Maximize your Collaborative Efforts by Being Intentional with your Office Brand

1. Maximize your Collaborative Efforts by Being Intentional with your Office Brand Adam Meyer Student accessibility Services University of Central Florida

2. Office Brand

3. What is a Brand? • Represents something you believe in and what you value • Your promise to your customers / target audiences • Signifies what people can expect from your products and services • Differentiates you from your competitors (other offices on campus) • Derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be • May not necessarily align • Builds long-term relationships when values mutually aligned

4. Challenge for DS Offices: Different Target Audiences • Target Audiences for a Disability Office: • Students • Faculty • Campus Staff • Parents • What are the needs of the target audience? What are they seeking in a brand?

5. WHY

6. Most Critical for Brand: Know the reason your office exists – know your WHY

7. WHY: • Purpose? • Cause? • Belief? • Vision? • Ideals? • Essence of your office operations • Why should anyone care about your office? • Through your office’s efforts, what is your vision for your campus 20 – 30 years from now? • Why do you get out of bed Monday morning?

8. Why does a disability office exist on campus? • Identify three WHY purposes of the disability office

9. Possible Core WHY Purposes • Access • Inclusion • Disability as an aspect of diversity • Social responsibility to facilitate access • Facilitate Inclusive environments • Social Justice • Equity • Facilitating educational opportunities • System change • Shifting attitudes

10. Necessary for Success • Balance among: • WHY • HOW • WHAT • Need all three equally but must start with WHY and maintain WHY as a focal point

11. WHY HOW WHAT The Golden Circle (Adapted from Simon Sinek’s Start with Why) Adapted from Start with Why by Simon Sinek

12. The Importance of WHY: Passion comes from feeling like you are part of something you believe in, something bigger than yourself. -- Simon Sinek

13. HOW: • Values and principles that bring the WHY to life • Actions you take to realize the WHY • Requires building practical structures and processes • Requires discipline and accountability • The hardest part of the WHY-HOW-WHAT process?? • Most people are HOW-types rather than visionaries (WHY)

14. Disability Office Examples of HOW: • How you intentionally communicate your message (web, accommodation letters, etc.) • Philosophy that drives initial student meetings • How you connect with faculty • Process to distribute accommodation letters • Database management • How you intentionally and consistently use programs to move your message forward

15. WHAT: • The results of those actions taken to realize the belief • Everything we specifically do and say: • Accommodations • Specific initial meeting questions and style • Website (specific language, use of, design) • Logo and/or tagline • Language used in overall documents • The way the office engages with campus faculty and staff • The specific programs and workshops that people see and experience

16. The Purpose of a Disability Services Office… Are we (our field) primarily defined by WHAT we do or WHY we do what we do? On your campus, is your office primarily defined by WHAT you do or WHY you do what you do?

17. Something to Ponder… Does your office focus on accommodations as a means to fulfill access and inclusion? OR Does your office focus on access and inclusion first and foremost with accommodations as one path to making access a reality?

18. Accommodations over Access? • The Disability Services Office determines reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities to ensure equal access and compliance with the law. • The Disability Services Office works with students to determine appropriate accommodations in the academic setting. • The Disability Services Office works directly with students and faculty to provide accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.

19. Access over Accommodations? • The mission of the (disability office) is to partner with the campus community in creating equitable access to eligible students while promoting disability-inclusive diversity. • The mission of the (disability office) is to create an accessible, inclusive, sustainable learning environment, where disability is recognized as an aspect of diversity that is integral to the campus community and to society. Our primary objective is to provide equal access to campus programs and activities for all students. • (Disability office) leads the campus in the creation of inclusive learning and working environments and facilitates access through innovative services, programs, and partnerships.

20. Connecting with Others and Managing Expectations

21. Other Critical Brand Components: • Put people first (your team and your target audiences) • Be consistent and aligned • Language, process, customer service, Facebook, web language, interactions and overall actions, etc. should all go back to core purpose and message • The perception of others and overall reputation • The ultimate truth is based on what is in other people’s hearts and minds more so than based on what you do in reality • What do others say about you?

22. To Accomplish… • Keep your brand simple by focusing on a small number of key values • Involve your team • Every person in the office should understand the brand and operate accordingly • Know your niche relative to other offices on campus • If your office disappears from the campus map tomorrow, what will be taken from the campus, students, faculty, staff and parents? • Assess and understand how your services meet (or do not meet) the specific needs of your target audiences

23. Connect with Others Find a way to connect to your customers on a deeper, more emotional level: • Do you give them peace of mind? (or do frustrations arise when they see your email?) • Make them feel like part of the family? (or do they feel like a number?) • Do you make life easier? (or are your processes too complicated and burdensome?) • Do you connect with their purpose and passion? (or do others see no relationship?)

24. Create a Customer Service “Wow”(Michael Hyatt) • A “wow” experience is one of those experiences that causes your jaw to drop, where what you expected and what you got were totally different. In a “wow” experience, the actual experience exceeded the expectation. • Customer satisfaction is when you get what you expect. • Disappointment happens when the expectation is greater than the experience.

25. Why Unmet Expectations Occur • Expectations clearly outlined but not followed • Expectations not clearly outlined • Internal expectations assumed but not met

26. 5 Questions to Ask Regarding Expectations • What is the product or the experience I want to create or transform into a ‘wow’? • How will the customer or the prospect feel as a result of this experience? • What specific expectations does the customer typically bring to this experience? • What does failing to meet customer expectations for this experience look like? • What does meeting customers’ expectations for this experience look like?

