Your first steps

This COACHE Chief Academic Officer Report is the culmination of our work since 2003 with faculty focus groups, three pilot studies, and ongoing dialog with chief academic officers, faculty success leaders, and institutional researchers at our partner institutions. With so many perspectives on report design, we aim to provide the information you and your campus stakeholders need to translate these COACHE results into substantive, constructive actions.

At first glance, this report can be daunting. How does one begin to turn so much data into ideas for making your institution more equitable? To paraphrase Carl Sandburg, this report is like an onion: you peel it off one layer at a time (and sometimes you weep).

Like the skin of the onion, the Preview gives you a glimpse of what lies within, but is the beginning, not the end. It is colored, literally, by your comparisons to other institutions and to differences between subgroups within your institution. The Benchmarks at a Glance and Benchmark Dashboard will show you, within 10 minutes or so, the broad themes of your survey results and the areas deserving of immediate scrutiny.

Take note of our criteria for determining "areas of strength" and "areas of concern". COACHE analysts have identified comparative "strengths" as those survey dimensions where your campus ranks first or second among your six peers and in the top three deciles among your comparison cohort. A comparative "concern", on the other hand, means your campus ranked fifth or sixth among your peers and in the bottom three deciles. Differences by gender, race, rank, and tenure status are highlighted when mean results differ by a moderate or large margin (effect size).

Turn quickly to Improving Workplace, your faculty’s free-text opinions on the one thing your institution can do to improve the workplace for faculty. Our partners find this qualitative, personal component of the report helpful in illustrating the faculty story in ways that quantitative data cannot. Even one, thoughtful response can spur you and your campus to action.

Soon, you will discover that many faculty concerns can be dealt with immediately and inexpensively, while others present themselves as opportunities for broad involvement in designing collaborative solutions. To appreciate the full potential of these data for your campus, review the case studies of exemplary partner impact.

Build a communication plan.

If you have not yet developed a COACHE communication plan, do so now. We provide Communication Models to help you consider where your campus (or your leadership style) fits now on the range of transparency and shared governance, and perhaps where it should be headed in the future. Of course, these frameworks are not designed to suggest that one approach is always better than another, but instead, to assist in your determination of which approach is best given your institution's culture - and given also what your faculty want from you, their leaders, as expressed through the COACHE survey.

To inform your communication strategy, review the campus calendar for all possible venues to discuss COACHE participation, such as faculty senate meetings, collective bargaining group meetings, opening convocations, leadership development sessions (for deans, chairs, and/or faculty), and new faculty orientations. Consider print and electronic media outlets (e.g., campus newspapers, HR and provostial newsletters, faculty job postings) for communicating your COACHE enrollment and results. When you have decided on a course of action, prepare and distribute a website for communicating your plan.

Disseminate broadly.

Whatever model you feel fits best, do not delay sharing your institutional report, in part or in full, with key constituents on your campus. Consider forming a task force or ad hoc committee; we have some advice on building a COACHE team.

If you choose to do so, you should designate its members as the conduit for all information about COACHE and mention this group in all communication with faculty. Put your data into play with every campus committee that could be informed by the findings (e.g., Promotion & Tenure; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Status of Women, search committees). Get the results into the hands of deans, department chairs, senior administrators (especially the Chief Diversity Officer), faculty working groups, and—yes—your board of trustees or regents.

It is particularly important to disseminate your results to the faculty who each spent about 20 minutes completing the survey. Failure to demonstrate action in response to their contribution of time may result in reduced response rates in future surveys. Many COACHE members have posted some or all of their results on their web sites to highlight institutional strengths and demonstrate their commitment to transparency in improving the areas of concern.

Many colleges and universities hold workshops and forums with constituents, together or separately, to discuss interpretations of and policy responses to their COACHE findings. When meeting with these groups, ask questions to organize and catalyze the conversations around COACHE. For example: What confirmed (or defied) conventional wisdom? What are the surprises? Disparities? Lessons? Implications?

Take ownership.

You must take ownership of the results, or insist that people in a position to make change are held accountable for doing so. Our colleagues, Cathy Trower and Jim Honan, cited a provost in The Questions of Tenure (ed. R. Chait, 2002) who said: "Data don't just get up and walk around by themselves... they only become potent when somebody in charge wants something to happen." Without the catalyst of responsibility, good intentions may not produce desired results.

Consider forming, for example, a mid-career faculty task force that would identify the COACHE findings particularly germane to local concerns of associate professors, then would present a range of policy recommendations emerging from their analysis. As an alternative, ask administrators in academic affairs, faculty development, diversity, and human resources to read the report and identify the top three things they would recommend as a result. The responses might be broad (e.g., "Demystify the promotion process") or specific (e.g., "Increase availability of eldercare options"). Naturally, expectations ought to be set so that recommendations are realistic and align with your strategic plan and priorities.

Through COACHE, we have seen this accountability exemplified by a provost who memorably signaled a "buck stops here" attitude (not to mention a sense of humor) to improving faculty work/life by donning a shirt imprinted with "C-A-O" in big, bold, Greek-style letters. He understood that the actions suggested by his COACHE report - whether highlighting strengths or addressing concerns - align with the will of policymakers and faculty, and that it must be someone's responsibility to see the recommendations through to outcomes. Just giving constituents - and in particular, the faculty - some part in the COACHE conversation gives them a stake in advancing better recruiting, retention, and success.

Engage with peer institutions.

We named this project the Collaborative because only by gathering together the agents for change in faculty work/life will we understand what works well, where, and why. Several times each year, COACHE meets with key contacts at partner institutions to participate in conference panels and workshops. There, participants share innovative strategies for using COACHE data and tackling the challenges we all have in common.

Out of these discussions have emerged more comprehensive data-sharing agreements among peers, site visits to exemplary institutions, and lasting contacts for free advice and consultation. ("We're thinking about implementing this new program. Has anyone else ever tried it?")

In addition to bringing COACHE members together for these special events, we continually seek out other ways to support our collaborative spirit: hosting our annual Strategy Workshops; highlighting member institutions in our newsletter; and offering to conduct site visits to member campuses. Thanks to these collaborations, we all gain actionable insight into making colleges campuses great places to work.

Call us.

Think of COACHE as your hotline for suggestions in faculty recruitment, development and success. For the duration of your three-year COACHE partnership, schedule a call by emailing coache@gse.harvard.edu if you have any questions about how you can make the most of your investment in this project. Also, recommend to anyone working with or presenting COACHE data (such as institutional research staff) to call us for advice and tools to simplify the work.

If your COACHE report is collecting dust on the shelf, then we have failed. Let us help you cultivate your data - and your faculty - as a renewable resource.