Abstract
What does it take to rebuild a program from scratch-and make it better than before? In this session, we’ll explore the journey of revitalizing a Camps and Conferences program by centering feedback, refining systems, and embracing innovation. Whether or not you work directly with Camps and Conferences, you will gain practical, transferable strategies for managing change, leading projects, and creating systems that actually work. This presentation is for anyone looking to improve a program, build from the ground up, or simply work smarter with the people they serve.
Presenter
- Katie Ridgway, University of Kansas
Date Of Recording: September 24, 2025
This webinar from UMR-ACUHO is sponsored by Roompact and brought to you for free. Discover more of our own and sponsored webinars here:
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UMR-ACUHO is the Upper Midwest Association for College and University Housing Officers. Check out their website to learn more about what they do and how to get involved.
Transcript:
Speaker 1:
All right. Jeff, AKA Haley. I’m going to turn it over to you to introduce our speaker today.
Jeff:
Happy that I could become Haley for the day to introduce our wonderful speaker. Before that, I really just want to thank Roompact for sponsoring this webinar series through them in the professional development committee. It’s nice because they can let us have an honorarium for our presenters. So we actually are giving some things back to our presenters when they give us so much great information. And we love Roompact. They give great educational opportunities. Software is awesome. Use them in a bunch of universities. Check them out if you haven’t yet.
And without further ado, let me introduce our wonderful speaker and presenter today. Katie Ridgway, who’s an assistant director of housing services at the University of Kansas, where she oversees desk operations and camps and conferences and many other things that probably aren’t disclosed within that job description. So with over seven years of experience at KU, Katie brings a deep understanding of housing operations, process improvement, team development, and is an overall great leader on the campus. Highest restraint, strategic planning, really good feedback driven change. And in her free time loves working with her Australian shepherds who may sometimes have too much energy, but we love them anyway. Without further ado, here is Katie. Enjoy.
Katie Ridgway:
Awesome. Thank you Jeff. Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me today. I’m excited to spend some time with you over the next hour and talking about how do you rebuild a program with purpose and people in mind. And so I’m excited to be here. I’m looking forward to sharing some of the work that myself and then the team that I get to work with have spent doing over the last several years. But then also just sharing some takeaways. I know that this is coming from a camps and conferences lens, but what I love about camps and conferences is that there’s so many connections to other areas of housing and residence life. You see occupancy in camps and conferences. We do assignments and move-ins and move-outs. We talk about facilities and the turnover between spaces. We talk about marketing and how do we share our messages or communicate about specific groups or ways that groups are interacting with other groups on campus. And so I think you’ll find a lot of tangibles if camps and conferences isn’t where you spend your day-to-day work. And while I might intertwine stories of camps and conferences, my goal is to really talk about the lessons or some of the areas of work that really helped to foster some rebuilding and some change and then how I led that. So that way hopefully you can take these away and utilize it in an area of work that you do.
As far as today goes, we’re going to do some internal reflection. If you are somebody who likes to write that down in a notebook, feel free to pull a notebook out. Otherwise, a Word document or a OneNote will work just fine as well. And then I’ll do some information sharing and then also hope to utilize the chat since we are in a virtual space. So as we go throughout, feel free to put stuff in the chat, comment on something, ask questions. I’ll be keeping an eye on that as we go throughout.
Okay. So Jeff did a great job of introducing myself and so appreciate that, Jeff. But I currently serve on the conference planning and logistics committee with UMR, so getting excited and ready to serve and work for all the things that we’re going to be putting on place in our conference in October. I’ve been at KU since 2018 but really have been working with the camps and conferences program since June of 2021, so the last four years or so. And then yes, I work with front desk operations and camps and conferences and then I enjoy audiobooks. And then yes, spending some time walking my two Australian shepherds who have a lot of energy and keep me busy outside of the workplace.
Okay. So here’s the first internal reflection to just get us thinking about this topic. And so what I want you to do is take some time to think about a program or a project you have worked with in the past. I want you to pick something that you’re very familiar with because we’re going to refer back to what you pick multiple times throughout today’s presentation. And so as you think about the program, the project, maybe it was a task that you had to work with and create something. And then I want you to think about what is one thing you would rebuild differently if you could start over. And so that is going to help to foster our conversation as we go throughout. So I’ll give folks about a minute or two to think about their program and maybe start to think about what you would rebuild differently. If you’re not sure at this time, that is okay. As we go throughout, some ideas might come to you.
And as you come up with your project or an aspect you would rebuild, feel free to put it in the chat so I can see where people are at in the thinking process.
We’ll take another 30 seconds and then we can come back to this as we go throughout.
Thank you, Debbie. So Debbie said, “I wish I would’ve started conversations individually and small groups with more faculty sooner.” I love that you said that because actually going to talk a little bit later on about how I collected feedback in groups but also recognize that I needed to have some individual conversations because I think that’s how we bring the people along. Garrett Johnson. So Garrett picked mail and package delivery to halls and maybe looking at that is my process and what do I need to do to make some changes to that. So thanks for naming that. As you think of ideas, feel free to throw them in here. I think also the chat can help us just connect and see where maybe individuals are spending time or could link up and get ideas and share amongst one another.
