One year in: Reflections from leadership on the past year, and a look ahead to the next 12 months
 The school's leadership team was at the center of our collective efforts to navigate the pandemic, including modeling good mask behavior. On the one-year anniversary of Harvard University announcing that all schools would be transitioning temporarily to remote learning due to the pandemic, we caught up with the Administrative Operating Managers (AOM) to hear, in their own words, about a joyful or surprising moment in this this past year, as well as what has them excited for the future. Angela Crispi, Executive Dean for Administration What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? Amidst the grueling heartache and stressors of the past year, my greatest joy came from people—my beloved family, friends, and colleagues across our HBS and Harvard communities. At HBS, each day I have been awed by how staff and faculty continue to come together to tackle every unimaginable puzzle, pivot after pivot, always committed to each other, our students and alumni, and determined to bring every ounce of their innovative spirit and expertise. Never could we have imagined what the year would entail, yet we embarked on an uncertain path at a scale that was breathtaking. While we have mountains still to climb, we’ll get there as we always do—together. What surprised me? Believe it or not, nothing really. With awe I watched our community push forward with our always hallmark caring, competence, creativity, resilience, and resolve. My confidence in saying “we’ve got this” springs from the joy of knowing that we can collectively do anything. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? Simply put, I can’t wait to see everyone again in person! Janet Cahill, Executive Director, External Relations (ER) What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? Amidst everything this past year, I have found joy in the strength of our compassion for one another and sense of community. These two C’s enabled us to support one another and to do amazing things in the process—as individuals, within our teams, across ER and throughout the School. In ER, we committed to delivering four C’s (Community, Connection, Compassion, and Content) to our alumni, which through the support of so many of our colleagues across HBS, enabled us to do our best work. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? I am most looking forward to applying all of our learnings and innovations from this experience and emerging stronger than ever. For ER, we have the opportunity to reimagine—in the best of ways—all that we do. The “what” —leveraging a hybrid model, where we capitalize on the best of virtual and the best of in-person engagement, lifelong learning, and fundraising. The “how” —utilizing new ways of working together that enable us to be more effective, both across ER and with the rest of the School. The “why” —in service to our purpose and mission. We often talk about being a learning organization, and this past year has been a powerful reminder of the importance of agility and adaptability. Nancy Dellarocco, Executive Director, Executive Education (ExEd) What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? My greatest joy was that despite having our business model and personal lives upended from one day to the next due to the pandemic, the ExEd team stepped up in a big way to transition our residential programs to virtual ones. It is truly extraordinary how quickly they were able to pivot to 100% virtual programming, not only transitioning program design and schedules, but social and networking aspects as well. It was a very heavy lift for everyone as we had to market in new ways to new markets, redesign processes and systems to accommodate virtual delivery and learn new skills. All of that effort has paid off, not only in generating revenue for HBS, but by providing a great learning experience for participants and allowing us to continue our mission of extending the reach and impact of the intellectual capital of School. As an added bonus, here’s a word cloud one of our teams created as a reflection on the past year:  What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? In ExEd we often dream of the day that we welcome our first participant back to campus. We also can’t wait to reconnect with all of our colleagues who partner with us to deliver on campus programs. In addition to that, we are excited by the possibilities of expanding, experimenting, and innovating with our new portfolio of virtual programs. Brian Kenny, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? Although there were joyful moments watching our HBS community and my team overcome all the challenges thrown our way this year, I think I'll focus my thought here on multiple moments of joy I experienced about something I never knew I was missing. My wife teaches second grade. I know she loves her job and I’ve seen how hard she works and how much she cares about her students. But until last March I’d never been able to see her perform her craft. When she opened the link to her virtual class on that first morning of remote learning, after hours of anxious preparation, I was moved to tears at the sweet little voices of her students squealing with delight. And then I listened as she masterfully led them in the day’s lessons. I was treated to this moment of joy every day for the rest of school year and it never failed to make me smile. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? I used to hate gathering in the basement meeting rooms in Cotting House, which is where we have our regular team meetings. But boy, what I wouldn’t give for a meeting with my team in T07. Ellen Mahoney, Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Director, HBS Initiatives What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? V-Day—the day in spring 2020 when classes re-opened after we went remote was a true moment of joy. Having been privy to the amazing work, seven days a week often long into the night, by faculty and staff to create a meaningful experience for students, it was a masterclass in creativity, operational management, and collaboration. It does not qualify as a surprise because I know and trust the community to lean in on behalf of the School. But, the joy was two-fold: It was for the online solution and the affirmation of the quality of the people in this organization. