 Hi, good afternoon everybody and welcome to the three o'clock session Just to make sure you're in the right place. This is leadership of a champion's program with Dr. Monica Chavez My name is Matt Lingard and I'm chairing this session I'll say very little except to welcome you and to make sure Monica keeps on time and then to show your questions So please do post your questions in the comments as we go through the session and I'll keep an eye For those and there'll be five minutes questions at the end of Monica's talk So keep them coming and without further ado, I will hand over to Monica Thank you Matt. Hi everyone Thanks for being here today. It's been a very exciting day So I'm thrilled to be presenting about leadership of of a champion's program. I led a couple years ago 2019 so I'm gonna give you a little bit the context but before I do that I want to show you what what my aim is today So first of all as promised in the abstract I will explain you will be able to understand the principles Embedded in the champions program. It's such a broad concept to say Oh, it's a champions program and when I was given this task I was just told a champions program and I had to develop a model or a kind of Theoretical underpinnings I won't go into detail into that but the resource I'm going to share will explain in detail The these principles There was a roadmap and which I'm going to share and cover Very briefly, perhaps I won't have time to explain all of the activities But I can give you the broad elements of what made the champions program. What kind of activities? Impact and Nationally institutionally and internationally I was I was blessed I was very grateful that I was able to share this in international scale with the project So I'm going to explain how and what what came out of that what were the the outcomes And I think maybe you would be interested in the Access to the is a video resource and you can further explore everything. I'm going to share with you today Isn't that it's an open resource using canvas and so First of all, let me give you the context and why I did this champions program. It was 2019. It was the rollout of Microsoft teams and I was approached by the education manager for Microsoft teams and we collaborated in creating this champions program So I was new to the organization and I was given a leadership responsibility Informal leadership. I wasn't in a formal leadership position, but remember leadership. You don't have to be in a formal Roll to lead to be able to lead So when I embarked on the development of on this champion program champions program I realized I was the post hero hero. I'm not saying we don't need that one person who is able to lead In my situation in my context, I had to be very adaptable And I learned about myself there were what I was trying to do was I was a Transformational leader. So I covered the literature as well. I did some research on that in Transformational because I had a vision of what I wanted How I wanted and what I wanted colleagues across the institution to achieve I thought about what success would look like and I was very ambitious. I wanted everyone to get on on board With this new digital tool But at the same time I realized that I wasn't going to be able to do it on my own And this is when I relied on the principles of distributed leadership And this is a bottom-up approach to lead you Create alliances with colleagues from across the organization and together you lead you can still be The leader plus if you want to call it and you have your colleagues Supporting you and at the same time lead leading. So this is what the post hero hero is to me it's a combination of being a transformational leader and In Embedding embedding as well distributed leadership. So in the reference list, you could probably consult the the literature So I was given the task and I I embarked on this creating a vision for what I wanted to achieve And of course, what do we know is very very difficult the challenges So not only that I realized that perhaps I had an added disadvantage already change is difficult and Obscaling digital capabilities in any organization can be quite challenging Especially in the context of academia and in a special in a Russell group So the complexity of the challenge was very very high. It was very a very complex situation and I had I Guess I I see it as a disadvantage and The literature on leadership People of color in academia have added challenges You have and I had as a woman There was the racial element as well and a third element of being an international member of staffs and as we know perhaps The sector is is very it can be very heterogeneous So I had that added challenge changes already difficult So at the moment I'm developing and perhaps you want to have these as part of the discussion My presentation is not about these but I thought I should raise it because it definitely I don't see leaders of color as many as I would like to and I think is key and To raise the awareness that it is Change is difficult leadership is very difficult But if you are a leader of color in in a university is triple difficult I think so you need another set of skills that perhaps you don't encounter as much in the traditional literature of leadership because a Lot of the models are based on the traditional and male-wide leadership Okay, so back to the model So this is these are the principles behind the champions program the initiative is called champions program But the principles is I call it the champions model and it was I based the whole strategy on community of practice And with the elements of what a community of practice is made of is community domain and practice The domain was the the teaching and learning with a new digital tool Champions roles and I made a democratic call across the university to