Classes are in full swing, the University is alive with students and faculty, and many of us have been figuring out over the past couple of weeks how to get back into the rhythm of being in the office for three days a week (to those of you who have been in the office all along—thank you!). I’d like to share some thoughts with you about being back on campus and why I believe the experience and investment is invaluable.
There’s an energy and a clarity of purpose in being on campus, around students and colleagues and violet flags, that reminds us why we do what we do and who we’re doing it for. Working on campus deepens our relationship to NYU as an institution of higher learning, and although seeing students and faculty on campus might not seem important, it does remind us how critical our support is to their success.
Seeing each other in person works to deepen our relationships with colleagues, and with relationships comes mentoring, and unique opportunities for collaboration, alignment, skill building, problem solving, and sharing institutional knowledge. With stronger relationships, comes trust and greater loyalty and belonging, which can be important as we work to overcome the challenge of retention in a hot tech market.
Working together on campus really creates more space for interactions with each other that are less transactional (“I need something”), and more personal and empathetic (“How are you doing, what are you working on, how can I help you?”). I just came from an in-person meeting. In five minutes after the meeting, I took care of four issues/questions with three different people. Those issues/questions at best would have taken a 5 minute email each and was going to be a Zoom meeting next week.
When planning your work, meetings, and activities, consider the 4 Cs — Creativity, Culture, Career Development, and Collaboration
- Get creative. Spend time collaborating, innovating, brainstorming, solutioning
- Allow time on the calendar to walk around, check-in with team members and colleagues, and get to know people that you may not work with on a regular basis
- Schedule team meetings, 1:1s, performance management, goal setting, mid-year and end-of-year review
- Host project kickoff meetings, decision-making meetings, and feedback sessions
- Planning and process improvement meetings
- Hold a meeting across functional areas with no agenda
- Town Halls and Departmental meetings
Thank you for making this important investment in support of our higher ed mission, and the students and faculty that depend on our support.