Try This at Your Next Cocktail Party 

The next time you want to have fun at a cocktail party with some of your friends—or maybe at a meeting of your institution’s board of trustees—I invite you to play a game with them. 

It’s in two parts. Start by asking this: 

In the past five years, how many national universities—you know, household names like Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Notre Dame, Michigan—have been ranked in the top 50 by U.S. News? 

The answer? 

57.

And it’s only that many because U.S. News loves a good tie. Each year’s “Top 50” is really more of a “Top 52-ish,” thanks to clusters of colleges bunched together by a hairsbreadth of decimal points, which rather defeats the premise of precision this enterprise pretends to offer. 

From 2022 through the 2026 rankings, those 57 colleges have shuffled an average of less than a single spot per year. They’re basically playing musical chairs with each other, politely swapping seats. 

The story repeats itself among the national liberal arts colleges group—places like Williams, Wellesley, Carleton, and the U.S. Naval Academy. During that same five-year span, 59 liberal arts colleges have appeared in the top 50. 

Furthermore, 41 of the top 50 national universities and 39 of the top 50 national liberal arts colleges have appeared in their respective top 50s in every edition between 2022 and 2026. 

All that to say, there’s little change in average position at the top of the rankings.  

And yet, every year we know that college administrations will make bold plans to move into the Top 50. These are colleges that are sometimes 15 or 20 (or more) places below that magic threshold, which means they must leap over a host of other colleges, many of whom are also vying for a spot in that exclusive club. 

Inside the Velvet Rope

This is where the second part of the game comes in. Ask this question: 

If you’re a college standing outside the velvet rope, trying to get into the Top 50 Club, which of the following will be the best way for you to move up in line? 

1. Lower your acceptance rate. 
2. Lower your discount rate. 
3. Send your alumni magazine to the presidents of all the colleges in the top 50 so they will look favorably upon you and invite you into the club. 

It’s a trick question: none of them work. 

Admissions selectivity is no longer a factor in the U.S. News ranking formula. And discount rate—despite being a hobbyhorse for many higher ed enthusiasts—has never been a factor.  

Quite a few colleges try option three with significant enthusiasm (and investment), touting their successes through campaigns designed to impress their peers with the hope of bumping up their Peer Assessment Score. 

The Cool Kids Table Conundrum

If you’re not familiar with the Peer Assessment Score, it’s derived from the opinions of three individuals at each school: the president, chief academic officer and the chief enrollment officer. Each receives a survey every year from U.S. News, asking them to rank the colleges in their respective category from 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding), with an option for “Don’t know.” 

As if that weren’t problematic enough—peers assessing their competitors for coveted spaces under the guise of collegiality—the Peer Assessment Score accounts for 20 percent of a college’s rank, making it the single factor carrying the heaviest weight. 

If you’ve ever been in a high school cafeteria, you can imagine how this might play out. 

The kids at the “cool table” have been sitting there for decades, and they’re not scouting for new friends. We know from rom-coms—aside maybe from Patrick Dempsey’s Ron in Can’t Buy Me Love—that the odds of a less-popular kid charming their way into a seat at that table are nearly zero. And, much like “The Ronster,” in the unlikely event the invitation to the “cool table” arrives, the less-popular kid probably won’t last very long. 

The Real Work

For far too long, colleges have viewed their rankings challenges (like their enrollment challenges) as marketing problems, often expressed with a familiar lament that starts with, “If only more people knew about us …” 

The best marketers—like my RHB colleague, Rob Zinkan—know that the thorniest institutional challenges aren’t promotional problems; they’re product problems. 

Changing how an institution talks about itself is relatively easy. Changing what an institution has to say about itself is significantly harder. 

And that is where the real opportunity lies. 

Focus on What Matters

When I was leading the enrollment division at Lawrence University, our president, Mark Burstein, exhorted our community stakeholders to “focus on the things that matter most and the rankings will take care of themselves.” 

U.S. News has told us what really matters, and it’s not—despite its singular weight—the Peer Assessment Score. It’s the collective weight of factors aligned around retention and graduation rate: 

• Graduation Rate: 16% 
• Graduation Performance (predicted vs. actual): 10% 
• Pell Graduation Rate: 5.5% 
• Pell Graduation Performance: 5.5% 
• First-year Retention: 5% 

That’s 42 percent of a school’s ranking formula centered squarely on student success.  

The most powerful lever of institutional improvement isn’t found in the admissions or marketing offices. It’s distributed across an institution in classrooms, advising offices, residence halls, and community spaces where students learn—day after day—whether they are known, whether they belong, and whether they can see themselves crossing the finish line. 

Recruiting students is only a fraction of the game. Recruiting them—through our institutional behavior and expressions—to persist and graduate is the force multiplier. 

That requires aligning strategy, staffing, systems, structure and spending around helping the students who said “yes” to us in the first place say “yes” again and again—on their way not only to surviving our institutions, but thriving in them. 

At RHB, we use those five S’s as a framework to assess where an institution is, where it needs to go, and how to build—and follow—the path toward that destination. With a coherent strategy and broad institutional alignment, colleges can connect what they promise with what they deliver, feeding a virtuous cycle that takes care of the right things, and, in time, takes care of those rankings. 

Contact us to learn more about how we can help.  

The post Stop Chasing Rankings. Change What Matters. appeared first on RHB.

Erin Gore, vice president for client technology 

It’s hard to believe that we’re just over a month out from the largest ever Slate Summit, where our combined SIG + RHB Slate teams took the stage seven times alongside clients. During these presentations we showcased how institutions can strategically advance their missions in admissions, student success and advancement. While the events may be over, the excitement, curiosity, innovation and inspiration from Summit still resonate.

We’ve taken time to reflect on our Summit experience—from features that inspired us to the mission-driven values of the Slate community to the satisfaction we felt creating lightbulb moments for close to 50 institutions at the fourth pre-Summit RHB Academy training program. A key takeaway for me was Technolutions’ cautious and deliberate approach to developing and expanding AI in Slate.

Does this mean the robots will do everything in Slate?! Will it guarantee higher yield rates and boost annual giving? Well, not exactly. As I noted in an Insights post leading up to the 2024 Summit: “Humans haven’t disappeared and the value of human judgment, empathy and thinking haven’t either.” Slate’s AI tools will do exactly what you ask them to do. That’s why clear, concise and intentional AI prompting is essential to getting accurate and meaningful results.

It’s time for campuses to educate their teams, develop AI policies, and invest in upskilling and reskilling staff. The future between AI and humans is collaborative–and it’s already here.

·  ·  ·

Dom Rozzi, Senior Technology Consultant

The glow of Slate Summit may be fading, but the memories and lessons from late June linger. Technolutions, true to form, threw an incredible event—complete with a mobile shark and custom Slate poker chips. Yet, beyond the impressive spectacle, the real magic lay in the three (or four, including pre-Summit events) days brimming with idea exchange, collaborative learning, networking, and, my personal favorite, community building.