27. When Connecting with Others • WHAT can meet short-term needs but may feel like manipulation • WHAT is more concrete and simple on the surface but shallow in creating real connections • Facilitates a transaction, not a relationship • WHY leads to deeper connections and understandings that people want to be associated with • We want to be part of something that reflects our passions • We want to be part of a deeper connection with others

28. Collaborate on WHAT via WHY • Your WHY ultimately influences and creates your WHAT, which ideally resonates with someone and influences their WHY • At its best, trust, connections and great collaborations are built YOUR WHY THEIR WHY WHAT

29. Think From Their Perspective Ultimately, people do things for their reasons, not our reasons. -- Dale Carnegie

30. Some Components of Disability Office Brand • Office Name • Tagline • Logo • Language on Accommodation Letter • Website language • Initial meeting style • Accommodation processes • Messages within your campus presentations • Approach to working with students • Approach to working with faculty • Approach to working with staff • Approach to working with and supporting your office team

31. Disability OfficeBrand Example #1

32. Office Name • Disability Support Services

33. Tagline • Supporting and empowering students with disabilities

34. Mission Statement (University) is dedicated to ensuring equal access and does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities in its policies, procedures, programs, or employment processes. (University), in accordance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 2008, recognizes the need to provide an environment that does not discriminate against persons with disabilities. The (Office) was created to specifically answer the needs of our students with disabilities.

35. Intake Process • Submit documentation so that it may be reviewed in advance of a meeting to see if it meets documentation requirements • Meet with Disability Advisor once documentation is approved and/or to discuss additional documentation needs along with accommodations • Proceed with using normal accommodation processes once all needed information gathered

36. Intro on an Accommodation Letter The student named above meets the legal definition of disability as stated in the Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act of 2008. The student is registered with my office and is eligible for course modifications or auxiliary aids and services including but not limited to the following: No additional accommodations can be implemented without our office authorization and approval.

37. Example Syllabus Statement Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. If you have a disability and may need accommodations to participate in this class, please visit the disability service office as soon as possible. Note that all accommodations MUST first be approved through the disability service office.

39. Disability Simulation Activity Come learn about what it is like to be blind or deaf or to use a wheelchair or to read with dyslexia through hands-on experiences. Understand firsthand the many challenges that people with disabilities have to manage on a daily basis. Participants will try to complete activities at different stations where you will wear a blindfold while stacking blocks, have a conversation with ear muffs on, navigate a path in a wheelchair and read a document with special glasses that simulate dyslexia. Stop by and appreciate the challenges of having a disability!!

40. Overall Possible Brand Message… • Disability Office is a Gatekeeper • All access decisions must go through office • Office the power and authority on access • All decisions are driven by and done in accordance with the law • The disability is considered the greatest barrier • Access is a disability office thing, not a campus-wide thing

41. Brand Example #2

42. Office Name • Student Accessibility Services

43. Tagline • Access Matters

44. Mission Statement SAS’ Vision and Purpose: Aspiring to make UCF a fully accessible and inclusive campus for people with disabilities We do this by: • Acknowledging disability as an aspect of human diversity • Challenging social norms that create barriers • Creating partnerships with faculty, staff, students and the community • Establishing equal opportunity experiences • Sharing resources that facilitate access and inclusion • Signifying access and inclusion as a university-wide responsibility

45. Initial Meeting Process • Schedule a meeting with the Accessibility Consultant • Discuss personal story • Provide whatever documentation you feel may be beneficial to understanding • (If/when absolutely necessary, identify additional documentation needs) • Discuss access, accommodations and processes

46. Intro on Accommodation Letter Student Accessibility Services (SAS) is a resource for students with disabilities and university faculty. Through collaboration, we ensure students with disabilities experience access and inclusion in their coursework through accommodations or other modifications.  The accommodations listed below are a starting point in the conversation. Upon student request or SAS notification (such as a test request), the following accommodations should be facilitated for the student or discussed with SAS when questions of reasonableness exist: We have a collaborative responsibility to create accessible learning environments and we value your input. Reasonable accommodations are determined on a case-by-case basis based upon the design of the course and the student’s situation.

47. Syllabus Statement UCF considers the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff to be a strength and critical to its educational mission. UCF expects every member of the university community to contribute to an inclusive and respectful culture for all in its classrooms, work environments, and at campus events. Dimensions of diversity can include sex, race, age, national origin, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, intellectual and physical ability, sexual orientation, income, faith and non-faith perspectives, socio-economic class, political ideology, education, primary language, family status, military experience, cognitive style, and communication style. The individual intersection of these experiences and characteristics must be valued in our community. If there are aspects of the design, instruction, and/or experiences within this course that result in barriers to your inclusion or accurate assessment of achievement, please notify the instructor as soon as possible and/or contact (disability office).

49. The Real Disability Barriers Workshop • This interactive workshop will explore some of the greatest disability barriers that exist in day-to-day activities and experiences. Through the videos, images and conversations shared, participants will gain insight into the challenges of the environment (physical, procedural and attitudes) and the environment’s impact on the experiences of people with disabilities. Discover how the environment is more “disabling” than one’s personal situation. Everyone who attends will be able to identify at least one action-item take-away that they can use to contribute to a more accessible and inclusive environment for people with disabilities within their spheres of influence.

50. Overall Possible Brand Message… • Disability Office is a Catalyst • An agent that facilitates change • The office is more of a consultant for campus, not a great authority • Faculty play a critical role in the process of facilitating access • Disability is an aspect of diversity • The design of the environment is the greatest barrier • Creating and ensuring access is a campus-wide responsibility