I started this company because I didn’t have a good answer to the question “What’s next?” after tenure and/or promotion. As an assistant professor you are benefited by the energy of being newly trained and driven by the need to prove yourself. This newness also means you receive a great deal of attention from your new colleagues, mentors, and leaders, all of whom have an interest in seeing you succeed. Higher education institutions also invest a great many resources including training and support to help junior faculty members be successful.

Have you ever noticed that the universe has a way of providing you with information right when you need it? I’m not talking about hard lessons that come from tragic things happening. Rather just little flickers of light when you’ve been in your head too long about something that nudge you out. Of course, the rational explanation for this is that my brain was tuned into receiving whatever information I cued in on, but I like the idea that it’s the universe looking out for me in a small way 😉.

I know we are all just trying to make it to the end of the semester, but I hope you are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. For me this time of year is always a mix of dread as I scramble to get everything done for students to finish classes and graduate, along with getting papers and grant applications out the door, and joyful anticipation of the summer shift to more white space on my calendar and the chance to do some deep thinking.

I’ve been thinking a lot about time recently. Mostly as it relates to it taking too long for me to get to where I want to go with this latest reinvention of my professional life. Some of this is a function of seeing the success that others already have and wanting it for myself. Some of this is a function of the world we now live in where our online lives receive instant feedback and seemingly no friction and wanting that to be part of my real-world life. But the universe has been sending me reminder over and over again lately (much to my chagrin 😜). Change takes time. More time than we want, but the time that’s needed.

The more time I’ve spent in the academic world the more I have felt, and seen, a reluctance to seek out professional development help for being a better (or different kind of) researcher. There are lots of seminars, courses, or programs to help you improve your teaching and lots of courses and programs designed to help you be an administrator or advance your career in that direction. But there are very few to help you to change or advance your research program.

Well, this is post #52. One full year of posts!!! I had no idea how this would go when I started, but I knew that I wasn’t about to start with videoing myself 😬 to start talking with you (though I haven’t ruled that out 😅).

Where do you get your “best” ideas? Mine often come while I’m in the shower. Weird, but it is what it is. It’s got to be something about the sound of the water and lack of other stimuli that just lets my brain wander and solve problems that I can’t otherwise sort out.

Last week I used a talk I attended by Dr. Aarron Carroll to make the case that all scientists are in fact science communicators. This week I recognize that this seems simple in theory, but for those of you who have not had occasion to “communicate” with non-academics regularly before this maybe a little terrifying.

Starting something new is scary. Especially in the academic world, where we are trained from baby graduate students to choose one area and dig and dig and dig into that area until we are the world’s foremost expert on that topic. The idea of switching gears, giving up on all that work and effort seems stupid. And even if you do start over what if you choose wrong and your idea for making an impact isn’t good?

I read a lot of personal development and leadership books. Now it’s to enhance my skills. But that wasn’t always the case. When I was younger, I struggled knowing how to talk to people about my work, how to have hard conversations, and how to advocate for myself. I’ve found these books, and the stories about other people’s lives, instructive.

So, what is my problem with this book, and frankly many others like this one? These authors have already won (made the change, built their dream life, got the money etc…). The books miss the “messy middle”.

A slight diversion for the weather.

If I’ve learned anything from my professional life so far, it’s that change is constant and you can always try again. And really that is all any of us is trying to do, testing out a change and trying again. But using the guidance provided in this series should help you not only shorten the learning curve for reinvention but also build a happier team doing it.

In the academic world any call for speeding up research or research processes is likely to be met with at best mild annoyance and at worse outright hostility. While I have grown to appreciate the care and consideration academics can give to a topic, I have also seen this care and consideration become a significant impediment to institutional change.

Rewiring in the business context is about disassembling and reassembling how work is done so that old structures don’t get in the way of reinvention. The question, “What organizational rewiring can help us shift?” is really asking about the resources you have that can be leveraged to drive reinvention. These resources can be financial (ex. overhead money, one-time money from your chair or dean, or grant funding opportunities), people power (ex. collaborators, graduate and undergraduate students, and other trainees), or time based.

As promised you will find some forward looking posts below as we consider with the official start to the New Year in just a few days. While I always feel hopeful during this time of year about new beginnings, there is also an undeniable pressure to “get this one right”. I want to encourage you not to let that pressure overwhelm your efforts this time.

Happy Holidays! Here’s some light reading for your holiday break.