Weekly Wisdom Episode 3: Transcript of Conversation With Wendy Wintersteen, Iowa State University President

Note: This interview originally aired on April 27, 2020 as part of the University Innovation Alliance’s Weekly Wisdom Series that airs live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Click here to access our summary, along with helpful links and audio from this episode.

Bridget Burns:
Welcome to Innovating Together, podcast produced by the University Innovation Alliance.  This is the podcast for busy people in higher education who are looking for the best ideas, inspiration, and leaders to help you improve student success.  I'm your host, Bridget Burns.

You're about to watch another episode of Start the Week with Wisdom, which for those of you who are at home, if you have not seen this before, these are weekly episodes where we conduct an interview with a sitting college president or chancellor.  And we want to talk to them about how they're navigating the challenge of this moment.  We're in a really unique time, and we want to focus on their leadership and unpack how they are making decisions, how they are navigating, and hopefully it will leave with a sense of optimism, a bit inspired, and give you a bit of hope.

Jeff Selingo:
I'm Jeff Selingo joining you from Washington, D.C., where I'm an author, a journalist, and a special advisor at Arizona State University.

Well, and, Bridget, on that note, we have with us the president of Iowa State, Wendy Wintersteen.  She has a unique vantage point as a leader of kind of in the middle of the country, as the first female president of Iowa State, and also coming from a rich background as dean of the College of Agriculture.

Bridget Burns:
So welcome, President Wintersteen.  Thank you so much for making the time for us today.

Wendy Wintersteen:
It's my pleasure to be here with both of you.

Jeff Selingo:
Thank you.  So how are you holding up right now?  Why don't you give us a lay of the land at Iowa State.

Wendy Wintersteen:
Well, certainly it's been a very interesting time.  And I've been telling my team the old statement that Winston Churchill used to use: "When you're going through hell, keep on going."  But I've been saying we need to revise that phrase to read: "When you're going through hell, keep innovating."  And that has really been something I think that has helped our team at Iowa State think differently about this experience.  If things had gone as planned in April, on April 17th, we would have opened up our brand new Student Innovation Center, an $84 million project, where students from all across campus would have been coming to create and make, innovate together.  And of course, it's disappointing that we didn't get to do that.  But innovation is going to be the key at Iowa State not only in dealing with this crisis, but also in how we go forward into the future.  Innovate at Iowa State is our new brand, but it's not just a brand; it's truly how we operate.

Bridget Burns:
Great.  Thank you so much for that.  So, and just so you know, I have, not spies perhaps, but I people who are always reporting things up to me.  And you know, sitting where I do, I like to observe presidential communication.  I like to see how folks are talking to their teams, how they're inspiring, and how they're leading.  And the stuff that I've seen in particular about your leadership that has stood out to me are, first, some of the messages in particular have been sharing with some insights from other college presidents, not just yourself, which is – that's unique.  But then also, I've heard on multiple occasions that you are actually reaching out personally and sending personal messages when people are stepping up or doing anything to support students right now.

And I don't know how you're possibly managing to do all of that in the midst of this, but I wanted to see if you had kind of some perspective on, you know, what is informing your leadership right now to make it so that you are figuring out how to balance leading and focusing on the big challenge, but making this human connection and making sure that people are feeling supported in the midst of everything.

Wendy Wintersteen:
Well, certainly.  All of us have colleagues around the United States, other presidents that we're reading about their work.  And sometimes it speaks so clearly to our own experience that it's nice to be able to share that approach, share that quote, and realize that we're all in a big community.  So I think that is very helpful.  And I also believe that care of the community is how we go forward together.  So by being able to reach out and thank a family member for the good work that they are doing, thank a student for something that they have been able to achieve in this difficult time, that really demonstrates to me that we are part of a community, and it's only by working together, standing up together, really having the conversations about how we find a path forward that we will be successful.

Jeff Selingo:
President Wintersteen, what type of leadership lessons are you taking from your past, or what type of framework is helping you in this moment?  Obviously, leading in a crisis is much different than leading in kind of normal times.  So, what are you pulling from your past, or what type of framework are you using now to kind of guide your decisions?

