Lessons from 2025, Plans for 2026

Wes Johnson: Welcome to the EDUCAUSE Rising Voices podcast, where we amplify the voices of young professionals in higher education. I'm Wes Johnson, and though I'm joined by many here, I'm calling out the amazing, The Immaculate, my co-host.

Sarah Buszka: Sarah Buszka the Immaculate I love that. Thank you Wes. Every time there's a new word.

Wes Johnson: Where you're co-host for the show, we're members and friends of the Educators Young Professionals Advisory Committee, also known as Wide Pack. Speaking of our pack, we got the whole gang, gang, gang in here today. Before we get to the topic, though, I know some of us have been here. We were just talking in the background about this is a repeat question, but most of us probably don't remember the answer we gave last time anyway.

Wes Johnson: So I'm gonna start with, I'm going to put Devon on the spot. Devon, what a super power.

Devon Keys: Wonderful thing. So us. I'd have to say my superpower. And I feel like this sounds like one of those lame interview answers when they ask you, what's your greatest strength? But I'm going to go with the fact that I've learned over the years that I'm actually a very meticulous and organized person, which really works to my benefit, and that I like to plan everything out.

Devon Keys: As much as I don't like to be put on the spot because I love to have pre-planned my answer so that I'm ready to.

Sarah Buszka: Go.

Wes Johnson: Know what it was Devon is, I knew you already had that because you plan it out. That's the just block. You have the answer ready to go. Okay. You've all been Chris. What's your third superpower?

Chris Bradney: Yeah, yeah. Let's just talking about this is the third time I've been asked this question. You know, I wasn't expecting this, for today's episode. I'm. I think I'm going to go with, like, wonder and I love thinking about, like, the big questions, like, what if we did this? And what if we did that? And and really just that I, that like process of sparking ideas and sparking thoughts and, and really asking those big like, big picture questions, I love doing that.

Chris Bradney: But, you know, I'll tell you, my wife will tell me sometimes, no, no, it's not time for wonder. We really need to get down to brass tacks. And so sometimes that so that super power can, can, come out in a toxic way.

Sarah Buszka: Well, we will have no toxicity here on today's show.

Wes Johnson: You got a plan and a dreamer. So, like, we got there, this is like super friends.

Ryan Lahti: And a tough one. But, I think, you know, focusing on the world of it, where we all live. I'm going to take a leap and say alchemy. And you're like, what is that? It's like, I wish I was really good or better that I could snap my fingers and just turn technology into something that works very easily and that sort of stuff.

Ryan Lahti: So, you know, we spent so much time, tinkering and playing around with stuff, at least I do in my role. And I wish that there was a way I could just snap my fingers and it would fix itself, just like how I is the the way that, you know, it's the, I guess the golden goose or whatever the saying is to, to solve all of our issues.

Ryan Lahti: But I wish there's a way I could make it even easier.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, I love that. Well, if there's anyone who can do that on this call, I think it's you, Ryan. I believe in.

Sarah Buszka: Sprinkling the alchemy. On the show today, I love it. Well, the reason why we have all of our why friends on the show today is because we wanted to do a reflection episode. We talked about a lot of things on this year of the Rising Voices podcast, and there's also a lot of great things to look ahead to.

Sarah Buszka: So we just wanted to take a step back and give us some time to reflect on what we've done this year, to talk about some of the our favorite conversations or themes of the year that we really want to, reflect again on and bring home today. But also thinking about the future, what we're really excited about, what has sparked our imagination or wonder into looking ahead into 2026.

Sarah Buszka: So with that, I'm going to put Devon on the spot and open up the floor and ask, what was your biggest reflection or takeaway from this year, either in your personal practice, your personal life? What we've discussed on the show, anything that comes to mind that makes you feel like, hey, I really want to make sure that I talk about this on the show today.

