MIND SHIFT… THE X FACTOR FOR EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

PRESENTATION BY PROFESSOR SIPHO SEEPE

The X factor: Curiosity rooted in real problems

• “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

• — Albert Einstein

• “Education Is Not the Learning of Facts but the Training of the Mind to Think” - Albert Einstein

• In struggle, "the role of the intellect, of the mind, of the idea, a caring idea, a committed idea, ideas that capture the essence of the historical moment, was an important, often decisive ingredient “ (Ngugi wa Thiong’o1997).

What is Different about the Current Technological

Revolution

The Pace of Change(years to reach 50 million users)

38

yr

s

Radio

13

yr

sTelevision

4

yr

s

Internet

The Fourth Industrial Revolution?What is it?

INTEGRATIONSPEED

Cyber Physical Biological Human

Systems

Newton’s Mechanics

Electricity and Magnetism

QuantumMechanics

Automated GenomicsArtificial Intelligence

Deep LearningRobotics

Characteristics of New Economy,

Adaptive Organisations

Decentralisation

Temporary

structures

(speed and

organisational

flexibility)

Powerful

information

systems

Fast, effective

decision-

making

Evolving

structures

New

Economy,

Adaptive

Organisation

s

Source: “Shaping the Adaptive Organization”, William E. Fulmer, Amacom, 2000

Are we ready?

Yes No

What we see around

Autonomous cars, airplanes, trains, etc.

Data warehousing and Data analytics

Intelligent, deep-learning computers.

Population genomics: gene-based medical treatments. Gene editing.

Social media and its impact.

New food production systems.

Robotics and automated (autonomous) mechanisation

violent poverty/growing inequality

erosion of democracy/a slide towards anti-intellectualism

the degradation of ethical society

escalation of political violence/constructing ‘the other’

massive global migrations

rapid changes in the world of work

public health challenges – including mental health issues

Sociological changes in the world of work

1. Reduction in the length of the working week.

2. The gig economy and its implications.

3. Structural unemployment.

4. Changes in the machine-human interface.

5. Changes in geopolitics and in globalisation – with work-based fragmentation.

Future of work (post work)

• Why More Tech Companies Are Hiring People Without Degrees

• https://www.fastcompany.com/3069259

• Why More Tech Companies Are Hiring People Without Degrees Silicon Valley is starting to realize that the huge talent pool of nontraditional candidates may be the answer to its pipeline problem ...

• Google, Apple among 15 top companies where you can get ...

• https://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-apple...

• 2019/01/27 · While many companies will likely follow Ernst and Young's lead--simply no longerrequiring a degree, but still taking it into account--the change brings a host of new opportunities for job …

On campus & societal challenge

1.DUT VC Thandwa Mthembu defends university's security ...

https://ewn.co.za/2020/02/27/dut-vc-thandwa...

DUT VC Thandwa Mthembu defends university's security expenditure. During his state of the universityaddress, Mthembu announced that R30 million had been set aside to …

• March 6, 2020How to save our universities from hooliganism and political thuggery

• The overpoliticisation of teachers’ unions and its impact on young minds must end if we are to prosper as a nation, writes Khumbulani Mngadi.

Higher education participation rate for whites in 1993 was 70%; in 2016 it was about 40%. By contrast, participation rates for Africans improved marginally during that period from 9 to only 12%.

• “Until and unless society at large take a stance and a dim view of this anarchy, the higher education sector would continue to witness the annual baptism of terror, vandalism, intimidation, destruction of property including the burning of various assets, etc. This leaves the future of the academically deserving students hanging in the balance.” X Mtose (March 4th , 2020)

Where do ideas come

from?… few companies have the processes and infrastructure in place to manage

innovation. A survey of 350 organizations found that less than 15% have any IT

systems in place to manage innovation, and only 40% have established any

formal procedures (Source: CBI and 3M Innovation Survey, 2000)

“Wealth in this new regime flows directly from

innovation, not optimisation. That is, wealth is not

gained by perfecting the known, but by imperfectly

seizing the unknown.”

Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy

Innovation in Three

Dimensions

Product / Service Innovation

“Building a better mousetrap”

Market Definition Innovation

Developing new offerings that surround an existing product / service

Process / Business Model Innovation

Creating significantly lower costs, higher quality, often coupled with a new model of how a company

does business

Custom Mouse Traps

Delivered DirectOvernight Service

1-800-mice-r-us

DEFINING EFFICIENCY

‘’Providing services in teaching and research with a minimum of input to get the best, or at least appropriate, results”

‘’We perceive efficiency as a managerial approach, which enables us to get more and better output using existing resources”

‘’Efficiency is understood as the process of achieving the best possible results considering the results available, in order to fulfil the needs of the stakeholders and continuously improve the organisation’s performance”

Source: A USTREAM REPORT: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money at Universities

APPROACHES TO EFFICIENCY

Source: A USTREAM REPORT: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money at Universities

Value-based approaches

emphasising the outcomes achieved for end users (including students,

employers, the local community and society as a whole,) in comparison

with the cost of a product or service

Resource-based approaches

focused on operational productivity and the extent to which an activity achieves its goal, while minimising

resource use

This approach stresses the comparison between inputs and outputs

This approach focusses on both the intangible and tangible effects of efficiency in terms of the potential impact experienced by a broad range of actors over different periods.

DEFINING EFFICIENCY

• Value for money incorporates three elements:

• Economy (reducing input costs),

• Efficiency (getting more output for the same or less input)

• And

• Effectiveness (getting better at achieving objectives). In other words, value for money is

defined as the achievement of economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the acquisition and

use of university resources to meet university objectives.

Source: A USTREAM REPORT: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money at Universities

MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO EFFICIENCY

Source: A USTREAM REPORT: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money at Universities

UNDERSTANDING EFFICIENCY

Operational efficiency is driven by the need to streamline business processes and

optimise resource use. It combines a broad range of activities that support day-to-

day university operations, including facility and space management, procurement,

finances, HR management and student support services. Operational efficiency

measures can result in internal re-structuring, or institutions sharing resources.

Source: A USTREAM REPORT: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money at Universities

UNDERSTANDING EFFICIENCY

Academic efficiency embraces processes that relate to how university teaching and

research are organised. Academic efficiency activities include streamlining the course

programme and using learning analytics to support student lifecycle and research

profiling. The issue of academic efficiency arises at all levels of the institution, including

the faculties and departments, and concerns all of the individuals involved in research and

teaching. Institutional measures in this area can include the definitions of teaching load,

class sizes, and research output requirements.

.

Source: A USTREAM REPORT: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money at Universities

UNDERSTANDING EFFICIENCY

Strategic governance efficiency results in activities that underpin performance management and

institutional development; accountability and the stewardship of institutional capital; an

institutional efficiency culture based on leadership and staff engagement, investment in skills,

technology and capacity-building; internal and external communication, the engagement of

governing bodies and integrated reporting. Most strategic governance activities are long-term

and support institution-wide development.

Source: A USTREAM REPORT: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Value for Money at Universities

KEY LEARNINGS: INNOVATION

Source: Higher Education in the Digital Age. Moving Academia Online. Annika Zorn, Jeff Haywood, and Jean-Michel Glachant (Eds.).

• A consistent vision is needed over a long period. How should the university approach educational innovation; what is its risk appetite in this area? Does it wish to be viewed as a leader, a mainstream adopter or is it promoting a vision of tradition that minimizes innovation and change?

• Educational innovation can run counter to the views and desires of many existing academic staff so we need to be prepared for slow burn, for some re-design and some re-thinking, towards the same endpoint.

• Change needs leaders – Senior Responsible Officers – who can be guided by committees, but committees themselves cannot act as the drivers nor the agents for innovation