Page 129 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

98 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

for organizational survival was the development of an ambitious plan for
distance learning (designed for students who are offsite).
Prior to the storm, distance learning at this particular school was mar-
ginalized, not considered part of the mainstream. Only a few courses were
offered, and those who taught online courses did so because they pos-
sessed the desire and skill. The school provided little assistance. During
the fall of 2005, the school embarked on a substantive change to provide
an exponential increase in distance learning courses given the substan-
tial loss of physical classroom space. This would require a whole systems
change addressing organizational capacity in regards to faculty compe-
tency, student readiness, technology infrastructure, and a culture’s will-
ingness for large-scale change.
During my initial visit in December 2005, I conversed with faculty,
students, and administration to gain a sampling of experiences and per-
ceptions about post-Katrina campus life. I attended a Substantive Change
committee meeting that was tasked to explore the expansion of distance
learning at the college and was asked to facilitate the session. Through this
venue, I was able to gain a cross-sectional perspective of how certain fac-
tions of the college perceived the possible development and deployment of
distance learning courses.
Two students approached me as I was making my way to the car in
the parking lot after my third day. I was on my way to the airport to go
home to Wakefield, Rhode Island. They were asking where to go to regis-
ter for spring classes. These two students were standing next to a build-
ing in shambles, imploded from the storm. If a camera had taken this
picture, one would see an image of destruction and renewal within the
same image. This image stayed with me and continues to stay with me.
It was a defining moment for me. I knew I could not leave the situation. I
needed to be there to assist the rebuilding effort at the college, assisting the
development of a viable distance learning strategy that can address both
short- and long-term needs of the institution.
I spent over 3 years traveling from my home to New Orleans working
on a pro bono consulting basis helping the development of distance learn-
ing programs that assisted in the development of organizational capacity
to sustain exponential growth in this offering. Organizations, like people,
can do extraordinary things in short bursts of time driven by dire need
with little formal planning. Mintzberg (1994) refers to this kind of strate-
gic thinking and action as emergent, that which is already resident in the
system and can manifest itself when necessary. However, to support large,
sustainable organizational change, human and structural capacity issues