Higher Ed Change Management: When to Push, Pull, or Pause

Higher ed change management may start with recognizing that change is necessary, but to get it right, it also requires knowing whether the moment calls for you to push, pull, or pause.

Leaders in higher ed enrollment are facing massive challenges.  

Enrollment pressure. Budget constraints. Leadership transitions. New technology. Shifting expectations from students and families. Institutional cultures that may be eager for change… or  deeply resistant to it.

With all of the mounting pressures, how do you know what kind of leadership the moment requires?

That question came up again and again in my conversation with Dr. Todd J. Williams, President and CEO of Cairn University, on The Higher Ed Marketer podcast.

Todd has a perspective that not many leaders get to develop. He has served as president of Cairn since 2008. Before that, he held other senior leadership roles at the university, including Senior Vice President and Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education.

In other words, he hasn’t just led through one season of institutional change. He has watched multiple cycles of change unfold over nearly two decades in the president’s chair.

And one of the biggest lessons he has learned is that higher ed change management cannot be reduced to a formula.

There isn’t one leadership tool that works in every circumstance.

Instead, effective leadership requires wisdom—the ability to understand your people, read the context, recognize the urgency, and decide whether the moment calls for a push, a pull, or a pause.

Higher Ed Change Management Requires More Than a Leadership Toolbox

We love frameworks in leadership.

All I need is five steps, three principles, and the right tool for the right problem, and I’m good to go. 

There’s certainly value in frameworks. But Todd made an important point during our conversation: leaders can get into trouble when they begin treating organizations like machines.

People aren’t machines.

Faculty aren’t machines.

Enrollment teams aren’t machines.

Boards aren’t machines.

And institutional culture certainly isn’t a machine.

Todd talked about the popular idea of the “leadership toolbox”—the notion that you simply identify the problem, reach into the toolbox, select the correct tool, and solve it.

His concern is that this can turn complicated human situations into mechanistic problems.

Real leadership requires more than selecting the right technique. It requires judgment.

As Todd put it:

“Sometimes you have to push, sometimes you have to pull, and sometimes you have to pause. 

But you can’t do any of those things based solely upon how an individual or a collection of individuals respond [to your leadership]. It requires a degree of wisdom.”

That’s an important distinction for anyone working in higher ed change management.

You cannot base every decision on whether people will immediately like it.

At the same time, you cannot barrel ahead simply because you have the authority to do so.

The question is bigger:

What does this institution need from me in this moment?

That requires understanding human nature, understanding your people, and understanding the particular context you’re working within.

Know When It’s Time to Push

Sometimes leadership means moving.

There are situations where waiting creates more risk than acting.

Todd reflected on leading Cairn through the economic turmoil surrounding 2008 and 2009. During that period, the institution had to make difficult decisions, including a reduction in workforce and other changes designed to put the university in a healthier position.

Those are not easy decisions.

And they are rarely popular decisions.

But leadership cannot always wait for universal agreement.

One of Todd’s points that really stood out to me was that resistance itself doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop.

Leaders have to ask why the resistance exists.

• Are people identifying a legitimate danger?
• Do they have information you have missed?
• Are they resisting because the proposal would genuinely harm the institution?
• Or are they simply uncomfortable with change?

Those are very different situations.

I see this all the time in higher ed marketing and enrollment.

Maybe your institution needs to rethink an underperforming academic program.

Maybe the website needs to be rebuilt around prospective students rather than internal departments.

Maybe your team needs to stop investing in tactics that haven’t produced meaningful enrollment results in years.

Maybe you need to restructure a communication flow, rethink your media spend, or make a difficult staffing decision.

The existence of discomfort doesn’t automatically mean the strategy is wrong.

Effective higher ed change management requires leaders to distinguish between healthy warning signs and ordinary resistance to change.

And sometimes, once you’ve listened, evaluated the situation, and determined that action is necessary, you have to push.

Know When to Pull People Into Your Thinking

But pushing isn’t the only option.

Sometimes people need to understand how you arrived at the decision.

Todd challenged another common leadership maxim during our conversation: weigh-in equals buy-in.

Sometimes it does.

But not always.

Simply asking people for their opinions doesn’t guarantee that they’ll support the final decision.

What participation can do is create an opportunity for leaders to listen, answer questions, and explain their reasoning.

That’s where pulling becomes powerful.

Pulling is different from bribing people with benefits.

It’s not, “You should support this because here’s what you’ll get.”

That’s transactional.

Instead, Todd talked about inviting people into the leader’s thinking.

This invitation can look like you taking the time to explain the context, the problem, the constraints, and why you believe this course of action is necessary.

People may still disagree with you.

And that’s okay.

Todd described an outcome every leader should be comfortable with: someone saying, essentially, I’m still not sure I agree with the decision, but now I understand why you’re making it.

Creating understanding like this is important because it builds trust.

Trust is one of the most valuable currencies you have during institutional change.

