VESC Ep. 4: Voices from NCU Students and Alumni: Driving Research and Practice

This is the first episode of a new series produced by VESC called Voices from NCU Students and Alumni: Driving Research and Practice. The Voices series shines a light on the contributions NCU students and alumni are making to virtual teaching and learning. In this episode, NCU alumnus Dr. Samantha Hedgspeth describes her experience as an online doctoral student and offers recommendations to learners in virtual programs. Dr. Hedgspeth is the founder of The Hedgspeth Group, an executive coaching and consulting firm. 

Transcript

Welcome and see you family and friends to our very first episode of S. Voices for ncu students and alumni driving research and practice. I'm your host, Ryan Barnhart. You might know me better as Dr. B. I'm an adjunct professor in the School of Education here at ncu. We're super excited to welcome you all today listening there, and we're super excited to welcome our season one, very first ever guest. She is Dr. Samantha Hedspeth. She earned her PhD in Business Administration with an organizational leadership specialization here from ncu in November of 2019. Dr. Hedge Smith is a founder and principal of her company, the hedge bet group. She provides executive coaching and consulting to organizations of all sizes. She's currently working on presenting and writing her first book entitled, the pandemic disruption is tacit knowledge on the precipice of extinction. 

This topic is a spin off from her dissertation, millennials, understanding the challenges and transferring tacit knowledge. It's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Samantha Hudspeth, welcome to the show. Thank you, Dr. v. for that warm welcome. I'm glad to be here with you. Absolutely. And we're really excited and pleased to welcome you here on our first episode, I can't think of a better guest to get things started with. And on that note, we're going to get right down the business and kind of jump right in if you're okay with that. So before we start, just tell us a little bit about your background, kind of how you're affiliated with ncu, how you got here and where you are today. So, I am a proud alumnus of North Central University. I matriculated in the business administration program, the Ph. D. program. In organizational leadership, I really really enjoyed the journey. I successfully defended November 2019. And my topic was millennials understanding the challenges to transferring tacit knowledge. And I had an extraordinary chair, Dr. Melody Rawlings, she really made the journey a lot easier. A good chair will do that. Absolutely. 

Let's talk a little bit about you know, your research focus, how was your experience researching through the Virtual Learning aspects, especially given its, you know, relationship to the MCU student experience, you know, initially the Virtual Learning route, which was a little scary for me, I really felt alone, you know, until I got adjusted and found my way around the site, you know, going through the coursework piece, by the time I got to the di s core series, I was I was old hat, you know, in the website. So, it but at first I was just not sure that I could truly read all synthesize all and articulate all required in the doctoral program. But the doctoral journey, you know, because the doctoral journey is a huge undertaking with rigorous requirements. So, but just being with ncu, they really made everything easy or easier. The way they have the portal setup, the way they have the library setup, the convenience of talking to my doctoral chair, it really made everything a lot easier and put me at ease. Because when I started the program, I felt like I was standing out in an open universe and had to find the needle in the haystack or find the star that had my name, and my narrow topic on it out of billions of stars, but in to use, the way they have everything set up. It just really helped me just expedite right on through. 

Absolutely. And that eureka moment is probably for most of our doctoral students that most exciting, you know, part when everything just kind of clicks and falls into place. So thanks for sharing that. Let's talk a little bit more about that virtual learning experience. What would you say would be some of the pros and cons of your specific experience in the virtual learning environment? I would say really the virtual learning environment. A great advantage, especially for working adults, is the flexibility and convenience. I scheduled you know, asynchronous classes. Because I was that working adult I wanted the flexibility to attend to my coursework and writing when I found it convenient. I really enjoyed working with NC use expert faculty one on one who has a wealth of knowledge as I said before, and my experience with the library NC use library was amazing. Even at night, you know, I could email chat, you know, request a particular document and it would be there you know in my inbox the next morning and the only negative to the virtual learning for me is not necessarily a reflection on the program. But it was my adjustment, my learning curve as a student as a virtual student.

 05:14

Because if you're not organized time will slip away from you. And you can easily get behind, you know, which adds an enormous amount of stress to the whole process. Once I found my rhythm of outlining my task for the week, preparing an outline, you know, for my Friday meeting with my chair, and packing my roller bag for the library, or wherever I was going, the journey became a lot easier, I could, I could then focus more on the research process itself. Once I got myself super, super organized, got a rhythm and a routine. Those are great tips. And I would say, you know, time is undefeated in life, like it has the perfect record, right. And if you don't manage your time, especially in a doctorate program, it will manage you, I know I had that experience as well. So that is really, that's a good insight there. I appreciate you sharing that with us. And let's let's talk a little more, if any other recommendations for listeners who are maybe are in the process of pursuing an advanced degree in the virtual environment, or maybe looking to pursue that terminal degree, a doctorate in virtual space. 

