What People Are Saying
QUOTE FROM A REVIEW OF THIS BOOK
"This book is the best example of shifting organizational culture written by a team of expert educators and administrators on the market today. Learn how they cohesively managed change, elevated morale, and created new ways of thinking, performing, and operating within an educational setting. The experiences of this advanced team of professionals can help any group move through organizational change effectively and energetically."
--Dr. Lisa Marie Portugal, author, Successful Online Faculty Principles and Best Practices: Identifiable Criteria for Employment Practices, Hiring Standards, Training, and Leadership Decisions
QUOTES FROM REVIEWS OF PREVIOUS AUTHOR WORKS
"Dr. Grady Batchelor gave an array of ideas to assist organizations to do more with less. Using his background as a consultant for numerous organizations, he shared concepts that would help any level of business. It was a truly informative read."
--Dr. Aikyna Finch, author, Motivation Ignited: 10 Ways to Set Your Self-Motivation on Fire
"As a scholar-practitioner, Dr. Batchelor presented actionable ideas to reducing costs, mitigating risks, and creating unique competitive advantage while sustaining business growth! Dr. Batchelor’s style is straightforward but detailed and effective. This work is a great read for business leaders, non-profit leaders, and academics alike."
--Dr. Amine Ayad, co-author, The Inclusive Leader: An Applied Approach to Diversity, Change, and Management
OLC EFFECTIVE PRACTICE AWARD
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) recognized Linda Algozzini, Grady Batchelor, Shannon Voyles, Kim Bessolo and Valencia Gabay with a 2017 OLC Effective Practice Award for their work, “Applying a Group Coaching and Mentoring Framework to Shift an Organization Culture,” which was the genesis of this book.
Preface
This book was written so that we could share the challenges, strategies, and successes of applying a systemic change model to our operating unit. This change model resulted in improved employee job satisfaction, renewed work ethic, and created a sense of community in the virtual workplace. We wrote this book to support those who are committed to helping others move from an existing mindset to a new way of thinking by embracing hearts and minds in a transformative shift.
The reality I faced centered on being alone in the management of this large group and the inability to regularly meet with each individual to elicit the necessary changes. Yet this type of change needed to occur from the inside and then encompass the whole. This meant a structural change needed to happen that could be experienced at an emotional level that forced the individual and the whole group to move beyond their static zones of comfort. Each individual’s inner landscape would need to undergo a transformation and structural shift to change.
“We reflect on the past, imagine what could be, and then plan ways to make our thoughts become reality” (“Your Thinking Brain”, n.d., para. 1). This statement directly illuminates what occurred for a solid four months before, I, as manager, put my thoughts, ideas, and thinking onto paper. I reflected on the current situation and planned for what could be. I needed to leverage my inherent strengths and management style to meet and reach each individual employee at their current level of performance. To reach each individual, I needed more than a typical short-term professional development workshop or change intervention to cause lasting change.
It was essential that the change begin a process of continuous reflecting and adapting for this unit. Current practices could not be maintained. A new state was needed to satisfy the needs of the university, the needs and satisfaction of the employees, and, most importantly, the needs and learning of the students. As I considered change, I kept returning to the Descartes’ quotation, “I think; therefore, I am." This idea of thinking, reflecting, and being would prove to be a consistent undertone when determining how to change.
Linda Algozzini
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the following for their participation, dedication, contribution, and professionalism that made this work possible.
Dr. Kimberly Jacobs, Dr. Sharie Adamson, Donna Armes-Thomas, Dr. Karine Blackett, Nikki Charles, Shearin Christiansen, Alfred Cicere, Leslie Colegrove, Denise Desverreaux, Julie Duncan, Catherine Ellenwood, Janet Felder, Janice Flegle, Dr. Angela Gibson, Jacqueline Hott, Allison G.S. Knox, Monica Ludwig, Dr. Don (Kirk) Macon, Heather Marnell, Angela Matthews, Heidi McNally, Susan Mosby, Dr. Danan Myers, Roxanne Ostlund, Frank Pelli, Dr. Amy Peterson, Kenneth (Tom) Reed, Jennifer Repp, Michele (Beshears) Rigsby, Diane Roberts, Drucilla Russell, Miguel Sanchez, Jennifer Sanders, Dr. Tambria Schaefer, Karen Sykes, Corey Tutor, Elizabeth Wharton, April Wick, Linda Eckert, Craig Gilman, Susan Mangus, Heather McCumber, Dr. Lisa Marie Portugal, Jennifer Sturge, Jennifer Tutor, Stephanie Walsh, Rachel Armstrong, Carrie Buddin (Badeaux), Derrah Cassidy, Jannett Fisher, Elizabeth Gray, Alysia Harvey, Alistair Marshall Conner, Eleanor Hewitt, Judith Levin, Sandra Mohr
Mentor Leads 2016
Kimberly Bessolo, Valencia Gabay, Dr. Don (Kirk) Macon, Dr. Angela Matthews, Frank Pelli, Drucilla Russell, Corey Tutor, Dr. Shannon Voyles
Mentor Leads 2017
Dr. Sharie Adamson, Kimberly Bessolo, Valencia Gabay, Dr. Angela Matthews, Diane Roberts, Drucilla Russell, Dr. Shannon Voyles
The authors would like to thank Dr. Lisa Marie Portugal for providing the authors with a review. Special thanks Dr. Shannon Voyles for also serving as editor for the book. The authors would like to thank Susan Lowman-Thomas for her review and comments.
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Introduction
In this book, we discuss the application of the Group Coaching and Mentoring (GCM) Framework hedged in the theories of metacognition, self-regulated learning, and communities of practice. While this may sound daunting, you will discover how well these theories complemented each other and drove the drastic mindset shift of the department. This unique approach was applied to online university faculty who participated in a professional development opportunity; however, its replicability is pertinent to a myriad of industries, just as change itself is present everywhere.
The first part of the book speaks to WHY change was needed. This section discusses analyzing the problem, considering the needs of the group, considering the potential and challenges, and having an awareness of the starting point of the group that is about to change.
The second part of the book illustrates the HOW process for implementing the framework. This section includes the theories used as a foundation, the roles and responsibilities of all involved, the four stages of implementing the framework, and applying such a framework in a virtual environment.
Part three of the book includes WHAT resulted after this change design was implemented. This includes results and data from the post-then-pre survey that the faculty completed, reflections on the process, and applications of this framework in other situations and settings.
For the purposes of this book, the term employees will be used to identify the faculty