Online Learning & Centralization of Commuity College Systems
Workforce development training is an important part of the mission of community colleges. Increasingly, students need and expect online courses to be an option for some or all of their programs. I conducted a study looking at why some community and technical colleges offer more online programs than others. Rod GithensRod specializes in innovation, design, and strategy through his consulting work and as a professor at University of the Pacific. He helps leaders get results through using innovation and creativity processes, strategy development and strategic planning, group facilitation and action planning, and… Read More
Professors’ Impact on the Real World
For many professors in leadership and organization studies-related fields, a big part of our job is thinking seriously about how organizational leaders can address the world’s problems and opportunities. However, it’s fair to say that the for a good number of professors, the extent of their real world impact doesn’t go beyond an indirect impact through their teaching. Rod GithensRod specializes in innovation, design, and strategy through his consulting work and as a professor at University of the Pacific. He helps leaders get results through using innovation and creativity processes, strategy development… Read More
Four Lessons from The Toughest Leadership Job(s)
Where is it hardest to be a leader? A major company attempting a comeback… a huge conglomerate like General Electric…leading major government agencies? In an article in Forbes, Rob Ashgar claims that the toughest leadership job isn’t being head of one of America’s major companies, but rather being the president of a major university. Rod GithensRod specializes in innovation, design, and strategy through his consulting work and as a professor at University of the Pacific. He helps leaders get results through using innovation and creativity processes, strategy development and strategic planning, group… Read More
Eight Areas to Rethink in U.S. Higher Education
I just finished reading The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out, written by Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring (2011). Christensen is the noted expert on innovation from Harvard Business School. The basic premise of the book is that higher institutions education in the U.S. have attempted to emulate the model of Harvard, with several distinctive and very expensive features. Colleges and universities have developed cost models that are unsustainable and most need to re-evaluate their practice and consider adoption of new models in order to be… Read More
Employee-Initiated Organization Development
Organization development and change doesn’t always start with formal organizational leaders. As part of a larger study, I looked at how organizational members can seek change by working together to bring policy changes in their organization. In the case study, I examined a nearly 20-year effort by employees in the University of Illinois System to attain domestic partner benefits. Throughout the effort, the group of employees used different “social organizing strategies.” In other words, they brought people together using different organization methods differing goals, and differing motivations. Rod GithensRod specializes in innovation,… Read More
Four Principles in Educating For Diversity-Related Change
How do public sector employees successfully seek LGBT-friendly changes in their workplaces? I conducted a case study of a 20-year effort to attain domestic partner benefits in one large state university system. The public sector has always lagged behind large private sector employers in offering employee benefits and other policies that are equitable for LGBT people. Part of that study looked at how employees educated the public, state officials, other employees, administrators, and board members to support the changes. The four most relevant findings for others seeking such changes in public sector organizations… Read More