This year’s Summit felt particularly vibrant, perhaps due to the venue or the novelty of being on the West Coast, there was an enthusiasm I haven’t experienced in years. From “Forums Live” to diverse affinity and regional user group discussions, the palpable sense of community was clearly evident each day. It was truly inspiring to witness and participate in the creativity, knowledge-sharing, problem-solving and collaboration that define the Slate community. Simply outstanding!

A highlight for me was co-presenting to a full house (on Friday afternoon, no less!) alongside my colleague from Southern Utah University. We discussed innovative uses of content blocks and a ‘for loop’ to dynamically generate personalized FAQs for students, tailored to their unique attributes and stage in their journey. Joined on stage with colleagues from Loyola Chicago and the University of Colorado at Boulder, we demonstrated how translation tables and content blocks can streamline complex manual processes, empowering teams to focus on more impactful work.

Leaving Las Vegas, I was filled with anticipation for Slate’s new to be released features, which should prove to be huge quality of life improvements for the users of Slate, and the collaborative innovations we’ll achieve in 2026. I trust you share the same enthusiasm!

·  ·  ·

Alisa Chambers, associate director of design and development

Watching the opening session—literally steeped in illusion and mystery—I couldn’t help but cast a few wary thoughts. One wrong word, and suddenly the AI inserts a block of code in your email or portal where it doesn’t belong. You test. You re-prompt. You test again. Frustration creeps in: “What am I doing wrong?” And just like that, a simple task—adding a new content area—spirals into wasted time with nothing to show for it.

Yet, there’s no denying the excitement. The promise of efficiency and empowerment for Slate users is real. The idea that you could generate a working framework, complete with required and relevant components, in moments is compelling. It opens the door for more creativity and innovation on the human side of the equation.

Still, we shouldn’t rush in blindly. It’s critical to understand what’s happening under the hood of the source code being generated. Alexander’s demo included prompts like use my brand color, follow best-practice UX/UI methods, make it mobile-friendly and accessible. But do you know what those requests actually entail? More importantly, do you know what to look for when testing and refining the results?

Before I learned about WCAG and ADA compliance, I used to strip attributes from my HTML that I mistakenly assumed were just “bloat.” Don’t repeat my mistakes—check the AI’s work. Make sure the code it generates is accessible by conducting your own testing. You may need to brush up on HTML, CSS, accessibility standards, mobile-first development or even prompt engineering.

As we move forward, let’s stay curious but critical: test thoroughly, understand what’s being generated, give feedback early and always bring a human eye to AI-assisted work.

·  ·  ·

Jolene Monson, senior technology consultant

It was a wonderful reset to return to Summit this year. I was particularly appreciative of all of the new features that became immediately available in our Slate Databases, and how quickly the Slate community has come together to add fast improvements to them. While this isn’t an exhaustive list of the new abilities in Slate, these are what I’ve been able to utilize in my projects so far: 

• Materialized Views: This is so useful for repetitive calculations that you have to do to present data throughout Slate! I already have a handful running overnight to calculate applicant counts and award dollars spent, which takes a data table in a portal and a portal report from barely running at all to loading in a few seconds. But it’s not just reporting  – now that you can independently join into your materialized views, you can use the data on dashboards or even query libraries so that your end-users can pull the calculations without pulling the full calculation subquery that would make their whole query slower (and would allow them to edit the calculation). Also, the new materialized view query base shows up automatically on your CJs user permission settings for both base and join access, so you can add/remove them from specific roles/users easily.
• Rich HTML editor and full-screen HTML view: This has already been a game-changer when working with content in so many different places in Slate, from portal builds to emails to form content. It’s becoming my default click whenever I open up any text editor throughout Slate.
• AI query analysis: I haven’t used too much of Slate’s AI helper abilities yet, but an excellent use is simply pulling up the Slate AI and asking it questions about a query you just ran. What’s the average GPA of all these applicants? How many science majors are there and what’s their average GPA? List the applicants who haven’t filled in the enrollment form yet. I could see this being so useful for Slate managers when working with end-users who automatically want/need to download queries in order to assess their results or ask a simple question or two. This could be a way to avoid downloading application data so often.

·  ·  ·

Joshua Henry, director of technology support and training 

For the fourth year in a row, our week at Summit began with RHB Academy. We introduced the pre-Summit training event for Slate users in 2022, in Nashville, and it has become an annual part of the Summit experience since. This year, attendees convened in Las Vegas from 48 different institutions, choosing from 12 different course offerings to create personalized training experiences and level up their Slate skills in configurable joins, portals, reporting, datasets and entities, communications and more.

Engaging with our RHB Academy attendees and showcasing what’s possible in Slate is always a personal highlight of the Summit experience for me. The instruction we provide and strategies we share hopefully empower our audience to identify opportunities and create new solutions for their institutions. It’s a learning opportunity for us as well. While co-leading a course on building sustainable communications with my colleague Megan Miller, Megan demonstrated two capabilities with content blocks in Slate, back-to-back, that I had no idea were possible. I’ve been using Slate since 2017, and have a comprehensive knowledge of the system at this point. And yet, there’s still plenty left for me to learn.

And that’s what Summit is about—sharing solutions, learning new techniques, finding inspiration and engaging with the Slate community. RHB Academy has become such a special part of Summit for us because it allows us to accomplish all of the above before we even acquire our Slate-printed badges. I’m already looking forward to planning next year’s RHB Academy, back in Nashville, thinking through what will be the most pressing challenges in Slate on the road ahead (effective uses of AI?), and how we can provide the training and support the Slate community needs.

The post Leaving Las Vegas: Reflections on Slate Summit 2025 appeared first on RHB.

It’s been energizing to see all the social media posts from people who are committing to telling the story of higher education in new ways. I feel such a sense of togetherness in this work, seeing all the institutional and agency colleagues pulling in the same direction. At the same time, I’ve had some recent experiences that have concretized how marcomm, advancement and strategic planning can build on each other’s rootedness in institutional mission, core values and constituent needs to make sure the right stories are told at the right times to the right audiences.  

Thank you to Dr. Melissa Morriss-Olson for her thoughtful discussion of rebuilding public trust in higher ed as someone who was a first-generation college student who then became a university provost and trusted educator of other higher education leaders. I read Melissa’s piece as more inspiration to work for a paradigm-shifting moment, in the Kuhnian sense of a radical break from past habits of thought and practice, moving us toward a greater sense of duty to speak about why higher education matters. 

Melissa’s piece also reminded me of a brief but painful interaction with my father several years ago. We were sitting on the porch at his house. I thought we were enjoying a delightful, shared silence observing a nearby mountain range as the morning sun lit its peaks.  

He was having a completely different experience. He turned to me and with great emotion said, “I don’t know how to talk to you anymore.” I had completed a master’s degree and was in a Ph.D. program. He dropped out of college to join the Army during the conflict in Vietnam.  