Devon Keys: Guys. I definitely think, Sarah, I think for me, this has been my first year on YPAC and has been such an enriching experience to get to connect with so many like minded peers throughout, on an international scale. Because for those who don't know, I, And from Canada, British Columbia, out of the province, so getting to connect with so many individuals throughout the States through YPAC has been such an incredible experience to learn from them about what's going on in their individual organizations and across the landscape of higher ed in the U.S and seeing that, diversity as well, is where we share that common connection across our countries, has been really heartening. But specifically, I guess with the way the political, climate currently is. But it's been wonderful to be part of this show, and get so many great learning opportunities. I think of all the wonderful podcasts we've produced and the fantastic content that's come out of it. Looking forward to just continuing that enrichment journey with this group as I continue my term with Y PAC over the next coming years.

Sarah Buszka: Thank you Devon. And before we move on, I want to take some time to actually give some pure public recognition and praise to Devon. And I did not ask her if I could do this in advance, and I hope she'll bear with me, but she has taken on a really incredible new role for the podcast of researcher, and has stepped in and just knocked it out of the park.

Sarah Buszka: The reason why our episodes have been so good for the past few that folks have listened to, is because of her. She has really set us up for success. She's really created some thoughtful questions and set the stage for us to have some of the discussions that we've had on the show. So thank you so much, Devon, and we're really excited to have you continue to do that.

Sarah Buszka: Hopefully, moving into next year if you're still be open to it.

Devon Keys: Oh most definitely. Thank you. So much, Sara. It's been a pleasure to be part of this group.

Sarah Buszka: Thank you. Well, we have another Canadian on the show. So I would be, I think, remiss if I didn't pass it over to Ryan and ask him the same question. Is there any major reflection that you have for this year that you'd like to share with the audience?

Ryan Lahti: Yeah, well, I mean, I'm going to echo Devon a little bit. I'm approaching my retirement from way back, after years of service, I think, along with Chris and, yeah, I think it's been just really cool to realize that I'm not just operating in a bubble and the issues or challenges that I face in my current job and in my current workplace at the University of Toronto.

Ryan Lahti: They're not unique to to where I am. There's people all over Canada and the United States that have similar issues. So I just I'm really thankful that, you know, sometimes we can get so siloed with working in higher ed. We're trying to be the innovators and do things on our own. And I think, cause and especially while I package just open the door for more information, something so simple as using, like going in the, in the KGS.

Ryan Lahti: And I use the hack that, you know, if anyone knows what the heck that is, it's a regular tool I use. And before I even knew what EDUCAUSE was, I was doing these massive assessments like on my own, I was typing them up and somehow trying to legitimize using, a certain tool or a vendor and just having something like this that, you know, actual experts have come together to, to develop the hack that.

Ryan Lahti: And it keeps getting updated, you know, almost every year now with, the inclusion of like, AI and that sort of stuff in these evaluations. It's just made my job so much easier. And I just love knowing that there's people out there doing similar stuff, to me, and that I can kind of bounce ideas off them.

Ryan Lahti: So, yeah, I just, you know, set aside to start winding things down here in, in Webpack. But it's become such a valuable tool that I've, I've shared even as you cause, like, people in my institution might not even be fully aware of that. We're ag cause members and just kind of strange starting to spread that it's really, rubbed off a lot and a lot of positivity for us at U of T.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah. That's wonderful. And the fact for those who don't know, higher education vendor assessment tool, did I say that correctly? All right I see not great. Yes, yes. It's an amazing tool too. Very helpful if folks haven't looked into it. If you Google that word, you will find it because it's a very weird word.

Wes Johnson: So, Chris, what are your, reflections for the year going forward?

Chris Bradney: I think it's going to have to be around the pace of change. And I mean, if you look back at 2025 and I'm looking ahead at 2026, change has been a constant companion. And the pace of change is not slowing down. It'll probably only get faster from here on. And, and, I mean, so individually at my institution.

Chris Bradney: Right. We went through some, some really major changes in 2025. And they all happened at the end of the year. Ironically. Right. And it's like, of course, of course, at the end of the year, all these major changes. But I think something that's really impactful and, and I've known this lesson but have really had to like, relearn it and like re double down on it, which is just that there's a perception that people are very change resistant.

Chris Bradney: And I think that's a myth. And I think it's a myth because people are resistant to change being done to them. But if you can bring people in and do the change with them, they'll go along with you a lot, a lot easier. I mean, it doesn't mean that you don't have to do the work. You still have to put in the the effort to, you know, communicate and listen and, and, you know, walk people through the why and re communicate the why and for the 1700 time and explain the why.