So I want to give you some context of why we needed to rebuild our camps and conferences program so you have some context of maybe why I chose to talk on this topic. So for us, we had a camps and conferences program. It was there, but it needed some rebuilding and for a couple different reasons. One of the first things I heard and experienced, I was a complex director living in and worked with camps and conferences prior to this role was that the roles were blurred. There were things that I thought I should be doing, but there were aspects that other people thought they should be doing, which really led to some overlap, which at times overlap isn’t always bad but in this case, the overlap was leading towards duplicate work, where people were doing the same thing or outreach was happening multiple times. And what that was doing was really leading to some frustration of, okay, well I did that and you did it and now we’re getting different communications or different answers or I spent this time doing it and so were you, we could have maybe shared or done the work together. So that was a big piece that I was noticing and that led to there was some opportunities to rebuild.
An inconsistent experience. I think this was really prevalent in regards to how we were serving certain populations when it came to camps and conferences. It was one of those things that our loudest voices were getting what they wanted or a certain experience. And then our groups that were maybe like, “Okay. We’re new and we need housing and we’ve done this.”, didn’t know that there were other options or ways that they could enhance their experience and so the experience that they were being offered was inconsistent. And then it was also inconsistent in how our staff were showing up and supporting our various groups. And so that was a major piece I recognized. I think the other piece to me that stood out, which led to this, was we had a contract and it had policies and procedures in it. We were lenient and at times we can be lenient, but at times when we need to create some consistency, leaning on those and upholding what we say was going to be really important. And so that was the other piece was really needing to go back to the foundation. What does our contract say in starting there?
We had some communication breakdowns. And so I imagine as many of us work in housing and residence life, we see that in different areas that we work in or just in incidents where things pop up out of the ordinary. And so those communication channels can be really essential to the work that we do. And when they’re breaking down, that doesn’t help myself or the partners I’m working with. And so that was one of the other pieces. And then the last piece that really stood out to me was the lack of motivation and joy. And I put joy because I don’t expect that everyone needs to love camps and conferences. I love camps and conferences. I enjoy it. And I know that’s not everyone’s favorite thing to do. But our team was not finding any joy in the work that they were doing. They weren’t finding transferable skills. We’re honestly dreading summertime and who wants to dread summertime? And so it was truly because of the work that they were doing and not honestly feeling comfortable in the work or having the resources. And so that was also some motivating factor for me too of we could rebuild this to create a consistent experience and enhanced communication, but overall this might create some more motivation and joy for our staff, which helps with retention and making them feel like they belong and are heard and all of those pieces.
And so that is where when I talk about the purpose behind the rebuild and the people you’re going to start to see that is how we help to focus on that motivation and the joy and what the people were feeling. Really my options here were twofold. We could patch and go or we could start and say, “Okay. Where are some of the foundational things that we need to recreate to help build upon that?” And that was the path I chose. June of 2021 was a great time for us. We hadn’t done camps and conferences. We were doing little groups here and there so it was a perfect time to reset. Figure out our tone, our vision for our program, and then capitalize on that.
The human side of rebuilding. So I want to take a moment as we talk about change and think about how do we incorporate change or building upon the work that we’re doing to enhance the experience. We have to keep the human side in mind. When we only focus on one aspect like being a technical, we forget about the emotional aspect. And so for a moment, if in the chat, could you just put one word you associate with change. When somebody’s like, “Oh, we’re going to change this,” what is that feeling that comes to mind or that one word that you associate with change? Yeah, opportunity. Adaptation. Apprehension. Absolutely. Growth. Improvement. Curiosity. Anxiety. Yes. Yeah, thanks for naming that. I think as we read these, we feel all these different emotions. Some folks are like, “Okay. I’m curious about this and I’m interested to hear.” And others are like, “Ooh. That creates some apprehension. I’m not sure if that’s the direction I want to go.” And others are really jazz, like, “Yes. We’re going to grow, we’re going to adapt this.” And as we think about navigating change, we’re going to be navigating all of those feelings. And so I think it’s really important to consider the emotional pieces that come with that is that you have to balance the emotional with the technical.
And I think that was something one, I had to learn and figure out as we went. And I think at times I had to maybe carry the emotional piece or put that at the forefront more than the technical. And then eventually we were able to get that balance. But it was recognizing where the team I was working with, where folks were at within the department within my campus partners that I was working with and recognizing that. The other piece that when you think of the human side that was really helpful is the communication. I think at times … And I’m guilty of this. I’ll collect the feedback. I’m like, “Yeah. Okay, we’ll work on this.” And then I don’t communicate until it’s time to implement the process.