I inhabited a different world than he did. I spoke differently and talked about different things and had a different set of beliefs than the ones he taught me. 

I was stunned. I didn’t feel that different to me. We know higher education opens up the world to us. For some people, it also creates new cleavages and conflicts.   

Coming from the experience of standing on the edge of one such cleavage, I perceive that the path forward has to be a deeply interdisciplinary one. If we are to create greater connections with audiences to help them understand the transformation that higher ed creates, we’ll have to work beyond our imagined functional boundaries and settle more comfortably into spaces where we share expertise. 

The experience you share with your colleagues 

This summer, I attended the 2025 CASE Annual Conference for Marketing and Branding (CASE ACMB) where I co-presented with Maria Elena Kuntz, the director of content marketing strategy and communications at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Office of Advancement.  

Our presentation explored how institutions make space for alumni to talk about themselves in their preferred terms. Maria presented a brand storytelling case study that dove into the complexity of using the word “legacy” in a story when it’s claimed by an alumnus to talk about the Baca family’s relationship to this beloved university, but “legacy” is a word many predominantly white institutions avoid for strong ethical reasons. 

I brought both an anthropological and industry-wide consultant’s perspective about how we negotiate with others which stories get told, how to tell those stories and when it’s best to engage in collaborative storytelling. This is a method for doing research or creating relationships with communities that requires us to think about why certain stories might be important or useful in which contexts.  

We also have to be clear about the language choices we make to tell stories. Maria and I collectively discussed how brand standards are one way in which identities can be validated or ignored. Documents like style guides provide useful clarity about institutional principles and priorities but also can make some things, like self-descriptors, unspeakable. 

I also just finished a year in the 2024-2025 cohort of the Society of College and University Planning (SCUP) Emerging Leaders program. As a cohort of professionals from a range of institutions and architecture and design firms, we learned to implement the principles of integrated planning: a sustainable, unified model for institutional planning and plan activation in which constituent voices are well represented and unit-level plans feed into the institutional plan.  

These professional development experiences covered higher education functions that seem different on the surface, but there are some definite similarities: 

• First, the work of marcomm, advancement, alumni relations and strategic or integrated planning requires knowing the institution’s mission, values, goals and constituent needs. The work you do in one of these functions should shape your organization’s future by correctly identifying your present position in the landscape and the places where you’ve historically found both success and challenges. You are also responsible for identifying solutions to those challenges and the best ways to track and report on your progress. Strategic marketing and communications plans can be great models to adapt in other units or divisions. (And we’ve advocated for having marcomm  and advancement leaders present in the early planning stages for these reasons and more.) 
• There’s also a parallel wherein some of your colleagues may think they know what your job entails. Some may also think that they can do your job themselves or that historical practice will always be better than an innovative or different practice. Others may think it’s not worth understanding what your role is. Or, they create unnecessary obstacles to collaboration because they are afraid that means ceding territory. So, it can feel like a lot of your work is explaining the work, why it matters and why you don’t want to own a colleague’s territory. You just want to help maximize what they can do within it. (We’ve written about the gift embedded in comments from people who believe they know marcomm as well as you do.) 
• Finally, these activities reinforced the importance of intelligently chosen and articulated core values in figuring out how you should do your work. Core values point us toward what is important and how to behave and treat each other as a collective. Our strategic planning research shows that discussions of core values are becoming a more frequent feature in strategic plans. Core values are frequently discussed in brand style guides, campaign case statements and messages to alumni to increase their affinity for your institution. We can make a choice to act in accordance with our values, even if we can’t control the context in which we operate. 

It’s time to share what hasn’t been shared 

This is what’s been on my mind as I reflect on how important it is for higher education to be clear in its purpose and to speak about it with purpose.  

Morriss-Olson writes, “The relationship between the university and the public is shifting. Trust is shaky. Expectations are changing. And let’s be honest—some of that is on us. Higher ed hasn’t always been great at listening, adapting, or communicating our value.” This is work we must do to “rebuild the social compact.” 

It’s interesting, from a certain distance, to observe that I lived the part about not being “great at listening, adapting or communicating” at a micro level. On some level, the distance between my father and I was due to things I didn’t say. If we extrapolate all the combined micro-level conversations that should have happened but didn’t to the macro level, we observe all the empty conversational space that was left open to be filled by speakers who weren’t there to tell a full story.  

This is the ultimate shared thread between my CASE ACMB and SCUP experiences: we need to pull together our shared expertise to tell the truth about higher education. Thank you to everyone posting on LinkedIn and on institutional social media accounts, claiming space to describe the amazing work faculty, staff and students are doing. To make this a paradigm shift, we must plan to do this endlessly, to make it a core value that guides the choices we make. 

We’re walking that path, too, so if you’re interested in some company during your institution’s journey, we’re ready to meet you wherever you are. 

The post A Shared Effort, a Stronger Story for Higher Ed: Interdisciplinarity Across MarComm, Advancement and Institutional Planning appeared first on RHB.

What Gets Measured Gets Done

Ask most enrollment leaders what they’re tracking, and you’ll get a familiar list: inquiries, applications, admits, visits and deposits. Add a few conversion rates, geographic and demographic drilldowns, and comparisons to the previous two cycles, and voila: you have a dashboard..

But if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that this year is not like last year, and what you were tracking then might not give you a full sense of where you’re actually headed now.

Students are behaving differently. Timelines are shifting. Channels are multiplying. And the external pressures on higher education are more significant than at any other point in this century (and that includes some significant historical events that I needn’t itemize here).

It’s time for a recalibration.

You’ve likely heard the maxim, “What gets measured gets done.”

The natural corollary is that what gets measured well drives better outcomes.

(Author’s note: I share all of this without knowing what you, dear reader, may in fact be tracking. So if everything on here makes you say, “One step ahead of you, Ken,” then well done. On the other hand, if something makes you go, “Hmm” … well, you’re welcome not only for the idea, but also for launching an early ’90s C+C Music Factory ear worm.) 

Pipeline Velocity

This two-way measurement tracks the pace at which students move from one stage to the next (e.g., first inquiry to application, app submission to completion, FAFSA submission to completion, deposit to first onboarding step) and the pace at which your institution responds to student actions (e.g., inquiry to first counselor response, admission offer to financial aid offer, deposit to celebration).

Why it matters:

• It might reveal friction points where students stall, hesitate or fall out of your funnel.
• It might expose operational lags on your institution’s side that can cost you momentum or erode trust.
• It can surface segment-specific differences that deserve attention, and possibly an intervention.

Yes Rate

This metric tracks the percentage of your total student decisions after admission that are “yesses”—calculated by dividing affirmative responses (e.g., admit/matric, deposit pending) by total decisions (deposits and deposit pending, declines, admit/matric/decline, withdrawals, etc.)

