Letting Go of Something You’ve Begun

The first Informatics 280 class taught by someone other than me in the existence of that class just happened. For those of you who don’t speak the UCIrvine “refer to all classes by their numbers” language, this course is a one week intensive after a monster month of reading that kicks off the Masters of Human Computer Interaction and Design program at UCI. We created it when we created the program five years ago, and I was fortunate enough to teach it every year for the first four years of the program.

First, a little about the course…

Students from our first cohort working on a group project during class.

We named it “the intensive” because it is intense, to say the least. A normal day has breakfast at 7, usually with a networking event or group critique sessions, followed by teaching from 8 to 6, with some small group work in between. More networking and homework comes at night. Students fly in from all over, and even those who are local we very strongly recommend to stay at the hotel with the other students. It’s good for bonding, and honestly, you are working so much you really can’t do the normal things in your life. It’s also pretty rough for the instructor, TAs, and program staff. Turns out that feeding an entire masters program three meals a day plus snacks, teaching for hours on end every day, grading assignments every night, and ensuring that mentors, alumni, and industry advisory board members all show up for panels and to talk with the students is pretty rough on a team. Who knew?

It was also my absolute favorite teaching experience of my career. I loved it every year. So, it’s been a bit surreal to say goodbye this year.

I should make it clear, I absolutely have all the confidence in the world in Ann Marie Piper, our new Faculty Director of the MHCID program, and Stacy Branham who co-taught the course. I heard wonderful things about their version of the course, which in practice looked a good bit different from mine because of COVID, among other things.

And yet, still I mourn. There is something truly special about teaching students in an intense course like this one. You really get to know them. You watch them interact with each other during meals, breaks, and group work. You learn who the future leaders are, who the team players are, who just wants to get along, and who likes a bit of trouble. It is a truly intimate teaching experience that few people past elementary school get to have with their students.

It was time for me to step away though. The nearly 7000 other graduate students on campus need my attention, and the MHCID students need to get to know their new Faculty Director. And still, it is weird to hop into the Slack channels for the new cohort and see them making jokes I don’t get, to get text messages from the new Faculty Director praising them for work I didn’t get to grade. I’ve known and taught every student to come through the MHCID program until this year. A part of me has a hole where this year’s cohort should go.

For those looking to do a little succession planning, I want to highlight a few pieces of advice from this experience:

• Plan early: As we began planning for someone else to teach the intensive and for someone else to direct the program, we had the central mission of the program in mind: to create world-class user experience professionals with a unique hybrid educational environment. We didn’t know how important our experience with that environment would be at the time, but that’s a post for another day. In all of the hiring discussions in faculty meetings, we returned to the central mission of the program and the need to hire an excellent replacement. We got that in Anne Marie Piper, in spades.
• Be flexible: Once we developed the succession plan, which involved interim directors for a year and Professor Branham shadowing me during last year’s intensive, we felt prepared. Succession plans must be flexible though, and if 2020 has taught us anything its just how important that flexibility is. It turns out that shadowing me probably helped a little, but the faculty teaching “my” class had to do it completely differently than I ever did so they could accommodate an online environment.
• Don’t get caught up in formalities: Sometimes people hear words like “succession plan” and think they need a big formal document. We never wasted our time on any of this. The group involved — faculty, staff, and alumni — shared opinions and sent a lot of emails but a formal document just is not necessary in many cases.
• Seek feedback: A lot of people became involved in the process, which is often good for succession planning in any organization but absolutely necessary at a university. When we first started the program years ago, we sought feedback from all over. Hiring a new faculty director and revamping some core courses turned out to be a perfect time to gather exactly that kind of feedback again. Both the course and the program feel totally refreshed.
• Let go. Although I stopped being MHCID director a year ago, I still taught the intensive, and I co-taught another course this past year. So, I was able to stay connected to the program I had built and loved for half a decade. This year, I got to watch and support as our excellent staff, faculty, and TAs did all that without me. I’ll admit, a part of me wanted them to need me enough to ask more questions, but mostly I was glad to see them do just fine without me.

Those who know me know I am a bit of a control freak, especially about things that really matter to me. Succession planning challenges my ability to let go of things and let others run them. For other people, its simply impossible to imagine not being in their current position. None of us is in any job forever though, and being prepared makes letting go easier.