Happiness in Action: Lessons From Harvard // The Happiness Blueprint e024

Jason from Harvard’s Dean of Students Office, shares how he responds to opportunities, how he leads teams of exceptional people, and when panicking is helpful! 

0:00 Jason from Harvard
0:43 Responding to Opportunities
 5:49 Leading Teams Towards Success
12:22 Managing Rooms of Elite Intelligence
13:43 Advice for Past Self
15:41 Times Where Being Panicked Doesn’t Help
16:54 What Makes Jason Happy?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Happiness Blueprint, the podcast where we uncover how people build happier lives. Awesome friends, welcome back. I'm here with Jason Meyer from Harvard. Jason, thanks for taking the time to come chat with us here.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Love to first understand what is your role in Harvard. So I know we're at NACA, we're all involved in collegiate events here. What's your role specifically?

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Yeah, at Harvard in my day job, day job, I'm the associate dean for student engagement. Incredible. Specifically work with the undergrads. Incredible. And I understand you've been there for a while, so you're very familiar with all the ins and outs of it all. Yeah, we just hit year four, so I'm in my senior year. Incredible. Okay. Excited for a commencement next January. Also, Harvard degree, I think.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Incredible. Yes, you've earned one, certainly. I'm curious about the events you've put on in campus, the events you're involved with here. So, what are some of the day-to-day tasks? What are some of the big monuments throughout the year that they're part of?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

On a day-to-day, you really don't have much control of what comes your way. It's it's really about responding to opportunities and making the most of it, right? So we have almost 600 student organizations and they have ideas every single day. And so it's about how do we how do we corral that vision into something that's producible, something that is tangible, and how do we support them in that? And then on top of that, our focus right now is traditions, right? So how do we do big, memorable events that become that core memory of their time as is an undergrad, whether it is fall or a spring concert, whether it is connected to um a uh traditional like football game, or whether it is just a showcase of uh cultural talent and student organization talent.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I think you're right that the the traditions are such a powerful part of Harvard. And I know uh I've been a part of your student fair. It's usually before Crimson Jam, I believe. That's right. That's right. And so I've walked on the student fair. You're right, there are 400 hugely diverse array of clubs there. Um, so you're right, it must be hard to appease all of them and find events that work for all of them. I think the other key part of events that always uh stuck with me or resonated with me from Harvard is I was doing interviews for one of our recap videos for the concerts there, and one of the students described the fall and spring concerts as metrics of Thai, where they come into campus and they love looking back at, well, my first Crimson Jam, I was just a scared little freshman, and now I'm here at Yardfest and I'm an excited, happy senior, ready to go. And like they really mark the beginning and end of traditions and really help students observe their change and growth over time. Why do you think events are so powerful on Harvard's campus?

SPEAKER_01 2:19

I think uh I think it is time, right? It's a it's a very specific marker, and when you have the very specific performer, it it resonates in your head and it is a memorable moment, right? And so as they progress, as they develop, as they transform into citizens, into citizen leaders, into student leaders, into change agents, they think about what was I doing my sophomore year? Oh, that was the year that we had Nikki Yore, and I remember him singing Sunroof and having someone come out with a saxophone, right? Uh, they they mark their own transitions with the experiences that that we build with them. And it's it's that that I think is so uh important in the work we do.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

I think it's incredible, and I yeah, I think you're right that it's such a powerful way to keep students involved and engaged. And of course, Harvard is like many other campuses where it has a unique name, but I think in a lot of ways it is just a bunch of 18-year-olds coming into 22-year-olds and trying to find their way in the world, trying to figure out what part of this is my home, where do I fit in here? And they're coming from a bunch of different backgrounds, and a lot of them have been academically gifted and maybe need exploration in other parts of their lives. Well, they learned how to get good grades, but the next part of getting good grades is how do I become a happy and engaged human? And I think your role there is so powerful in helping adolescents or yeah, young adults uh find their way in the world. They're just students, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