Why it matters:

• Enrollment confirmations only tell part of the story. How does this year’s Yes Rate compare to previous cycles? How has it been trending over the past 7, 14 or 30 days? Are you ahead or behind … and why? 
• The rate provides a fuller picture of negative response velocity: are more students actively declining than in previous years? If so, what changed (e.g., pricing, aid, communication, competition)?
• It can help you assess the health of your remaining active admits. Are they still engaging or are they ghosting?
• Pro tip: a rigorous, dynamic engagement score for admitted students can help you discern whether your non-responders are still with you.

Melt Risk Index

The Melt Risk Index is an excellent way to assess how sticky your enrollment confirmations are, based on behavioral signals, engagement patterns and milestone completion. It might include indicators such as missed onboarding steps (e.g., orientation sign-up, housing selection) or portal inactivity (all the more reason to have a robust applicant experience portal that stays relevant after the point of deposit).

Why it matters:

• It helps you prioritize outreach by focusing staff energy on students who appear to be disengaging … before they disappear completely.
• It gives segment-specific melt behavior: are there populations that are disproportionately missing milestones? Why?
• Like Pipeline Velocity, it can highlight information or assurance gaps that undermine your onboarding process.
• Pro tip: If your institution has a clear Deposit to Day One strategy—one where everybody knows who’s responsible for keeping deposited students on track toward Day One at your institution—you’re already ahead of the game. If not, the Melt Risk Index can be a good way to establish the need for an effective Deposit to Day One strategy.

Cost of Waste

This KPI surfaces what many enrollment leaders feel, but fewer quantify: the cost of funnel inefficiency. It reflects the institutional resources—time, money, staff energy—spent on students who were never likely to convert to applicants, much less to enrolled students. Think of it as the byproduct of inflated inquiry pools, misaligned name licensing strategies and search campaigns optimized for volume over value.

Inputs might include your cost per inquiry, cost per application or yield rates from various sources. Of course, no source performs in a vacuum; each one is affected by how (and whether) you engage students farther downstream. But the power of this KPI is in exposing how much of your funnel is made up of students who were never serious prospects but still consumed your team’s time and budget.

Why it matters:

• It helps you make the case for quality over quantity so you can confidently say “no” to underperforming investments, freeing up resources for efforts that generate real movement.
• It reframes conversations with internal stakeholders—and, more importantly, marketing partners—around efficiency, not just activity.

Measuring is easy.

Measuring wisely is harder, but it’s the key to moving from merely collecting information to acting decisively on intelligence.

If you would like help building reports to track these KPIs in your Slate database, your friends here at RHB are the finest in all the land at doing so. Let’s talk.

The post Rethinking KPIs in the Recruitment Pipeline appeared first on RHB.

Sometimes the most important discoveries happen when we stop rushing and start paying attention.

Our summer reading picks this year invite the sort of close looking that the season hopefully allows. From corporate culture to childhood screen time, from leadership paradoxes to unlikely basketball success stories, these books ask us to look more closely at the systems, stories and assumptions that surround us. They remind us that transformation often begins not with dramatic action, but with the willingness to see what we’ve been missing—and the courage to sit with what we find.

Ken Anselment’s picks:

I just finished A Gentleman in Moscow, which now has more torn up Post-it Notes poking from its pages than just about any other book I’ve read.

Why are they torn up? To mark the good bits. Because I would often take the book with me while traveling (itself a commitment; this is no slender read) and, because I don’t usually pack Post-Its, I’d carefully halve and then re-halve the ones already in the book to stretch them further. Each ragged sliver marked a moment worth returning to: an astute observation, a delightful turn of phrase, or a passage that made me feel like I was in the hands of a master sentence crafter and meaning maker.

Here’s an example of this mastery—deliciously meta in its construction—in which the narrator describes the Count (the eponymous Gentleman) and his precocious partner in mischief, Nina, spying from the balcony of the Hotel Metropole’s Boyarksy ballroom “The Second Meeting of the First Congress of the Moscow Branch of the All-Russian Union of Railway Workers.”

(To those who have suffered through a bylaws revision meeting, here’s your warning that this may strike a little close to home.)

In the first fifteen minutes, six different administrative matters were raised and dispensed with in quick succession—leading one to imagine that this particular Assembly might actually be concluded before one’s back gave out. But next on the docket was a subject that proved more contentious. It was a proposal to amend the Union’s charter—or more precisely, the seventh sentence of the second paragraph, which the Secretary now read in full.

Here, indeed, was a formidable sentence—one that was on intimate terms with the comma, and that held the period in healthy disregard. For its apparent purpose was to catalog without fear or hesitation every single virtue of the Union including but not limited to: its unwavering shoulders, its undaunted steps, the clanging of its hammers in summer, the shoveling of its coal in winter, and the hopeful sound of the whistles in the night. But in the concluding phrases of this impressive sentence, at the very culmination as it were, was the observation that through their tireless efforts, the Railway Workers of Russia ‘facilitate communication and trade across the provinces.’”

After all the build up, it was a bit of an anticlimax, conceded the Count.

But the objection being raised was not due to the phrase’s overall lack of verve; rather it was due to the word facilitate. Specifically, the verb had been accused of being so tepid and prim that it failed to do justice to the labors of the men in the room.

What follows is a feisty debate about better verbs. It was one of dozens of laugh-out-loud moments. (It should be noted that I am more prone to snickers and smirks than guffaws while reading, but Amor Towles has had that impact on me.)

This isn’t a book to be read. It’s a book to be savored.

Oh…and one more thing. Because I feel compelled to shamelessly self-promote, I might also add that I’ve been rereading my own book, Climbing the Admissions Leadership Peak: Lessons from the ALP, mostly in preparation for some upcoming workshops I’ll be leading. (Would you look at that? A self-promotional layer cake.)

Aimee Hosemann’s picks:

My entries this summer are a reminder that the past always lurks, but in its lurking, it often asks us to reckon with both how it shaped us and how present it will always be, even as we come to understand it differently over our lifetimes. These books are also well crafted, excursions into the imagination sparked by writing.

My first suggestion is Ramona Emerson’s novel Shutter, about a Navajo forensic photographer named Rita Todacheene. Rita is visited throughout the novel by Erma, a woman whose death scene she documents in exhaustive detail, shutter by shutter, at the beginning of the novel. Erma demands that Rita discover her killer, leading Rita into a web of corruption and danger. Throughout the novel, Rita revisits her childhood and we learn about the grandmother whose raising makes it possible for Rita to go away to college. We also watch Rita discover during childhood the ability to interact with ghosts and how the adults in her life respond to this dangerous breaking of a taboo. In full disclosure, I do not frequently read fiction that falls into or near the “horror” genre. I prefer my mysteries to be a bit tidier. However, once I started reading the book, a text rendered with gorgeous detail and emotion, I couldn’t put it down. Every scene is simultaneously dream-like and viscerally real. That feels like life to me.