Chris Bradney: But you can get people through change. And I think that's going to be I think it's going to continue to be a very important lesson for higher education. It in 2026 is that change is not slowing down, I think. And it's not just like one factor. It's not just technology change, it is environmental change. It is political change.

Chris Bradney: It is societal change. It's all these different types of changes that are impacting people equally. Right? People are all under the same pressure, in the same stress that all these changes are kind of enacting upon them. And so I think that in 2026, moving forward, we really need to spend that human time working with people through change and bringing them in, communicating with them and, you know, ultimately helping them adapt and adjust to change.

Chris Bradney: Because change is not optional.

Sarah Buszka: Change is a thing you can count on.

Wes Johnson: That's right. It makes me think of, like, as you were saying that, Chris, like I made up a case study in my head of like, I remember when Facebook became a thing and at the point I was literally just going into college. And so I was part of the exclusive group that had a college email. I remember that use Facebook and the general public couldn't.

Wes Johnson: And I remember my parents being like, why the heck do y'all even do this? This is ridiculous. Y'all putting your words on the internet and so people can see it and respond to it. And now it's like only my parents and their friends on Facebook. Somewhere in there is happen. And that is probably should be studied because I couldn't drag my parents to it.

Wes Johnson: But now, like I can't get them off and so kind of a case study of something happened in that change. They changed with it at some point over the last decade anyway. Yeah.

Wes Johnson: Sarah, what are your reflections? The immaculate one.

Sarah Buszka: The the immaculate one. Yeah. You know, this has been such a really interesting year because, you know, I started off the earth, me and my team being laid off, my entire department being dissolved does not exist anymore. And so I had just come off of a very big 2024 one the Rising Star award finished grad school like huge accomplishment.

Sarah Buszka: And then to get hit with such devastating news at the beginning of 2025, when I was kind of on this up and up trajectory, you know, and having to watch my team and frankly, thousands now of folks at Stanford who have been laid off has been really tough to watch. And it's kind of like Chris said, right? Like change.

Sarah Buszka: I've been thinking a lot about that this year, my husband joked. And, kind of made this analogy with, with me going through all these changes that I have the series like you're a butterfly and like you were in this cocoon and you were a bunch of mush for a while, and now you've come out and now you're this beautiful butterfly is spreading your wings.

Sarah Buszka: But whatever. Right? I'm lucky. And, grateful that despite things starting off. So, like, scary and really sad that they've ended now in 2025 on such a magnificent note. And a lot of that has to do with the theatrical community and so many folks that I've built relationships with over for the past decade that I've been involved with this organization.

Sarah Buszka: And so many of the folks who came to support me during that time who are I'm looking at all of you on this call and many more that aren't on this call, but they know who they are. If I try to list all the names, it would take me the rest of this episode. So I will save everyone the time.

Sarah Buszka: But like that in itself has been wonderful for me. So kind of on the same the different sides of the same coin to Chris's point about change, I think is community and how do we support each other through all of these adjustments? Because when I first went through my really tough time, I sent a text to a really close friend of mine and said, an edge because friend and said, hey, this happened.

Sarah Buszka: And he is like, let's get in a call right now. Like it was after hours weekend type thing. And he's like, let's talk right now. And that was really helpful. And so I think, you know, finding ways to support each other to check in and ask how things are going and to frankly, like give ourselves the grace of when something isn't going well and acknowledging that things are hard, and reaching out to the folks that we have and the relationships that we have.

Sarah Buszka: Because chances are someone else is dealing with a very similar situation at their institution right now. They might be going through it personally or having some other type of involvement. And, you know, it's a lot of change. It really is. And so we have to think about the community aspect as well and how we're supporting each other because we're not alone in this.

Sarah Buszka: And it can be easy to think that, especially, you know, for me, I was working remotely for so many, for so many years, so it can feel very disconnected, but we're not so reaching out to each other. I think it's going to be even more important as we move through all of this accelerated change.

