Creating Alignment and Interconnectedness
Ujima Donalson, Executive Director, Professional & Organizational Development
One of the most thought-provoking sessions I attended at the CUPA-HR conference in September was “Creating Alignment of a University’s Mission, Vision and Core Values Through Human Resources.” Although presenter Dr. Richard Huntley, assistant vice president for Human Resources at the University of Dallas, spoke about central human resources, his insights are applicable for any leader involved with hiring, onboarding, and engagement in a university setting.
A pivotal idea Dr. Huntley presented was working to be unbound instead of bound. For Dr. Huntley, being bound is akin to being what we here at UW might call being siloed, whereas becoming unbound is discovering our interconnectedness. This message adds a new dimension to the UW’s call to “be boundless” and asks us to become unbound so that we can find common ground and mobilize around a common goal.
Here at the UW, one set of “bounds” could be seen as staff, faculty, students, and alumni. Historically, the University has served these different populations by having an organizational structure that reinforces these bounds. While this makes sense operationally, it can be hard to see the connections between such distinct groups. If we start, instead, to see ourselves as interconnected rings rather than a group of silos that happen to share the same space, our perspective can begin to shift.
This is important because we — from the recruiter to the hiring manager, supervisor, mentor, and organizational leader — must help our employees connect to the larger whole. Dr. Huntley’s way of being boundless challenges us to cozy up, to overlap, to find the underlying causes we serve, the reasons we serve this institution, and explore how we may be able to do that better together.
At the UW, we often consider the mission and service to this great institution as the “hook.” However, the mission of the University is so vast, it can be hard to grasp as concrete and actionable. To overcome that we should talk more about current University initiatives, such as the Population Health Initiative or the Innovation Imperative, that have defined objectives and timelines, and construct narratives that help employees see how their work aligns with organizational priorities and the University mission.
I hope this brief take on alignment and interconnectedness has provided some food for thought. Stay tuned for more take-aways and key learnings from CUPA-HR in future issues of The Leading Edge.
