Collaboration

A safe and caring community is one that has a connection through trust, vulnerability, and a genuine desire to care for one another.

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Brian McDonald, President of MOR Associates.  Brian may be reached at [email protected].]   Just imagine if all the people who have been through a MOR leadership experience within your university could form a cohesive community of change agents who collaborate to propel the initiatives needed to make transformational progress versus incremental. […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is by Rick Fredericks, MOR Associates Program Leader and Leadership Coach.  Rick may be reached at [email protected]] My first adult job was stacking lumber at a saw mill on the far western slope of the Rocky Mountains. This in the days when logs were held in a pond before debarking. Sawdust was […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Amanda Sarratore, Manager of Academic IT Services at the University of Notre Dame.  She is a MOR alum.  Amanda may be reached at [email protected].]   A couple of years ago, I completed a StrengthsFinder assessment. The StrengthsFinder assessment “created a language of the 34 most common talents,” and the assessment […]

5As – Our presence matters when virtual   [Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Justin Sipher, Program Leader, Leadership Coach and Consultant at MOR Associates.  Justin may be reached at [email protected].]   Many of us have just passed the one-year anniversary of when we transitioned from working in and around our colleagues and the community we […]

MLK and Constructive Conversations [Today’s Tuesday Reading is by Dr. David Sweetman, MOR Associates Leadership Coach and Consultant.  David may be reached at [email protected].] Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr Day, the United States holiday marking the birth of Dr. King.  We can reflect on the past, the journey our country has been on to achieve […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is by Dr. David Sweetman, MOR Associates Leadership Coach and Consultant.  David may be reached at [email protected].]   This week we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the celebration of thanks for a good harvest and friendship between the Wampanoag Native Americans and Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony.  While we recognize this as the […]

Can We Talk? Can We Be Honest?  We Have a Tough Road Yet to Travel [Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Brian McDonald, President of MOR Associates.  Brian may be reached at [email protected].] At first we thought this might be more like a sprint.  If we do the right thing and shelter in place from March to […]

Ubuntu and cooperative advantage  [Today’s Tuesday Reading is by Dr. David Sweetman, MOR Associates Leadership Coach and Consultant.  David may be reached at [email protected].]   In the face of the increased uncertainties and decreased resources, it is common that we rely on our past experience to help us solve new problems. Today we are intending […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Jim Bruce, Senior Fellow and Executive Coach at MOR Associates. He previously was Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Vice President for Information Systems and CIO at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He may be reached at [email protected].] I had not thought much about these two words – bullies and bullying […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Brian McDonald, President of MOR Associates.  Brian may be reached at [email protected].] During the past three weeks we at MOR have had the opportunity to hear from more than 500 leaders across higher education on the lessons learned from these eventful last eight weeks. This was an extraordinary time when universities […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Jim Bruce, Senior Fellow and Executive Coach at MOR Associates. He previously was Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Vice President for Information Systems and CIO at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. He may be reached at [email protected].] Tuesday Readings for the past four weeks have focused on how we can […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Monika R. Dressler. Director of Academic Technologies, in the LSA Technology Services group at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. She is an alumnus of the MOR Leaders Program. Her essay first appeared as a program reflection earlier this year. [Monika may be reached at […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Maria Curcio, Director of Administration, Harvard College Admissions & Financial Aid. Maria is a 2016 alumna of the MOR Leaders Program. [She may be reached at [email protected].]   In his article, Why Luck Matters More Than You Think, Robert H. Frank1 discusses luck in terms of wealth and success:   “Wealthy people overwhelmingly attribute […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Amanda Winegarden, a Security Risk Analyst in the University Information Security Group at the University of Minnesota. She is a new alumna from the recently graduated MOR Lead From Where You Are Program at the University of Minnesota. Her essay first appeared as a program reflection earlier this year. [Amanda […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Theresa Bamrick, CIO at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory operated by Stanford University. Her essay first appeared as a leaders program reflection last fall. [Theresa may be reached at <[email protected]>.]    I come from a cranberry and fishing town near Cape Cod, MA. My parents were born in the Greatest […]

… a technique that allows people to iterate on ideas without using harsh or judgmental language. While used typically in teams and on the ideas of others, plussing works equally well on one’s own ideas – when one’s self critic can be particularly vocal. You may never have previously encountered the word “plussing.” Neither had […]

Today, most organizations, including a university’s IT organization, structure their work through a set of teams. Other examples include professional sports teams with their structure, their practice day-after-day of plays they may execute in the game, and a surgical team that performs the same procedure, for example, hip replacement, under tightly controlled conditions, perhaps multiple […]

. . .  Ask for it! On any given day we will each need help from others in one or more of our life-circles – our work, our families, our church, and our social and community activities, etc.  And, we also will have opportunities to extend our help to others.  So, why then, do we […]

… my team is a safe place for interpersonal risk taking   Early this decade Google was focused on building the perfect team.  Even earlier, the company had endeavored to capture large quantities of data about employees and how they worked.  They knew, for example, how frequently particular people ate together (more productive people had larger […]