Wes Johnson: Very good point. I actually think I'm in alignment with the the change in community topics here, though I've been thinking a lot more about within my own team in the organization. It just feels like for the last 3 or 4 years, we haven't quite been able to put our finger on the pulse of what was lost when remote and hybrid and everything came.

Wes Johnson: And so there's this pace of change happening in addition to that. So it feels like not only are things moving fast, but I feel like at least at my institution, things also feel high stakes, like it's, it's hard to bring forth new ideas are new paths or even paths that they've considered in the past. Because it just feels like there's so much going on.

Wes Johnson: Resources are so constrained, and the last thing folks want to do is trust that something's going to just work out. And so, yeah, it makes it makes things feel really high stakes. And it feels like you can't make a mistake. And that's been a thing I've been reflecting on, because most of the times that's actually not true.

Wes Johnson: Like we're not dealing with life most of the times, some of us maybe at health centers. But a lot of my work is we're talking about Google Zoom, we're talking about a.

Wes Johnson: What we're talking about what it doesn't feel like it. And I remember it used to feel like that for me in my career. And then the other side of it to the community piece is just in that same kind of feeling of high stakes, low resource, low availability. It almost makes you question like, what's the point of bringing people together every now and then if no one has time to do it?

Wes Johnson: But you know that it's needed, even if your team looks at you and says, I don't need all that personal stuff, I just come here to work. You can see the cracks when there isn't a quarterly team townhall or a monthly sync. It's just people start asking questions. Narratives start getting built, and it's again that high stakes atmosphere.

Wes Johnson: It's like, all right, I'm gonna pull together in my case, like a hundred plus people. This is thousands of dollars in a room, and all I want to do is say hi, give them some general updates and say, all right, go on to the to your way. And but like, there's value in that. So I've just been reflecting a lot about like how do I bring the stakes down just a little bit for us.

Wes Johnson: Or there should be some urgency, but like how do I keep us connected in the know? And just like even in that, like just the moment of doing that is like the signal of like, yeah, it's okay to take an hour and connect. Yeah.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, yeah.

Wes Johnson: And talk about the it doesn't have to be immediately connected to a main deliverable. So I just been thinking a lot about how do I, what do I do about that going into the new year.

Sarah Buszka: What do you think you're going to do about that going into the new year?

Wes Johnson: And that's a that is a great question. I mean, one I just told myself, screw it, be brave and we're going to see how it goes, you know? Yeah. And I've been talking to a lot of different folks across the team to just kind of get a sense of what they feel is missing, but haven't been framing it just as like a what do you think about us reviving, our monthly meeting because then focus gets you.

Wes Johnson: Well, it was only a couple of months where I thought the info was meaningful, but just going to like, hey, over the last 4 or 5 years, what do you feel has been missing? Like, think about when things was amazing to you. When you look back to that, that green grass, what do you feel is missing? And I feel like I've gotten better insights on things they feel have been a gap that now it's like, okay, what can I do with that?

Wes Johnson: Is there something my organization at large is doing? And I just emphasize that and make sure people free time to engage? Or is there a gap and something we can just do ourselves? Yeah, that's what we've been trying to do anyway.

Sarah Buszka: I think that's good. You're kind of talking about like the connective tissue that holds hold everything together, right? And it's hard to put your finger on it, but you can tell when it's not there. So yeah, I want to kind of double down on that a little bit and then invite our colleagues here to join in, because I think the YPACk is especially good at this.

Sarah Buszka: I was just at, the Notre Dame AI forum, this week, actually, and I was talking to one of my longtime dear colleagues who I've known for over a decade now. His name's Chaz Grundy. And he brings a lot of silliness into his organization. Just really fun stuff. Like, he has a rubber chicken in his office, and he put rubber chickens in every meeting room, and, like, we'll use them if people are kind of going, you know, off, off scope or or not really kind of staying on topic.

Sarah Buszka: And it's really silly, but it gets people engaged and it's something fun and it builds that community. And they do like regular, like meetups kind of in the evening where they do like these kind of talent shows, if you will, and just get people on stage and showcasing skills and being with their colleagues and showing a different side of them and getting them to show up fully at work.