enlist passionate innovative willing and and and commit and committed to the cause so And the third element is peer coaching so peer coaching I Think it looks different in every context. I gave a lot of an autonomy to the champions in this case and Because is for peer to peer learning. I knew I was very aware Of my limitations as a leader of a project. I was aware that my ability to influence Perhaps will be limited but if I relied on these vibrant collective of Colleagues six champions, but what was what I recruited for this program willingly? voluntarily they participated and Perhaps I was going to be able to achieve and attain that vision of that I had for this digital tool Okay So this is the roadmap and you can I don't know if you can see it, but it kicked off in 2019 in August and this is when I started the activities so Broadly I had four different types of activities embedded Training and support. I think that was the key. I'm gonna tell you in a minute. Why I go back to this dissemination Teaching and learning events and promotion. So I'll go back to the first one training and support was about focusing on the this group of champions from the three faculties across the university and I provided coaching mentoring Taylor support and And specialized training I adapted to them and I knew that this Investment of time of resources in a group of six champions across faculties who were already Influencers within their context. Perhaps I wasn't the influencer. I have to mention. I was also new to the university And I trained them. I had the support of Microsoft as well And I did a webinars. I had guest speakers People who were perhaps ahead in the journey across the sector in the adoption of this digital tool of Microsoft Teams So that went through a period of several months and September October November December And I have to say at this point it wasn't working out That's the truth and there are many factors like I mentioned I don't want to attribute it to leadership. There are contextual factors one of them and the literature and Confirms this that Academic staff is reluctant to engage with technology. We know that but there are for example, the return of investment doesn't seem worthy And the time the lack of support Competing technologies and this the this last one was key because that there was a rollout of a new VLE So logically you don't want to invest. I understand it's a research and Oriented University you don't have time to invest in two different technologies So I continue the support in different ways So and then the pandemic came but I'll go back to this in a minute because I want to explain to you The dissemination what it means just to give you a general idea the next type of activities. I did a lot of Podcasts video case studies each of the champions had the chance to Do a video case that this was part of being a champion It was of require a requirement of them as to graduate if you want to call it from the program and A video case study in which we would embed the curriculum 2021 is the framework of the University of Liverpool curriculum 2021 and we had students taken part in in this video case studies given testimony of How they're learning change as a result of the adoption of a new digital tool and in the resource I'm going to share with you. You can have a look at the outcome this big video case studies teaching and learning events and There were face-to-face when still was possible I would Organize events across the University I will bring the champions and this is where the peer coaching will come into play and the feedback was fantastic when With with from colleagues who would attend the sessions and Face-to-face and the feedback was mostly about it is great to have a champion Who can sit with me and it can show me what he or she has been doing? And just kind of coach me on on on the sport because they know the pedagogical Practices of my area I can trust their advice because they know the context So this was a great great feedback that I got and finally promotion. I did a lot as the leader of the program to Give them recognition Show them show the the contribution they were making institutionally and of course there was an element of accountability as well in it but mostly I Part of my professional values is to give recognition to people for their contributions and contribution itself is one of my values So I put a lot of my professional values in the development of this champions program. Okay, so let's go back to the story So training support it was it was really difficult But then the pandemic hit and this is when The community of practice which is called the champions community exploded. You can see in March it really took off and At the moment and there are 300 plus members of the community and the support we provided In that community was key the workout of the champions or the the emergency period when we transitioned to online teaching the whole university went mostly Now without I don't have evidence to say all of them, but a large number of people Academics and made use of Microsoft teams the support was there So all the work that we have been doing for several months Was really that was the right timing. It's like you cultivated something and You think is not going to is not going to grow is not gonna work out and suddenly it just explodes and Okay, so this is more or less the type of activity and the roadmap you have access to the roadmap as well in the resource Okay, so what has been the impact So far and I have to be very honest at this point. I feel So one of the elements the principles of a community of practice is that you have to decide for evolution and You also have to be conscious that it will go through stages. It is a living entity So I think it has accomplished his mission and is pretty much on on the stage that