Todd illustrated this from his experience working with horses. Giving a horse a treat might produce a desired behavior in a particular moment, but the transaction itself doesn’t build trust.

The same is true with people.

You cannot build lasting organizational trust entirely through incentives or transactions.

Eventually, there has to be confidence that the leader is acting thoughtfully, transparently, and in the best interests of the institution.

That kind of trust gives higher ed change management a much stronger foundation.

Know When Leadership Means Pausing

This might be the hardest one.

Leadership culture tends to reward visible action.

We admire the person who moves quickly, makes the decision, launches the initiative, and fixes the problem.

Activity is often construed as progress and initiative.

On the other side, pausing can look like weakness from the outside.

It can look like indecision, fear, or procrastination.

But Todd made the case that sometimes a pause is the wisest action available.

“You’re not [taking your time to pause] because you want something. You’re not doing it because you’re afraid of how you’ll be perceived [if you took action]. You’re not doing it to gain favor [with those opposed to action]. 

You’re [pausing] because it’s the right thing to do at the moment. 

That means that leaders have to stop leading from a position of self-preservation, which means you’re fighting against everything in your human nature.”

“Stop leading from a position of self-preservation.”

Sometimes leaders push for the wrong reason.

We want to prove we’re decisive.

We want to show the board we’re taking action.

We’re frustrated.

We’re afraid.

Or we simply want the problem gone.

Likewise, sometimes we pause for the wrong reasons.

We don’t want people angry with us.

We don’t want criticism.

We’re afraid of how the decision might affect our career.

Neither reaction is particularly healthy.

The goal is to remove as much ego and self-preservation from the equation as possible and ask what the situation truly requires.

Sometimes what doesn’t happen is the result of excellent leadership.

The same can be true at your institution.

A wise pause can prevent a rushed decision from creating a much bigger problem six months from now.

Resist the Tyranny of the Urgent

One of the most practical parts of our conversation came when Todd talked about institutions in crisis.

When organizations start feeling financial or enrollment pressure, people often begin reacting instead of thinking.

Everyone gets busy. Meetings multiply. Emails are sent in a flurry.

Every problem becomes urgent.

Everyone is trying to survive the week.

Todd described this as being ruled by the tyranny of the urgent.

And his advice is surprisingly simple:

Stop long enough to think. 

You’re not stopping forever, and you’re not sitting back because the problems aren’t serious.

You are taking the time to assess the situation objectively. 

He described his experience in organizational consulting, where he would encounter teams working frantically in the organization but no longer spending any time working on the organization.

That difference is huge.

If every minute is devoted to putting out fires, eventually nobody is asking why there are so many fires in the first place.

Higher ed leaders need protected space to ask questions like:

• What is actually driving this problem?
• What are we doing because it’s effective versus because we’ve always done it?
• What does the data tell us?
• Which decisions are truly urgent?
• What does our mission require from us right now?

The goal isn’t to ignore urgency.

It’s to keep urgency from producing panic.

Todd referenced the idea that “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

That’s a helpful picture for higher education right now.

You can move quickly without flailing.

You can make hard decisions without creating chaos.

You can acknowledge a genuine crisis without allowing panic to become your organizational culture.

Better Higher Ed Change Management Starts With Better Leadership

One of the things I appreciate most about talking with leaders who have been at this for decades is perspective.

Todd openly admitted that his understanding of patience has changed over the years.

When he was younger, he tended to see patience as a tactic: If I wait now, I’ll eventually get the result I want.

Today, he sees it differently.

“When I was younger, I would think that patience was one of those risk-reward things. Very transactional. If I’m patient, I get this on the other side. 

But real patience comes from saying, ‘I will let things unfold, and even if the outcome isn’t what I wanted or expected, it wasn’t going to be any different.’ 

Patience is about the process, not about the product at the end.”

This perspective that Todd shared with us may be one of the most important skills higher ed leaders can develop.

It’s a leadership approach with a balance that avoids both passivity and avoidance.

Patience.

The wisdom to push when the institution needs movement.

The trust to pull people into your thinking when they need understanding.

And the courage to pause when action would serve the leader more than the institution.

There’s much more in my full conversation with Dr. Todd J. Williams, including his thoughts on leadership longevity, work-life integration, trust, informal leadership, institutional crisis, and why patience is ultimately its own reward.

Need Help Leading Your Institution Through Marketing and Enrollment Change?

At Caylor Solutions, we work with colleges and universities that know something needs to change but aren’t always sure where to start.

Whether you’re rethinking your enrollment strategy, strengthening your marketing team, clarifying your institutional brand, or trying to prioritize limited resources, an outside perspective can help you step out of the tyranny of the urgent and see the bigger picture.

We help higher ed teams identify what needs to move now, what requires greater internal alignment, and what may need a strategic pause before moving forward.

If your institution is navigating change and needs an experienced marketing partner at the table, let’s talk about how Caylor Solutions can help you move forward with greater clarity and confidence.

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