We at Kardia Group know higher education, from the individual experiences of faculty, staff, and students to the organizational structures and dynamics through the surrounding political, cultural, and funding environment. We know its quirks and conundrums, as well as its transcendent strengths. And we want it, and the people who give their lives to it, to succeed.
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Leadership and Change in Academia and Beyond
2027 Cohort Programs
Most of what makes academic life work, or not, happens in two places: the conversations where decisions get made, and the everyday life of a department. This spring, Kardia Group is launching a cohort program for each. Both are online, both begin the second week of March, and both are built on what we’ve learned from more than 20 years with faculty and departments, including two programs funded by the National Science Foundation.
- Timing: 12 hours total over 12-15 weeks for async courses and virtual sessions
- Early-bird pricing through December 1, registration closes December 30
- Register with colleagues to get discounted Shared Governance Fellows enrollment or private consulting time for Resilient Department teams
Shared governance works only when faculty can deliberate well together. In this 15-week cohort, Fellows complete 7 online asynchronous courses and participate in 6 small group sessions with a facilitator who knows both group dynamics and academia. Together, they practice on the situations they actually face: the colleague who acts as a gatekeeper, the discussion that slowly turns sour, the positions that harden before anyone has listened.
The program is built on the Game Changer Academies curriculum we used with NSF for five years. Before and after that program, participants’ confidence in handling 16 common discussion breakdowns rose from 46% to 77% on average. Six months later, 83% were still using these new skills in faculty meetings. One graduate director used them to lead a curriculum revision that ended in unanimous faculty votes on potentially controversial issues!
Facilitated sessions every three weeks on Thursdays: Mar 11, Apr 1, Apr 22, May 13, Jun 3, and Jun 24.
Enrolling with colleagues? Use voucher code sg_bettertogether to receive an additional 25% off your enrollment fee when you register two or more at once.
Departments don’t become resilient by accident. In this four-month cohort, faculty and staff meet monthly with a small group and a consultant who knows academic departments from the inside. Each month, participants choose one concrete thing to work on, try it with support from an accountability partner at another institution, and bring what happened back to the group.
The approach draws on an earlier NSF-funded program in which we guided department teams from five universities through year-long change efforts. There, confidence in knowing how to create organizational change rose from 58% to 92%. You can start today: our free departmental resilience assessment is the first step of the program, and it’s open to anyone.
Facilitated sessions monthly on Fridays: Mar 12, Apr 9, May 7, and Jun 4.
Enrolling with colleagues? Your team receives private consulting time focused on your specific situation: 2 people: one 45-minute session; 3 people: one 90-minute session; 4 people: two 60-minute sessions.
Learn.KardiaGroup
Our catalog of online courses offers practical, flexible learning for faculty and academic administrators. Explore asynchronous courses on departmental resilience, conflict, and faculty leadership, and learn when and where it works for you.
Building Departmental Resilience
De-Escalating Faculty Meetings
De-Escalating Departmental Tension and Crisis
My Approach to Conflict
Approach Conflict Constructively
Understand (Spheres of) Faculty Leadership
Getting the Most Out of Coaching
11 Ways to Improve Discussions
Career and Leadership Development
Thriving in a Meta-Profession
Working in academia is a “meta-profession” requiring skills and expertise across a wide array of roles – with very little training along the way. Coaching helps navigate these multiple demands, customized to individuals, situations, and institutions. We make smart people smarter in all the roles associated with the intellectual endeavor. Learn more about coaching services, our coaching FAQ, or short coaching.
Strategy and Change Expertise
In a Complex Terrain
Learning and the production of knowledge are a complex terrain, populated by those who are seeking the unknown. We help leaders and changemakers understand and effectively work with these dynamics to harness the diverse interests, skills, and ways of knowing that define academia in order to fuel individual and collective success.
Learn.KardiaGroup
Courses for Faculty and Academic Leaders
As colleges, universities, disciplines, departments, and classrooms get more complex – and academia writ large becomes more fraught – we offer courses that provide decoder ring for navigating the complexities of academic culture and the multi-faceted responsibilities of faculty roles and academic leadership.
