Home - Dr. Patrick R. Turner, EdD.

Program Outcome: Orchestrate Effective Governance

Narrative and Reflection
In my estimation, there are few greater examples of leadership and governance than depicted by West Wing and president Jed Bartlett shown mid-collaboration; simultaneously benevolent, wise, and inclusively principled. Governance at its center is relationships and communication with assumed inclusion of knowledge, experience and wisdom. Wisdom being appropriate application of knowledge. Knowledge without wisdom is folly and relationships without trust is doomed to chaos. Bassett (n.d.) comments translating institutional mission, vision, values, and strategic objectives to their divisional counterparts requires building a culture of trust. Historical issues between departments, employees/faculty, and with college leadership being most challenging. Covey (2009) and Bassett agree successful leaders build trust through relationships, transparency, communication, and participation; creating an environment of shared vision and governance between all stakeholders. Trust is a deeply personal value that once disrupted is not easily reestablished (Covey, 2009). Establishing effective governance depends on participation and cooperation from a broad array of stake holders only possible when a leader puts the people first (Heath, 2010). Dr. Irving epitomized shared vision and governance as an active inclusive listener. The inclusiveness of his methods seems to make trust and buy-in a by-product rather that an explicit effective governance outcome. His natural ability to form strong relationships with constituents, legislators, peers, and community stem from an innate desire to be educated in a life-long effort of self-discovery; inviting everyone he met along on his journey (Irving, 2019). Smyre's (2016) influence on orchestrating effective governance was a second awakening to continual and rapid change everywhere requiring a shift to continuous strategic planning where nothing remains static. Smyre recognized, "research doesn't matter if the context of the future has changed." In our blazingly fast-paced world of a new creative molecular society, orchestrating effective governance requires data driven strategic planning process bordering on near real time responsiveness and decision making while being inclusive enough to gain buy-in and participation from all stakeholders.
Literature

Bassett, J. [Jackie]. (n.d.) How leaders can build a culture of trust…and why they should. [LinkedIn page].  Retrieved June 17, 2015 from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-leaders-can-build-culture-trustand-why-should-jackie-bassett

Covey, S., M., R. (2009). How the best leaders build trust. by Stephen M. R. Covey. LeadershipNow. Retrieved from https://www.leadershipnow.com/CoveyOnTrust.html

Heath, D. [Fast Company]. (2010, Sept 16). Want your organization to change? Put people first [Video File]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhBzxy7CneM

Irving, M. [Doctorate in Community College Leadership] (2019, October 8). DCCL: IDSL 830 Interview: Dr. Merrill Irving [Video File]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=IF9xL6CheJE&feature=youtu.be

Smyre, R., & Richardson, N. (2016). Preparing for a world that doesn’t exist – yet: Framing a second enlightenment to create communities of the future. ISBN-13: 978-1785354519.

Evidence
 
1.) I have selected my talent management plan assignment from our leveraging human resources class discussing goal  setting  and  reinforcement  theories. These appear  most  successful  bringing  groups  together,  increasing productivity through shared vision, focus, and persistence of effort creating cohesive governance. Cultivating a culture of trust also helps give staff a feeling of  psychological  safety motivating them and creating an environment where there is no fear of speaking one’s own mind for fear of rejection, ridicule, or retaliation. Such a participative environment fosters orchestrating effective governance by gathering input in many forms and from many sources. Specifically, I gathered staff feedback through a "Helps, Hinders, Needs" survey, institutional feedback with an "IT Scorecard Survey," as well as campus Listening Sessions, "All Staff Meetings," Cross-functional change management meetings, help desk reports, and more. All inputs gathered and collated lead to orchestrating informed and effective governance. Orchestrating effective governance thrives on inclusive listening.
PO2E1-200426-TurnerP - Talent Management Plan - IDSL865 Human Resources - Final.pdf
 
2.) The Schoolcraft President's, Board of Trustees-administered annual-performance-evaluation accomplishments report describes institution-wide contributions and alignment with the annual strategic plan, thereby orchestrating effective governance. The pandemic-forced pivot to online learning demonstrated flexible and continuous orchestration of effective governance  (p. 2), while providing standard ongoing internal process and system support (p. 8). The IT annual contribution summary details ITs execution of strategic-plan-enabling effective governance (p. 9).
PO2E2-05-12-20 2019-2020 Accomplishments Report to BOT.pdf
3.) My final evidence of orchestrating effective governance is an email to Schoolcraft's President summarizing IT staff's unplanned pivoting ability. Few of these activities were planned, or at very least were low priority. So, extreme leadership in consensus building across campus (Cabinet, Faculty, Staff, Budget, etc.) for items which, over-night became critical to business continuation, all coordinated remotely. These coordinated activities demonstrated flexible governance processes by maintaining instructional and business operations during state-mandated face-to-face classroom closings. My team's contributions included, within weeks of mandate, creating a COVID health self-screening app, classroom IT equipment sanitation process design, adding WiFi to parking lots, student laptop loaning kiosk, faculty, student and staff enterprise Zoom license deployment, online Microsoft Office 365 migration, webcam deployment, Adobe Sign electronic signature approval workflow deployment, and more. Again, while working remotely, continuously changing strategies were effectively orchestrated from upper-management prioritization through implementation almost instantaneously thereby maintaining Schoolcraft's strategic plan and mission through unprecedented circumstances. 
PO2E3-200730-IT value added recently in light of Pandemic.pdf
References
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