My second recommendation is Something in the Woods Loves You by Jarod K. Anderson. Anderson’s website bio describes him as “a strange mix of fantasy nerd, nature writer, podcaster, poet and erstwhile academic.” This strange mix is appropriate to the way Anderson writes about living with depression and how he finds healing in nature. Anderson had a career in academia, including in development work, which made him instantly relatable to me. 

In chapters named for species of flora and fauna that live alongside him in Ohio, we follow him through times he is laid low by this illness and cannot contemplate another kind of life. We join him as he finds a therapist whose mix of tough love and nonjudgmental listening starts to chisel cracks in the defenses his illness has built up over time. We also follow Anderson through at-first tentative trips into nature that become longer rambles featuring devoted attention to the details of how nature changes every day. He begins to change. He also revisits his engagements with nature over his lifetime, beginning a process of recovering those parts of himself that had been set aside. 

One of my favorite vignettes is about the white-tail deer, where he makes the point that deer, who spook easily, will return to browsing for food once danger has passed. Other creatures look to them for a sign that the woods are safe again. He achieved the distinct honor of being silently and nonthreateningly present long enough that the deer began to browse again after meeting some while on a walk. The deer began to eat again and the birds began to sing again. Anderson had become part of the safety of nature for a moment.

The book is a tough read at times. There’s no tidy narrative here. There’s no vanquishing depression. But, hopefully, what there is, is the love of people who want more for us, who help us want more for ourselves. Hopefully we have the willingness to ask the tough questions of ourselves and make the tiny efforts that over time lead us into something different. Hopefully we have hope.

Ryan Millbern’s pick:

Pipeline to the Pros: How D3, Small-College Nobodies Rose to Rule the NBA by Ben Kaplan and Danny Parkins

I had trouble narrowing down my choices for this year’s Summer Reading List. I was going to recommend Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodeser-Akner, a darkly comedic novel about the kidnapping of the Fletcher family patriarch and the ways in which that trauma plays out in the lives of his children over the course of the next 40 years. But after recommending a Debbie Downer of a novel last year, I thought I’d offer up something more hopeful in 2025.

Pipeline to the Pros: How D3, Small-College Nobodies Rose to Rule the NBA by Ben Kaplan and Danny Parkins lives at the intersection of several of my obsessions: NBA history, NBA front office palace intrigue, the value of a liberal arts education, what it takes to create successful organizational culture, how great coaches are made—and in turn, how they shape their players—brilliant underdogs disrupting good ol’ boy networks with their intelligence and savvy. You know, those old chestnuts.

Pipeline to the Pros examines how the experience of being a student athlete at a small liberal arts college uniquely prepares people for success in climbing the NBA coaching and executive ranks. Kaplan and Parkins profile several of the NBA’s biggest front office and head coaching names—from Gregg Popovich and Brad Stevens to Jeff and Stan Van Gundy to Frank Vogel and Tom Thibodeau—detailing how their unique blend of skills, experiences and connections helped them change NBA front office hiring practices forever.

I highly recommend this book for my fellow NBA junkies working in higher education who are looking for something to fill the void between the end of the NBA Finals and the beginning of the 2025-2026 season.

Alex Williams’ picks:

There are two books I’ve returned to a few times this year—one as a consultant who cares deeply about corporate culture, and one as a parent who gave in to devices earlier than planned.

Sarah Wynn-Williams’ Careless People is a rare look inside the machinery of one of the most influential companies in the world. It’s not a tell-all, but a candid reflection on how quickly a company’s culture can drift when growth is prioritized over grounding. She doesn’t aim to take down Meta. Instead, she invites us to look closely at what happens when small compromises become standard practice, and when the speed of decision-making outpaces reflection.

I’ve spent most of my career helping institutions design the systems that shape student experiences. I’ve seen again and again how fragile even the most well-designed system can be if the culture surrounding it isn’t aligned. Wynn-Williams doesn’t offer a blueprint, but her perspective underscores what many of us already know: culture is defined in the moments when no one is looking for credit, and it breaks down when assumptions go unchallenged.

Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation hits differently. I have three kids—11, 9, and 6—and like most parents, I’m doing my best. I’m also a firm believer that parenting advice should be invitation-only, so I won’t offer any. But I will say that Haidt’s research gave me pause. He makes a compelling case for how quickly childhood has shifted in the last decade, and how much of that shift is tied to the smartphone.

This isn’t a book that leans on nostalgia or blame. It’s more of a mirror, showing what’s changed and asking whether we want to keep going down the same path. Haidt’s suggestions like delaying smartphones, reclaiming unstructured play or limiting passive screen time aren’t new, but they’re harder to ignore when backed by data and international comparisons.

Both of these books ask a version of the same question: What are we letting in, and what are we building without realizing it? For anyone thinking about culture (whether in a company or a household) they’re worth your time.

Rob Zinkan’s pick:

Pope Francis’s passing in April prompted me to read Chris Lowney’s 2013 book, Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads. (I was familiar with Lowney from my Ed.D. program at Creighton University, where we read his fascinating book about the Jesuits called Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World.) 

Lowney takes us on Pope Francis’s leadership journey—through stories from Jesuits who knew him as Fr. Jorge Bergoglio—and explores how we can bring the pope’s “refreshing, deeply countercultural vision of how leaders live and what they value” to our own lives. This vision has a paradoxical quality. “I must be immersed in the world yet withdraw from the world. I must stand for something yet embrace change. I must invest in knowing myself only to transcend myself and serve others.” This dynamic tension is what “unleashes the commitment, imagination, and drive to surmount the complex problems we increasingly face in all walks of life.” 

The book offers both philosophical depth and practical wisdom. In closing a chapter on leading through change, the author ponders, “Rather, if we are modest enough to lead, we are both authors of the future but readers of it as well, attuned to a world that is ‘never finished, and never runs out of possibilities,’ as the pope puts it.” At just over 150 pages, it’s the kind of book that rewards slow, thoughtful reading…perfect for summer reflection.

The post Looking Closer: RHB’s Annual Summer Reading List appeared first on RHB.

Higher education leaders spend a lot of time talking about data—how to collect it, protect it and analyze it. But a question often left unasked is: how is this data actually used to communicate with students?

For years, institutions have leaned on their Student Information Systems (SIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms to serve as the backbone of student records. These systems are excellent at what they were designed for: tracking transactions, enforcing policy and maintaining compliance. But they are not engagement platforms. They do not build relationships.

Yet, some CIOs still assume that because a SIS or ERP contains student data, it must also be capable of meaningful student communication. That assumption can lead to misalignment between technology and student needs—resulting in missed opportunities to provide the right message at the right time.

The Communication Gap

At its core, an SIS is a ledger. It tells you what classes a student has taken, how much tuition they owe, whether they have a hold on their account. It’s a system of record, not a system of engagement.