Sarah Buszka: And I'm not saying that's like the right way and the only way to build that kind of vision is, if you will. But it's it's really fun. And I think there's something to be said about bringing silliness and joy and delights into your work and letting people feel comfortable to do that and not worried about how am I going to tie this rubber chicken to the bottom line of some project right.

Sarah Buszka: So I'm I'm curious from, you know, Ryan, Devon, Chris, from your perspectives, like how this is resonating with you, do you feel like there's in more of a need for maybe community or, or something like that to do? Other people need for rubber chickens.

Chris Bradney: I mean, maybe I'll, I'll jump in here really quick and, where something I was hearing you say that is, again, one of those environmental impacts that we're experienced in higher education is, is just the reduction in workforce and the like the reduction in workforce. That does not equate to reduction in services, which really compounds the availability or the lack of availability that people have to feel like you can take that time away.

Chris Bradney: And so I would I would kind of maybe double down on that piece a little bit, which is it's it is almost as vital to determine what we are going to stop doing as it is. What new things are we going to do? Because if you don't stop doing things that you don't have time for or don't have value for the campus anymore, you're you're going to burn people out, right?

Chris Bradney: People are going to not have capacity. They're not going to have the carefree time that they need to connect with other people because, right. You've you've got you know, if I'm not here, I've got four other project meetings I could be at. I've got an email inbox that's hundreds of emails long. I've got, you know, the phones are ringing off the hook in the calls.

Chris Bradney: You could you could see all this busyness that happens that creeps in that that I think that is the thing that takes away from that communal aspect. And, and it's really hard. It's really easy for people, okay. Especially in this post-pandemic environment, to be able to say, well, that communal aspect is not important, right? There's no ROI on it.

Chris Bradney: There's no there's no deliverable. There's no, you know, you know, immediate benefit to our operations or our projects or whatever else we have going on, but we discount the non tangibles. We discount the sense of belonging that happens. We discount the, the random connections that happen, that spark a new idea that transforms into something that's going to make a meaningful impact on campus that you would you would never know.

Chris Bradney: And and so I think that there I think that is that is a big challenge that I, that I've seen in kind of our environment in the last, you know, 4 or 5 years is that our staffing levels have have decreased and the work is only increasing, and doing more with less does not work. Right. We really have to transition to that, doing less with less mindset to give people the ability to connect, to be human, to bring levity, to bring human connection together, to really benefit the organization.

Chris Bradney: So I, I felt I felt that very viscerally when you're saying that last because it's hard, it's really hard.

Devon Keys: Yeah, I'll very much echo what's been said. I think in times of stress, it can be so easy to forget the people part and just double down on the work to get yourself so consumed of, okay, what do I have to do? What needs to get done, what is on my shoulders and forget that there's all these people around you that still need that support because they're going through the same thing.

Devon Keys: I think, Sarah, to your point earlier, I, I very much agree with that butterfly metaphor. I think right now I'm in the mush phase. I'm starting to fully break out of that cocoon. Because we've experienced at my organization a lot of change recently over kind of the last two years in terms of, you know, layoffs and service line deprecation. And like you, my department was completely removed and restructured.

Devon Keys: And I think that's woken people up a lot to the fact that, hey, now that everything doesn't look the same, we really need to focus in on the people who are here and checking in on them. And out of this kind of disaster. And it's brought this beautiful thing of creating connection with your colleagues and starting to have that daily check on on folks to say, okay, how are you doing today? What do you need for me? How can I support?

Devon Keys: And it's changed that landscape of looking inward, of what do I need to do, what do I need to achieve to more of an outward of how can I help others? How can I make myself available? How can I check in, and it's great to see that and I hope that continues. I hope it's not just this blip as you look to get over the initial struggle, but it's something that we can create a foundation on and move forward with.

Ryan Lahti: Yeah, I think that, you know, since everything changed about five years ago, and now I think a lot of people are starting to have to go back into the office and, and kind of have that onsite presence and all that sort of stuff. I think it's more important than ever to do those social things. When you get to the office.

Ryan Lahti: I mean, I can't argue that I'm more productive when I'm at home. I have my own office and desk and everything's set up perfectly. And when I go into the office, I'm standing around drinking coffee in someone's office doorway. Right. I'm just I'm trying to be social when I'm there. And I think that, you know, for me, adding humor to the workplace is one of the the things I used to look forward to the most.

