Silverstone Group review of Nebraska Athletics finds a strong, high-performing department

[knapplc]

http://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/unltoday/article/athletics-program-review-finds-strong-high-performing-department/

Nebraska Athletics is a high-performing department that meets its most important priority -- helping student-athletes be successful in academics, athletics and life -- an external review of the department found.

The review, conducted by the Omaha-based SilverStone Group, also confirmed that the athletics department is in a strong position, that Director of Athletics Shawn Eichorst is well regarded, and that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln serves as a national model in supporting student-athletes.

“I was very pleased with the overall positive findings of the report,” Chancellor Ronnie Green said. “I appreciate the respectful culture within the department of athletics and I trust the direction of the department under Shawn’s capable leadership.”

I'm sure everything wasn't sunshine & daisies, so it'll be interesting to see what problems they found, too. But overall, it seems like the report came back the way we'd want it.

 

[Bowfin]

Lincoln Journal-Star has an article on this.

http://journalstar.com/news/local/education/report-positive-but-finds-eichorst-should-be-more-open-to/article_7cebbc0d-ca62-5f81-98e2-4c5151e7207b.html#utm_source=journalstar.com&utm_campaign=%2Femail-updates%2Fdaily-headlines%2F&utm_medium=email&utm_content=C5ED8B3E40574F822ACCB9DBFDFDA9B78BB45953

The report does call for some changes to be made within the department's leadership structure, however, including improving communication between support areas and some specific sports.
The report also stresses the "importance of visibility," an area where Eichorst has drawn some criticism because of a reluctance -- perceived or otherwise -- to speak with the media.
Data collected in the report also indicates some coaches and athletic support staff do not feel their input is sought or valued in the decision-making process.

 

[huKSer]

I hope next up for the Silverstone Group is Baylor!

 

[Landlord]

It's a really great thing and probably something we take for granted to actually be able to take genuine pride in our school and athletic department.

 

[Savage Husker]

Keep doing what you're good at, but the review will be wasted if the leaders don't take the critical data and turn a negative into a positive. I am optimistic the right leaders are in place to make those improvement, but time will tell before we can judge if the review was really worth it. Overall, it probably was a beneficial process.

 

[Mavric]

[No message]

 

[Bowfin]

I hope next up for the Silverstone Group is Baylor!

The Baylor boosters are going another direction: They want to hire Art Briles as an independent consultant and see if he can give the Bears a clean bill of health

 

[grandpasknee]

Have had experience with Silverstone Group. For the right price, they will tell you anything you want to hear, IMHO. Take this report and $6 and you can get a nice coffee at starbucks.

 

[knapplc]

Here we go...

 

[Landlord]

Have had experience with Silverstone Group. For the right price, they will tell you anything you want to hear, IMHO. Take this report and $6 and you can get a nice coffee at starbucks.

so you're telling me that Starbucks doesn't accept reviews of athletic departments as a form of currency?

 

[Scratchtown]

Have had experience with Silverstone Group. For the right price, they will tell you anything you want to hear, IMHO. Take this report and $6 and you can get a nice coffee at starbucks.

"NOT CREDIBLE UNLESS YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF FURTHER!"

 

[JJkinz]

Was anyone else surprised that they only interviewed 3 student athletes for this review (out of 237 total people interviewed)? While I admittedly have no experience with reviews such as this, I would have figured the student athlete's opinion would have factored more into the overall conclusions drawn about the student athlete experience. However, I do question how they can draw any sort of conclusion about the student athlete's opinion with a sample size of only 3.

Student Athlete Perspective

The student athletes interviewed provided very positive perspectives. They expressed positive experiences as student athletes both with leadership in their sports and the Department of Athletics as a whole. Communication between students and staff is good and also perceived to be good among leadership.

Overall, they are satisfied with resources and support offered and believe their interests as students are taken to heart by leadership.

With regard to focus on student athletes, student interviews revealed the following themes:

 Leadership perceived as awesome, kind, caring and consistent, which puts the welfare of student athletes first and foremost. Nebraska creates support for all student athletes across the board while other universities only offer some support for their headcount programs.

 The Director of Athletics and the Department of Athletics are all about the student athlete experience and employee development. The Director of Athletics is open to changes in performance management and taking a look at strengths-based development.

 The Director of Athletics looks for opportunities to connect all aspects of the student athlete experience. He is really good at integration of academics and sports (e.g. he introduced journalism students at spring games).

 Shawn and the team in the Department of Athletics support the welfare of the athlete.

 

[grandpasknee]

Have had experience with Silverstone Group. For the right price, they will tell you anything you want to hear, IMHO. Take this report and $6 and you can get a nice coffee at starbucks.

"NOT CREDIBLE UNLESS YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF FURTHER!"

Golly, since you responded in all caps I reckon I'd better answer! I was integrally involved with a project where Silverstone was the consulting group. Their "direction" changed multiple times based on what different leaders wanted to hear. Beyond that, there are ongoing activities that preclude me from commenting any further. If that means I'm not credible in your eyes, I suppose I'll still sleep OK.

 

[Savage Husker]

Have had experience with Silverstone Group. For the right price, they will tell you anything you want to hear, IMHO. Take this report and $6 and you can get a nice coffee at starbucks.

"NOT CREDIBLE UNLESS YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF FURTHER!"

Golly, since you responded in all caps I reckon I'd better answer! I was integrally involved with a project where Silverstone was the consulting group. Their "direction" changed multiple times based on what different leaders wanted to hear. Beyond that, there are ongoing activities that preclude me from commenting any further. If that means I'm not credible in your eyes, I suppose I'll still sleep OK.

I'm not rebuttling just to play Devils advocate, but if it's what different leaders wanted, what else are they supposed to do after that many change of directions? It almost sounds like a leadership problem from the organization they audited. Or is there something more to it that you haven't had the chance to explain in detail yet?

Second, you're not the first person I've heard explain a story that silverstone hasn't lived up to their name, thus dropped the ball on a client.

Third, I helped pry a nice sized account away from them a couple years ago and saved a client $10-$20k per year.

So, my overall point is, I don't disagree with your statement about silverstone overall, but your particular situation would take more detail for me before I discredit their audit process. Sometimes I've learned, when as much as you try to sell a service the right way, no matter how true you try to be your customers, you also sell to your client what they want because they won't listen.

 

[dman22]

I'm a little surprised to see no one mentioning the part about former staff members trying to sabotage the athletic department leadership. But I suppose that topic has been beaten to death around here.

"It appears some former employees were working to sabotage rather than support the efforts of the leadership and staff of this department. Behavior described during the interview process by the interviewees themselves strongly suggests that, in some cases, this was happening."