And I found something that was really helpful was the more I communicated, the more individuals are like, “Okay. I’m seeing some progress. I’m seeing what Katie is really taking from our conversations and putting into place.” But then also that was a way that I was able to build some trust. Being able to share as much context or being transparent as I could be, which created some relationships that maybe were a little hesitant because of their past experiences with camps and conferences. Or in summer of 2021, we were transitioning staff in different ways and so new staff and what they were hearing from staff who had been through a summer before. And so recognizing that communication piece was a way for me to build that trust, gain some buy-in and really make those connections with staff.
Involving people. The more we can involve others in change is going to help. The more that individuals can have a say and can be able to share perspectives or their frustrations or being able to express what they’re feeling emotionally as we navigate this helped to make the change easier, right? Change is hard. We have to recognize there’s emotional labor when we do change and we can help individuals through that whether they’re excited, they’re ready for growth or they’re apprehensive by involving them in that, making sure that they have a voice and not only focusing on those that are excited and recognizing that part of my role and our roles in leading change or helping to develop something is to check in with those who are maybe struggling or not as bought in yet to help them along in their journey as well.
And then last is celebrating the small wins. I think sometimes I want to focus on the outcome. Like here’s where I want to get and that’s what I want to celebrate. But I even think for my own well-being, if I was only focusing on the outcome of where I want to be, I wouldn’t have as many things to celebrate at this time because our changes had to happen in phases and it takes time to rebuild and really to pilot things and set scale to that. And so celebrating the win.
So for example, when I started camps and conferences, one of the things I heard was that facilities and custodial really wanted a meeting with the camp and conference team. They wanted to understand our thought process, how we put groups and make those decisions. And then also for them to be heard on some of the challenges they experience the time they need to turn spaces. We got that meeting scheduled for April of one year and then they were like, “This was awesome, but we wish this was earlier.” And I’m like, “Absolutely. Let’s celebrate that we got the meeting scheduled and had it. That’s huge. Because we didn’t have that meeting and that connection and then we can continue to build upon that. And so next year, let’s aim for February, but if we get it in March …” Again, we’re celebrating those small wins to recognize that sometimes moving our timelines up takes time. As we have to work with people, we have to adapt our processes to meet where the outcome was. We’re having those meetings in February now and introducing camps and conferences and the preliminary schedule and plans much earlier than we were. And so I think though celebrating those small wins can help people recognize that, okay, we are making progress to the goals that we have.
So I’m going to break my lessons of rebuilding into three pillars is how I’m going to describe it. And the three I’m going to focus on are centering feedback, refining systems, and then embracing innovation. What I’m going to do throughout is I’m going to unpack each pillar with some camps and conference stories and context, but then my hope is that you’ll start to connect your program, your project that you chose, and start to think about how each of these connect. And so the first one that we’re going to spend some time on is centering feedback. That’s going to be all about gathering the input, using feedback and setting a foundation for the people. And then I’ll talk a little bit about what setting that foundation is here in a moment. Then we’re going to talk about how do you refine systems and redesigning them in a way with clarity that there’s sustainability in mind, but also that there’s purpose and we’re communicating that purpose. And then lastly is going to be embracing innovation and recognizing that we can utilize new ideas and technology partnerships. But also part of innovation is me letting go of what I love and me being the leader and allowing other people to lead and bring their strengths into the project, the program that I’m working on.
So the first one is centering feedback. I think feedback is always an interesting thing to talk about because feedback could be hard. Feedback isn’t something we all love to hear because it can have some really difficult news. Or there were times I’m like, “Ah, I really thought that was the path forward and that definitely isn’t based on the feedback I’m receiving.” So we can also have an emotional response to that. How I see centering feedback is it’s the map. It is the map of where are we and where do we need to go, and then how are we going to do that? And the feedback helps us lay out that map. So for me purposeful is key here.
So I think it was Debbie who put like, “Oh, I wish I would’ve had some different types of meetings, some small individual connections as well as group meetings earlier on.” Absolutely. I think it’s thinking about the group of who you’re meeting with. So for me, I knew at the time of me starting camps and conferences, having a group meeting with our full-time staff to gain their feedback wasn’t the direction because each of them were experiencing camps and conferences in different ways. Some of them liked it, but knew there was ways to improve. Others were hating it. Others were like, “Yeah, I don’t want to talk to you because you work with camps and conferences and that is not where I want to be or spending my summer.” And so recognizing I needed to meet individually was important here. I needed to build that relationship, but I also needed to know that okay, this person is ready for change.
They’re here with me on this journey and so I know where they’re at and I can support them in that while their peer is not ready for this. And so I need to take a different approach as I share information, as I check in with them and as I work with them in my first summer. So in summer 2022, recognizing they might be one who is apprehensive or skeptical of some of the things I’m introducing, and so how can I support them as they’re having a shift in leadership, a shift in how we’re trying to adjust our camps and conferences program.
