Let's Talk UNLV

0:00:00
Alright, welcome to another segment of Let's Talk UNLV. You with co-host Keith and Renee. Renee, how's it going? How was your weekend?

0:00:14
My weekend is going great. I'm getting my list for Santa to come through. So um, you know.

0:00:20
Renee, hold on.

0:00:21
You trying to say you've been nice? Yes, yes. Like the nice-ty?

0:00:25
Like nice-ty like Michelle I have been good all year long and so I'm ready for Santa to come through so I'm you know put out my wish list I got my sorority let them know it's what I want mom and what's you know even stepdad come on stepdad you got to come through to my partner I even told my staff.

0:00:49
Right?

0:00:50
I've been good there too, right? So that takes some thoughtful consideration. So there's no overlap and duplication of gifts. Right? Well, it was Cheesecake Factory. You can't get enough gift cards to the Cheesecake Factory. So that's one I'll continue to get more gift cards. But what about you?

0:01:10
So gift cards are an acceptable means of gift exchange.

0:01:14
It is always the right amount. You can never go wrong with that.

0:01:19
Right? What about you? Well, you know, I was dealing with a sick kiddo all weekend, dealing with the croup, but you know, he's doing better now. He's back in school, but you know, all the while I'm thinking, okay, it's two weeks before Christmas. I need to be out doing Christmas shopping, so I'm stressing. I've been stressing all weekend because I'm already a last-minute gift shopper and you know now everybody's saying oh no you know things are taking two three four weeks you may have already missed your window to order stuff I'm really now I got to go out and brave the stores I'm just um so I'm dreading that so you might just take some empty boxes and

0:01:56
just wrap them just to get the illusion that we're gonna be alright. Now let me tell you before I got married I

0:02:04
had the fake Christmas tree. I had my fake presents. I could just bring things out of the closet. Two minutes I had Christmas set up in the house. Yeah, you got a little one so yeah. Yeah you know Rebecca quickly disabused me of that behavior. She's like no no no we got to have real trees and real presents. You can't be doing that nonsense stuff that you were doing when you were single. But you know just thinking about you know challenges and conflicts that we all face and some of those stresses that come into us during the holiday season, who better to have than our UNLV ombudsman?

0:02:35
I couldn't agree, I might need a couple tips.

0:02:38
Oh yeah, we all would need some tips, right? So we have Dr. Dave Shorts with us, who's the ombuds, and then he's also the campus mediator. Dave, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks for having me, it's great to be here. Could you share a little bit with the listeners about how you sort of got into this role and or to the university for that matter?

0:02:59
Yeah, well, I've been at UNLV since 2001. I came in to direct the Center for Gaming Research. I had a background working in the casino industry and also as a researcher, you know, with a PhD in history, my dissertation was about the development of casinos in Vegas, so it really was a great move to help oversee that collection that helps people study about that. And I later moved into Faculty Affairs, and then when President Whitfield announced that he was going to be bringing back the Ombuds office, I decided to apply for that, and I'm very fortunate that he chose me for the position.

0:03:40
Tell our listeners, what is the Ombuds Office or the Ombuds Position?

0:03:47
The Ombuds Office, I'll circle back a little bit by saying an organizational ombuds is somebody who basically helps other people in the organization solve problems informally. not going to legal, just solving the problems before they get to that space. And the Ombuds office is organized around that principle, that it's a place where people can go when they have anything at all that's keeping them from being as happy and productive as they can be on campus. And we can talk about possible solutions, we can also do things like mediation, where we bring people together to talk through their problems. We also have facilitated conversations with whole units and whole departments where they want to talk about where they're heading. So really it's an office about helping people get empowered to resolve the issues that they're seeking to bring.

0:04:41
And so let's stay there. So when these problems, issues are not resolved, in your experience, what becomes the outcome for that organization?

0:04:51
Well, it's never really good. If you think about it, too, a lot of things that start as small issues end up getting bigger and bigger and bigger. They will kind of snowball and get bigger and bigger and bigger. I think the key is if you can get people to start talking when they still can talk about it, when they are still open to talking, you just have a much easier task because then once you get past a certain point, people aren't as willing to forgive and forget and that's when it gets very difficult to find a resolution.