They're just really smart and gifted, right? And it's how do we channel that into other arenas and how do we how do we use those gifts and talents to make the world a better place? And if we can start with making campus a friendlier, more connected space where people understand that they matter and they bring value and that they can contribute and that they belong and can root themselves in that community, then we're doing our job.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I think you are. What are some of the strategies you use to empower that and to make that happen? Where you're right, it is so important to build these communities and make people feel like they belong. How are you actualizing that? How are you making that happen?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, we we spend a lot of time talking about uh it is not my job to build community. The kind of community that I would want would be uh a bunch of cats. Uh, we'd have uh cat petting zoos every day. I'd be drinking coffee and taking naps. I might come to Harvard. I might go back to Underground. Yeah. Uh that's not what they necessarily want. So, how do we help them co-author this experience together? So, we always talk about what are the tools that you need to be successful in doing that. That is our job as staff, as administrators, to set a condition that allows them to co-author their own experience because then they care more about the success. They care more about the results and they they remember it more.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

I think that co-authoring point is really powerful. I think you're right that it has to be a collaborative experience because if you're just prescribing events, then we're not quite in touch with what everyone, what the younger generations want to be a part of. We might not be aware of what they find interesting or what they find appalling at the same breath. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

I I could set up uh a series of concerts that would make me really happy, and it would make a very small number of students happy. Yeah. So it's it's it's a far better experience when we're able to partner with them and they understand it's a partnership. Yes. That's that's the other piece of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Yes, the other part is I think is a challenge at times is that by empowering them to take ownership over this, you're also granted them the opportunity to fail, which can be challenging, right? As we're taking on events, like there are certainly things that you know as an administrator, someone who's been there for a few years, what's gonna work and what might not work. But if we just hold their hand and tell them exactly all those things, we don't give the opportunity to find out and learn on their own. How do you kind of balance that idea of I think I know that this isn't gonna work, but I need them to find out on their own? And we also need to empower them to take chances and like to be brave and to learn how to audible and be flexible when things don't quite go to plan.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

That's that's really tough because right now there's a lot of pressure to ensure that there's a good return on investment, yeah. Right. And so my boss, my boss's boss, is gonna want to make sure that we're spending our student activity fees in a responsible way that is uh impacting the largest amount of people as possible. But also, we have to tell this story about sometimes the smaller things are just as impactful. And it is also just as impactful to stumble a little bit. And there are events that we know that can fail and it's okay, and that it's a good lesson learned. And then if we're doing our job, we can catch people as they're stumbling and then reflect upon it in the moment and course correct so that that lesson is learned in real time and it's not too late where it doesn't sink an entire program.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I think you're right. I think it's true not just of events, but of any team that we're a part of, right? I think I go back to the sports example here of like, if I don't give my teammate the ball and I don't give them the opportunity to fail, they're never gonna get better. They're just gonna erode further and further. And of course, this is universal in any work environment, in any team environment, in a family environment, in any kind of uh interhuman activities that we're doing here. Uh, do you have uh event experience prior to Harvard? Is this like a new role for you? Were you in your student government in high school? What's kind of your background in the world?

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Oh man, uh yeah, I've been doing programming for a very long time. So uh prior to uh my time is at at Harvard, I was doing events at Emerson College, which is a communications-focused institution, which is really known for uh theater and performing arts and television and radio and film. And so it was full of really talented, funny performers. And so it was about channeling their expertise and their interest in being on stage and performing for each other and really, again, giving them the opportunity to be in the spotlight and to learn from other people who were in the spotlight. So it was a different way of thinking about programming. And I think that has also served me really well at Harvard in thinking about how do we do more than just a comedian, right? Like I never want to just bring a comedian, I want to bring a comedian who is also willing to do a QA and talk about the industry to talk about what is the art of writing a joke, what is the art of crafting a material? And so it's it's never just that, it's always got to be a plus one. We're always adding something on top of it.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

I think you're right. I think that's something that always resonates with me with my interviews with the Harper students, is that they always want to know why and how. And that's a really beautiful and powerful question. We have to be prepared to answer it. You have to be ready to talk about it. And for someone like a comedian, for an artist, for any talent that you're bringing in, they have to also be able to willing to fit that bill, right? If they are too cool for school to use like, I guess, a cliche here, they're probably not the right fit for y'all. Uh, what have you learned about kind of sifting through and how do you find the right events to bring to campus with that uh criteria in mind?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