Ryan Lahti: This is, again, five years ago. And so once since we shifted to online, it's really hard to have that kind of sense of fun. Realism, you know, like we are people talking. I think we got into that mindset where we're focused on deliverables and KPIs and and checking off the box on all the things we have to do.

Ryan Lahti: And we didn't have a whole lot of time for like, the social aspect of our jobs, when, you know, you think five years ago, a big chunk of your day was probably chatting with your colleagues, going out for lunch, grabbing coffee, bouncing ideas off each other in a more informal way. And I think that, you know, as we all start to or a lot of people start to return back to the office more and more, it's something we should not be shying away from.

Ryan Lahti: Don't think you need to be hopefully locking yourself in your office and just doing your work. I think the idea is they want people in the in our institutions, post-secondary. They want to build that sense of community again, where people feel kind of happy to be on on site and they're okay to share personal information about their lives and have these conversations because that's something that was really lost.

Ryan Lahti: As we we block all of our calendars with teams and zoom meetings and that sort of stuff. So, I'm all for it. There's only so much we can do to be, you know, kind of silly and personable. In a zoom meeting, we can change our backgrounds. Maybe we'll have a little social happy hour, that sort of stuff.

Ryan Lahti: Or for me, I have just giant novelty hats. But, I think there's things that were shown in the online forum, so, I'm all for it. Just you know, don't take work too serious, you know, just try to have fun and build relationships.

Sarah Buszka: I love it, something just kind of putting a button on some of this conversation. Speaking of silliness, Ryan, I hope I. It's okay that I share Ryan dressed up for Halloween as Microsoft Teams. He wore like a full purple like onesie. Like he he did it.

Sarah Buszka: He was fully purple. And like, that's what I mean about this silliness is, you know, just something like that. Wearing the oversize hat, you know, not necessarily that I'm encouraging us to buy something. It can be a low stakes thing making jokes. Just the other day, I had a breakfast with some friends and colleagues, and we just went around telling each other jokes.

Sarah Buszka: So that that's a low barrier type of thing. But, I think what I'm hearing from all of us is we're all feeling it right now. We're going through some stuff. You know, it's been a year. It's hard. There's a lot of change. We're responsible for us. Some of us, it's very large teams, services, organizations. Some of us are moving into those roles, and more of us are seeing others move out of those types of roles.

Sarah Buszka: And it's just it's a lot to kind of process. And one thing I've been thinking about kind of want to switch topics to looking forward now in the future in 2026, maybe sharing what we're going to try to do or something that we're going to take on, maybe learn something new, maybe a practice we want to carry with us into the next year.

Sarah Buszka: And something that I want to try to start doing, just to kick it off, is to intentionally set aside more space for myself just to process things and to wonder, like Chris said, and to just give myself that time to not feel guilty about not constantly being productive every minute of the day and optimizing every moment of the day.

Sarah Buszka: And I don't quite know how I'm going to do that. I think literally I'm going to need to schedule that into my calendar. To Devon's point, being very organized. I think I need to just schedule that time. And I know it feels kind of strange, but I think for me, I've been in this space where, you know, you have 9 to 5 scheduled completely, and how do I have space for myself to well, frankly, just reflect and process all of the information I've gotten in that one day because it's the huge spectrum.

Sarah Buszka: But for two, just like, how do I pour back into my cup? Because I feel like I've been pouring out of my cup and pouring into others and other things for so many years now, I don't think I've even realized that I've had all these holes that have been, you know, leaking from. So I think that's my focus for next year's.

Sarah Buszka: How do I give myself more of that time to pour into my cup and make sure that I'm doing the best that I can, versus just kind of ignoring it and going on and focusing on the self optimization and just getting the next thing done. How do I pour that back into myself? Anyone else want to share?

Ryan Lahti: Yeah. And Sarah, I wonder if if your kind of your goal for next year ties in a little bit to how your your previous year was, right? I think for some of us we've been I don't want to say cruise control, but we've been you know, we've been just kind of working as we have been since, you know, like I said, the things change five years ago.

