This week’s 18:83 Speaker Series featured Dr. Maridee Shogren, Dean of the College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines at UND. Shogren’s speech was titled “Apple Pie Leadership.”
Dr. Shogren began the presentation by explaining that she loves to bake, and one of her favorite things to bake is apple pie. Dr. Shogren said, “I think that baking an apple pie is a really nice analogy for somebody who is new to leadership and is trying to build a team.” Dr. Shogren’s speech seemed like a chemistry lesson at times, but the messages on how to build the perfect apple pie had a deeper meaning.
“A leader is a person, but leadership is a process,” said Dr. Shogren. She explained that you must “read some recipes, prepare your ingredients, and be prepared to fail.”
The first step in the physical creation of an apple pie is creating the crust. Dr. Shogren said that her grandmother always said that the crust is the best part of the pie. The crust must also act as the foundation, which is essential in creating a team. Dr. Shogren said that a leadership foundation must be “strong, but not too rigid.”
Dr. Shogren’s next step is to prepare the filling. According to Dr. Shogren, the best apple pies include different types of apples. Too many of the same kinds of apples will lead to a pie that is too mushy or tart. Dr. Shogren compared this to building a team by stating, “when you start to build your leadership team, you also need to build the core of that team with a lot of variety.” Dr. Shogren explained that various skills and abilities will be brought to a team from people who are at different points in their lives, which is akin to UND’s team structure of people in their early, middle, and late stages of their careers.
Dr. Shogren’s third step came back to the pie crust. She explained that the design of the pie crust does not matter, but the concept and purpose does. Steam needs to be able to escape from the pie, or else it will collapse. The steam in the process of the pie is conflict, Dr. Shogren explains. “Conflict has to happen but build a model based around respect and civility,” she said.
The fourth step is to bake the pie. Dr. Shogren compared letting the pie bake to putting trust in the leadership process. “You’ve done the prep work, let your decisions bake,” Dr. Shogren explained, and after the pie has had enough time to bake, it is important to take a step back and evaluate your leadership process. “It’s okay to try a different apple, bring in a different person,” she stated. According to Dr. Shogren, being flexible in the reflection process is essential.
Finally, if your pie does not turn out, do not quit baking. Dr. Shogren said that “to be an effective leader, you need to keep the pieces of the process that work.” Dr. Shogren stressed the importance of tweaking things that need to be tweaked, celebrating the things that need to be celebrated, and to keep trying.
Listeners were treated to some homemade apple crisp to celebrate the leadership process.
UND’s next 18:83 Speaker Series will feature Dr. Bradley Rundquist, Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Rundquist will speak at 2:30 p.m. at the Memorial Union Social Stairs.
Garrett Webber is a Dakota Student Section Editor. He can be reached at [email protected].