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? Lunch! In-person meals with colleagues, family, and friends will never be taken for granted again. And welcoming, in person, all the new members of the HBS community who joined us over the past year. Rick Melnick, Chief Financial Officer What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? The Financial Office generally has a nice holiday lunch together at a restaurant. Time to relax, enjoy each other’s company, do a Yankee swap and talk about upcoming holiday plans. Our get together this year had to be online—and I had lower expectations for “another Zoom.” However, with the creativity and planning of many office members, we had one of the nicest holiday gatherings of any year. There was trivia by Eileen Sullivan, HBS Jeopardy prepared by Rachel Gymiski, and a Secret Santa exchanging of gifts. It was fun, warm and memorable. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? Having worked at HBS for 30 years, I treasure our community. The people are just amazing. While we have been able to run the School successfully over the past year, I truly miss seeing Financial Office and other colleagues from across all of HBS. I’m really looking forward to seeing people in person all the time. While in person regular meetings will be great, it is the informal gatherings—just passing between meetings and having a quick chance to see people and ask them how they are doing that I miss a lot and look forward to resuming. Patrick Mullane, Executive Director HBS Online (HBSO) What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? My proudest moment over past year was seeing the Harvard Business Analytics Program team at HBSO help lead the way in figuring out how to deliver live online learning. In fact, a year ago today (hard to believe) after a conversation with Nitin I sent an email to my team to set the wheels in motion on using the Harvard Business Analytics Program (HBAP) experience to drive our move to remote learning. The staff on this program were instrumental in showing the way when it came to how to do online well. Online Learning Facilitators, for example, were first used (under a different name) in HBAP. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? Being on campus again! I really miss seeing such wonderful coworkers and the physical beauty of the campus. Andy O’Brien, Chief of Operations What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? There were actually many moments of joy for Operations. As a group we expectedly rose to the daily challenges (and there were many) we faced over the course of the year in managing the COVID 19 pandemic on campus. But in that there were numerous individuals in Operations, both contractor and HBS staff, who truly showed their individual talent, commitment, resilience, and creativity. Those were the bright spots for me. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? A full and active campus daily. Meaning students, Executive Education participants, faculty, staff, partners, visitors, etc. are all present on campus in class, in residence halls, at Spangler and Chao and back working out in Shad. I am hopeful that becomes a reality in the next 12 months. Valerie Porciello, Executive Director, Division of Research and Faculty Development What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? My mother became seriously ill in January 2020. She was hospitalized for more than a month and discharged shortly before the pandemic. When I arrived at her Cape Cod home for a weekend visit on March 14, I learned she had fallen that morning. We spent the day at the emergency department. Thankfully she was not injured badly but she could not be left alone. Meanwhile, at HBS we made the decision to switch to remote work beginning on March 16. I was able to stay with my mother for the next 12 weeks, working remotely. It was a difficult time. After returning home, I spent weekends with my mom. Angela Crispi’s in-laws live in a neighboring town, and on a sunny Saturday afternoon in July we met up for a cold drink. When I walked up to our meeting spot—the lawn across from the Mashpee Library—Angela was waiting for me with deck chairs under a shady tree. She was a sight for sore eyes! We talked up a storm, about HBS and our families. It was remarkably restorative. A true gift, and just what I needed. I’ll always be grateful. What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? Being able to hug my mother. Deb Wallace, Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) What was your one moment of joy or greatest surprise over the past year? My moment of joy is tied to the KLS staff’s incredible resilience and ingenuity. It wasn’t a surprise at all that they embraced the challenge of supporting the HBS community online, totally virtually—across all dimensions of research, teaching, and learning, while also repositioning our physical spaces to support on-campus needs. We put our Digital Baker Strategy on warp-speed and off we went! What are you most looking forward to in the coming year? I’m very excited about how we can continue the momentum—how we can maintain the increase in virtual support (both volume and scope), while repositioning our services to enable the hybrid work environment. Perhaps Baker will become a center for on-campus hoteling and outfitted with a state-of-the-art hybrid meeting space. As noted management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” We’re looking forward to doing just that! |
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