Administrative Retreats: A New Twist to Avoid “Administrative Isolation”

Abstract

Administration in isolation? One may not consider one's college to be in isolation when there is a full team of administrators such as a dean, department chairs, and associate deans. However, if you consider that each team member has unique and distinct responsibilities, then each member is in isolation. Further, if an administrative team goes on a retreat, are they doing so in isolation? Each person is still the only representative of their respective position. Consider this typical approach to retreats: Are we approaching such time consuming, costly exercises in the best manner? Why not retreat with another college administrative team? With this approach, administrative isolation does not exist because there is duplicate representation of each position. Most, if not all, institutions take time away from usual duties to bring their administrative team together for an off-site retreat to evaluate something of importance to the unit as a whole. We have all been subjected to a myriad of retreats that have had varying results ranging from a miserable failure to an overwhelming success. Patrick Lencioni refers to the retreat type of meeting as the “Quarterly Off-Site Review.”1 While Lencioni gives credibility to the idea of the traditional retreat, there are ways to maximize the outcomes. Why might a joint administrative retreat be beneficial? As new deans introduced by a mutual friend (Bill Lubawy, Kentucky), the authors have learned a great deal from one another. If we have benefited from our interactions, our leadership teams could similarly gain from their counterpart at “the other new school.” We will be experiencing similar situations and challenges and trying to reach comparable solutions in new programs. As such, we made the decision to pursue a new twist on an old idea. Why not have an administrative off-site retreat with our teams together, thus minimizing administrative isolation? With this potentially unexplored territory in mind, we identified a site halfway between our Colleges for a joint administrative retreat. We established an agenda that did not involve any formal presentations (except from the deans). Rather, attendees were asked to bring bulleted points for discussions related to their areas of responsibility. Members of the 2 teams paired up (eg, chair with chair, associate dean with associate dean, etc) before our agenda items were discussed, an approach tantamount to total elimination of isolation. Topics included starting a research enterprise in a new college, issues related to past/current success and/or failures in their positions, faculty development/recruitment/retention in a new program, and curriculum/syllabus development, as well as some low-key, noncontroversial topics such as remediation and outcomes assessment, which were added just for fun. Throw in a couple of formal presentations by the deans on “Death by Meeting”1 and “The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make,”2 and the agenda was set. While we had high hopes, the outcome far exceeded our expectations. The dialogue was extremely beneficial, enlightening to all, and really enabled us to have “twice” the viewpoint from each position's perspective. The discourse resulted in dialogue that will substantially benefit both fledgling Colleges, and in particular, new and seasoned persons in their respective roles. In a final wrap-up session, attendees were asked to comment on the utility of the retreat. All agreed that the retreat was “reaffirming” and helped everyone to realize that their problems are not unique or insurmountable. We are certain that the relationships established at this retreat will persist for the long term. In our view, we have set a new standard in identifying a “win-win” relationship with regard to interactions between 2 colleges of pharmacy. We used this exercise to minimize administrative isolation within our Colleges. The “off-site review” type of meeting takes on a new dimension when you have twice the input from each administrative position. Considering the success of this event, we are planning our next joint administrative retreat and already have plans to conduct a third. This begs the question: What other aspects of our Colleges’ activities could benefit from avoiding administrative isolation? While one could argue that this was successful because both Colleges are new, what if the subject of the retreat was curriculum or outcomes assessment and it occurred among 2 existing colleges? In our view, many aspects of efforts within the academy may be augmented by applying a new twist to an old approach and avoiding administrative isolation in doing so.