Click on a post’s title or description to view it. Scroll down for list of posts in numerical order.

List of blog posts in order:

1. Why psychological obstacles (rather than knowledge) may be a major impediment to faculty development, and a class of potential solutions [Hearts and Minds, and Magic Feathers]

2. How the way our minds work impacts faculty development [A Species of Very Little Mental Bandwidth]

3. Why it’s easy to commit to faculty development activities, and difficult to follow through on these commitments [Happy New Year!]

3.5 Devices that help us keep commitments [A Bestiary of Commitment Devices]

4. Why we are averse to feedback and what to do about it [Difficult Conversations]

5. In faculty development, if it’s too good to be true it probably is. Confusion is normal and even a sign of appropriate goals. [Stories We Tell Ourselves]

6. The single all-knowledgeable mentor is a fable [Yoda is Dead!]

7. Fear of interaction with others impedes faculty development. It can be countered. [The Only Thing We Have To Fear]

8. Attempting a single small step repeatedly may succeed where grand plans fail [The Power of One]

9. Faculty and ‘the administration’ have different views of reality, which challenge faculty development [The Matrix as a Metaphor for Academic Institutions]

10. Faculty development is only as successful as faculty awareness of it and engagement with it; no effective communication, no faculty development [What we got here is… failure to communicate]

11. In faculty career development, choice itself is a challenge that behavioral tactics can help meet. [Might what suits Barack Obama suit faculty development?]

12.Decannomics poster (from AAMC-GFA Professional Development Conference)

13. ‘Yes, And…’, an element of improvisational comedy, is an effective alternative to negative feedback in academia [Yes, And…]

14. Judicious application of forcing functions can yield faculty development [Almost The End of Civilization As We Know It]

15. No matter how much ‘they’ seem like ‘us’, ‘they’ aren’t; design academic assessment and faculty development programs and communications in anticipation of this reality [The Dancing Fool Meets John Malkovich]

16. An enlightened attitude towards scholarship does no good unless the gatekeepers of publication, funding, and academic appointment and promotion buy in to it [Curve Ball].

17. Our normal behavior can interfere with high-quality peer review. Devise countermeasures. [Fishy behavior]

18. Cognitive biases can influence academic peer review, more so when review is done in groups. Even if this is rare, prudence dictates we anticipate it and combat it. [The Jury Is Still Out]

19. People assess the academic work and make the decisions, and the assessments and decisions are not private. Not private means that the assessments and decisions can or will be shared with other people. [Know Your Enemy]

20. To faculty seeking to advance: Create an academic product that will impress — but also anticipate the predictable irrationality of those who will assess it. [“Give ’em the old razzle dazzle“]

21. In faculty development, the gap between knowing (or knowing how) and doing/acting is often difficult to bridge, even with the best of advice.  [Mind the gaps]

22. Is anyone reading these posts?  [Blog posts for Noah]

23. Do we need ‘career resource management?  [Fly the intimidating skies: ‘The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes’ applied to faculty career development in academic health centers]