Wendy Wintersteen:
You know, there have been many different crises in the past that all of us can call on.  But I think back to my own experiences here at Iowa State.  I've been here as a member of the staff, faculty, and now as president, but I've been here 40 years, so I've seen a lot happen at Iowa State.  I've seen a lot happen in Iowa.  And as a brand new extension staff member, way back in the 1970s and '80s, I watched Iowa and the nation go through the Farm Crisis.  And it was at that time that I really saw what it meant to be part of a community, a community that was deeply engaged in helping farmers all over the state respond to the farm crisis, to come up with, again, new approaches, new opportunities, new ways to move forward.  Giving up wasn't part of the calculation or equation.  Everybody had to keep going forward to the future.  That taught me, again, how important community is and how important good communication is, how important it is to build relationships of trust so that you could work together.

So that's one example of a past crisis that I lived through, not as intimately as farm family in Iowa, but watched that happen, watched how we could come together to go beyond that crisis.

Bridget Burns:
That's super helpful.  So I appreciate especially the communication piece because I've definitely seen how that's affecting different leaders, how they're showing up differently.  What I'm curious is that, you know, we're all trying to figure out what's going any minute.  What to communicate is really – I guess my question when you don't have full – we don't know how long it's gonna be.  We don't know what's really going to happen.  And so how do you make a decision as a leader about what messages will serve and what information to communicate, even when we're kind of somewhat floundering?

Wendy Wintersteen:
It really is a great question, Bridget, what is the appropriate communication for the day or the week.  And I think you have to begin by having the philosophy that you want to share everything that you possibly can with Iowa State University community, so you want to be upfront and honest about what you know and what you believe might happen into the future.  So, I think having a process of communication that leads to transparency is key.

Just last week, we put out a communication all about finance.  And so we explained the situation in terms of what had been our losses and increased expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a figure that's more than $80 million.  We talked about the fact of what reduced enrollment will mean for Iowa State University in the fall and discussed the fact that we are implementing budget reductions all across the university and what was our philosophy behind that approach and how those budget reductions would be implemented through the different divisions.  So I think transparency is key.

I think you also have to be thinking about messages, again, of care and concern so that the community knows that you know how hard they are working.  You know that to put 6,000 courses online in a week was a tremendous effort and that every day doing instruction for a course that wasn't made for that requires more time and more energy.  You realize that faculty that get their energy literally from being in a classroom with students are desperately missing the students, and the same is true for the students that know their faculty.  So trying to give that message of care and concern and a sense that you have some understanding of what they're going through, I think, is critically important during a crisis.

Bridget Burns:
I just want to do a really quick follow-up.  So, that is very true and helpful because people are really stepping up in unusual ways.  They're working harder, and then they're also trying to do it in the midst of the pandemic.  Did you have any messaging that you used in terms of families that have students – have children home?  I mean, this is something we're hearing quite a bit about, like how do I as a leader keep us, you know, being productive, moving forward, but recognizing that a lot of you are now also homeschooling and have no physical space to work out of?  And so how do you adjust expectations and just give people the flexibility to kind of figure that out?

Wendy Wintersteen:
It's really critical point, Bridget.  And we made clear early on that work would be different, that expectations would be different, that we could not in any way, shape or form expect the same level of productivity during this time that we might expect in the old days, so to speak, so that we were going to take all of that into consideration as we go forward.  So I think that message has been heard.  Work is different.  It cannot be as productive.  It is more difficult, and certainly as we think about our families that have young children at home, that the children are coming into the room or the dog's coming into the room, or the other day I didn't mean to, but I went into the room while my husband was doing a Zoom call for his work.  And so you end up on screens that you don't mean to be on or that people have their delightful children on the Zoom meeting with.  So it is a different world, and I think, again, having everybody understand that we in the university leadership understand that it is a different world and that we will take that – are taking that into consideration.