The other thing in that collection piece that was really helpful was almost like mini work groups for me of there were folks that I was talking to … Somebody from desk operations, somebody from the residence life team or somebody from operations were really passionate about keys. Keys was a priority for me, but as we were looking at the overall trajectory of where we needed to go and what we needed to do, first keys was not the top priority and so they were folks that I was able to connect and say, “Okay. The three of you are very passionate about this. I think you’re on the right track. Can you start to maybe develop what does this look like?” And so some of those mini work groups, they were able to help gather some feedback and some trajectory for that area.
It’s also recognizing and being transparent with your team that how you utilize the feedback. So there’s feedback in the moment where in the middle of summer they share something isn’t working. I’m like, “Let’s change it. That is something we can change that isn’t going to impact the overall process, but it’s going to make your role in it easier. Let’s do that immediately.” There’s feedback that’s upcoming that I love it, that’s upcoming. We can’t do that right now because that impacts our overall billing process and how we’ve been operating, but we can make that change for next summer. We’re writing that down. That’s going to be locked in for summer of 2026.
And then there’s also feedback that’s long term that I can be transparent of, yes, that’s where I want to be. That’s a larger conversation. So one of the things that we have heard from the beginning is, gosh, it’d be so nice if we had a formal system for camps and conferences, that we were operating in a formal type of occupancy system. I’m like, “Yes, I hear you. That is a great goal and we need to grow our camps and conferences program, and we recognize that our current occupancy system is one that is going to be adapting into another, so we need to allow some other things to fall into place before we can implement that.” But I can be transparent about that and let them know that’s future plans. I’m not ignoring that feedback, and here’s where I think also with feedback, it’s recognizing and sharing what is the feedback and how you’re getting those plans. And so for my first couple of summers I would gather all the feedback, I would organize it by topic and then I would meet with other folks and share here was the feedback of things that went well, things that didn’t go well, where we can make changes and we were able to work together and highlight what we’re going to make changes for the next summer.
I then was able to share that. I would go in to my first residence life meeting and say, “Okay. Summer’s coming up. We’re going to talk about where we’re going, but first let me highlight the feedback you shared last summer, the changes we’ve made, what we’re keeping based on the feedback and maybe what we weren’t able to get to and why.” That again allowed me to continue building that relationship, but created some purposeful change because individuals were recognizing, oh, she is listening and it’s not we’re just taking it and putting it away. She’s putting it into action, which really helped to create some growth in that.
I think as I think about the difference between in the moment and upcoming, in the moment was more of the things like somebody was like, “I do not like how this Teams is organized. It would be super helpful if we had some folders.” I’m like, “Go for it. If you want to organize it and then at the next meeting, share that organization out.” That is something that we can change in the moment because it’s about how we utilize it versus something upcoming is more of a sustainable practice or a process where we were able to talk, how do we develop that? Who else needs to be a part of that conversation and then brought it in.
So for the next thing, I want you to just as you think about your program, what is one way you currently gather feedback and then what is one barrier to getting honest feedback? And so I want you to think about that and think about it in the context of your institution, the work that you do in the project you’re working and would also love for individuals to throw in the chat what are some of those barriers to getting honest feedback that you experience or you can think of.
Yeah. One way we might currently gather feedback is through an after-event survey. How did people experience it? Doing pre and post? So understanding where somebody was coming in and then what was that experience post? Absolutely. Any barriers that individuals experience or can name?
Yeah. A barrier is people not completing surveys. That’s real. We see that too. And so being able to provide time for them to do it in person to help with that. That is a great strategy of how to work through that barrier. Thanks for naming that Lori. I think with feedback, like I said at the beginning, it’s not always fun. Feedback is hard to hear. I think for me, I had to be intentional with … And I’ll name this since I know some of the KU folks, you probably didn’t know some of this. These are my inner thoughts of what was happening as we were working through this process. I was nervous for it and I am somebody who cares deeply, and so I knew that going into some of those meetings I’d be truly heartbroken or would be frustrated by some of the things they’re saying because I wanted them to have a positive experience, and so I really had to set up some of those meetings of this was not my time to feel, this was my time to truly take the notes and listen to what they were saying, ask clarifying questions, which allowed me to really just be present in the moment.
I set those conversations up of I may not respond. This truly is for you to share whatever and share that you’re not going to hurt my feelings. And I focused on taking the notes and writing down really their experiences and then later on I could process or have feelings because I wanted individuals to feel like, “Nope. I can be transparent with Katie and I can share that and recognize that she really is listening and is going to find some sort of resolution or find a way to just support me.” Because sometimes in ways of feedback … I had someone who was like, “I hate that we have to do all the billing.” I’m like, “Yes, and that’s never going to go away. There’s ways we can make that process easier, but I can support you through something that you don’t enjoy doing, but that is an aspect that is going to stay as part of camps and conferences but how can I support you through that or what are ways we can make it a little bit easier for you?”