you have to Collect memorabilia or artifacts. So we have accomplished our mission. So 328 members It has become a model of best practice in the institution One national virtual community of practice five international virtual communities of practice I was hired as a consultant for a British Council project and these more champions model was replicated in Peru and Is to help Peruvian academics and six universities and Transition to online teaching. I want to learning and teaching a fellowship of work for the leadership of the champions more And I got my senior fellowship because of it So this is a resource I want to share with you and I think I think it time is oh But this is what it looks like and it will be shared with you At the end so it's just a no open resource and you will see I'm just gonna show you I have an explanation and What I have presented today, hopefully you will be able to go more in detail and you will find resources literature and and More it will give you an idea of how you can develop it and how you can apply to your context So I hope you find it really useful So if you know if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them perhaps when you walk away from this presentation, I invite you to think about your own context and Think about the potential benefits and barriers You will face in your institution because you will face barriers and it might not work Entirely as the model as it as you work for me But there are elements that you may want to adapt Thank you. Thank you, Monica. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much Wow, it's fascinating isn't it how the timing work work for that one I mean such a different outcome to what you envisage when when you when you started with with the six champions and I just wondered If you could say a little bit more about because that's a huge number of champions now obviously and very different to what you've ever envisaged I'm just I'm interested in how that's working practically now and a bit more about the role of the champions actually Okay, so The champions I made an open call in several Announcements of the University and six people got back to me. Yeah, right? And they had a list of what the role means. I had to write a very inspirational Very inspirational call And I think this is part of transformational leadership. You have to have that vision And so the champions are still champions, but like I said, I think the community has fulfilled its mission Yeah, and they they have moved on to better things And more exciting things, but they I think they having this group of allies Is key it's about the people I always say it is all the people is not about the technology Yeah, and I don't know if you're able to see the comments, but then a couple about how much your talk has resonated with with people and Comments back to the added added challenge that you face as a person of color as well, which yeah, it's just that extra It's true. It's real. Yeah. Yeah, I got a lot of sorry Matt. I love I mean I Would compare I know they shouldn't compare yourself. I will compare myself with My my champions, which are they're lovely or compare a white male who's leading something similar in my institution and he would be hurt and if I Turn up so people tell me it's because of your great. I Don't know as And great as in The system of the universe I was questioned many times and academics will Kind of won't believe it that I had created such thing and I was able to come with a theoretical underpinnings And that I had you I had had an international impact and they still questioned my impact You know, I can't do I all I can do is turn up and be my best self I can't control What people say and I wonder if have observed other colleagues in these Positions and they don't get this kind of Questioning of their worth or contribution. Well, maybe I Don't know this has been my observation I don't have data and I am the I have an out stone auto ethnography that I would like to do but I am very I Don't think I'm gonna get ethical approval because I want to make great an account of of these leadership Perspective of communities of practice from the perspective of people of color but I don't know if anybody has experience of Auto ethnographies and if you can if it's easy to get the ethics approved approved Curious about that especially for such sensitive topic Yeah, okay. Thank you, and I'm sure if anybody has they they can reach There's a question come from The attendees on the on the screen actually Monochron if you'd like to respond to that one Well, there is what is critical for success of a champions model I think the champions and getting that by in from colleagues who say, you know, I believe in what you are trying to do And yes, the students deserve better. We should create a dynamic ecosystem not just the VLE to Put all the stuff the repository and those innovators And who perhaps perhaps are not top senior Leadership but is finding your That people your allies that ski for the success I would say Great. Thank you. And then aside from Dave White in the comments as well Why should grade be an okay reason? Of course, it shouldn't either Anymore I can't change the culture It's across across across the sector higher education. So just just deal with it Yeah, okay. I'm just checking out. I can't see any more questions as such just a moment No, just just lots of comments. I'm thanking you, Monica. So Thank you and many thanks for sharing and such an honest presentation as well We always appreciate we always appreciate that from you And as Monica said, if anybody wants to follow up with that afterwards, she's be very happy to do that so Many thanks to everybody for attending this session and we're back on with sessions in I'm not sure actually a few minutes time Okay, thank you. Thank you everyone. Bye