Participants leave each workshop with skills and insights to try and return some weeks later in the next workshop to discuss how their efforts worked. Still better, participants get to share their ideas and insights and benefit from the wisdom and resources of a true community of practice, a group of administrators from colleges and universities in the Boston area. The group itself becomes a lasting resource of support, feedback and insight. Many people who choose to work in higher education rather than in the corporate world do so because they want to follow higher level interests and standards than the corporate world is likely to support. Yet the actual experience of managing in a college can make it difficult to attain these goals.
Colleges can provide a challenging, often frustrating environment for managers.
One college invited one of its most famous faculty, an organization theorist and management consultant of some renown, to try his hand at the dean's job. Not every college administrator faces such extremes, but most encounter challenges from faculty and students, rising expectations from parents and boards of directors, aging physical plants and budgetary difficulties. At the same time, working in a college organization can be highly rewarding. There is never a shortage of interesting people, stimulating ideas, innovation and high levels of student energy. There are, especially in New England, extensive resources for learning and development, new technologies to experiment with and new methods to try.