Dear John and Harriet,
In regard to:
>how you get "things accomplished in what is called a
>"shared governance" environment -- and getting it done within someone's
>lifetime."
I have had some experience in getting things done in academic
environments, firstly as the founding OD Manager of a large (30,000
student) research University, and now on short time assignment setting up
leadership development systems at a technical university.
I made some big mistakes coming into Universities and was "beaten up"
badly on numerous occasions before I learned some things that work. Here
are a few of them.
1. Respect the culture and the parameters it brings - like democracy,
academia has its own ways of working and thinking which provide the
framework for change. If you fight them, you lose, if you reflect the
framework back to academics and encourage discsussion of its weaknesses, I
have found I can get permision to make things happen.
Just this morning I "got up" an Action/Project-based learning leadership
program with the Deans and executive just by going around and talking to
them all, summarising the problems they told me they had, and designing a
solution the Deans could largely control in tandem with the executive.
2. Use money and (other peoples') resources as leverage: all academics
want more money for research and improvements. The trick is to tie the
availability of (central) money to a broader and more strategic set of
accountabilites within which local academic managers have REAL control.
If local managers only have the illusion of control, they pick up on this
immediately and give only token support.
3. Demand professional respect from all academics you work with: I got
sick of being mocked and taken down in public and behind closed doors.
Finally at a 2 day planning retreat with a particularly difficult
department I took the matter in hand and stated up front in the first
session that they WOULD treat me with respect as I was a professional and
deserved respect whether they agreed with me or not. I would respect
them, they would respect me. That was the deal.
I've never had a problem since.
4. Be prepared to walk away: if an academic department/Faculty do not
really want to change in my opinion you are better to walk away early. As
an external consultant, I now state up front that I will jump ship if the
academic leader commissioning me does not meet his/her commitments. This
shows the person concerned that I mean business, have my own set of values
and will stick by them.
5. Coach, coach and coach: I am now actively coaching several academic
managers with some success. With 2 of them, I am using Noel Tichy's
framework which is pretty private sector orientated and making them write
down their values and "leadership story." One of these managers recently
got a pledge of several hundred thousand dollars sponsorship from a big
company simply by doing a sell on the story of what he wanted to do with
the Faculty.
He rang me absolutely stunned that it had worked...he said the marketing
manager was "leaping our of her chair" with excitement at the chance to be
involved in such up front, exciting changes he had described to her.
Another department head heard of the work we were doing with MBTI and
asked to have his whole research team profiled. It worked really well and
he then went public to say how the improved interpersonal understanding
helped lift their research output.
6. Stick up for what you believe in: Just a couple of weeks ago I heard
that I was given a complete bagging at an executive meeting of the
previous University I worked for.
In addition, the person who followed me in my old job was told by her
supervisor that if she wanted to succeed she should do nothing I did -
that is don't mention learning organisations, change management,
leadership development, strategic planning or systems thinking etc.
Basically, shut up and do what she was told.
I don't know if I was a success, but at least my memory is being trampled
on which is a good measure that the status quo was disturbed...I am proud
of what I did in collaboration with my staff and those academics who were
willing to take a risk and journey.
But gee I took some knocks along the way...
Philip
PS Anyone interested in my thoughts on modern Universities and Intellectual
Capital/Knowledge Management can look at:
http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/stafdev/publications/posters/Adelaide.htm
Philip Pogson
Leadership Development Strategy Consultant
Staff Development Branch
University of Technology Sydney NSW 2007
ph: +61 2 9514 2934
fax: +61 2 9514 2930
mobile: 0412 459156
"Innovative change must involve the expression of an idea that is somewhat
or wholly inconsistent with existing practice."
Harvey Horstein
--Philip Pogson <ppogson@uts.EDU.AU>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>