0:05:20
So is there ever a right time to say, this is the time to bring in the ombuds? Because you said, you don't want to get too far down the road where now the individuals are not willing to talk. So is there like a window of time within 60 days of the conflict that's when you need to bring the on buttons in. I mean, is there anything from a professional organizational lens or from your own experience that you would say you wouldn't want to go past this time frame to bring in a resource like yourself?

0:05:51
Well, I think the office really can support people in any stage of a conflict that they're in. Obviously, I think it's best for everybody if you bring it in early. So I would say, hey, as soon as there's something that bothers you, you can make an appointment and talk with me as the ombuds and we can talk through what your options are and you can just get another set of eyes and ears on it. If people are past the point where they can talk, I'm still here to support them as employees for what they're going to do next and how they are going to try to resolve the problem at that stage.

0:06:27
Now Dave, I apologize. I'm going back to your introduction. I get stuck on little things sometimes. Now you mentioned about researching casinos in Vegas. Now through your research at all, did you figure out any tips and strategies for us gamers?

0:06:41
Gamers and gamblers.

0:06:42
Well, I mean if I had, I think my net worth would be a lot higher than it is today. Basically there's no real trick or anything. I think probably the best advice that I've ever gotten, I've ever seen people give, is set limits on how much you gamble and just don't let it take over. I think those are good things because the casino games are all negative expectation games, so over your lifetime, the player's probably not going to win. Poker, that's another story. Players can win because that's a game of skill against other players. But even that you have to be careful with.

0:07:20
Yeah, because I'm reflecting back on my undergrad days taking finite math and that was what we did, calculate the odds of all the different games at that time. And despite all the people who come visit in Vegas, nobody believes that. Nobody believes what you just said. So everybody's always trying to work at angles. So whenever I hear someone who is an expert in any capacity, I always ask that question just to give me some additional ammunition to try to dissuade some of my friends and family who come here thinking they're going to leave rich or break us. So the casino is not built on paying out. that is the only thing you really control as a player, you don't control the odds, you

0:07:58
don't control that, you do control how long you play for. And there's a thing called volatility, where you can either lose a bunch or win a bunch in a short amount of time. And the thing is, over time, that evens out and that's going to benefit the casino. So if you just play for a half hour, at the end of that half hour, you might be up a lot or you might be down. But if you stop playing then, if you're winning and you stop playing, you've used volatility to your advantage. That's really the only thing you can do. But if you just keep on grinding it out and out and out, eventually you probably will lose all your money.

0:08:37
René is giving that look like get back on topic. So let me transition back after I digress. So I wanted to pick up on, with this role as ombudsman, what sort of training or professional development do you undergo to position you to be an expert to be able to support staff and departments in this way that you described?

0:08:59
Oh, I sure can. There's really robust professional development. There's a lot of stuff that I've done. There's an organization called the International Ombuds Association, and they run several programs. The most intense one is their foundations program, which I'm a graduate of and that is the standard training people get. There's also an additional certification called the Co-op Certification. It's certified organizational ombuds practitioner that you have to be practicing for a year to get but I'm looking forward to getting that after I've been in the role for a year and part of the obligation of that is doing additional professional development and staying current with everything in the field.

0:09:40
And then one of the things that, you know, whenever as supervisors when we're dealing with challenges and issues, confidentiality is always a concern. Could you speak a little bit about how that unfolds within the frame of your work as staff come to you with different concerns before it becomes formal? are conversations that staff might have with you, will that information be shared when the formal process kicks in, possibly? OK, the confidentiality is really important.

0:10:10
It's one of the four ethical principles of the International Ombuds Association. And as an organizational ombuds, it's something that I adhere to in my own practice. And basically, what it means is that unless somebody says something that signals that there's the imminent risk of serious harm, I don't share what we talked about to anybody. You know, there is another possible exception. If somebody is discussing something and it looks like it's a systemic issue, I may ask their permission to bring it to the attention of leadership. And, you know, I make it very clear to them, if I do this and disclose this, you know, you, this might be revealed, is it okay? Only in that case would I say something. Other than that, I'm not going to. For me, it's absolute. You can't violate that and continue to practice. I take that very seriously.