Jeff Selingo:
That hasn't happened here yet on any of our episodes, but give it time.  I'm sure it will.  So, let's look beyond the next six, eight, twelve months and so forth, and there's a lot of talk that this crisis might have long-term impacts on higher ed.  We probably all can imagine the negative impacts.  But what do you think might stick that's actually come out that's good from the response to this pandemic?

Wendy Wintersteen:
Well, I think there are number of silver linings in this crisis as it relates to higher education.  And the very first one that comes to my mind is this concept of flipped classrooms that a number of our faculty currently use.  Again, if we were in normal times where you have your lecture online in the classroom time when you're together, it's really about discussion and an opportunity to engage the students with each other and with a faculty member.  So this idea of how we use technology to develop a better educational experience for our students, I think that's gonna stick.  I think that's going to be an opportunity that we see more of.

I think another area that will stick is that we will simply see more online offerings for students coming to Iowa State University.  So we'll see a growth.  Faculty will see that this is an area that they will want to be more involved in for the future, but in a more planned, comprehensive way than having a week to prepare.  So I think we'll see a growth in the online offerings at Iowa State University.  I also think that there is a deep desire from the students that come to Iowa State University to have the residential campus experience.  I have students tell me over and over again that they can't wait to be back on our beautiful campus, to be experiencing the times that they have with their fellow students, whether it's in an intramural competition or whether it's in a studio class over in the College of Design, that they want to be back together, that they value that now more than they ever thought they would.

We did a little survey with our students, a sampling of our students, and it was shocking to me, actually, to see that 98 percent of the respondents said that they were staying in contact with their classmates.  And I think it shows the need for this human connection that we all have.  And so I think we'll still have a very strong residential campus. 

I think another lesson that's gonna stick for us is this lesson of knowing that we have to be more nimble and flexible.  We have to be more prepared in the future for different types of crises to occur and what does it look like to be more nimble and flexible in how we work.  So I think that's another example.  One thing that will never change is our land grant university mission.  We were made to support and assist the state of Iowa and all of its citizens through our teaching, our research and extension programs.  And I think we're going to continue to have that focus, that our questions are how do we help Iowa to be more successful, how do we produce a set students that are more innovative in their thinking, more creative in developing the solutions that will help move Iowa forward.  So, this historic land grant mission or core values associated with that mission, that's not gonna change; that's gonna carry us on to the future.

Jeff Selingo:
President Wintersteen, you mentioned both online and face-to-face.  Obviously the residential experience is not going anywhere for colleges and universities, but maybe online will grow because of this.  There's also gonna be a balancing of the two, right?  So how do you make sure that too many students don't go online, you know, and that the residential experience kind of remains what it is?  Do you imagine more hybrid offerings coming out of this as well?

Wendy Wintersteen:
Again, that's kind of the concept of this flipped classroom, in a way, you know, that students will be able to experience classes both online and in-person.  And so I do think that is part of the future.

Bridget Burns:
Right.  Yeah, that's definitely – I find it very affirming that as much as people are jumping on the – here's, you know, all that stuff that needs to change, it's made it very clear the stuff that people never want to change and just how much they appreciate things that might have been a little bit harder for people to kind of put a dollar value around.  So I appreciate that.

So I have a question about, just generally, in the midst of the pandemic it's, you know, hard to keep your eyes averted away from bad news.  And as a leader, people are expecting some degree of optimism and help.  And yet, you know, if you're a leader, you also have to be paying attention to the news because you gotta know how to lead, and you got to know what you're leading folks through.  So I'm just wondering if you can give us a sense of how you're looking at this moment and the future that is allowing you to have that kind of sense of optimism and help that I'm detecting in the messages that I've seen that you are communicating.

Wendy Wintersteen:
Well, I am very optimistic about the future.  And when you think about how you maintain a focus, that's critically important for any leader.  You have to be responding to the short-term crisis that's occurring, to the decisions that have to be made every day.  But at the same time, you really do have to be making the plans for the long term.  So on the short term, here tomorrow we'll be announcing our executive committee for fall planning.  It's tied to our executive – excuse me, our emergency operation center that has been operating now I think for 89 days that I was staying with a whole series of working groups.  So in the short term, we're gonna be doing the fall planning now that will allow us to reopen in the fall, we hope.

