Lessons Learned

Lessons from Teaching

By Ron Wastyn, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer and Vice President, Senior Leadership Consultant

This past May, I retired after 35 years of teaching at the college level, a wonderful experience full of great students and colleagues. As I transition to working directly with nonprofit organizations, I wanted to share some lessons I learned that apply to nonprofit work as well.

Lesson One: Change best happens when done with you and not to you. This comes from my college advisor at Augustana and an early mentor in my teaching career. He first passed this on to me when I struggled with some changes that came from the administration. My discomfort stemmed from the realization that they sought to implement changes without involving the people directly affected by these changes. The results: low morale and a grapevine full of rumors and speculation about the changes. This type of situation creates an unhealthy organization that you can easily correct by engaging people in conversations about the state of the organization and changes that they see as necessary. As a bonus, when they have a voice in identifying the problem, they will work harder to implement the solution.

Lesson Two: Professors are not pop machines. This comes from my good friend and teaching colleague for the past 25 years, Randy Richards. When students would approach him and ask for his answer to a problem, rather than give him his answer (and trust me, he had one), he tell them, “I am not a pop machine where you put your money in and get the answer.” Instead, he saw teaching as mentoring students to help them discover their answer to the question. He refused to serve as the “sage on the stage” and instead knew that by engaging students in the discovery of their answer, they would learn a process that allowed them to learn throughout their life instead of relying on others for all the answers. We can all benefit from not asking for answers from people in authority and instead engage others in conversations so we can find our path and answers. Or, if you sit in a position of authority, not feeling like you have to have all of the answers but creating the environment where everyone can learn together.

Lesson Three: Less is More. As a young professor, my typical class format covered a lot of material and assigning students plenty of reading. One student who trusted me well something along the line of “you don’t really think we remember all of this, do you?” That really got me thinking and, in the end, I appreciate his honesty and correct assessment. The temptation to just dump a whole bunch of material failed to take into consideration what I specifically wanted them to take away from my classes. So, as I enter consulting, I need to share specific and meaningful knowledge for each client. Likewise, as you engage with colleagues, keep your information focused.

So, in conclusion, engage with people to explore change, challenge people in authority with conversations, and focus your attention on specific needs. If you do these things in your organization, you will find more engaged staff and better outcomes overall.