0:11:06
So throughout a typical week, how many cases are you having that involve students versus classified, then you know admin faculty. I'm just trying to get a sense of you know what percentage of your time is being devoted to working with different campus constituents. Sure I would say a

0:11:29
minority of the time is with students because we mostly deal with employee concerns so it would only be students in their role as employees, as student employees. So I'd say maybe that's 5% to 10%. The next biggest area is classified staff. I think we could get better utilization by classified staff. So my math is not gonna be really great in this. You know, so I'd say they were the next part. You know, after that, you have administrative faculty and then academic faculty are probably making the most use right now, but I would like to see that shift and have the classified staff and admin make higher use of the office as well as the student employees.

0:12:07
And so do you ever get the sense that when these conflicts are happening, it ultimately goes back and it impacts students? Or am I totally out of line by making that assumption that since this is a campus and our mission is to serve students, that regardless of any kind of conflict that somehow students are going to be impacted Because this conflict has ensued. Yeah, you know Renee. I mean that's really an excellent point because

0:12:35
Even if it's just a question of two people having a conflict and it's taking them an extra hour to get something done That's an hour that they're not spending focused on serving the students. So I feel that, you know, anything to the extent that there's any conflicts happening, it's negatively impacting the student experience. So that's why I think it's a good thing that President Whitfield has devoted the resources at this office to help resolve a lot of these conflicts.

0:13:07
And then if you had to maybe estimate like what percentage of the the the conflicts that come across your desk are able to be resolved at your level rather than sort of escalating to into a formal process? That can be difficult to

0:13:23
answer because it may be a matter of somebody not getting along with their supervisor and they come for some coaching and we work through things but it's not like they're gonna suddenly get a certification saying okay you now get along with your supervisor so there's a lot of times there's not an end point. It's just giving people tools to help cope better. That being said, I have had a lot of positive feedback from people who have used the office who said that it has been very helpful. There are cases where we have done things like the structured mediation, we have had facilitated conversations where there is a definite end point and people have had successes, they're able to communicate better and in general, they're happier at work.

0:14:04
So, when you meet with students, what are typically the range of concerns that you see? Is it my professor and I don't get along to the grade or because I'm having a roommate conflict or my supervisor through my student staff position, we're having you know unhealthy communication, kind of what are the kinds of ways that you typically meet with students?

0:14:32
For me it's and right now as the office is structured now it's pretty much exclusively employment related stuff. So issues with the supervisor, issues with other student employees or other employees, you know that's all we're doing, that's all we're doing now. You know I can see there being a value in expanding the office to handle student conflicts and things like that in the future. That might be a very good idea, but right now we're handling employment stuff.

0:14:57
And so right there, what might be some things that you would share to our student listeners about ways that they can take in their own agency, if you will, to minimize the conflict. Because there is a power dynamic, but there are still ways that they can, I'm sure that you can share, that would be helpful that they may not be aware of if they're ever having a conflict.

0:15:34
Yeah, sure. I think it all depends on who it's with. I think if it's with a professor or an instructor, they have to think about what are that person's goals for the class and how can they align their, the student's interest with the instructor's interest. And I mean, that's something I try to focus people on looking at is, you know, how do you align your interests? You know, if everybody's dedicated to student success, how do we make sure that we're all working for that, you know, in a way that complements each other as opposed to detracts from one another. So I think that's a very important approach. Another one is to have empathy and realize that, hey, I'm having a bad day. Maybe this person is having a bad day too. And just giving them a little bit of time, giving them a little bit of extra consideration. And I think sometimes that goes a long way.

0:16:23
those tools to sort of self-guide, but then when you do have an issue where, you know, like if I'm dealing with a bossy co-host on my podcast, Dr. Watson, and I need some coaching, or I need you to schedule a mediation session, an intervention session. Well, he already told you that it's confidential. So if I didn't go on today about you, you wouldn't know about it anyway. But how would listeners contact you to schedule coaching sessions or mediation?

0:16:56
Oh, there's tons of ways. First of all, the phone is 702-895-1823. Our email is ombuds, O-M-B-U-D-S, at unlv.edu. You know, that's the best way to reach out. form and Google Calendar slots on the website which is www.unlv.edu slash ombuds. So a lot of ways for people to get in touch.

0:17:19
Now Dave, you had some conversation with Dr. Watson. So how many sessions do you think I'm going to need with you to sort of continue this podcast? Oh you didn't know? You missed it.

0:17:29
We met about you and we fixed it.

0:17:30
You didn't even know.

0:17:31
He's so good.

0:17:32
You didn't even know.

