Leadership and Culture:
Progress, Challenges, Next Steps
Guest Speaker: Dr. Tim Porter-O’Grady
Leader’s Forum – April 1, 2005
Strategies to Develop our
Internal Organization:
What's Different Since 2000?
Leader’s Forum – April 1, 2005
Guiding Frameworks and New
Sources of Information
• PVP creates "Values, Behaviours, Accountabilities" for Western
Leaders and Staff (May 2001)
• Collaborative process produces "Making Choices", Strategic Plan
Update (Oct 2001) - section 5 highlights commitments to staff
• Organizational Culture Survey (2003): Leaders and Work Units
receive feedback about their unique work cultures - many areas
create action plans and projects
• February 2004: Western's Communications Survey Report
• President's e-newsletter launched (2004)
• Western's Key Messages Created (Feb 2005)
Leader’s Forum – April 1, 2005
New Western Teams
• Western's Staff Development Steering Team - represents
employee unions and associations (March 2002)
• Leadership Advisory Team (2001-2004)
• Western's Organizational Development Team (September
2004) - Academic and Administrative leaders
• Western Staff Recognition Task Team (Summer 2004)
• Campus Council (fall 2004) - Western's staff and faculty
unions and associations and Senior Administration
Leader’s Forum – April 1, 2005
Developing Western's
Leadership Team
• Leaders' Forum - opportunities to build our leadership community and
discuss wide ranging organizational issues
– (20 meetings held, average 140 attendance)
• Leader Learning Opportunities:
– 6 Day Program:
– Understanding Leadership and Communications Course
– November 2001 launch (Over 200 participants)
• Human Rights/ Anti-Harassment Training Launched (June 2002)
• Orientation for New Chairs, Directors, Associate Deans (June 2004)
• Leaders lead and sponsor numerous team based service
improvements and work redesigns.
Leader’s Forum – April 1, 2005
Staff and Team Development
• Western's Welcome to New Staff Program (Dec 2001)
• Annual Staff and Leader Conference (February 2003,
2004, 2005) - approximately 650 people participate each
year
• Human Rights/ Anti-Harassment Training for Work Teams
and Employee Groups
• Landing a New Role: Career Advancement Workshops for
Staff (begin fall 2004)
• Staff contribute to, and lead, numerous team based
service improvements and work redesigns
Leader’s Forum – April 1, 2005
Consultation Groups, 2005
• VP Administration
• UWOSA
• Faculty of Medicine and
Dentistry
• CUPE Physical Plant
• VP Research
• Professional Managerial
Association
• PVP
• Western Libraries
• Office of the Registrar
• Two representatives of the
Staff Recognition Team
• Campus Council
Leader’s Forum – April 1, 2005
Progress for the Future: Continuing the Journey
By
Members of the University community
The University of Western Ontario
Key Themes
• There HAS BEEN movement over the past 5 years
• Human resources have led the way in creating a
culture of engagement
• Leadership development has made a difference
• Overall, there is a higher level worker satisfaction
• The culture continues to raise hope that, this
time, things ARE really different
The University of Western Ontario
The Challenge
“Western provides the best student
experience among Canada’s leading
research-intensive universities.”
Paul Davenport, PhD
President, UWO
The University of Western Ontario
What does that mean?
“The best student experience among
research universities in Canada”
Community questions:
• In that mission, who do we all serve?
• How do we configure around that objective?
• In this pursuit are we all “singing same song?”
• What is it that will assure we all configure around
this mission?
The University of Western Ontario
The Challenge-Response
“The best student experience among
research universities in Canada”

