These are consequential times. Higher education institutions stand at a crossroads, with the opportunity to transition from being competent in many areas to excelling in a select few. It is not about doing more with less; it is about doing less with less. The main metric should no longer be pre-pandemic standards. We must stop comparing our organization to the pre-pandemic era, as the goal is not to revert to that period. The business model has fundamentally changed, with the pace of change accelerating. The changes that have occurred and are emerging cannot be reversed. Some view the pandemic as an interruption, believing we will eventually return to the old normal. However, others see it as a disruption, driving innovation for the future. This forward-looking perspective is crucial and timely, emphasizing the need for courageous leaders who can drive transformation. Higher education must look forward to the opportunities of the next decade, not backward.
Big Questions
Here are a set of questions that can help student affairs innovate:
Transformative Problems - What emerging student challenges and needs exist that, if addressed, would transform their education by 10x, or even 100x?
Radical Intelligence - How do we leverage big data, artificial intelligence, collaboration tools, and other technologies to create a step change in the level of knowledge and insight we deliver?
Scalable Relevance - how do we scale our tools and methods while ensuring applicability to the widest possible audience globally?
Knowledge Democratization - How do we make our models, tools, and resources ubiquitously available while building a sustainable learning model?
Collaborative Ecosystems - What networks can we build or join that exponentially elevate the value we create and deliver?
(adapted from The Business Consulting Industry is Booming, and It's About to Be Disrupted https://www.inc.com/soren-kaplan/the-business-consulting-industry-is-booming-and-it.html)
Learn Innovation
"The best part about recognizing that innovation is fundamentally about behavior is that behaviors can be changed much more easily than the motivational elements underlying personality characteristics. As a result, anyone can improve his or her ability to innovate by adopting these behaviors." Learn Widely - Generate a Lot of Ideas - Care About the Details.
The Future
"The next five years will no doubt unleash products and services that we have yet to imagine." What will disappear?
"Design has matured from a largely stylistic endeavor to a field tasked with solving thorny technological and social problems, an evolution that will accelerate as companies enlist designers for increasingly complex opportunities, from self-driving cars to human biology." What will be designed in the future?