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December 15, 2019

Higher Ed: Holding On Tight Is Easier Than Letting Go. Why We Need To Learn How To Do Both Well.

Higher Ed

By: Jennifer Stayton

As Dr. Ed Burger prepares to leave Southwestern University to become President and Chief Executive Officer of St. David’s Foundation in Austin, Texas, he and KUT’s Jennifer Stayton discuss the art of letting go, as they wrap up the KUT podcast “Higher Ed.”

Ed says “letting go” in the workplace starts with a pretty straightforward assessment.

“That’s a great test. In the middle of working on something, just stop and say right there and then, ‘whose job am I doing right now?'” says Ed. “And if it’s not your own, you should stop – if you want to embrace the art of letting go.”

But Ed acknowledges “letting go” when the emotional stakes are higher presents more of a challenge.

“It is so easy to hold the unpleasant things or the poisonous things that we experience – the negative stimulation around us,” says Ed. How we let that go, he continues, is what dictates how joyful a life we can lead.

So how does one go about “letting go?”

Some ideas from Ed:

* Trust other people.

* Share responsibility and accountability with others.

* Exercise mindfulness.

* Embrace different points of view.

*Forgive.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about grappling with letting go. For this final episode of “Higher Ed” we have practiced the art of letting go by ditching the puzzler!

This episode was recorded on Oct. 22, 2019.

December 8, 2019

Higher Ed: Learning From Failure (And Then Letting It Go)

Higher Ed

By: Jennifer Stayton

In the very first episode of KUT’s podcast “Higher Ed,” Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT’s Jennifer Stayton talked about the importance of failure to learning. Has any thinking changed about that concept in the past five years?

Ed says he has greater clarity now than he had five years ago about one aspect of effective failure. He says he better understands the difference between just bouncing back from failure and actually learning from it.

“It’s not the mistake, it’s what comes next,” says Ed. “If you make a mistake and say ‘well, that didn’t work; I’m going to try something else,’ that’s tenacity, which is fantastic and perseverance, which is wonderful. But it’s not effective failure.”

So what exactly is effective failure?

“It’s stopping and it’s holding that attempt that didn’t work, ” says Ed. “And instead of doing the cultural norm, which is to pretend it didn’t happen and sweep it under the rug…instead of focusing on perfection, focus on the process.”

Ed believes that what makes a failure “effective” is the evaluation that follows.

“You hold that failed attempt in your mind until you have an epiphany, until you have an insight,” suggests Ed. “Until you see something that was there but you hadn’t seen before. And then you can dismiss it, let it go and do something else.”

And Ed says that “letting go” is crucial to the process so that people do not get stuck wallowing in their failures.

“That letting go… can be challenging for some people who do not want to let go and who say ‘see,  I’m not good at that; I can’t do it,’ ” Ed points out. “But instead … the letting go is just as important as the learning.”

Listen to the entire episode to hear more about incorporating effective failure into daily life and learning. That opportunity may present itself before the episode even ends (depending on the solution to last episode’s puzzler about art with matchsticks!).

This episode was recorded on Oct. 22, 2019.

 

November 24, 2019

Higher Ed: Be Grateful For The Frustration That Can Come With Learning. You’ll Learn From That, Too.

Higher Ed

By: Jennifer Stayton

“Thank you” may not always be the words that come to mind when struggling through a difficult lesson or dealing with a mountain of homework in school. But in this episode of KUT’s podcast “Higher Ed,” Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT’s Jennifer Stayton discuss the role that gratitude can play in learning and education.

Ed firmly believes that those two little words can play a big part in enhancing learning – especially when the going seems tough.

“What if that frustration actually ended up being kind of a positive? What if we became grateful for being frustrated, as a state?” asks Ed. “The truth is, I think that gratitude is such a powerful mindset to move us in a positive direction.”

Ed maintains that expressions of gratitude have a ripple effect on all manner of work in and out of school.

“If we can embrace gratitude and be thankful for any aspect of life or any aspect of one’s work, it uplifts us,” says Ed. “It allows us to be more creative, to be more innovative, to see things more clearly, [and] to look for opportunities and potential.”

For some people, expressing gratitude feels difficult. Ed understands where that comes from says the benefits are worth the effort.

“It’s a vulnerability, and we don’t like being vulnerable. We don’t like to put our feelings and our heart on our sleeves,” says Ed. “But, we have to remember that we are human. To embrace our humanity is a great gift to ourselves and to others. And one way to embrace our humanity is to show appreciation and to express gratitude.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about the benefits of being grateful. And hopefully. you will be thankful for a new puzzler.

This episode was recorded on Oct. 22, 2019.

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