I think listening deeply is what gave me the roadmap for where we were and where we needed to go as I thought about just needing to clarify those roles, giving our staff resources to be able to look up information. And then ultimately the first thing I heard was just a presence. Having somebody present at check-in and check out, having somebody present to answer questions. That was a huge piece that really helped to define that initial roadmap for me.
Okay. The second pillar is going to be refining systems. So once I had the feedback, I really saw the cracks and that’s where I needed to spend some time working with the team and working with other areas within our department to help fix those cracks or rebuild them if we needed to or patch them in a way that was going to be sustainable. What I want folks to think about when it comes to refining systems is that refining systems isn’t necessarily about adding more steps. It isn’t about rewriting the process. Sometimes it is about making the right moves or the right steps repeatable and clear. So how do we do that so this process can be repeated and it’s clear? And so that is what I had to remind myself and others is like, I don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel, but we might just need to go back and take some time to analyze our steps.
So as I was doing this, I found some of our processes were messy. They were arbitrary. It left a lot of room for interpretation or a lot of room for folks to be flexible. When really there shouldn’t be as much flexibility in certain processes. And so for us it was about working with individuals to start to document them and really find ways to make them clear. I think that for us, and a lot of times is I work in other aspects like working with desk operations we just sometimes find that like, ooh, we just need to put this in writing so people have a place to go back and refer to it, and the steps are clearly outlined for somebody to follow with this.
The other thing that’s really important here with refining system is to build a system that outlive people. That one day I may not be working with camps and conferences, but how could somebody take the foundation, have the resources to be like, “Okay. Here’s where they’re at and I’m going to continue building upon this.” Or have the ability to pick it up. For example, this summer I unexpectedly had to be out of the office and things didn’t go perfectly, but the team was like, “Nope. We had stuff to go to.” Folks that were like, “I have a good understanding of camps and conferences, but I don’t work with it daily.” We’re able to get in and say, “Okay. We’re going to help and get this covered.” Because some of those processes were documented, the steps were clear and individual’s new roles or were able to explain other people’s roles. That’s what’s really important is to not only understand their role, but to have a sense of how things operate. They may not know exactly how the billing system works, but they know once this step is done, it goes to billing and that person does X, Y, and Z before it moves on to the client.
And that’s what’s really important is helping individuals recognize their role within that system and then recognizing that our processes should be built around a structure and not necessarily the person who is working it. We don’t want to build a process around me because if I’m not here, things are going to fall apart. We want individuals to have a process that can continue on beyond ourselves.
The other thing, when I think of refining systems, it’s what gives us stability. So the feedback was the map, but now we have to find that stability or the right balance of what is the rules of individuals, where do we communicate, what is that balance of enforcing our contract, but also being flexible with groups because there’s various needs? Finding that right balance is what this is all about in the refining systems.
So as we think about refining systems, I want you to think about the program or project you chose to rebuild. What’s one system or aspect of that process that everyone finds confusing? So take a moment to think about that.
If you’re able to name something that’s confusing, that might be an aspect that needs to be refined. Refining can be as simple as we just need to document this and put some clarity around it because we’re utilizing general terms that maybe aren’t giving some clear insight of what you’re supposed to be doing, or we’re needing to link the documents they’re supposed to be updating along the way or we’re needing to say, “Okay. Here is whose specific role is what.” For example, the desk operations team I work with, I just came from a meeting, they did an excellent job at this. They were trying to write down some structure in regards to managing checkouts and ensuring keys were turned in or submitting lock changes and they were talking about, well, we could rotate days. And in that they’re like, “Yes, but let’s define out who’s doing what days and when we rotate.” I was like, “That’s awesome. That’s so great that we’re putting some clarity around it.”
And really they knew what they needed to be doing. It just needed to be refined for them to each have their roles. And so I think that recognizing that refining doesn’t necessarily have to mean like, oh, we have to start from scratch. Sometimes we do, and other times it could just be about making some clarity, putting some purpose behind the work that we’re doing. If somebody is questioning like, “Okay. Whose day is it to check the keys and managing the checkouts?”, we know so-and-so’s role and so we can follow up with them if we have questions.
Then the last one, I name in my pillar is embracing innovation. Innovation I think sometimes when we think about that word is all about creation. We want to do what’s the next best thing? I do not view an innovation as creating the next best thing or what’s flashy. It’s all about how do we continue to build upon what we’re doing and to make sure what we’re doing is serving the people it’s supposed to serve. Innovation for me is honestly ongoing. When we get to innovation phase, that is to me a success of we have been able to get to a place where we get to continue to build upon the work that we’ve done. We get to continue to adapt to the needs of the people we’re working with or to what individuals are learning or experiencing and we have a solid foundation. And so innovation to me is all about the growth. And so this phase of … I’ve been equating them, right? We’ve got our map, we’ve got our stability and we’re creating our balance, and this is about the growth and where we can continue to go.
