All student affairs units and their institutions are besieged by unprecedented challenges and problems, including:

• Increased mental health needs among students

• The need for better recruitment and retention of students

• Shifting demographics of students

• Enhancing student employability

• The intrusion of politicians and others into the work of the institution

• The impact of hybrid and blended education delivery

• Decreased or flat funding levels

• The explosion of AI on campus

Regionally and nationally, all manner of experts are attempting to provide solutions to these challenges and problems. However helpful any of that may be, we believe that the best answers to problems are those that are developed locally and specific to the needs and characteristics of your particular context and constituents.

Therefore, the focus in most of our training is on helping you solve your problems and challenges. There are institution-specific problems and challenges (e.g., student dissatisfaction with a particular service or program being provided); there are the universal problems that all of higher ed is facing (e.g., mental health and student wellbeing, increases in cost, student retention, employee recruitment and retention, emerging college alternatives, shifting public opinions about higher education and its worth, hybrid/remote learning, concerns about student employability); and there are some of those universal problems directly playing out on our campuses (e.g., increase demand for counseling services, difficulty in recruiting and retaining quality staff, challenges of student retention). 

One assumption underlying our practice is that there are no "off-the-shelf" solutions for most of the problems and challenges being faced by institutions. There are ideas aplenty in the greater higher education world to bring to bear on a campus-specific issue after necessary adjustment and revision to fit your particulars.

Another assumption is that the best potential answers to the problems we face are those that are generated locally by the individuals and groups dealing with the daily reality of the problem or challenge.

And, finally, there is our firmly held assumption that the biggest obstacles to addressing the problems and challenges we face are the assumptions, beliefs, frameworks, and world views that we hold and share that blind us to creative and innovative ways of addressing our problems. We believe that these obstacles can be identified and defused and that everyone can learn how to generate creative potential solutions to the problems we face.

Much of the training we do is to challenge subconsciously held sacred belief systems that serve as obstacles to new and creative ways to address the problems and challenges being faced. We encourage a deconstructing of basic assumptions and a rethinking of the ways in which we do our work. We teach people how to forage for new ideas. Ultimately, our goal is to help organizations develop healthy, forward-moving cultures marked by transformation and innovation.

break down barriers to build a new way to work

Our innovative approach helps student affairs professionals do programming better and differently, while finding more effective ways to solve problems and challenges, and to evolve programs, to meet the needs of their students.

Our ultimate goal is to help your organization develop a culture of innovation that can continue to creatively address challenges into the future.