Editor’s Column: Time for a Change

./Steven Toaddy

As I package up an issue of TIP and send it off to the SIOP Administrative Office for publication, I try to reflect on all of the excellent content I’ve just had the opportunity to preview and to try to extract patterns, themes, and trends in those contributions. Always, there is practical advice; there’s attention to science and to practice (and, in more cases than not, to both at once); there’s attention to everyone from our most well-situated, long-standing members to our graduate student hopefuls to those whose membership or voices are prevented by systemic inequalities in our world. All of that brings me comfort and reminds me of just how much our Society is actively endeavoring to consider and to change, and the amount of work that we are collectively doing—many of us on a volunteer basis—to advance not our careers or even our reputations but, instead, our field and the larger world that it serves.

In this issue in particular, there are many artifacts that strike me as being oriented particularly toward inviting readers to make fairly foundational changes in the way that they go about their work. Some, like the one about translating the SIOP Guidelines for Graduate Education into an actionable, competency-based format for master’s programs, have been simmering quietly since 2016; others, like the one about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the one about demographic-item best practices, are examples of updates and additional information on ongoing initiatives. Most, though, seem to be newly launched responses to perceived needs for change. Let me elaborate and, in so doing, draw your attention to some choice morsels:

• There are two COVID-reaction how-to articles, one about performance management and the other about building a resilient work culture. In both cases, the call to change is to avoid simply going forward into the future (or even current and past, at this point) world of work without paying attention to the substantial ways that the pandemic has altered that world.
• Based on empirical work that, if I’m understanding things correctly, was galvanized by a reviewer’s comments for a submission to SIOP’s Annual Conference (Thanks for your reviewing service!), we’re invited to rethink the way that we assume that management and psychology departments do and do not differ.
• We’re challenged to think differently about the strategy that we use when choosing what jobs to take by way of a personal narrative shared by our Prosocial Subcommittee.
• We’re invited to step back and reconsider the way that we think about and deploy participation activities (and grading) in the classroom, delivered in a particularly engaging intrafamilial-dialogue format.

The list could go on, but let me stop there; if the above eight articles don’t make the trend clear, perhaps no number would (and perhaps the trend is only in my head anyway). My experience with reading these articles was very often one of reading a bit, making a note in my workflow-management system to substantially alter the way that I go about a routine or even deeply impactful, infrequent, personal activity, and then return to reading—rinse, repeat. Perhaps these will have the same effect on you.

Looking at the calendar, I note that it is also time for a change of editors. My successor is already making waves within SIOP, and so the change won’t stop with that of their name on the masthead, I think. I’m excited to see where they take the publication in their 3-year term as editor. As I reflect back on my past 3 years in the role, a smile blossoms on my face. I have almost nothing but gratitude for the interactions I have had with so many contributors, administrative staff, and Executive Board members during my time in the role, and I’m also grateful to you, reader, for your time and for giving us all something on which to work collectively. So long.