Maricopa Community Colleges

Maricopa Steward

Leadership and Collaboration—Maricopa Style

Jim Simpson, FEC President

The focus of Maricopa Steward is to illustrate “Public stewardship: the efficient and effective use of resources as the Maricopa Community Colleges prepare students for their role as productive world citizens.” This is language found in the District’s Mission, Vision and Values. Note there are two parts to this statement: not only are we to be guardians of the resources, we also set the example for our students to help them become better citizens. Effective leadership and efficient collaborations model good citizenship for our students and maximize the use of our resources.

According to the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness, good leaders know how to collaborate and develop effective partnerships with others. Collaboration is the vehicle for sharing responsibility and combining the knowledge, creativity and experience of others. Establishing collaborative relationships within Maricopa is not always natural or easy, particularly because Maricopans have different work schedules, backgrounds and experiences. Effective leaders know how to collaborate when it isn’t easy. Leaders who believe in the power of collaboration can produce extraordinary results while maintaining a healthy team environment. The characteristic that exemplifies a good collaborative leader is the ability to let go of some control. Andrew Carnegie said: “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.”

One of the most important things a leader needs to be able to do to collaborate with his/her team members is create a culture where members value and listen to alternative views and seek out win-win objectives. Luckily, an academic environment like MCCCD encourages this type of culture. A leader can also foster collaboration by encouraging active involvement and the free exchange of information. The leader must also set the tone by keeping an open mind to different ideas. Furthermore, when the team members engage in collaborative activities, it is essential for the leader to validate and reinforce the collaboration in order to sustain the behavior.

At Maricopa, we have many solid examples of leaders building collaborative relationships, at many different levels.

Leadership and collaboration occurs at the District level. For example, the Governing Board has approved our participation in the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). As of the spring of 2009, more than 635 college and university presidents have signed the commitment. The ACUPCC moves campuses toward sustainability by garnering institutional commitments to reduce and ultimately eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions on campus while promoting the education and research needed to help the rest of society do the same. What a great example to set for the students who must become guardians of the most precious resource we have – the earth!

Another example of District-wide collaboration is our unique method of sharing academic courses. Faculty at all the colleges teach from one common bank of courses that is organized according to discipline. When a faculty member of that discipline develops an idea for a new course or a way to improve an existing course the idea is proposed to an Instructional Council (IC). The IC is comprised of representatives from each college that teach in that discipline. The IC will listen to the proposal, offer suggestions or modifications then eventually vote on the proposal. If the IC agrees, the course is added to the course bank. This example illustrates an effective use of resources to help students receive consistent instruction in courses they can be assured are accepted by industry or other institutions of higher education.

At the college level, leadership and collaboration are exemplified by the Faculty Senate. The Senate is comprised of representatives from every academic department of the college. The Senate, in collaboration with the Administration of the college and other employee groups, ensures the principles of shared governance are sustained. Shared governance is the set of practices under which college faculty and staff participate in significant decisions about the operation of their institutions. The Faculty Senate also sends representatives to participate in the Faculty Executive Council (FEC). The FEC performs the same role of supporting shared governance at the district level as the Senate does at the college level. Shared governance can be viewed as the resource that protects academic freedom and therefore encourages students to become free thinkers with the capability of making wise choices in society.

The financial instability at the federal, state and local level has inspired the leaders of Maricopa to reach out even farther to collaborate with the faculty and staff of the institution. Our resources have been stretched thin from cuts in state aid, loss of property taxes and lack of tuition increases—all at a time when enrollments have surged 15% or more. To accommodate the loss of resources, the Governing Board called for a financial exigency policy to be crafted. Rather than impose a “top-down” policy that would compromise the negotiated employee policy manuals, the Chancellor and his top administration opted to engage the leaders of all the employee groups to develop a collaborative financial exigency policy that would rely on collective ideas for cost savings before threatening jobs. This is one more example of how effective leadership and efficient collaborations model good citizenship for our students and maximize the use of our resources.

The collaborative effort to solve the financial problems has encouraged the employee group leaders to meet on a regular basis to consider solutions to problems that confront the institution as a whole. The collective experience represented by the wide breadth of all employee groups can be a creative and powerful tool to solve problems.

For many young adults, the college experience is their first exposure to real-world problems that require higher order thinking skills: Who do I vote for? How do I spend my money wisely? Do I take out college loans? What is the financial benefit of trading off a couple of summer vacations so I can graduate one semester sooner? These are tough decisions that students will face for the rest of their lives. All of these decisions revolve around the core set of values a student acquires in their early years. All of us here at Maricopa can model good citizenship and effective use of resources through good leadership and collaboration.

Maricopa Steward, Fall 2009