0:17:33
Things have gotten a little better.

0:17:40
I've seen some... It's all going to depend on what Christmas gifts I get from you. That will have a huge impact on my disposition after the holidays. Alright. Toward the podcast.

0:17:52
I think the focus is, it's not like there's ever an end goal. It's always working with each other and being attentive to the people around us. It's something we can always be concerned about. So I think there's always a little bit of work to be done in that, but it is good once you get in that place where things are clicking really well.

0:18:08
And is that sort of the initial goal from your perspective or through the informal process to be able to give the individuals or units additional skills so that they can resolve these things themselves?

0:18:22
Yeah, definitely. And a lot of what I like to talk about when I work with people is, okay, let's think about the outcome that you want. What do you want? And then work backwards from there on what's your best way to get there. And for a lot of times, that involves people maybe being a little bit patient, maybe being a little bit more patient. You know, yes, if somebody's being frustrated, you may be tempted to snap at them or something like that. But is that going to serve your ultimate goal? Whatever that is. So a lot of it's just helping people sit down and think about things strategically and where do you want to go and then how are you going to get there.

0:18:56
So there might be some folks who say, you know, that's all well and good Dave, but I really wouldn't feel comfortable having you come into my organization or working with my staff team or just even making you aware that a conflict exists. I'm afraid that it may look poorly on my leadership skills, I reflect poorly on my evaluation, and I hear you, but this seems a bit risky for me to air the dirty laundry, if you will. What advice would you give to those? What would be your response?

0:19:31
Well, I would say, first of all, in the Ombuds charter, which President Whitfield signed, there is a protection against retaliation. And the charter specifically says the university and its agents will not retaliate against people for using the office. You know, also as I make clear when I meet with with leadership at all levels, is that using the office is totally voluntary. You can't evaluate somebody negatively for doing mediation or for not doing mediation, you know, you can never hold that against them. So it starts there. You basically have nothing to lose. Also if you just visit the office and again want to have that outside perspective on something, that's always completely confidential so nobody would even know.

0:20:12
So I'm intrigued. You held an Ombuds Week. Can I share with us what were some of those activities and what was your reason for having the Ombuds Week?

0:20:22
Yeah, well we have... So Ombuds Day is an internationally recognized day, and I remember I went to President Whitfield and said, I'd like to do some activities for it. And he said, well, do you have anything else? Because I think this could be something bigger. So that's how Ombuds Week was born. And I think, you know, again, I thank him for his leadership and his vision, because that really spurred me to broaden the scope. And instead of just doing, you know, activities in one day, we had a role-play exercise, which was a lot of fun, where people could experiment with the conflict styles and learn about how different people approach conflict. We had an open house. We did a game break with Professor Tina Vo at the Faculty Center, which was really, I think, one of the more fun things, where Professor Vo walked us through some games that deal with conflict and competition. So really, it was just a chance for people to understand a little bit more about conflict and to take a slightly different view of it.

0:21:18
And could you share a little bit about, since you've been in this role and looking at the component of your portfolio that deals with advocacy for change, could you talk a little bit about your role in the campus assessment efforts and how you look at that information? And are there some common themes of concerns that are shaping and informing your approach for how you support this effort for the next academic year?

0:21:45
Yeah, you know, I think one of the, you know, there's some common things like communication tends to be problematic, you know, in many areas. And I think that's something that probably isn't a surprise to people. But there's ways we can improve that. And I see my role in the campus assessment as being that neutral third party who can offer some insights in those things. And also I think it's just a matter of reporting things that I do see and bring it to the attention of campus leadership from somebody who's not aligned with any other organization on campus so it's coming at it from that neutral position so it doesn't really have anything to gain either way. I feel like it's that, validating in a way a lot of the concerns that are already being shared.

