I was asking the wrong question .... insights from 6 years of twisting paradigms.

Kate McCaffrey: Welcome back to Twisting Paradigms in Real Life. This episode I'm calling I Was Asking the Wrong Question. It feels a little different. Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about what I wanted to say as Paradigm Twist celebrate six years. At first I thought this would be an episode about what's changing in my business, maybe even a relaunch. Stay tuned on that. But the more I reflected, the more I realized that's not really what this is all about. It's about a question. A question that's been following me for a long time. A few months ago, I walked out of a leadership meeting with a question I couldn't shake. On paper, everything looked right. The leaders were smart, they cared deeply about students and each other, they agreed on what their priorities were, they even had a strategic plan and were implementing it. And yet, as I drove home I kept thinking, why does this still feel so hard? It wasn't because they lacked commitment, quite the opposite. Finding higher education leaders and staff are more dedicated than ever. And they were some of the most committed leaders that I've ever worked with. So why wasn't the work moving? That question stayed with me. And then I realized it wasn't the first time I'd asked it. I'd been asking versions of that same question for the last six years. When I started Paradigm Twist in 2020, I thought I knew what my work was and was going to be. I thought it was about helping leaders navigate change both in themselves and in their organizations. And I still believe that's important. But somewhere along the way I realized that wasn't the whole story. And over the last six years, I've had the privilege of coaching leaders, facilitating workshops, speaking on campuses and at conferences, and having hundreds of conversations with people across higher education. And I started noticing patterns. I kept noticing incredibly capable middle man middle managers carrying impossible expectations. It allowed me to reflect back on my experience and being in the middle and how challenging sometimes it was and how often we were doing more, told to do more with less, needing to do more with less, adding responsibilities without compensation or time. And granted, I think times have changed and hopefully people have changed and our approach has changed, but really thinking about how are we creating these conditions around the expectations that we're asking, especially those who lead in the middle, to learn from, to do, and to be able to be effective. I also kept noticing that senior leadership teams agreed on almost everything, but yet still struggled to move the important work forward. I don't know if this resonates with you at all, but every time I was told I needed to update our strategic plan and the progress in it for a quarterly meeting, I cringed because I hated knowing that we weren't making progress on certain things. I knew they were institutional priorities. And as an institutional leader, I was responsible for making them move forward. However, the day to day of what was happening. was getting in the way of both for me and my team of moving those things forward. I think sometimes when we have priorities, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and only think about them when we have to report back to some type of group or board or what have you. And so I think when we agree on things, we have to agree on what the reality is of how we may be able to move things forward. And I keep noticing that there are organizations filled with talented, committed people who end every semester or every quarter just exhausted. Different campuses, different organizations, different people, maybe different challenges, but the same type of feelings. So for me, something wasn't adding up. I assumed that the problem was more about communication or resistance to change, or that we don't have the leadership skills to do the work. And those things are certainly important and part of the work that I will continue and still do, but they never fully explained what I was seeing. And then one day I was walking my dog and it hit me. I realized I'd been asking the wrong question. For years I've been asking how do we help leaders manage change and manage the people side of it better? And today I'm much more interested in asking what creates momentum? Why do some people, some teams, in institutions seem to build momentum even during uncertainty, limited resources, constant change, and while others have equally talented and equally committed people struggle to move their important work forward. That question has changed everything for me. It's changed the way I coach, the way I design my programs, the way I approach research, the way I approach working with teams, And the way I really think about organizations, especially within higher education. And honestly, it's changed the way I think about Paradigm Twist itself. I've realized that my work has never really been about giving people answers. Although sometimes I like to be able to do that. But it's really about helping leaders ask those better questions. Because when we ask a different question, we often discover we've been solving the wrong problem. Maybe people aren't resisting change. Maybe they're protecting the little capacity they have left. And we let them define capacity. Maybe communication isn't the biggest challenge. Maybe people understand what's expected. They just don't have the conditions they need to act on what's expected. Maybe institutions don't have a commitment or a loyalty problem. Maybe they have a momentum problem. And those are the kinds of questions I want to explore in this next chapter as I launch into year seven. Not because I have all the answers I don't, but because I believe they're the questions worth asking. Over the next several months, you'll hear me talk more about momentum and how do we create the opportunities and conditions for it. You'll hear stories from leaders, research that's challenging my thinking, and conversations that have really changed my perspective. And together we're going to continue to explore what helps people and institutions move this important work forward. If you've been listening for a while, thank you. Thank you for trusting me, for inviting me onto your campuses and into your organizations, for allowing me to coach you and your teams, for listening to this podcast, for reading my blogs and emails, for challenging my thinking. You've shaped this next chapter. More than you probably realize. And if this is your first episode listening, welcome. I'm really glad you're here. I hope you'll keep asking these questions with me. Because I have a feeling we're only beginning to discover what's possible when we start asking better questions instead of just looking for answers. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next week.