The Greatness in You

Jim Collins wants us all to be great. He wants everything we do to be great for everyone. Good is the enemy of great. That’s quite an interesting challenge for the opening session of Educause 2009. Collins believes that greatness is not a function of circumstance but of choice, and he believes that Universities can and should be great. Apparently this can all be achieved by a culture of discipline, and not by trying to turn institutions in to businesses.

I was immediately struck by how this approach to thinking about improving educational institutions could be compared with Mandelson’s speech and the recent launch of the Higher Ambitions report.

To be truthful, the presentation was all a bit self-helpy for me, but I think that Collins identified some important points. He highlighted the fact that the power base within educational institutions is incredibly diffuse, particularly within higher education. This makes the pattern of leadership very different from that found in business environments. People who come in to this environment and try to act as if they have concentrated power inevitably fail in the face of tenured professors! Conversation, debate and involvement of staff in decision making is far more important within education than dictation.

There are lots of nice shots from Collins’ presentation on twitter including this which shows his five stages of decline, which i found amusing.

The message that Collins had for education was don’t over-reach, serve your core first and foremost and most importantly have the right people in the right seats. This focus on the best staff does seem somewhat at odds with the Higher Ambitions approach and the discussions around students as “customers”.

I’ll finish with what Collins defines as the “right people”. I thought it was a really interesting list:

• The right people share your values. Values cannot be taught.
• The right people don’t need to managed – guided, directed but not managed.
• The right people don’t talk about their job, they talk about their responsibilities.
• The right people always do what they say they will do, so are careful about what they commit to.
• The right people take responsibility.
• The right people come to work with enthusiasm.