Leading With Excellence: Erica Volini of ServiceNow

As part of the MainStage experience at Alliance 2024 – produced by Beyond Academics’ in-house creative agency HERO, we got to sit down with Future of Work visionary Erica Volini of ServiceNow.

Enjoy this powerful 18-minute lesson in leadership for the Future of Work.

In this conversation:

  • How to be the boss everyone wants to work for
  • How to lead in times of change and transformation
  • Building your personal leadership brand
  • Empowering your staff to perform at their best
  • Leading even in times of stagnation and malaise

About Change & Leadership Development At Beyond Academics

The human capital practice at Beyond Academics is built on the foundation of Erica’s philosophy on change management, leadership development, and the future of work.

If change management, activating entrepreneurial mindset, and shifting to a culture of performance are growing needs at your institution, talk to us about how we can help. Email team at Beyondacademics.com to start the conversation.

About Erica Volini:

Prior to joining ServiceNow as Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships, Erica was a Principal at Deloitte Consulting for 23 years – where she led Deloitte’s global human capital practice. 

A world-renowned expert in human capital and the Future of Work, her work has been profiled on CNN, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, and Forbes. Learn more at ServiceNow.com

Report of Findings: HERDI National Board Research

In the Summer and Fall of 2023, Beyond Academics hosted a ThinkSpace event in partnership with HERDI to identify the top-of-mind issues community college Presidents are working through this year.

This report presents the initial findings, along with a narrative from Beyond Academics based on its ongoing research into the future of work, and the future of the academic enterprise.

The report of findings for HERDI national

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Learn more about Beyond Academics. 

ThinkSpace #17: The Future of Ai and CoBots In Higher Education

Introduction

2022 provided a glimpse into the tremendous power and potential of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) as early disruptors like ChatGPT‘s hit the market and gained rapid worldwide adoption. According to the company, ChatGPT gained over 1 million users within 1 week of launch, and as of January 2023 receives over 10 million queries per day. That is a staggering adoption curve, and demonstrates the marketplace’s hunger for tools like it.

Needless to say, the much awaited rapid adoption of Ai at the industry and consumer levels  has evoked a range of emotions within higher education institutions, with some expressing fear and others beaming with excitement. While breakthrough  innovation and disruption have impacted  how people live and work, a majority of higher education institutions continue to operate using models that are more reminiscent of the 1990s. Bottom line? Higher education has been slow to adopt widely accepted technologies (from automation to mobile experiences), and it has cost the industry in more ways than one. It raises the question as to why this is the case, and how higher education can begin to harness the power of disruptive technologies like AI to drive transformative change that is urgently needed.

In January 2023, Beyond Academics conducted a ThinkSpace session in which we engaged with individuals from over 20 higher education institutions to get a pulse on how Ai is being perceived, and will likely be adopted in higher education. The goal of the session was to gain a deeper understanding of individual and campus perceptions and appetite for AI, as well as to identify areas where AI could have the greatest impact on campus operations and student success. Through a combination of this crowdsourced insight, and our internal research, we were able to develop a vision for how Ai will be integrated into the day-to-day lives of students, staff, and faculty on campus.

SIS and Cloud Failures – How To Avoid Them

For the better of 3 decades, principals at Beyond Academics have sat on both sides of the ERP/SIS table – as a seller of product and services, and as buyer and adopter. Along the way, great friendships have been built across the industry, and both first-hand and anecdotal insight has been building up about the state of back office technology in higher ed.

Needless to say, the problem is real, and robbing students of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding under the fake narrative of transformation. This piece looks to shed light on the problem, and provide practical solutions for schools to follow.

Much more will be shared in the months and years to come as we continue our research and development in this very important area.

We are expecting pushback and debate on this topic, so join us on LinkedIn to share your thoughts.

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Bias Triangle Whitepaper VF

ThinkSpace #17: The Future of Ai and CoBots In Higher Education

Introduction

2022 provided a glimpse into the tremendous power and potential of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) as early disruptors like ChatGPT‘s hit the market and gained rapid worldwide adoption. According to the company, ChatGPT gained over 1 million users within 1 week of launch, and as of January 2023 receives over 10 million queries per day. That is a staggering adoption curve, and demonstrates the marketplace’s hunger for tools like it.

Needless to say, the much awaited rapid adoption of Ai at the industry and consumer levels  has evoked a range of emotions within higher education institutions, with some expressing fear and others beaming with excitement. While breakthrough  innovation and disruption have impacted  how people live and work, a majority of higher education institutions continue to operate using models that are more reminiscent of the 1990s. Bottom line? Higher education has been slow to adopt widely accepted technologies (from automation to mobile experiences), and it has cost the industry in more ways than one. It raises the question as to why this is the case, and how higher education can begin to harness the power of disruptive technologies like AI to drive transformative change that is urgently needed.

In January 2023, Beyond Academics conducted a ThinkSpace session in which we engaged with individuals from over 20 higher education institutions to get a pulse on how Ai is being perceived, and will likely be adopted in higher education. The goal of the session was to gain a deeper understanding of individual and campus perceptions and appetite for AI, as well as to identify areas where AI could have the greatest impact on campus operations and student success. Through a combination of this crowdsourced insight, and our internal research, we were able to develop a vision for how Ai will be integrated into the day-to-day lives of students, staff, and faculty on campus.