Yes, I highly recommend those who are pursuing or thinking about pursuing degrees in the virtual space, to utilize all that the virtual environment has to offer, especially now that we are in this pandemic. And the virtual option is the primary option for most schools, attending ncu is an advantage in the virtual learning process, because they have always been a virtual environment, and are not just figuring things out due to the pandemic, as some schools are. So they have already teased through their learning curve of what works best for their students. With over 25 years of being in the virtual education space. They have an awesome library. And if you want to troll general conversations or look for people to discuss certain topics, they have ncu comments, the virtual networking gathering spot? Yeah, absolutely. I think that it's been very refreshing as a faculty member to see how very much proactive ncu has been throughout virtual learning, whereas many universities in the situation are much more reactive. So I think there's a stark difference there. And students at NC u are definitely an advantage to others.

07:43

Let's talk a little bit now about you know, you made a good analogy there about the pandemic. And that's kind of like, you know, very much what you're working on now in your field. Right. So how are you using your research and specifically your dissertation to really talk in advance, you know, this conversation about how things are changing out the through quarantine and beyond? Yeah, you know, it's just all happening in a blur, just like the pandemic, because there's no way that when I picked my topic, that I would have known that there would have, you know, there was coming a pandemic and the pandemic defended November and the pandemic was in the next two, three months. 

So, the research, what I'm doing now is actually a spinoff from my dissertation work because my dissertation work really talked about the hindrances to transferring tacit knowledge. Well, within the findings of my research technology was at the epicenter of the hindrances to transferring tacit knowledge. So now that the globe is in a pandemic, and organizations have been thrusted into an all virtual workplace, I am sounding the alarm about the latent risk for certain models of organizations, and how they will lose their proprietary invaluable tacit knowledge, if they are not proactively preserving and effectively cascading it to the virtual new hires that are coming on board. technology provides avenues of communication but cannot replace interactive relationships that transfer tacit knowledge. Also, I am submitting my work to present at various academic conferences, and look forward to other types of speaking engagements. So more or less just from my work, what I've learned about tacit knowledge about sounding the alarm for organizations to really, really pay attention to their knowledge into their organizational culture, within this pandemic, absolutely. You stole my words right there about organizational culture, I think, you know, that's one of the things that we teach in Edu 7150 and 52

10:00

For the for all those classes, the leadership courses, education, and I think that's a big piece, you know, with the pandemic, you know, I'll use my wife and example, you know, she was hired at a national, she's a marketing advertising she got hired in the national firm during the pandemic, how do you translate organizational culture through zoom? You know, it's a, it's a really big conundrum. And it's really cool to see you kind of, you know, taking that on headfirst with your, with your research. So thank you for sharing that. That's really cool stuff that you're doing there. I'm excited about it. I'm really because I'm in a good I'm just in a one in a million position. Again, when I was writing my paper, I had no idea that a pandemic was coming.

10:41

You know, and that I really thought that I would be talking today in 2021, talking about organizations and how to retain their tacit knowledge, just in you know, our regular office work environment. But then it was really cranked up, you know, like 10 decibels with this pandemic, and so now, it's of urgency that organizations pay attention to retaining their tacit knowledge and cascading their culture. No doubt, I would say that it's turned up to 11. It's one louder through this pandemic, but that's just my personal take on it. Let's talk about a practice in virtual learning. Do you have a specific piece of advice for either current students or future virtual students to use this specifically adds value to their virtual learning. Again, it goes back to different things that you do to organize yourself, I would highly recommend one that I students sets up a meeting series with their chair, it is best that you make you know, you really become one with your chair, so that you can make adjustments to your body of work as you go, you know, along versus submitting a chunk of your work and needing to do a major overhaul because you're not on target. 

So you want to make sure that you're on target with your grammar, and context wise. So for me Sunday nights, you know, at the very latest, I would sit and create an outline for my week, I would outline you know, each day, how many hours of the day I would want to work on my research, or you know, what is my target how many pages I wanted to write each day, I was scheduled some days for just research. And then other days for just writing. And then sometimes I would flip my program around and research and write in the same day, but at least I would have an outline to start working from. 

And so the main meat here is to write out your plan of attack each week. Each week, don't haphazardly fall through it, but write out a plan of attack. So I wrote out also to while I was working on my research, and my writing during the week, I would keep a running list. I called it a living list where I would just open it and you know, write jot down questions I would want to discuss with my chair on Friday, I wanted to absolutely make sure that I did not miss asking her one question that you know where I needed help. So I would keep a living list. I would keep it open my does that document up as I worked on my body of work and add to it as I went along. So by the time Friday came, when we had our one on one scheduled, I would just pop open that Word document. And then as I asked the questions, as she responded, I was able to type, you know, our conversation right into that document and save it. So that I would just have you know, I would have it there for my reference as I go into the weekend and I get to the library or Panera Bread wherever I would camp. And then I would know what we talked about and the direction that she gave me. So I think that's that's critical. You do set up a one on one meeting series with your chair.

