Great Expectations of University

Charles Dickens is forever associated with Misery, Bankruptcy, Debt, Hypocrisy, Poverty, Legal delay, Unrequited Love and, as my title suggests, the hope of better things to come.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

A pity then, that Dickens did not write about University life.  It was not part of his personal history, of course.

But what if he had?

Would the themes  be familiar to him?  Misery, Bankruptcy, Debt, Hypocrisy, Poverty, Legal delay, Unrequited Love, and, as my title suggests, the hope of better things to come?

Happy Christmas to both of my readers.

Practice what you teach

Business Schools have long been teaching about globalisation and technological and business model disruption - the sort of thing that has consigned the shopping experience to history.  But how many have applied that teaching to their own practice?

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Yes, it was a great adventure in the 1960s to go shopping with Mum, to visit the various separate emporiums (emporia?) in our local town, where she was greeted as a valued customer and known personally by staff members  (actually my Auntie Edna worked in one of the shops too).  The traditional skills of the shopkeeper were in choosing the right selection of products for the market and locality they served.  Human memory, careful record keeping and building relationships with families and generations ensured repeat business.  But it could not be scaled up and the corporate learning was slow.

Don't get me wrong.  The AI capabilities of firms like Amazon, their prodigious memory and their relationship with us via the data we freely give them, make them appear like traditional shopkeepers - except, of course, they can scale up and they can, and do, learn very rapidly.

So, the Amazon Business School?  built on the capabilities of digital technology, delivering bespoke education, flexibly and in a variety of ways.  What could possibly go wrong?

Get a GRIP on your teaching

I have spent a productive summer working with a GRIP role play simulation.  The concept of role play for teaching purposes is not new but to combine it with an internet based business scenario and timely interventions from news bulletins and video calls from managers is.

The simulation is the work of GRIP (Gamified Roleplay for Innovation Policy from Organiq.nl of Rotterdam) and is based on a fictitious Dutch company in need of urgent turnaround negotiations.

I worked with the game designers to ensure that the game could be delivered to an English speaking student audience - terminology may be different but the management problems and stakeholder perspectives are universal.  I then used the simulation as an introduction to a final year undergraduate module in Corporate Reconstruction and Turnaround.

So why not simply run out the lectures in the same way you have been doing for years Keith?

Because students HEAR and they (might) remember, they DO and they understand.

Where there's MOOC, there's brass?

Please forgive the bending of that famous Yorkshire saying to fit the point I make.

...AND YORKSHIRE TEA IS NOT GROWN IN YORKSHIRE. PICTURE BY E.THIK.

In 2014 many observers considered that MOOCs (Massive  Open Online Courses) would change the face of education.  Why spend so much money when Harvard (and others) are giving their stuff away for free?
In 2019 we know different.  MOOCs have moderated their numbers and are seen as "tasters" for fee paying courses.  Some allow the issue of a certificate (for a fee) but these are not really commercial ventures.
Those benefiting from MOOCs are the institutions that allowed MOOCs to act as a training ground for their Academics, Learning Designers and Technologists.  A training ground that has allowed the evolution into fully online programmes of study (fee paying) offered via MOOC platforms such as Coursera and FutureLearn.

So, hands up if you thought MOOCs were a fad that would pass?

управление

According to Google Translate the most frequently used Russian word for "Management" is:

управление

(pronounced upravleniye)

...it also translates as CONTROL.

SORRY, BUT I JUST HAD TO USE THIS PIC AGAIN

Just where have Business Schools gone wrong if the evidence of their own "Management", through the influence of "professionals" in key roles, the metric-driven measurements that are REF, TEF and KEF, and the subservient attitude of staff (I won't call them "Faculty") looks more like управление than the best practice our management teachers impart in their courses?

100 years and counting...

Visitors to Barcelona in Spain (and I count myself as such) marvel at the vision, splendour and pure magnificence of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Basilica of the Holy Family.

It'll be finished in 2026...apparently.  Picture by E.Thik

Like so many huge projects it has had its ups and downs over the last 100 years but is now nearing completion.  One thing has sustained the builders, sponsors, churchmen and tourists over the years is the vision of just one man and the ability for his vision to be communicated to all.

• How many of us can say that we even understand the "vision" of the organisations we work for?
• How many "visions" have been re-thought, changed, cancelled, re-calibrated or updated over time?
• How many "visions" have been changed simply because of the 5 year contract of the "visionary" and the need to show some outcomes before the next job beckons?
• How many "visions" are marred by the over-enthusiastic use of the SMART target?
• How many, and here's the biggest concern, have changed their "vision" but have failed to communicate it clearly to those charged with putting it into operation?

So - KEEP IT SIMPLE AND BE PATIENT.

Achieving something lasting and worthwhile takes longer than you think.

Never mind the quality - feel the width

On NSS* results day this year I found myself in the Lavabos of a Spanish airport.  Whilst attending to Nature's call I was rudely interrupted by a loud beeping noise - a rapid and annoying discharge just behind me.  When I was able, I turned around to find a grinning cleaner pressing the smiley face on the "satisfaction monitor" multiple times.

I WASHED MY HANDS BEFORE TAKING THIS PICTURE

Regrettably, the washbasins were not the cleanest I have ever seen and, clearly, the cleaner had spent more time at the beeping station than at work.

How I would have loved to explain to her (but my Spanish is very poor) that it's not the satisfaction score that really counts but the actual quality of the work undertaken.




* for non-UK readers and for those who try to avoid all acronyms the NSS is the UK's annual undergraduate student "satisfaction" survey.  Blogs passim such as Satisfied but Unemployable and Helpful Translations for new HE staff explain this in further detail.