her to be incredibly thoughtful, energetic and passionate about what she does.

If you only take one message away from this episode, here it is. It’s important we keep in mind that higher ed isn’t a safe space for everyone. Furthermore, as lifelong learning professionals focused on inclusion and access, we have a responsibility to make it more welcoming for our colleagues with marginalized identities. And that’s exactly where Dr. Terri Given’s brilliant book, Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides, gives individuals like you and me the tools to make institutions and systems more fair, transparent and, yes, empathetic.

The three people hired at Sacramento State University before Dr. Jenni Murphy only lasted three months. In rapid succession, each one left the position that had been created to develop new programs. So when she was hired on as a program manager in 2001, there may have been bets taken out on how long she’d last. Two decades later and now the Dean of the entire College of Continuing Education at Sac State, she’s still just getting started. Now as a 20-year veteran of the university, Jenni sees the future of continuing education differently than most — and we mean that in the very best way.

“The tip of the spear” is an old military idiom commonly referring to the soldiers on the front line of the troop. The trailblazers, if you will. And that’s exactly the role Sara Leoni sees for continuing education leaders inside the larger higher education environment. As CEO of GreenFig, which partners with universities to offer turnkey digital skills certificate courses and microdegrees, she brings a long history of trailblazing both inside and outside of higher ed.

Therese Grohman came to Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies with an impressive background in fundraising and event marketing. It involved years of convincing people to take on hugely physical challenges and raise a lot of money — marathons, 5K walks, cycling events and other event-based fundraisers. So when someone on her interview committee asked her why she was interested in her current role as the Senior Director of Marketing and Enrollment Management, she absolutely nailed the answer. “That mindset is very similar, particularly when it comes to continuing education,” she said. “Like, 'I don't have time to do that,' 'it's too expensive,' 'I don't know if it's worth it.' So for me it was a natural transition into this continuing ed space because of the adult mindset, when you're kind of coming up against those powerful challenges.”

Imagine if you could wave a magic wand and remake the continuing education space?

Our voices are small individually, but if all those individual voices continue to come together, change will come.

Regional and Continuing Education at CSU Chico has chosen SpurCG as a partner as it endeavors to position itself to meet the needs of future students who will be facing new challenges as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.

Meni Sarris shares what we can learn from past times of economic uncertainty and how CPE units can position themselves now to meet the new demands that emerge during the recovery.