14:17

Write up an outline at the beginning of the week for the week, and that you keep a living list of questions while you're working through the week that you can cover all angles when you speak with your dissertation chair at the end of the week. Oh, that's great advice. Great advice for any future doctoral student that those are Words To Live By. How about other best practices? Do you have any other recommendations for current and future students? I would say again, back to my point of organization. You want to keep a steady rhythm in writing and research to stay on target with your timeline and submission dates. I know that we can get inundated, we can get overwhelmed as you know, doctoral students.

15:05

You know, we have life, a lot of people have spouses, they have families. So you want to just make sure that you are meticulous about writing things down and keeping a little journal and just jot all your notes that are doctoral related in that one journal so that you can find them versus having sticky notes. You know, all over the face of your computer, I've done that too. But sticky notes fall off, and then you're wondering where it is. So a journal, I would say, get a journal where you can write all notes. And just every time you go to make a note, you can date it. But you want to make sure that you stay on target your timeline. Because time really escapes you quickly, with all the researching and with all the writing. And so you don't want to miss any submission dates, you want to make sure that all your content is up to par. So stay close with your chair, you want to stay ahead of the curve. Because if you need to take an extra class, if you need some extra time, you want to spend that during your IVR segment of this journey, that's where if you want to take a little extra time you just or a lot, a little bit of extra time. 

That's where because you're really going to have to collect that data and do all of your analysis. So if you need some wiggle room, you know, make sure you're tight everywhere else so that you'll have that wiggle room on your schedule. Great advice. Great advice. And lastly, I mean, I'm a big proponent of this, I tell my students that I chair, and the students that I'm committees on is that, you know, we want you to work smarter, not harder. So that being said, Do you have one Virtual Education hack that you or maybe you know, a colleague, you know, uses? Or is using that you can recommend us? Yes, I do. I actually have two hacks I want to share quickly.

17:09

I would say that, you know, oftentimes, as a student, we can be very picky or be very sensitive about our work. Um, so, you know, because I'm in several, like several, like, you know, support PhD support groups on, you know, some social medias. And you see people, you know, say, Well, my chair said this about my writing, my chair said this about my writing. So I really would advise people to go in kind of open minded, and really look at the things that your chair says about your writings, so that you can be on alert. So for each submission, before you turn it in you, you will check your writings for the things that your chair has previously mentioned. For example, my chair, she was always dinging me for anthropomorphism, you know, and you can find that on page 117. In the APA guide, you know, the anthro, more morphism is attributing human characteristics to innate objects, she was always putting a little notes, how I used euphemism, which is flowery language. So I just learned to keep a note of those on what I call my check sheet cheat sheet. 

And that it on that is that check sheet cheat sheet is a list of things. Such as always checking at the end of the day, there are certain things that you need to always check your papers for, which is my hack. So I would always go back, check all of my paragraphs and make sure there was a minimum of three sentences per paragraph because I got dinged on that a couple of times where I just had like to run on sentences. You know, and I thought it was a full paragraph. But you must have three sentences. each paragraph, make sure each paragraph was indented five spaces at the time because it's now seven, according to APA guide, the seven addition. But sometimes I had skipped indenting a paragraph, you know, make sure your notes and your figures and you know, your notes are under your figures and tables. So that cheat sheet is something that I always had handy. So at the end of a writing session, I would then go back and make sure that you know I had now it's one space between each sentence but back then it was it was two spaces. 

So you'd have a checklist, and then I would always have on that checklist. The things that I've heard my chair consistently say about my writing, like the anthropomorphism, you know, or the euphemism, those type things. Whatever I found that she said, I was like, okay, there must be something to this because she's paying to be on this a couple of papers. So I would say just write yourself a check sheet cheat sheet. Well, Dr. Hedgspeth, thank you so much again for joining us today. We really appreciate it. But before we go, we always like to allow our guests to kind of plug their pluggable so how can folks find out about the hedge bet group, maybe connect with you on LinkedIn? Or find more about your research? Yes, most definitely. Please send me a connect on LinkedIn, Samantha Hedgspeth that's Hedgspeth, there on LinkedIn. 


You can you can hear podcasts that I've recently done with North Central University. Also, you can see the latest webinar that I did with North Central University's Center for Teaching and Learning on the topic of the pandemic disruption that's there on my wall on LinkedIn. Or you can send me an email at info at the hedge path group.com info at the hedge path group calm. Excellent. So make sure you guys check out Dr. Hedge bet all the cool stuff that she's doing all the the impact that she's making in the field and attacking tacit knowledge and its transfer in the digital age. We want to thank you all again for joining us for the very first episode of voices from ncu students and alumni driving research and practice again for Dr. Hedgspeth. I'm your host Ryan Barnhart. Thanks for joining us. We'll catch you next time. 

Thank you so much for having me.