Let Your Hustlers Hustle

In the modern vernacular, a hustler is an aggressively enterprising person, a go-getter. Hustlers are those people who can’t wait to get out of bed and make an impact in the world. This kind of grit and determination is almost universally admired, so why aren’t we focusing on producing hustlers, creating a culture to support these innovators throughout higher education institutions, and leading by example?

The answer: a culture of agreement.

A culture of agreement is cyclical, forming over time, often inadvertently. So, how can we identify whether an institution is stuck in this culture:

1)   A culture of agreement begins when leadership assumes that the people in their institution are too busy to participate in a self-evaluation process leading to continuous improvement. This can start out innocently enough. Leadership may even feel that they are freeing up their faculty and staff, their team’s go-getters, to focus on the important things like student services and curricula instruction. Meanwhile, leadership takes on the role of independently developing new ideas for institutional improvement, which they then roll out with only limited input from important internal (e.g., faculty and students) and external stakeholders (e.g., employers).

2)   While these improvements might be good, their development did not include the input of individuals who are most impacted by them. Slowly, the input of others is silenced, and in its place, passive agreement becomes the standard response.

3)      Eventually, improvements made are inconsistent, and although the people on the team may have groundbreaking recommendations or solutions to offer, their ideas are never voiced. Faculty, staff, and even leadership begin to settle for improvements that are “good enough.”

4)      Phrases like “we’ll look into it” and “we don’t have time and/or resources” become common responses to faculty and staff who eventually speak up. Finally, an institution once motivated to meet the current workforce needs, has been reduced to delivering status quo programs fostering a general feeling of complacency. Instead of empowering the next generation of innovators and hustlers, this system renders them powerless and unmotivated. This culture does not provide a safe environment for teams to learn from failure.

Does the description of a culture of agreement sound familiar? Well, there’s good news. Cultures like this can be changed.

Embracing Change (being critical): Actively seek change. Institutions shouldn’t examine and review their processes only to fulfill regulatory obligations. Nothing about education (and online education, in particular) is static. Changes should be implemented routinely to solve problems, make improvements, meet the needs of its student population, and evolve the services and curricula offered. Change shouldn’t occur just for the sake of documentation following a cyclical regulatory requirement, but as a thoughtful reaction to correct known issues.

Embracing New Ideas: Leadership needs to encourage all faculty and staff to participate and offer ideas and suggestions for improvement. This approach provides valuable insight, since faculty and staff are the ones who directly interact with students. They are often in the best position to identify the most needed improvements for the institution’s daily operations.

Embracing Failure: This is terrifying for most of us but, in truth, embracing failures provides the greatest insight into improving curricula, providing better services, and creating relevance within the marketplace. When we take time to step back and examine why a specific idea didn’t work as anticipated, we learn something new about the institution. Failure is often a great educational tool when used to examine what went wrong, to determine how to avoid making the same mistakes in the future, and to figure out what to try in the next iteration.

Is your institution’s culture stifling its hustlers? If so, you may be missing your best chance for excellence. By learning to recognize and repair a culture of agreement, institutions can continue to deliver the relevant academic programs and student services that set them apart and ensure sustainability in an ever-changing educational environment.

“Stay far from timid
Only make moves when your heart's in it
And live the phrase, "Sky's The Limit"
–Notorious B.I.G.