I also then thought about my innovation processes and how they take forms for me, and I divided them into three areas. These are not by research. It’s just where I found that innovation and where we need to continue to grow and how we recycle. Like okay, we go through feedback and where do we need to refine each year? That innovation comes in three forms for me, structural, relational, and then experiential. So for me, structural is revamping the systems, the processes, the structures for our daily operations. So how are individuals being scheduled, where replacing staff, how are we doing that? That is structurally an aspect that we can refine.
Experiential is going to be more about the experience of those we serve and how they experience our processes and systems. So is that we need a more intuitive registration process for our clients? Or one of the things that we noticed that our clients were just like when we get back to the halls in the afternoon, it’d be really nice if more camp staff were around when we need a bed lowered or we have a concern so we don’t have to go to the desk and then they have to call the conference assistant and the conference assistant has to come. So something we tried this summer was a concierge style camps and conference desk. And so we had a conference assistant sit with our desk assistants in the prime hours of 6:00 P.M. To 11:00 P.M. really to be able to serve. They were somebody that could leave the front desk because the desk assistant was there. And we got a lot of positive feedback of, oh my goodness, the response time, the level of care that our participants were getting when they were locked out or they had a concern with their space was really helpful, and so they appreciated that.
So that’s an experience of something we can implement again structurally, but it’s how our clients are experiencing the work that we’re doing. And then the last for me is relational. I think when I get to innovation, this is where I want to be able to say yes, I’ve helped create a vision. I’ve helped guide this along, but this is also a place where I can let go and shift who is leading and who is making those decisions. And so this past summer was actually one of my favorite summers we’ve had so far because there was a moment where I was like, “Oh. What should I be doing?” Because I’ve gained buy-in, we’ve worked together to really set this vision, and now I have staff who are like, “No, I’ve got that. I want to lead that.” And I was able to truly unlock some new voices, encourage staff to take initiative in areas where they solve.
For example, I had some conference assistants that were like, “Gosh, we really wish we had a manual, like the duty manual, but was more about the conference assistant role and prepping buildings and putting linens out.” And so they created this whole manual that they were able to utilize this summer for a little bit, but then they created that for future. And so it’ll require us to continue to update it, but I was able to allow them to lead and take that on because they wanted to do that. And this is where those relational pieces can help because they were able to be like, “Okay. I want to try this. This is something that aligns with what Katie’s trying to do with documenting and being able to continue to grow or improve the experience, but here’s how I can help.” And so we were able to do that.
I will say it took some summers, but we’re at a place now where staff are wanting to be a part of camps and conferences. They’re asking, so what’s the plan? I already had somebody earlier this week asking me, it’s like are you making any new changes? Folks are excited, which is a great place to be. They still may not love camps and conferences, but they’re not dreading it. They’re curious to see what’s happening and they’re willing to help serve or have a role.
These three pillars are about asking yourselves, how have you centered feedback? Have you refined systems and then are you willing to embrace innovation? Innovation, I can have some ideas or some vision, but I have some really talented people that I’m lucky to work with every day. And so allowing them to have a say or share that can be really helpful. And that’s why bringing the people along is so important because the people is what help us to ensure that we’re meeting expectations and help us ensure that it’s a positive experience, but the people are the ones that are also going to help us develop this if we bring them along.
And so here are some transferable strategies or some things I think about when leading change. Clearly have a purpose behind the change. Why are we doing this? And sometimes the why is we have to and I try to name that where we can. Because if being transparent helps somebody understand, okay, we have to do this, we’re going to do it with Katie, that’s going to make it a lot better than me trying to fumble and figure out why. Sometimes we have to do different things because it’s a strategy of a university or a department or an initiative that we have a role in implementing, and we can be transparent in that and name, here’s how we’re going to do it. It’s engaging early and often.
I know Debbie, I’m going to go back to your comment of, I wish I would’ve done this early, right? The earlier we can engage people, figure out where they’re at and bring them along and do that often is going to help the change process. I will name it takes time, it takes energy. There were days I’m like, “I just want to write this process and this is what we’re going to do,” but that wouldn’t have created the trust or the experience or the relationships I needed to help rebuild our program. And so recognizing that was essential. If I hadn’t brought the people on and continue to engage with them, we wouldn’t be where we’re at because I was able to help foster that and get them to a place where they are contributing in ways without needing me. They’re bringing that own initiative.
Continue to center feedback even when it’s difficult to receive. I think even more now, feedback gets harder because I have been so invested and a lot of what currently is established was because of work I did with myself and others. And so it’s even more personal, but it’s so important to hear that feedback because our world, the people we are serving continues to adapt and our processes and policies need to adapt with it. Leading across was something that was really helpful.
