AFIT creates an environment where participants feel comfortable having authentic conversations they would not have had an opportunity to have outside the conference. The speakers embrace the discomfort and give attendees the chance to learn from other thriving industries and how to implement these strategies to move their colleges forward.
During the conference, teams participated in interactive learning activities and used "team time" to discuss key concepts and how to translate them into actionable solutions that fit their institution's needs.
DH CEO, co-founder, and bestselling author Jenn Lim along with Culture Chief and Lead Coach|sulant Sunny Grosso joined representatives from dozens of higher learning institutions. In conjunction with learning sessions, attendees competed on things like team spirit. They took DH's Greenhouse Model to the next level by building greenhouses representing their unique colleges and communities.
In addition to Jenn and Sunny, this year's Learning Partners included innovative leaders of industry such as Great Place to Work's Tony Bond, Carolyn Candiello and Catherine Hamel from Greater Baltimore Medical Center, AFIT President Tim Nelson, and Francisco Solis from San Antonio College.
"Jenn Lim and Sunny Grosso are true partners in learning. They collaborated with the Alliance for Innovation & Transformation (AFIT) to understand and address the needs of higher education leaders during this time of significant disruption and turnover. Their willingness to listen to our members' challenges, adapt their concepts to fit our needs and engage in difficult conversations has given us an actionable framework that is helping higher education leaders and their teams reconnect with their passion and purpose, cultivate greenhouse conditions at their organizations, and bring happiness back to the workplace."- Erika Liodice, Executive Director, AFIT.
The event rallied around the Greenhouse Model, an evolution of DH's original frameworks built on the science of happiness to create purpose and profits. The newly introduced model was developed after recognizing the frameworks need to adapt to go beyond only being happy in our work and life but also being real, resilient, and authentically whole. As leaders in organizations and our lives, we must prioritize nurturing our greenhouses as we help others grow.
Emerging from the greenhouse theme, AFIT designed a team pride contest to challenge each team to create a miniature greenhouse that demonstrates the conditions they want to cultivate on their campuses. These were a physical representation of each school's purpose, values, and vision for the future of work within the organization.
Sunny led the group through DH's Happiness Heartbeat exercise, designed to allow participants to define core values by mining their own experiences. This exercise encourages people to revisit their professional and personal highs and lows. A pattern emerges by taking a deeper dive into WHY each moment was a high or a low and identifying which values were present or not in those moments. Once we can recognize and prioritize our values, we can begin making a habit of applying them to our everyday work and life. This exercise is compelling because as teams experience the connection that makes them feel valued, they can begin to truly understand the events in life [the good and bad] that bring them to the place they are today and the values they hold dear.
Since many participants read Beyond Happiness before the conference, they began implementing the learning in their colleges. But after attending the event, we heard from several teams, "they're about to ripple the impact!" by taking the exercises from the book plus the energy and vibe from the conference back to their teams.
When employees are happier at work, your business will thrive, and you will create more meaningful lives. That's why we offer virtual and on-site solutions designed for the individual and the team, so you can start thriving at work and in life.