Ryan Lahti: And until people kind of get, you know, shaken up a little bit or there is a little blip on the radar, it's hard to kind of veer from how you've been doing things. So I think that's, you know, really important. I mean, I'm going to probably think a little bit more about two is how am I going to kind of fill my cup in the in the new year as well too, because I've just been on on kind of cruise control, focusing on doing my job and, you know, doing all the checking, all the boxes.

Ryan Lahti: And that's good. But I think it's not really setting me up for anything, you know, extravagant in the future. For myself personally and probably professionally too. So I just. Yeah, that's, you've kind of put a little spark in my in my brain, I guess. So, yeah.

Sarah Buszka: I love that. Well, that's what we're here to do in the show.

Sarah Buszka: Devon, anything come to mind for you?

Devon Keys: I love your fill my cup idea. And it makes me think a little bit more about, I work remotely, so full time now. Have for a couple of years, and I've noticed it started to isolate to a degree in terms of when you're not going into the office regularly, you get on a meeting and it's about the meeting you often skip past maybe some of those social niceties at the start for small chat and things.

Devon Keys: So I think being a little bit more open to and offering myself that bravery to be open to opportunities for connection, to get outside of that comfort zone a little bit more. I know I recently moved and I now live in a new community, and I'm actually very close to another one of our, post-secondary institutions, and they've extended the opportunity that I if I ever want to go work.

Devon Keys: You know, they have a desk that I can borrow for the day or something. And I think there's been that little bit of hesitation of, oh, that's outside of my daily routine. I don't want to be a bother. But being open to that and creating that social connection, I think is something that I want to, you know, look a little bit more towards in this upcoming year.

Sarah Buszka: That's great. I'm just picture you having like, your nice little, you know, space that you can go to when you want to stick your toe out and be sociable. And then when you don't want to, you don't have to. That's great.

Sarah Buszka: Chris.

Chris Bradney: Okay. I'm going to tell you the lamest thing I think about myself, which is. I I'm the person who will be like, oh, man, it's been. I look down and you look up again. You're like, it's been six months since I've talked to this person. And then you like, feel the guilt and like the shame of like, oh, I didn't check in with this person. And and then now it's like, so long.

Chris Bradney: That's awkward. And so you don't want to do it. I have an app on my phone called Garden and Garden. Garden. Wow. That was a hard word to say. Garden. And what it does is I can just set reminders to periodically check in with the people I need to check in with. And you can love it everywhere from, hey, I want to check in with this person every day or every week.

Chris Bradney: And I was actually I kept talking to Jonathan Hardy about this, in Nashville, which was, hey, I'm going to I'm going to set that like three month, like reminder. That way, if three months have gone by and I have not checked in with Jonathan and, you know, for whatever reason, maybe life is really busy and I've got too much and there's just I just don't even if I don't have the time to really fully like, invest in, like connecting, like reach out.

Chris Bradney: I told him I was like, hey, I'm just going to send you an email that says, hey, life has been really busy. I'm just thinking about you right now. And and that's it, right? Just to maintain that connection. So it's it's lame because it feels like I'm using technology as the crutch to say I'm really bad and reach out.

Chris Bradney: And I fully acknowledge that's a problem. It's a knee problem. And I will absolutely use technology, to send me a reminder to connect with people.

Sarah Buszka: Well, how apropos, though, for us working in higher ed technology, right? That's perfect. I love that I currently use my calendar for that. But now that I heard about this, this app, I'm going to look into that. So I think that's great.

Wes Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Because I got I got my calendar invite call mom on Sunday.

Chris Bradney: Yeah I mean here's here's the thing. I say it's lame, but but I think it is just an acknowledgment of, of a personal weakness that I have. And, and like being intentional to, to overcome that weakness in a way, like in a systematic way that is going to, spark this, that genuine human connection. Right? If I said I use it to say, hey, automatically send Jonathan an email every three months saying, hey, I'm thinking about you, that that is that is shortcutting the human experience, the human connection and that that's how I would truly think that would be lame.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah. But I also think that tool like acknowledges frankly I think the world over and to your point about how, you know, the speed of change and everything just seems to be moving so fast. I don't know about y'all, but I have, I just checked today like over 40 unread text messages in my inbox right now. And I'm a type of person who's like inbox zero because I literally can't get to it.