So particularly in my role, I am not the only assistant director within our department, and I work with assistant directors who supervise all the full-time staff, and so then in the summertime they’re working with me. And so recognizing a huge piece for helping us make change and get momentum in the camps and conferences program and recognizing that there’s ways we could collaborate was leading across in collaborating with my peers. To the point that I am very lucky, but the assistant directors I work with took initiative and one of them was working with summer school. One was helping to lead staff meetings. They had a role in it, but we were able to role model, here’s the expectations, here’s how we collaborate and communicate with one another, and these are expectations of you. And our team was also able to recognize, oh, everyone is involved in camps and conferences. This isn’t just, we do this for a little bit. Everyone has a role in this. This is how our roles shift from the academic year to the summer, which really set a strong foundation structurally. We were able to make a huge structural change to how we implement our staff and how our staff were working with camps this summer because of that leading across and collaborating with the peers that supervise the full-time staff.
I would love to say that you can just implement change, and it’s done overnight. It’s not. We have to do it in phases and recognizing that my first phase needed to be about the people. So my first phase was here are some really quick tangible things I could do to make the experience, but I needed to just be present. I needed to listen, I needed to recognize and being able to support people when things weren’t going well. That was essential to the first piece. That was where my first summer really was, was truly trying to get a grasp and be there to support everybody that was working with the camps and conferences where then in summer two, I was able to say, “Okay. Let’s move into more of that structural piece and really focus on some structural things.” And then I think as I got into my third and fourth summer, we were able to spend some more time on the experiential piece of really recognizing, here’s the foundation we’ve laid, we’ve got our staff to a point where they understand this, they’re comfortable leading this, and now let’s focus on the experience of our camp and conference guests.
And of course that’s always in the back of our mind, but in order to have a positive experience for our camps and conferences guests, I needed to get my team to a place where they felt like, “Okay. I know what I’m supposed to be doing. I feel comfortable in this. I’m not dreading it. I can be there to respond and provide positive experiences for our guests.” Some other ones is continuous feedback loops. We know just ensuring that everybody knows where and when to give feedback I think can be really helpful. At first I was like, “Oh, I don’t know if I love this,” but actually looking back and as I was making this really valued the staff that would come and they’re like, “Ooh, I have an idea for you next year.” And that they were getting excited to know, okay, there’s going to be opportunities to share feedback and ideas and build upon this. That continuous feedback continues to happen. My meetings this past summer were a little bit shorter because individuals were like, “No, I think things are in a good spot,” compared to when I first started in 2021 and 2022. Those meetings look different and that’s great. That’s also a sign of the growth and where we’re going.
And then just communicating over communicating, sharing those updates can really help individuals to feel like they are getting information. I think some of the other things is that as we think about phases and how we communicate and how we celebrate those small wins, it’s recognizing that those smaller initiatives, those smaller recognitions really lead us towards the larger goal. We may not get to that goal. It might take us three or four years, but we can show that progress. We can support that progress, we can communicate that progress, which helps to bring people along with us and support them as we are leading change in whatever area it is.
I think the other aspect that really comes to mind as I was thinking about rebuilding this and some tangibles you can take into other areas is measuring success. For me, I had to focus solely on people-centered measures first. I needed to know feelings. Where we were at feeling wise. Do we feel confident? Do we feel comfortable with this? Do we know where our resources are? It was also perceptions. How are camp and conference clients perceiving us? How is dining perceiving the way that we’re communicating with them? Those perceptions, those feelings were really important for me to understand. And that was the feedback that really led me to developing that map. And we were able to get to some of those systems and number metrics later on. That resource driven is one of the first things I heard was just, we need more resources. We just need guides or some outlines or we’re supposed to close a camp, but what all does that entail? Or what forms should we be utilizing? And so recognizing that them having the resources for different aspects was also a good metric. They were able to recognize that or name like, oh, we have a resource for that now, or we need a resource for this, which helped me to understand where we were at success wise.
Smoother check-ins. My first check-in compared to where the last one was my very first summer. I saw how that went was just a little bit smoother, less issues in the check-in. We weren’t missing packets or information was clear for camp directors and our staff. I think that those observations also helped. And then just the recognition we received of, ooh, this felt better or this was a little rocky, I think helped me to understand where we were at. Of course we want numbers. I think numbers also are important. I think as we think about higher ed data and the numbers are important, but we can’t forget about the people in it. And so we can do those measures in a way that allow us to balance both. And so now we’re at a customer satisfaction survey, and that allows me to still balance the people, but I am able to pull numbers from that. Resolution time for issues. We were able to start to calculate that. If I would’ve gone to the team my very first summer and say, “I want us to calculate the resolution time,” they probably would’ve been like, “Are you kidding me? We told you there’s these things we need to fix. We don’t love it. And now you want us to calculate this?” We just weren’t in a place. I had to recognize that balance of people and data centered metrics.