0:22:32
Looking ahead, I know this is relatively new, how will you define success? What will be the ways that you look back and say, this is where we started, this is how I inherited this role and then here's how I'm going to report out our points of pride, our ways of showing that we are needed and making a difference in the ways that campus communication has improved, both organizationally and departmentally, individual, you know, ways through the methods that you shared. So how will you gauge your success? Well I think there's

0:23:14
a couple of different ways you can measure success for the office. Number one I think is access. Do people feel comfortable going to the office? So we'll be looking at not only the numbers of people visiting the office but looking at the demographics and which parts of the campus are being over utilized or over utilizing or under utilizing the office and then reaching out to those communities that are underutilizing it. So I think number one, do people feel comfortable bringing their concerns here? You know, if we get to a place where people are, that would be a tremendous success. I mean, the other one is harder to measure, but it's do people feel happier being on campus in general? Are the employees happier to be here? You know, that's a big one. And there's some small successes you can see where somebody might have been thinking of leaving but they then were able to have a conversation with somebody and they turn things around you know those are the little ones but I think overall you want to see how does our people or employees generally more satisfied with the UNLV than they were last year or the year before that. And then they would get

0:24:20
you out of here on this final question and we will give you the last word is there anything that you want to share with the listeners that we didn't cover that's important to you or, you know, reflective of the work that you're doing in your office or your philosophy and how you approach your work?

0:24:35
Yeah, I think it's just really important for people to realize that, you know, the office is a resource for them. This is this serves all employees, including student employees. And if there's anything that's keeping you from being as happy and productive as you want to be, you know, this is a place to come to share those concerns. There's really nothing too small or too big. And you know, worst-case scenario, you have somebody to listen to you for an hour or so, and you can bounce ideas off of them. Other things that I can do is direct them towards other resources or do a mediation or do that facilitated conversations. There's really, you know, a lot of positive that can come out of the office if they choose to visit it.

0:25:16
All right. Thank you, Dave. Renee, what were some of your key takeaways from today's session?

0:25:22
I think I underscored the value of this office and that it is a strategic way to really tackle the problems that we're seeing and to also convey what are some of the common themes themes that are maybe plaguing staff from working together, that could prevent us from reaching top tier 2025 and or other university goals. I think also these resources can be so costly. You know, when you think about how we would be spending the monies to try to bring these issues to a resolve. And to know that we have this dedicated resource, I think, is another way to strategically think about how to minimize these conflicts and minimize the other expenditures that will come by way of these conflicts not being resolved. And then lastly, I'm going to challenge Dave to think about one way to measure the success is that those who utilize these services, do they report not feeling alone? I'm telling you as someone who's been on both sides of being in the conflict but also having to say, how do I help magic conflict from someone that I supervise and it's their staff that's going in, knowing that you're not alone in these situations and you could have someone be a sounding board or someone to give you other tools that you're unfamiliar with that may be helpful is priceless. And so I'm curious to know how many folks that utilize this office will walk away saying that I didn't feel I was out there by myself. And you have so many faculty and staff that are at different levels of the career, you know, right. And so and then students who may be having a conflict at this level that they never experienced before. And so to know that we have this, I think, is really, really important.

0:27:27
Yeah. And I agree. And, you know, and, you know, although we may think we understand and know what the office is about, in terms of what their role is and how they support all UNRV stakeholders. It's always important to continue to educate the UNRV community because we do have so many new students coming in and new staff coming in, staff leaving and staff working in different capacities and may not get connected in those important ways to these types of resources. I think the more we can promote and advertise that these resources are available, it really helps reduce the conflict. And I think the other part for me that's important that Dave shared is just recognizing that, you know, everything that you share is confidential unless, you know, what he said. Otherwise, it may rise to the level that it has to be shared if there's some imminent danger or things like that. But, you know, he's there to support and give you just additional coaching confidentially, give you additional resources, and then to be able to just mediate on a larger scale is incredibly important to the work that we do, especially when you're supervising others and just giving you those additional tools. And it was surprising to hear just about the training that Dave has underwent and then just the certification process to do this important work, because I can only imagine how challenging it can be to do this type of work. So and I'm sure that human resources and general council appreciate. Absolutely. They will be as effective as you can. And I'll probably soon conduct. Absolutely. So today, the more successful you are, the more successful we are in all these other lanes. So we certainly wish and support and provide you all the support that's possible for you to be successful in all the things that we do. Even though many of those things go under the radar and they are intangible to measure, but we know that you're impactful in the work that you do.

0:29:23
Thanks, I appreciate that.

0:29:25
Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of KUNV Let's Talk UNLV. For my co-host Keith, I'm Renee. Tune in next week, Wednesday at 12 on KUNV 91.5 Jazz and More. Tune in next week, Wednesday at 12 on KUNV 91.5 Jazz and More.

0:29:41
That's a wrap!

Transcribed with Cockatoo