A CRM, on the other hand, is built for dynamic, multi-touch engagement. It doesn’t just store student data—it uses that data to personalize interactions. It understands that a student who just registered for classes might need a reminder about financial aid. That a first-generation student might benefit from proactive outreach about support services. That an at-risk student might need an advisor to check in before it’s too late.

But the problem isn’t just that SIS and ERP systems lack these capabilities. The real issue is that without a clear institutional strategy, student communications become fragmented. Some messages come from the registrar. Others from financial aid. Still others from advising or student life. When there’s no coordinated approach, students—especially those most in need of support—end up overwhelmed, disengaged, or simply lost in the noise.

The Case for a CRM

Institutions that take communication seriously are turning to CRMs—not to replace the SIS, but to do what the SIS was never designed to do.

A well-integrated CRM allows institutions to:

• Move beyond mass emails and transactional messaging to personalized, relationship-driven communication.
• Use student behavior and engagement data to anticipate needs and intervene before a problem escalates.
• Deliver messaging in ways that students actually engage with—whether through text, email, portals or one-on-one advising.

Rather than forcing an outdated system to perform a function it was never meant to handle, CRMs allow institutions to build a centralized, student-first communication strategy—one that is proactive rather than reactive.

What CIOs Need to Ask

For CIOs looking to better align technology with student success, the conversation shouldn’t start with software. It should start with the people who use it. Before making decisions about centralizing communication technology, CIOs should be asking:

• How do students currently receive communication from different departments, and where are the gaps?
• Are students missing critical deadlines because messages aren’t reaching them in time or in the right way?
• How does the institution track student engagement, and do we have a way of identifying at-risk students before it’s too late?
• Are different departments using separate communication tools, and do they integrate effectively?
• How can we ensure that communications are personalized and relevant rather than generic and overwhelming?

These are not just technical questions. They are strategic ones. And they point to a larger shift happening in higher ed: from systems that document student experiences to systems that shape them.

CIOs shouldn’t be choosing between an SIS and a CRM—both are essential. But it’s time to be clear about their roles. The SIS is the ledger. The CRM is the conversation. And in a time when student engagement is more critical than ever, institutions that fail to recognize the difference risk losing not just data, but students themselves.

RHB, A Division of SIG, can help you align technology with student success and ensure that you’re developing systems that maximize engagement and enrolling best-fit students. Let’s have a conversation.

The post The Ledger Versus the Conversation: The critical difference between tracking transactions and building relationships   appeared first on RHB.

In our last piece on rethinking and redesigning your campus visit experience, we explored ways to enhance the persuasive power of an in-person visit. Prospective students and their supporters deserve a welcoming, informative and compelling experience—one that acknowledges the effort and investment they make to step onto campus.

But how to get them there in the first place? How do you effectively close the distance between prospective student curiosity and your campus through digital modes?

And how can you combine digital and IRL modes to build on the work you’re doing to rethink the on-campus visit experience?

We ask these questions to invoke a truth that is simple, yet profound: the first contact many prospective students and supporters will have with your campus will happen in a digital space. What you present in that space—your digital campus—should be as intentionally designed and well tended as your physical campus.

In this piece, we’ll recap case studies in which RHB helped teams at two universities—Auburn and Baylor—create digital experiences that gave prospective students and their families convenient, customized and compelling access to those campuses. Then, three RHB colleagues will share tips and points of consideration to guide your own efforts to align your in-person and digital campus experiences. Remember: whether digital or on the ground, it’s all human experience.

Building Family through Portal and Print at Auburn

Auburn University partnered with RHB to create a seamless, inspiring journey for prospective students—one that truly reflected the warmth and tradition of the Auburn Family. Our intensive research showed that while campus visits felt personal, welcoming and highly persuasive, the digital and print materials that wrapped around those in-person experiences lacked that ease and warmth. The visit registration website was difficult to navigate, requiring multiple clicks to schedule a tour, and the printed brochure was bogged down with procedural details, missing the personal touch that defines Auburn’s campus experience.

RHB set out to address these points of incoherence by designing a cohesive, multi-platform experience that made every step—from registering for a visit to applying for admission—intuitive, engaging and aligned with being a part of the Family.

The solution included a streamlined campus visit portal that simplified tour registration, a refreshed visit brochure that mirrored the warmth and intimacy of in-person experiences, and an applicant portal that kept students informed throughout the admissions process. The new admitted student packet captured the excitement of joining the Auburn community, incorporating beloved campus traditions like the Auburn Creed and rolling Toomer’s Corner.

These updates ensured that every interaction with Auburn—whether online, in print, or in person—felt distinctly Auburn. Now, prospective students don’t just learn about Auburn’s spirit; they experience it from the very first click.

Learn more about our work with Auburn

The Power of Personalization with visitBaylor

When Baylor University unveiled the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center—a state-of-the-art gateway to campus—they turned to RHB to craft an admissions experience as innovative and inviting as the building itself. (If you get a chance, you should experience this invitation at night: the building’s four 96-foot-tall pillars glow an attention-getting green—welcoming lights reach out to passers-by to speak of the University’s commitment to a Christian understanding of hospitality: “Hospitality is both action and affection, receiving and loving a stranger.”)

Our challenge? Design a seamless digital campus visit planning tool for prospective students that matched the marvel of the Hurd Center and the feeling of Baylor’s deep hospitality. To do that, RHB needed to integrate customized digital interactions, simplify event registration and ensure the experience felt as warm and engaging as a face-to-face welcome.

The result was visitBAYLOR, a unified portal that streamlines the entire admissions visit, from easy event browsing to personalized itineraries and real-time campus engagement. Visitors spend time in all of the Hurd Center’s four pillars—Aspire, Connect, Reflect, and Amplify—each designed to immerse them in the Baylor experience. The Aspire Pillar even displays students’ aspirations alongside their name and hometown, conveying how well Baylor already knows them.

With QR code check-ins, on-demand badge printing and interactive displays that highlight connections between visitors, every prospective student experiences a deeply personalized journey. Controlled through Slate, the system allows Baylor to update content effortlessly, ensuring future adaptability. More than just a logistical tool, visitBAYLOR ensures that students know they have been seen, understood and known.

Get the full visitBAYLOR story

The Baylor and Auburn examples convey the power of intentionally combining well-tended digital and physical campuses with the power of authentic emotional and missional alignment. What do you need to consider when you are ready to create something truly special on your campus(es)? Some of RHB’s talented Slate and Related Technologies team members offer advice to get you started wherever you are in your own journey.

Bring Emotion and Coherence to the Digital Space

Associate Director of Design and Development Alisa Chambers highlights the importance of using verbal and visual modes to craft a truly inclusive experience:

• Use storytelling to convey institutional values and foster a sense of belonging.
• Balance simplicity and depth in information, ensuring accessibility and ease of use.
• Ensure virtual experiences are accessible, incorporating screen-reader-friendly content and intuitive navigation.