Return rates of camps. Error rate reductions. We’re just seeing that we’re making less errors because of the way training is done and how we’ve adapted processes and given people resources. And then we’ve also just been keeping a percentage of processes documented and just recognizing, okay, here are the things we need documented and where are we at in that journey? And again, that took time. It was not a first summer thing. Our first summer we were trying to document stuff, but it was really summer two where I talked to all of our staff of as we go throughout, I’m going to ask you to help document this. But they were willing to help me with that because I focused on their feelings and really focused on the people my first summer and recognizing I can still focus on that. But that did take that first priority before I got into the metrics and the numbers and really telling our story only through data. I think telling our story through people and data is really important, but recognizing that sometimes one may take priority depending on what we’re trying to do or achieve.
And then I’m just going to briefly introduce two models I utilize that I would encourage you to look more. When I first started in this position and I knew we needed to really create some foundational processes and clarity around camps and conferences. I didn’t know where to begin. I was hearing all these different things and it was overwhelming. So there was two models that I spent some time researching and looking in, and the first one was Kotter’s 8 Step Process for Leading Change. And what I liked about this one was it broke it up into three sections and really was how do you create that space for change and then how do you engage and enable the organization to be a part of that? And then how do you implement and sustain? And what was really helpful for me was I think I was focusing on this end goal of implementing and sustaining, and I can’t get there without all these other steps. And so this one really helped me focus on creating the climate for change.
And that was all about building the connection with people, building those relationships. One of the aspects that I really liked about this one was … If you’ll notice here, step two is to form a powerful coalition. And that is about building those relationships, recognizing the people that you need to be able to have on board as you make change. And then step three was creating a vision. And what I liked about this was I had to form those relationships and those people to help me form a vision. It wasn’t me creating a vision and then forming the relationships. The relationships came first, which then allowed me to create that vision with them, which I think helped me be successful in leading this change and continuing to lead change as we navigate camps and conferences. These first three steps are really that platform that you need in order to continue on to engage the organization further.
I think as I also really thought about this first step in creating that climate was also recognizing who I needed outside of housing. So I needed some camp and conference directors that were willing to be honest with me, but also to hear my ideas. And so I actually spent a lot of time with an influential camp leader. They work with a major department on our campus and they have a housing background. So she understood where I was coming from and what I was thinking, but she was also able to give me the camp director perspective and what was the talk on that side.
But then she was also a huge advocate that came later on as we were making changes where she was like, “Hold up. No, Katie, it makes sense here. This is giving them some structure.” She was able to help justify and give that peer-to-peer connection and support as we were making changes that maybe were frustrating for some of our camp directors, but truly had a meaning. And so definitely encourage you to look more into this one because this one was super helpful.
The other one that I looked at was ADKAR’s Model for Managing Change, or it stands for five letters and it focuses on the awareness for the need to change, the desire to participate and support the knowledge about how to make the change, ability to implement the change, and then reinforcement, which is focusing on sustaining the change. And what I liked about this one is, again, it focused on the people and it was really about motivating to new processes, behaviors, and ways of doing things.
And what I liked about it was it also just took some time for me to really recognize the resistance that comes with change, and that can be a barrier at times. And so it was able to make me realize that everyone had different awarenesses and desires in this journey, and I couldn’t operate from, okay, this is where we’re going to go and just hope everybody is ready to go or not. I had to recognize that, okay, I have this grouping of people that they are in the desire. They are like, “Let’s do it.” But I have this group that’s like, “I have some awareness, but I’m not to the desire piece,” and really supporting them along that journey. And that’s where the time and energy took … It definitely took a lot of my time, but I think this model helped me recognize that while maybe internally we were ready and there was a lot of desire, on the outside and the stakeholders we work with maybe weren’t in the same spot or vice versa, and recognizing that in different aspects of the process, whether it was billing or how we manage keys or how we do check-ins and checkouts, or how we assign spaces that different individuals would be at different parts of this model. And so I was able to just keep that at the forefront as I was navigating and leading the change within our department and within our campus.
The last thing I want you to think about is if you had to reflect back on the program you wanted to rebuild from the beginning, what is one takeaway from today’s session that will help you make it better? That could be as simple as I want to look at one of these models, or you know what, I need to take a step back and just gain some feedback. So I want you to think about maybe what that one takeaway is and recognize that that one takeaway is a great first initiative. We don’t have to spend time revamping the whole thing all at once, but where can we make those small changes that eventually will lead us to a place where we continue to grow and then we get to continue to innovate and adapt what we’re currently doing?
All right. And that is all I have for folks. If there are questions, feel free to unmute. You can throw it in the chat. I’ll keep an eye. Otherwise, appreciate your time and your willingness to engage with me on this Wednesday afternoon. If there are no questions, that’s okay too. And I hope you have a good rest of your Wednesday afternoon, and I will stay on if folks do have questions. But thank you again.
Speaker 1:
Hi, Katie. I just wanted to jump in and say thank you so much.
Katie Ridgway:
Of course.
Speaker 1:
Appreciate your valuable information that you shared today. It’s been great.
Katie Ridgway:
Thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you everybody for taking the time to attend. Shout out one last time to our sponsor, Roompact for hosting or sponsoring our event today.