It's it's a lot of trial and error, but it's also staying contemporary, right? So, how are we plugged into the media? How are we plugged into what is streaming, what's on TV, what is trending on radio, what is hitting the festival circuit? I go to an obscene amount of live music shows. Um, and when I go to say, like a music festival, you bet I'm there at 1 p.m. I'm gonna catch the first act of the day because you don't know who you're gonna see there and who that person is gonna become. Did I catch Noah Kahan at like 4 p.m. at a music festival? Absolutely, right? Did I saw maybe 10 years ago Lizzo play a 15-minute set at 12:30 in the afternoon with maybe 20 people? That's awesome. So when you are allowing yourself into those spaces, being open to you're not just there for the headliner, you're there just to see everything and to take it all in. And I think that allows you to pick up on what's gonna be next.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yep. It's funny you say that I just had a conversation the other day. Uh GBM6, we often talk about how we would love to have Taylor Swift at our concerts, but we can't afford it. So, how do we make this event uh legendary without having these million-dollar artists? And the school I was talking with looked at me and goes, Well, we actually had Taylor Swift. It was in 2007, yeah, and I was like, Well, that's it. That's exactly what we're talking about here is hopefully we can bring the artist to campus who does blossom. You're right, with like the Noah Con at 4 VM. But that's a hard gamble to make, and you really have to have your ear to the ground to make these things happen.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

You do. You've gotta you've gotta pay attention to what's happening in the industry and to be brave enough to take a chance on something. And I think that comes by asking the right people the right questions and surrounding yourself with other professionals who are in in the middle of that industry as well. So when we surround ourselves with smart, clever people, we all benefit from that.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

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SPEAKER_01 12:29

I never want to be the smartest person in the room. I want to be the person who can sit back, collect bits of information, and turn it into something else. So if I can synthesize ideas, I can be strategic about how I deliver something else. Right. So take a little bit from here, a little bit from there, and turn it into a different product, turn it into a different thought. And I've been really intentional when I've built my team of staff and professionals and making sure that they are experts in what they do and I can empower them to be that expert. They get to make the decisions. If they need to consult with me, they can consult with me, but they're gonna make those decisions and they're gonna be the ones pushing those things through. Same thing with the students, right? You need to be recruiting and actively looking for the students who can do that, and we can guide and we can advise, and that's part of their own development. But if we're not really pushing for the best and brightest, our work isn't gonna be the best and brightest.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

100%. You're right. And it is about surrounding yourself with good people and being brave enough to find them, put the effort in to find them because I think sometimes the best and brightest aren't always the first applicants that we get. It's about being uh willing to put the time in to build the right team for the right job here. Um, I have two questions I would love to wrap up with you here on. Uh, one of them is advice you would have for your past self. So you've been through so many different events, so many different teams, I assume uh different career or different positions within the same career and events. Uh, what's some advice you would have for your past self that would maybe alleviate some stresses that you face?

SPEAKER_01 13:55

It's such a good question. Um, you think about so much of my work has had to be rooted in confidence, has had to be rooted with being firm in who I am and being firm in the decisions I make and having that strong inner compass. And it really had to uh come out even stronger when I started at Harvard, right? Like I have a fancy title at a fancy school and I'm making fancy decisions. And if I was not confident, that would not have uh worked in the in the way it is right now. And it would have been so great to have that same inner confidence much earlier in my career, right? And so, and I know that's something we all develop over time, but it would be to remind myself that I am on the right track and I am doing the right things, and this is the right way to go about something.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