But in the long term again, it goes back to some of the questions, comments that Jeff and I just shared.  How do we think about the future in a different way?  How do we think about how it ties back to what we believe in is key for Iowa State University?

Jeff Selingo:
President Wintersteen, what have you read?  What have you watched?  What other materials have you consulted in your career up to this point that are helping you right now?  Is there something that you're going back to, to help you kind of figure out and how to navigate this period, which of course is really unprecedented in higher ed?  And I'm sure that there will be for decades to come lots of materials written for graduate programs and higher educational leadership on this, and you're kind of living it now.  So what are you referring to, movies, books, other types of materials?

Wendy Wintersteen:
You know, I have two favorite leadership books, and I'll just share both of those with you.  The first is The Servant Leader by James Autry.  And James Autry believes that you have to bring your spirituality to work, that it really is about being present, being useful, being authentic to who you are, being vulnerable.  And he really makes just an excellent case for what it means to be a servant leader, to truly serve those around you, that it's not about being in charge; it's about building a team and creating an environment where they can all work successfully.  So this servant leadership – The Servant Leader by James Autry is a book that I continue to refer to.  It's an excellent leadership book.  And in fact, I like this book so much that I used it as one of the themes with my installation two and half years ago, you know, to serve, to lead, to excel.  And in fact, my license plate has the words "To Serve" on it.  So I believe in this concept of the servant leader.

The other book that is important to me is one that was recommended fairly recently by a friend, and that is The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker, written in 1966, a relatively short book worth anybody taking the time to check it out from their library or buy a copy.  But it really says to the leader it doesn't matter how good your intellectual capacity is or how talented and skilled you are as an administrator.  If you're not effective, then you aren't going to have the impact that you desire to have, and that a lot of it comes down to how you spend your time.  And at the end of the week you really should be evaluating: was I in somebody else's business who was really responsible for doing that work, or am I busy doing the work that I'm supposed to be doing as the leader of the institution?

So that has really been helpful to me as I work with my team.  And I can't help myself.  I also have The Daily Drucker.  I don't know if you guys ever have read The Daily Drucker.  But just real quick, he says at the end of the week, you should ask yourself – or give yourself a weekly report card on four skills: listening, communicating, re-engineering mistakes, and subordinating your ego to the task at hand.  And I think those two books continue to help me.  And while I'm not reading The Effective Executive every day or The Servant Leader, I'm still reading my Daily Drucker.

Bridget Burns:
I did not know we had a shared admiration for The Effective Executive.  I didn't know about The Daily Drucker.  I'm gonna have to pick that up.  That's great.  Thank you so much for sharing those.  And I'm gonna have to pick up The Servant Leader, but I will not change my license plate, because it will be just straight up copycatting, so [laughs].

Well, thank you all at home.  We've had a lot of people on this livestream.  Thank you so much for being here today.  We hope that this has been a source of inspiration, it's given you a little perspective on the week.  We so appreciate the time of President Wintersteen, who is sharing into this broader community.  We think that the people who are serving right now are the ones that we should be listening to, as they are really the only experts on how to lead during COVID.

And so, to that point, next week we will be joined on Monday with the president of the Ohio State University, Michael Drake.  So please tune in next Monday for that opportunity to discuss with him, who is another University Innovation Alliance president.  So, thank you again, Wendy.  We are so grateful for your time.

Jeff Selingo:
Thank you, Wendy.

Wendy Wintersteen:
Thank you, my pleasure.

Bios of Guest and Co-Hosts

About Weekly Wisdom
Weekly Wisdom is an event series that happens live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It also becomes a podcast episode. Every week, we join forces with Inside Higher Ed and talk with a sitting college president or chancellor about how they're specifically navigating the challenges of this moment. These conversations will be filled with practicable things you can do right now by unpacking how and why college leaders are making decisions within this unique and challenging time within higher education. Hopefully, these episodes will also leave you with a sense of optimism and a bit of inspiration.

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