Blog from Heather Hoffman, Professor and Vice Chair of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Milken Institute School of Public Health
The Project
As Vice Chair and Chair of the Curriculum Committee in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (DBB), it is my priority to ensure we have exceptional programs and educators leading our courses to provide the best student experience. My GWALA project is focused on directing the development and launch of the newly approved Online Master of Science (MS) in Health Data Science program in DBB. This program is in line with GW’s teaching mission to “provide a high quality instructional and learning environment for students so that they are empowered to transform the world.” Building a successful program requires open communication and collaboration between school leadership, department faculty, and external vendors who examine the program from different angles. Ultimately, we aim to launch an innovative program led by remarkable faculty that appeals to students worldwide and increase enrollment in this program each year.
Different Perspectives
The GWSPH leadership interests include adherence to GWSPH mission, standards, and procedures and fiscal concerns. The GWSPH limits Distance Education courses to those in approved online programs. Approved online programs require a full suite of support and services in place, including shared educational technologies, production support, marketing and recruitment, faculty support, student support, a shared framework for how courses will be developed and offered in that program, alignment with university policies, and recruitment cycles. The primary fiscal interests of the university include both the budget and the revenue.
The DBB faculty is interested in launching an innovative, dynamic program of the highest quality that is accessible to students worldwide. The DBB faculty identified an opportunity to teach both new and foundational content by leveraging emerging technologies. In recent years, international students made up a large percentage of graduate-level biostatistics and bioinformatics programs in U.S. universities. Now that relocation has become more difficult, distance education provides a window into our GW classrooms.
The faculty and leadership have evaluated the strengths of potential external vendors. The DBB faculty wants to work with a vendor that will develop an innovative product that can easily accommodate the dynamic nature of the courses in the program. The DBB faculty recognize that the external vendor will build on the experience with the GWSPH and market their product to other universities.
Conflicts
As to be expected in any complex endeavor of this type with multiple stakeholders, some conflicts arose regarding content development, marketing, student and instructor recruitment, and the trade-off between tradition and innovation. Over the last year, I have applied the lessons we have been taught in GWALA, especially on addressing conflict with confidence, making quality decisions, and managing and motivating people. When the interests of the leadership, faculty, and external vendors have not aligned, progress toward the shared goals has slowed.
The lesson on Addressing Conflict with Confidence provided a framework to work through productive, healthy conflict. This lesson resonates with me because I am a compromiser who seeks consensus by finding a middle ground that is fair to all. To keep my project moving forward, I have worked toward finding a fair middle ground to balance the different and competing interests of the GWSPH leadership, DBB faculty, and external vendors. Through this lesson and the conflict styles assessment, I learned that I am, in fact, a compromiser, where “each person agrees to give up something to reach a middle ground that feels fair to all. When meeting in the middle helps maintain a sense of fairness and supports the long-term relationship.” I have always preferred the “give and take solution to problems where both sides make adjustments.” I try to find a way for different sides to meet half-way in a conflict. I like to resolve problems through negotiating. A key takeaway that stuck with me is QTIP: Quit Taking It Personally! In guiding others through our conflict, as I am doing with my colleagues in DBB, I continue to ask myself, “Do I push back or pull back? What might I gain or lose? If I decide to push back, what is the most effective way to do so?”
The lesson on Making Quality Decisions focused on finding ways to improve decision making by being more self-aware and developing strategies to improve the quality and timeliness of decisions. This lesson resonates with me because I prefer to make decisions by seeking diverse thought partners and because I value time to reflect on my decisions. Developing the project initially leveraged the relative strengths of different DBB faculty. As the project development progressed beyond initial departmental designs, the project has provided fertile ground for robust discussion to weigh the diverse interests of the GWSPH leaders, DBB faculty, and external vendors. At each stage of the development, I have had ample opportunity to reflect on what has gone well and what prevented interests from aligning.
We were asked how, in challenging times, we can best move forward and not become frozen by difficult choices, severe doubt or analysis paralysis. Among Patrick Sanaghan’s five key lessons, the two that spoke to me the most were “Don’t Walk Alone” and “Build in Reflection Time.” Over the last year, I have avoided isolation, sought diverse thought partners and trusted confidants, and used critical voices to challenge perspectives and build resilience, all while carving out and protecting reflection time. I have remembered to hit the PAUSE button and pay attention, acknowledge my assumptions, understand my prospective, seek different perspectives, and examine my options before making decisions. The homework assignment of the week helped me to identify at least two critical decisions that need to be made for our online MS Health Data Science launch to move forward. It became clear to me who needed to be involved, what information was missing, and what criteria should guide each choice.
The lesson on Managing and Motivating People focused on prioritizing decisions and delegating tasks to others. This lesson highlighting the importance of distinguishing the Big Rocks from the gravel resonates with me. The biggest change challenges we anticipated as we worked to launch this online MS Health Data Science program exceeded our expectations, but we do not expect them to remain the same moving forward. It became clear to me that my voice alone was not enough to move our online launch of the MS Health Data Science program forward together. Stephen R. Covey’s comment helped me to see that “if the big rocks don’t go in first, they aren’t going to fit in later.” We all know it, but we rarely do it. Moving forward, I intend to follow Covey’s advice “not to prioritize what’s on [my] schedule, but to schedule [my] priorities.”
True prioritization requires turning goals into actionable steps, aligning daily behavior with long-term objectives, and using specific frameworks to ensure the most important tasks receive attention first. This brings to mind the Eisenhower Matrix that was introduced to us to organize our tasks by urgency vs. importance into four quadrants to identify what to Do (urgent & important), Schedule (important but not urgent), Delegate (urgent but not important), and Eliminate (neither).
Conclusion
My project is in the development phase and school leadership, department faculty, and external vendors continue to work toward strategic alignment of our different perspectives. If “the endgame is a reputation as a preeminent and comprehensive global research university,” this is one way to help us reach it. If a priority is to “ensure students have the access and opportunity needed to pursue a rich interdisciplinary education,” this is one way to meet it. If a priority is to “equip students with the essential skills, practical and social experiences, and powerful connections they need to succeed in an ever-evolving world,” this is one way to meet it. If a priority is to “foster strong collaboration across schools and divisions to pursue continuous improvement, innovation, return on investment, and informed risk-taking,” this is one way to meet it. As Provost Lach stated in his leadership reflections, “We will persist through this winding, unpredictable road to academic leadership.” To be continued …