Sarah Buszka: Like, I have been traveling in a conference this week and all those types of things. But now with my with my life in the new role that I have, I regularly have 40, 30, 20 unread text messages, 17 voicemails right now. I mean, that is my life. So I just assume now that people are being inundated with all of these messages and things, which is good, but having something to help you manage that I think would be great, because I'm at the point where I feel overwhelmed and paralyzed by it.

Sarah Buszka: So I just ignore it and I'm like, you know, if someone really needs me, they'll text me again. Now, if I see three messages come through, I'll respond. Or if I see a call or something, I will. But like, that's how I'm managing it right now. And I'm I'm embarrassed because I'm not even using technology to manage it.

Sarah Buszka: I'm just stressed and I just trust other people to call me. But I also just trust the folks like who know me, just know like it's nothing personal. It's just I'm literally buried. So, you know, I need somebody to dig me out. So having like, an app like that and having someone reach out and, you know, do that consistently, I think would is great.

Sarah Buszka: And I'm definitely going to steal that from you. We'll have to talk about how it goes.

Sarah Buszka: So when you see that three month thing come up in the email from me, you'll know that I did this. That is what I will hold myself accountable to actually, because next year, like my little goal is like to not be buried in these messages and feel like I'm failing as a friend because I just can't summon the energy to reply to 40 some text messages. At this point.

Sarah Buszka: Well, wrapping it up with us. Is there anything that you're looking to bring into next year, a new practice to start or something that's kind of like sparked your imagination or anything for 2026 that you're excited about?

Wes Johnson: Maybe not excited, but reflecting on similar to my friend Chris here, I use technology recently and going on to my feeling of high stakes and, and thinking about how do I approach my teams and staff and all that good stuff. I took a string of different communications I've done throughout the year, and I put it in Gemini, and I asked it to analyze my tone and framing and report back to me and, granite.

Wes Johnson: It's I so it might just be confirming the things that the, the things that I notice in it, but I asked it anyway and it essentially spit backs onto me, summarizing like, is personable and approachable, which is good, but it does have a tone of like, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, and it could be received in that type of way.

Wes Johnson: Like there's just a smidge of like, but we got to do what we got to do, and there's what I took away from a summary. So I've been going into the New year. I've told myself one of the actions I am going to take is be a little bit more thoughtful about how I present my written and vocal communications to the team.

Wes Johnson: I do like to be honest and authentic, but there's like a line between how you bring that forward and and thinking about like how that impacts other people because, yeah, it it flows all throughout the organization. If I sound tired, my whole group's going to sound tired eventually.

Sarah Buszka: Yeah, I love that. And what a great like way to use like Gemini to to kind of be that coach for you as well and to give you that feedback right away.

Wes Johnson: Yeah, it was funny though. It was like, oh, well, it's great that you want to work on your tone to not sound so negative. Let's talk about like this was like it was a very.

Sarah Buszka: You know, landing well right.

Sarah Buszka: But that's a good point to like maybe even to like wrap up this whole conversation too is like kind of the the theme of like, intent versus impact. Right? And I think about that very often. That's kind of what I'm hearing with us. And frankly, I think what we've talked a lot about today is, you know, our intent for how we want to approach things and how we want to show up and how we want to reach out to people.

Sarah Buszka: And the impact of, you know, if we don't do that follow up in six months, right. And we care, right? We care about our impact on others. And, you know, thinking about that, I think going into the next year will behoove all of us, right. All of our listeners, especially as things are moving quickly and all this change is happening, you know, it might not be our intent to send a, a hurried, tired message.

Sarah Buszka: You know, but we know the impact of that. Right? So, yeah, I think holding each other accountable to that, supporting each other, sharing ideas for how we're checking ourselves in, that I think is going to be really helpful because we're all going to need a hand at some point or another.

Wes Johnson: Well, this is it for the Rising Voices podcast. Devon Ryan Chris, thank you so much for joining us for this great conversation on things we can take forward. Hopefully our audience has a couple of things that they might, chew on going into the New year. But with that, happy holidays and we'll see you next year.