Shifting from Reaction to Opportunities: The Great COVID Reset
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In this interactive session, share ideas about new ways of working and new models that have been implemented in your area, as well as challenges you face. What practices and approaches have you adapted in the past year that work well and you plan to continue? What challenges are you grappling with and would you like to hear how others have addressed them? Looking forward, what new ideas or approaches are emerging and shaping the ‘new normal’ - post-COVID work environment? Have you stopped doing anything? That’s a learning too. Come prepared to contribute generously and listen curiously and help each other navigate the changing landscape.
Presenters: This event is a structured sharing and learning session among participants.
When: April 7, 2021, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Details: Zoom access information will be provided to registrants prior to event.
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Increasing UVA’s Capacity for Change Management with Immersive Workshop
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In February, 16 colleagues from across Grounds, representing 4 academic schools/units and 4 administrative areas, completed a three-day Prosci Change Management Certification workshop, sponsored by OE.
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This group was the fourth UVA cohort to earn the certification and the first to attend a virtual offering. Participants developed their change management skills, learning how to apply a research-based methodology to existing and future projects. By developing their skillset, the capacity for effective change management increases throughout the University. In a post-session survey, participants indicated 100% that they are likely to apply what they learned.
Here’s what participants had to say about the experience:
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Now What? Planning for the Post-Pandemic University
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Articles about the ‘new normal’ have been popping up recently like spring crocus. Leaders and teams are shifting from near-term crisis management to longer-term planning to leverage unexpected, emerging opportunities.
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In the context of our mission and the University’s Strategic Plan, what will ‘Great and Good’ look like in a post-pandemic world? Here, we share how some groups are facilitating these types of conversations and provide inspiration and frameworks for shifting from reaction to post-COVID planning.
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Shifting From Reaction To Opportunity
What’s the big idea?
UVA’s COVID Operations and Logistics (O&L) group, led by senior vice president Colette Sheehy, collaborated to identify emerging improvement opportunities and adjustments that enhance the support and delivery of the mission. The group proposed new and proven responses to the pandemic that may have relevance for the longer term. The prompts below helped the group generate ideas for new ways of working, new models, and ways to create new value. Idea categories included program, process, automation, service, policy, and what to stop doing. For each idea, the group considered the advantages, concerns, and outstanding questions (see the template below). A similar, collaborative approach can be applied to any University organization that exists to support our mission of teaching, research, service, and patient care.
- What innovations are being implemented in your area that could be shared and scaled with other areas?
- What sustained changes do you anticipate or are you planning for in your area? (e.g. workforce approach, technological needs, service models.)
- What new opportunities are emerging for the University?
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Related Resources and Framing
The Hybrid Campus, Deloitte Insights
What’s the big idea?
“The Hybrid Campus" offers three areas for institutional focus: 1) a rethinking of the academic portfolio, 2) redefining the student experience for lifetime learning and success, and 3) a reshaping of campus work, workforce, and workplace. These opportunity spaces for institutional change are detailed in the report which offers a series of granular suggestions supported by real-life campus examples.
How the Light Gets In: Hope After a Fractured Year
What’s the big idea?
Barbara Boyan, Dean of VCU’s Engineering School, published this recent article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where she notes “we don’t get to choose the challenges we face.” Dr. Boyan goes on to write that the pressures of the pandemic brought her hope: “For reasons none of us wanted, we witnessed a spirit of common cause,” and how higher ed responded with innovations, new technologies, and new partnerships and collaborations. She concludes with a call to hope, “…but the hardest challenges bring out the best of the human spirit,” and a nod to a powerful Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “There is no limit to what can be accomplished if it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.”
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How might you use these resources?
- Share and discuss the readings with your team.
- Use one or more of the frameworks to elicit ideas:
- The template to capture ideas and the associated advantages, concerns, and questions for each idea. After idea generation, prioritize and develop an action plan to implement high-impact ideas.
- Deloitte’s - academic portfolio, the student experience, and University work.
- Hope - what has brought hope over the past year? Ask what made it so and seek perspectives on what might be put in place to keep these hopeful habits alive.
- Participate in the Quality CORE Session, Shifting from Reaction to Opportunities: The Great COVID Reset on April 7.
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RESOURCES
"There's always an opportunity with crisis. Just as it forces an individual to look inside himself, it forces a company to reexamine its policies and practices." - Judy Smith
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