7 Habits of Highly Effective Institutional Researchers(and other pearls of wisdom)

Originally Stephen Covey,translated into IRish by Daina HenryAIR May-June 2004

Carlson’s “pearls of wisdom”:

Rule 1: Don’t sweat the small stuff !

Carlson’s “pearls of wisdom”:

Rule 1: Don’t sweat the small stuff ! Rule 2: It is all small stuff.

Like Rick said in Casablanca “Our little problems don’t amount to a hill of beans.”

Find and Maintain Perspective

One man’s mountain is another man’s molehill.

Find and Maintain Perspective

One man’s mountain is another man’s molehill. In SAS language: one programmer’s “bug”, is

another programmer’s “undocumented feature”.

Find and Maintain Perspective

It took over a million years to create the Grand Canyon. And it all started with one little raindrop following a path of least resistance.

Habit 1 Be Proactive

Take control over those things which you can control: yourself, your goals, your projects.

You can not control another person’s behavior. You can control your reactions to another person’s behavior.

Mother Nature provides worms to feed the birds, but Mother Nature does not throw them in the nest.

“We cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.”

Habit 1 Be Proactive

Plan. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. “The best laid plans of mice and men…”

Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind Set goals. You can’t get where you want to go, if

you don’t know where you are going. Make some goals very reachable (“just let me get

through this day without hurting some one”) Make some goals require work and effort. These

are the ones that will be remembered and rewarded.

Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind Institutions have mission statements, offices have

mission statements. What is your mission statement?

Mission statements and goals can apply to a short term project, a career, or your lifetime.

Habit 3 Put First Things First “Things which matter most must never be at the

mercy of things which matter least.” Goethe Put the big things in the basket first. Set priorities.

Habit 3 Put First Things First Learn to say no, politely.

Don’t confuse important things with urgent things.

NOW + NOW + NOW < important

Habit 3 Put First Things First “The journey of a thousand miles, begins with the

first step.” And it begins with the first step. “Bird by Bird”.

Habit 4 Think Win/Win

Cooperation vs competition. It is a frame of mind and heart.

Habit 4 Think Win/Win

Win/Win or no deal – agree to disagree. 3 characteristics of Win/Win: integrity, maturity,

abundance mentality.

Habit 4 Think Win/Win

Making lemonade out of lemons. A glass as half-full or half-empty. In IR-

speak: .5 FTEG (full-time equivalent glass).

Habit 5 Seek first to understand, then to be understood Shifting your paradigm. Empathy and compassion. Understand the real question, before you answer

it.

“Speak friend and enter…”

“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”

Habit 5 Seek first to understand, then to be understood “To others we are not ourselves, but a performer

in their lives, cast for a part we do not even know that we are playing.”

Habit 6 Synergize

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Creative cooperation. Value differences.

Habit 6 Synergize

If everyone thought like you did, there would be no conflict and our IR jobs would be really easy. There would also be no plumbers, artists, astronauts, etc.

The best music has harmony. And you don’t get harmony, when everyone is singing the same note.

Habit 6 continued

Don’t lose the forest, looking at the trees. And don’t lose the trees, looking at the forest.

Interconnectedness. We are just a small part of the whole thing.

“To see the universe in a grain of sand.” (Sandberg)

To see in the universe, all the grains of sand.

Habit 7 Sharpen the Saw

A habit of renewal – physical, mental, social/emotional and spiritual.

Importance of professional development. “What did you learn in school today?”

Habit 7 Sharpen the Saw

Self-reflection gives you the ability to know when to sharpen your saw.

You need to know when and how to sharpen your saw. And sometimes you need help from the most unlikely of helpers…

Other pearls:

For 6 days, God toiled to create the earth and the sky. On the 7th day, he sat back, reflected, sharpened his saw, and said “this is good.” Not perfect, good. Even God knew when good was good enough….

Summary

“Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.” (Isak Denison)

When over worked, smile or laugh, because it is all small stuff.

Using the Habits:

How we live our days is ultimately how we live our lives.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Institutional Researchers (and other pearls of wisdom)

Dr. Daina Paupe Henry,Associate Director Institutional Research

The College of William and MaryIn Virginia

dphenr@wm.edu