internally defined by stakeholders

translated to constituencies

inculcated in all objectives

measured by evaluative means
The University of Western Ontario
The community challenges:
Questions to leadership:
• Do we have stated consensus re: leadership and
staff engagement between the P/VP?
• Is the vision and behaviour a mandate to all?
• Does the University really have a service
orientation?
• How do the leaders represent the belief in
everything that they are and do?
The University of Western Ontario
10 Priorities that reflect the themes
throughout the University
community
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 1
• The P/VP must enumerate shared leadership
practices as the University’s “way of doing
business” with the commitment, consistency,
language and strategy that suggest to all that it is
the expected way of life throughout the
University.
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 2
• Faculty / staff partnership around the vision and
mission of the University must be clearly
delineated and stated. The infrastructure and
processes of decision-making must reflect this
partnership and be constructed as a way of doing
business.
The University of Western Ontario
Suggestions (from a distance) in
Faculty / Staff Partnership
• Including Deans and department Chairs in the
leadership expectations and behaviours (shared
leadership practices) to assure consistency in
leader expectations across the University
• Expand or extend the Campus Council to include
Deans and VPs and increase its role in planning
and partnering re: mutual issues of the University
community
• Clearly enumerate roles and expectations of the
Campus Council beyond mere information
sharing
The University of Western Ontario
Suggestion in Faculty / Staff
Partnership
• Department Chairs are not competent leaders just because
they hold the position. Either expect and develop consistent
leader skills or make sure that a role with these skills exists
to support the department Chair and the University
• Us the academic staff as the bridge to the faculty and the
linkage to their involvement, where appropriate
• Recognize the difference in faculty priorities (research,
knowledge management, funding support) and staff
priorities (work effectiveness, work satisfaction, linkage,
outcomes) and create a format for points of convergence
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 3
• Develop more clarity around accountability at
every level of the organization and in every role.
Accountability must be a performance
expectation within the context of each role
reflecting its contribution to the mission and
vision of the University.
•
•
•
•
•
Management and leadership
Apply consistency across system, honour local culture
Councils and committees
Individual staff roles
Performance measurement
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 4
• The leadership skills learned through programs
such as L.E.T. must translate into behaviours and
practices having an impact on the role and on
performance
•
•
•
•
•
Consistent learning program across University
Role change assessment
Leader-driven goal setting
Performance improvement (incremental objectives)
Measure outcomes and performance change
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 5
• Best practices that demonstrate success should
have mechanisms for broader generation to other
departments and services and be incorporated
into the operations of those departments
•
•
•
•
•
Innovation as a value
Communicate best practices
Evaluate impact
Publish results
Public celebration
The University of Western Ontario
Key Point
• There is lots of conversation related to good
communication. While important, it is more
valuable to communicate what makes a
difference and relates to accountability rather
than what is merely informative. Communication
is simply the first step to action.
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 6
• Much of the leadership development has not yet
involved first line managers where much of the
manager-staff issues and conflicts emerge. This
group of managers must be developed early in
order for behaviours to be modeled in a way that
directly affects the staff:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Consistent application of leadership
Engagement of the staff in decisions and actions
Honouring agreements and contracts
Addressing conflicts and problems early
Supporting staff innovation and creativity
Rewarding service excellence
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 7
• Union and association leadership must also
represent a sense of partnership and engagement
with members and the University. They must
respect themselves and confidently engage
members and other University leadership in
issues of mutual concern:
• Make your contribution as clear as your demands
• Make sure expectations and performance are congruent
• Performance is consistent and clear to members and
others
• Honour the diverse contributions that both Association and
Unions make to the life of the University community
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 8
• Student attitudes and behaviour influences staff
actions and roles. Leadership must incorporate
the realities of changing student characteristics
into role behaviours of staff:
•
•
•
•
•
Younger students
Less sense of personal responsibility
More needy and demanding
Less amenable to ownership and accountability
Virtual skills in a resident University
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 9
• Human resources has focused on developing
leadership skills. They must now focus on
facilitating leader behaviours and assuring that
leadership development results in changed
practices and improved outcomes:
•
•
•
•
•
Moving it across the system (including P/VP action)
Enumerating behavioural change expectations
Delineating a format for evaluating change
Defining a process of measurement
Enumerating a timeline for specific change expectations
The University of Western Ontario
Priority 10
• The University must configure around 4 to 5 clear
goals that can be incorporated into the work of
every department and the role of every member
of the university community to focus the passion
and work of the university:
• Doing work well is not necessarily performing well
• Work should be seen as service to others; dazzle others
with its quality
• Work teams should be setting their own goals
• The students and researchers evaluate the “excellence” of
their experience; fellow staff evaluate the service they
provide to one another
The University of Western Ontario
Realities of the Road
• Re-defining what it means to be a resident University
in a virtual world; balancing Student Experience and
Research-intensiveness
• Maintaining community in the “race” to a new age
• Understanding the centralization / local dichotomy
and its impact on culture
• Taking time to celebrate
• Work as the continuing journey of innovation
• There is no community without commitment
The University of Western Ontario
You have reached your NIKE moment:
“Just do it………..”
The University of Western Ontario