I jokingly, uh, I think I'm half serious when I say this. I believe that confidence is fake. I believe that it's an energy we have to fake it till you make it. And they're I don't know if anyone genuinely is confident. I think uh I do a lot of work in music, and I think I would expect to meet music professionals and go, man, I bet they are up on their accolades, they have been through everything, and they probably know that they are the best in the room and they're the best their instrument. And every time I've met someone who I think fits that bill, I've gone, oh no, they're just a human. They're just me. They are as self-conscious, they're as unsure, they're as uh curious about what their place is in this ecosystem. Uh, and so it's gotten me to this conclusion that yes, I think confidence is real, it comes from experience, right? I think uh for me it's with my camera, it's like I'm confident I can walk into the rooms because I've walked into so many rooms and a lot of them haven't gone the way I planned, and I've been through enough of those that I go, okay, I think whatever is next, I probably can handle. I assume with events viewers a similar thing here of a lot of events where we didn't go to plan, but you've figured it out, you've made it work. But confidence is fake.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

You you make it work, but you also there are times when you can be panicked, and there are times where panic doesn't help. So I'm thinking about uh my my first year at Harvard overseeing a very, very large outdoor experience program where we took 400 plus students into the woods backpacking for seven days. Oh my goodness. So there's all of there's a camp counselor in V is crying. Yeah, right. There's hundreds of students all over Maine and Vermont and New Hampshire. And uh I remember our our dean of administration and finance in talking to her one day when there's hundreds of students out there, she's like, Are you not like in a panic right now, just waiting for an emergency phone call? And my response was, how will that help us in this moment, right? So you, yes, you're waiting for these things to happen, but panicking first does not get you where you need to be. So, how how can I remain cool, calm, and collected and be able to respond to the stumbles, the trips, the falls, the emergencies in real time? Because if I was panicked before, not going to be acting very well when something actually happens.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yes, yes, there is the it uh announcement here, so I'll pause for one second, we'll end up cutting this out of the episode. Um, perfect. That was a nice brief one for us. Love it. Uh, my last question for you here is what's something that makes you happy? So we've talked about the music festivals. I think maybe it's one part of this if I was yeah, reading your mind a little bit here. Um, but is there a hobbies or a specific festival that you love going to every year? Is there uh a place, an activity that you love going to? What makes you happy?

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah, um uh in the uh life of Boston Calling, I have missed one since its inception.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

What you were the inception, if you don't mind me dating you.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

It started in like 2013. And I missed a fall one when board was headlining. Okay. So it had to be right when Royals dropped, and I was bummed to miss it, but I think I was out of town. Who knows? Yeah. But it's always been such a priority for me to like be there to like fully engage, to hit the local stages, to hit like the B stage, to be there at the first artist and to just live up every second of that live event is such a magical thing. Nothing makes me happier than being at a concert, whether it's House of Blues or MGM Finway. Uh, put me in a place where there is blood, music, and I am the happiest I could be.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Why is it so important for your soul? Where it sounds like going to Boston Calling every year would be a sacrifice, it's a commitment, it's a daily, it's blocked off of your calendar, it's three days. Even more so that okay, yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Uh why is it so important for you to be a part of every year? It's just this community moment, right? Where everyone's just in a good mood, everyone's dancing, everyone's singing along, everyone's having fun, even if you're not singing along, even if it's someone you've never heard of, who are you discovering, right? Who will then be the next big thing that that you love, where the lyrics speak to you or or the beat like makes you want to dance. Uh, but that shared musical experience is so visceral and it's such an important thing to have together. And to be able to share that with friends and new friends and thousands of people you don't know is really, really awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

There is something so fulfilling about being with people who are in their element, and I I've come to love those spaces, even if the element isn't my element, even if it is a thing that I don't quite understand, just being around people who love that thing so much and are together is just a positive, happy room that fills my cup in. And I think my my camera's been an excuse where generally we go to concerts that we would want to go to. Yeah, and sometimes you get hired to work concerts that aren't exactly ones that I personally would want to go to. I'm sure the vents are a similar thing here, but being in those rooms is fulfilling, it does fill my cup, but it's uh it's cool to hear you've had the same experience. Absolutely. Awesome, Jason. Thank you for your time. I appreciate you joining us today and sharing your wisdom with us. Um, this has been the happiness blueprint, friends. Thanks for coming out. Thanks for listening to the happiness blueprint, powered by GBM6. It's about making people happy.