Alisa’s advice makes explicit an important fact: every human experiences technology differently. We don’t all use shared tools the same way, and what appeals or is useful to us can be highly individual. Propensities, interests and abilities differ. That means you have an opportunity to think about digital tools as the means to expand both interest and welcome. Create coherence in imagery—show authentic interactions, not just empty buildings. Offer first-hand stories and student perspectives to provide a human touch in the absence of an in-person guide. Design your systems to serve the students, not the reverse.

Alisa also suggests that you remind students that this is the first step in a longer journey with you that will continue traversing the digital realm: showcase digital demonstrations of campus technologies they will use as current students, such as learning management systems and student portals. This will help prospective students follow the path from the current tool into exploring others in the future.

Understand Audience Needs, Empower Their Agency

Senior Technology Consultant John Michael Cuccia (JMC) advises you to ask, not assume:

• What does your digital audience want to see and know? Recall that prospective students and parents may have different wants.
• What challenges do prospective students face in navigating your digital and physical environments? How well have you developed way-finding digitally and on your physical campus?
• What in-person elements require thoughtful virtual translation? If someone can’t come to campus what do they need to be able to see well virtually? Your current students and faculty may have great ideas.

JMC also suggests that it can be enlightening to recall a recent experience you had that was positive, seamless and met all your expectations. Compare that to a recent experience that was troublesome, a hassle or confusing. These could be experiences like shopping online or buying concert tickets. Now, look at your prospective student journey wearing your customer hat. What feels seamless and exciting? What feels hard to navigate or makes you want to do something else instead? Which feeling do you want prospective students to carry with them after they interact with you?

And Senior Technology Consultant Brian Choe emphasizes the importance of agency: How can prospective students make the online experience their own? Brian points to your virtual tour as a sometimes-overlooked opportunity to empower students to “choose their own adventure.” A customizable tour, where students select topics that interest them, could shape both their virtual visit and their ongoing engagement through status portals and follow-up content.

“You should be providing the most customized experience possible based on what you know about a person. And for those things you don’t know, you should make it a priority to find out before attempting to deliver an experience to them.”

Create a Human-Centered, Multi-Modal Experience

Ultimately, digital elements of visit design should not be an afterthought but integral tools for how you express welcome and your genuine curiosity about prospective students. By prioritizing the human experience through customization, storytelling, accessibility and audience-informed design, institutions can build a bridge between curiosity and commitment, ensuring that prospective students feel connected long before they set foot on campus.

A last word of advice from JMC: “You should be providing the most customized experience possible based on what you know about a person. And for those things you don’t know, you should make it a priority to find out before attempting to deliver an experience to them.” Curiosity is essential.

If you’re curious about how to maximize your team’s capability and capacity to deliver that customized experience to your prospective students, let us know. We know how important your work is and we are here when you need an assist.

The post Campus Visits Part II: Creating a Seamless Digital-to-Physical Campus Visit Experience appeared first on RHB.

And why do colleges and universities need them now more than ever?

It’s a tale as old as time: a college or university needs to market itself in a way that is compelling to prospective students, authentic to the lived experience on campus, aspirational enough to echo the pillars of the strategic plan and timeless enough to appeal to generations of alumni.

I apologize; that sentence should have come with a warning for higher education marketers. It’s an exhilarating, dizzying and daunting proposition to craft language about your institution that resonates with constituents ranging in ages from 14 to 104. It’s even more difficult to do so in a way that stands out from your competitors.

When these myriad audiences and strategic objectives are swirling in the ether, a brand narrative can serve as a unifying document: focusing your messaging, connecting the dots between constituent groups and providing institutional shareholders with common language to guide them in their marketing efforts.

What we talk about when we talk about brand narratives

In short, a brand narrative is a concise and compelling articulation of your institution’s story, written in a way that reflects the character, personality and aspirations of your college or university. It stakes a claim, telling audiences who you are, why you exist, what you value and what you hope to accomplish. While there is no steadfast word limit, brand narratives run the gamut from 200 to 400 words. 

What does a brand narrative do?

Much like a brand guide establishes a cohesive color palette, collection of typefaces and parameters for logo use, a brand narrative provides a vetted lexicon to return to when communicators need inspiration and guidance.

More specifically, a strong brand narrative provides external-facing language you can use across creative expressions. Lines from a brand narrative can be utilized as headlines verbatim, voiceovers for an anthem video or language to be displayed on pole banners and signage around campus.  

Not only does this language serve internal communicators in their daily work, but it can also function as a high-level creative brief for first-time freelance writers or to help new hires understand the points of distinction that set your institution apart.

But the unseen benefit of generating, editing, reviewing and iterating on a brand narrative is that it forces everyone involved in the process to work towards a shared understanding of messaging priorities and actively engage in creating the connective tissue that will keep your communications coherent, regardless of the medium or audience.

But where does this language come from? It starts with asking the right questions.

Connecting with Addison and Ezekiel   

Your institution has survived for decades, in many cases, a century or more. Addison, born with an iPhone in her hand, attends the same school as Ezekiel who arrived on campus on horseback for the first day of classes in 1874.

What steadfast institutional truths connect these two across the decades? What desires and aspirations do they share? Why were they compelled to attend your institution in the first place? What traditions have endured—and why? And what do those traditions say about what your community values?  

What about your mission? In our Coherence series, we’ve developed exercises to help you evaluate your mission statement for distinctive language. What is that distinctive language? And how does the truth of that language still permeate the experience you deliver to students and drive the outcomes you achieve in the world?  

Finally, lean on your institutional knowledge. At what times have you felt immense pride in your university? Can you recall moments when someone delivered a line that captured what your college is all about, perhaps during a commencement speech or a president’s inaugural address? Are there inspirational snippets of language from your strategic plan? Does your fight song have anything to offer?

Once you’ve identified those steadfast truths and the language you’ve traditionally used to articulate them, collect these distinctive words, phrases and attributes in one place—a shared document or whiteboard in a conference room. Identify common threads and patterns that exist between how you’ve communicated these core truths in the past and how you might re-articulate them to reflect your current educational experience and future aspirations.

As you begin to write the brand narrative ask yourself:

• • Why tell this story of your institution now?
  • What current or future challenges in the world is your institution particularly equipped to address?
  • What’s at stake if those problems go unaddressed?
  • What would happen if all your institution’s aspirations came true?

Why do you need a brand narrative now more than ever?

The sheer number of ways you can creatively express who you are to your constituents continues to expand as the content machine begs to be fed videos, social media posts, digital ads, copy for your website, print communications, etc. Marketing and communications departments, many times composed of individuals wearing multiple hats and responding to urgent last-minute requests, rarely have the bandwidth to think strategically about how everything they produce advances the larger story your institution is trying to tell.

If your writers are feeling rudderless (more so than writers usually do); if you’ve exhausted all possible ways to use your tagline creatively and have resorted to shoehorning it in to every call to action; if you feel like you’re writing at a moving messaging target–one that grows more nebulous with each new project–a brand narrative can help.

If you’ve just launched a strategic plan and find yourself struggling to connect the dots between its aspirations and the current reality of your institution, a brand narrative can help. 

A brand narrative can also help bridge the gap between what you’re delivering to your various audiences. If you’re telling contradictory stories to your prospective students and alumni, you put yourself at risk for muddying your brand in the market. The work of identifying your enduring institutional truths and articulating them in the form of a brand narrative can help you reign in rogue messages.

A brand narrative can serve as a north star, as inspiration, as a reminder of all the things that make your institution great—things that sometimes get lost in the grind of day-to-day creation.

In the end, humans understand the world in terms of stories. In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari writes extensively about the primal power of stories:

“Homo sapiens is a storytelling animal that thinks in stories rather than in numbers or graphs and believes that the universe itself works like a story, replete with heroes and villains, conflicts and resolutions, climaxes and happy endings. When we look for the meaning of life, we want a story that will explain what reality is all about and what my particular role is in the cosmic drama. This role makes me part of something bigger than myself and gives meaning to all my experiences and choices.”

Every one of your constituencies—and everyone writing on behalf of your college or university—want a story that they can find themselves in. Write them that story.

And if you need help, we’re here for you. RHB has been crafting brand narratives for decades. It’s one of our favorite things to do.

The post What is a Brand Narrative? appeared first on RHB.

This article previously appeared in Inside Higher Ed and it is posted here with permission of the author.

Over the past five years of conducting organizational capability assessments of higher education marketing and communications departments, my colleagues and I have interviewed hundreds of internal stakeholders. It’s the most fascinating aspect of the work, hearing directly from campus colleagues both inside and outside the department about their perspectives and experiences related to organizational life and departmental effectiveness.

Through these conversations, valuable insights have emerged thanks to longtime marcomm staff—those team members who have contributed 10 or more years of professional service to their departments. (Note: I use the term “marcomm” to reflect that a blended marketing and communications structure is the typical model in higher education. The nuance and complexity of marketing and communications as distinct but related functions are topics for another post.)

These insights, framed as reflection questions below, are especially relevant for leaders beginning a new senior role, such as a cabinet-level VP, CMCO or an executive director leading the marcomm function for an academic college or school.

1. Is “restructuring” an end or a means?

When longtime staff members discuss organizational structure changes, their healthy skepticism is palpable. They invariably associate these changes with leadership transitions. A “re-org” happened because there was a new VP (just as strategic plans often coincide with new presidents). The perceived impetus for change is simply having new leadership rather than any larger strategic purpose. We frequently hear some version of, “The structure changes and then eventually changes back with a different VP.”

I’d much rather staff members describe those structural changes as enabling their function to fulfill a more strategic role and more meaningfully advance the institution’s highest priorities. It’s a reminder to leaders that structure should follow strategy, so the task is to ensure that the strategy is clear, reinforced and reflected in decision-making.

Moreover, leaders should move beyond thinking in terms of discrete “restructures” or “re-orgs.” Organizational change isn’t a periodic event; top-performing departments are constantly adapting and evolving to best serve their guiding purpose amidst changing conditions.

2. What is the real value of institutional knowledge?

We undervalue institutional knowledge. Your longtime staff members possess deep institutional knowledge, which we unfortunately may dismiss as outdated or irrelevant. Instead, think of institutional knowledge as a source for critical context and sense making to help you navigate the road ahead and lead positive change.

​​In The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Heifetz, Linsky and Grashow emphasize that “successful adaptive changes build on the past rather than jettison it.” The challenge for leaders lies in “distinguishing what is essential to preserve from their organization’s heritage from what is expendable.” Long-tenured staff members’ insights and institutional knowledge are invaluable in building this understanding.

As the authors note, “Successful adaptations are thus both conservative and progressive. They make the best possible use of previous wisdom and know-how. The most effective leadership anchors change in the values, competencies and strategic orientations that should endure in the organization.” New senior leaders, eager to deliver results or serve as change agents, may overlook this crucial balance.

3. What does upskilling require of the organization?

The responsibilities of longtime staff members have likely evolved significantly since their initial hiring. New or different types of work are needed as marcomm’s scope expands, audience preferences shift and technologies emerge. Growing these competencies is a shared responsibility requiring genuine organizational commitment. The onus cannot rest solely on individual staff members. Upskilling or reskilling demands adequate time and resources—even when workloads are heavy and budgets are constrained.

Professional development funding is often the first casualty of budget reductions. But if the organizational approach to professional development has been mostly reactive, then we shouldn’t be surprised by the lack of budget prioritization. This ad hoc approach to professional development points to a larger issue: the absence of formalized talent management practices in marketing and communications.

Where can you build more intentionality into your organization’s efforts to recruit, develop, support and retain staff? Look to your central human resources team for guidance and learn from your colleagues in advancement, where larger and more mature advancement operations have dedicated talent management functions. Start small by operationalizing your department’s practices in a specific area such as orientation and onboarding. These focused efforts can create momentum for broader talent management initiatives.

Long-serving staff members serve as both historians and bridges to the future, stewarding institutional values while helping new executives thoughtfully evolve their organizations. When properly engaged and supported, these veteran team members can be catalysts in your efforts to build—or further build—a high-performing department that drives lasting institutional progress. I hope these reflection questions prompt ideas that help your marketing and communications department be people centered and future ready.

The post What Longtime MarComm Staff Can Teach Leaders About Organizational Change appeared first on RHB.

What would your employees say to a friend or family member who was interested in applying for a job at your institution? 

How can you ensure that employees have positive, truthful stories to share about their experiences with you?

The experiences your employees have shape your employer brand. Your employer brand creates expectations about what it’s like to be a faculty or staff member at your institution. A strong employer brand is an asset that attracts and retains talented faculty and staff—and you can actively shape that brand through your choices.

In this October 22 webinar, Dr. Kevin McClure, author of The Caring University: Reimagining the Higher Education Workplace after the Great Resignation (to be released next year by JHU Press), and Drs. Aimee Hosemann and Rob Zinkan, authors of What Makes a Strategic Plan ‘Strategic’?, discussed the current landscape of higher education employer brands. 

They talked about organizational changes and change management in support of the employee experience. They also discussed:

• RHB’s Coherence model as a framework for understanding and influencing employer brand
• Strategic planning for employee well-being and engagement
• Creating connections between the values held by your institution and your employees
• Effective talent management frameworks, and 
• The role of communications and marketing beyond internal communications, including as a partner to HR

You have the ability to shape the expectations that lead to a strong employer brand regardless of your role or job description. 

You can watch the full webinar below and complete the form to access the presentation slides. The transcript is also available. 

The post Webinar: Your Institution’s Employer Brand: An Exercise in Coherence appeared first on RHB.