BOSI DNA Enters Higher Education

For the better of a decade, higher education thought leaders have pointed to the urgent need for administration and faculty to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset to better position for the transformation and disruption ahead in higher ed.

BOSI (acronym for Builder, Opportunist, Specialist, and Innovator) is the framework higher leaders will be able to leverage for several much-needed outcomes.:

  1. Help each employee discover their innate entrepreneurial DNA and discover the pre-wired strengths and weaknesses of that behavioral profile.
  2. Help teams and working groups identify the complementary and competing DNAs in the room so that innovation can actually take place.
  3. Help leaders identify talent within the institution, and during the recruiting process, to best align roles to the decision-making lens that drives each individual.
  4. Help managers have a better understanding of how each team member is wired to make decisions, and how they process things like opportunity, risk, ideation, and failure.
  5. Design strategy based on the unique Institutional DNA of a school, rather than falling for the fatal trap of chasing “best practices” of schools that have a completely different DNA. (Hint: Just because Arizona State or SNHU is doing something innovative doesn’t mean your school can, or should as well. If you don’t have their Institutional DNA, you will not be successful in implementing their strategies).
  6. Assign professional development pathways for individuals based on their DNA rather than a one-size-fits-all approach that borders on discriminatory and exclusionary.
  7. Provide professors and administrators with a tool to better understand each student, and their behavioral profile so that everything from course selection, to team assignments can be customized to that who that student is.

The History Of BOSI

Discovered in 2008 amidst research conducted with startup founders, the BOSI framework led to the authoring of the book Entrepreneurial DNA (McGraw Hill 2011). Over 1,000 individuals participated in the original research, and over 200,000 individuals worldwide have completed the assessment since then.

The BOSI framework is currently used in incubators, early stage companies, academic coursework, non profit organizations, and the Fortune 500.

The framework has now been adapted for Higher Education and will be available for individuals and institutions starting 2023.

Ways To Leverage BOSI

BOSI will be available publicly in several formats starting March 2023.

  1. The free 10-question assessment for individuals (mobile friendly and under 5 minutes)
  2. The Advanced Assessment for individuals that uncovers all 4 DNAs by percentage and includes a multi-page pdf report.
  3. The Team Assessment for teams of 10 to over 1,000. Plots the entire team on one BOSI quadrant for rich insight into team dynamics and innovation capacity.
  4. A certification program for individuals (2024) who will administer the assessment and coach leaders in their professional development.
  5. Ongoing thought leadership and insights delivered via the Beyond Academics blog and on Linkedin with BOSI founder Joe Abraham.
  6. ThinkSpace sessions hosted by Beyond Academics that are open to the public.
  7. The BOSI Leadership Academy (2024) where emerging leaders in higher ed will go through multi-day programming to build their leadership skills and get certified.
  8. Workshops, events, and keynotes for associations, and institutions as-requested.

As we better understand the ways higher education leaders will leverage BOSI to move their institutions forward, we will continue to innovate ways to support.

The BOSI Assessments will open to higher education on March 1st 2023.

Questions? Contact us by emailing team@beyondacademics.com

The Top 10 Things For 2023

As higher education enters a phase of early disruption seeded by the Pandemic, and now accelerated with exponential technologies like ChatGPT, it’s important to get a perspective of the road ahead.

At Beyond Academics, we spend a great deal of our time guiding clients to where higher education is going, and how to position their institution to be future-ready.

This year’s Top 10 Things for 2023 gives you our perspective for what’s ahead this year. We hope it leads to meaningful discussions, and challenging conversations within your department or institution.

These trends are not “potentially” going to happen. They are already in their early deployment, so consider how ready your institution is to adapt to each trend, so you can take full advantage of each trend in the months to come.

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The State of SIS in Higher Ed: The Uncomfortable Truth

5 New Realities of Today’s SIS You Need to Know 

You’re probably sensing it’s time to break off an old partnership. 

For the past 15 years, your partner has been with you through thick and thin. At times, you’ve hated working together, while at other times you’ve been grateful for everything this partner did for you. But as of late, it is taking more time and money than ever before. 

It’s time to say goodbye to your current SIS system and look for a new one. 

Click below to see the full report:

The State of SIS in Higher Ed: The Uncomfortable Truth

Why Student Implementations Never Meet Expectations – Introduction

A Five-Part Series

Part 01: Why Student Implementations Never Meet Expectations

“Transformation!” “Modernization!” “Flexible!” “Saves Time and Money!” “Allows you to do what you need to do!” 

You’ve heard all of these promises and more from SIS vendors who meet us at conferences, send us their videos, and respond to our RFIs. You sign on the dotted line, get millions of dollars worth of funding, and find an implementation partner who promises to transform your world. You get excited to start your SIS transformation initiative. 

Fast forward to two years later.

Your implementation is nearly out of funds, and you are nowhere near going live on schedule. Even if you do go live, the new software will take years of modifications before you will even be able to support many of the critical processes you were doing in your legacy system on the day you held your first kick-off meeting. As a result, time, money, and careers are all wasted and broken, and your institution is less able to operate than it was 24 months ago.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way! So, what happened? 

Based on over 20 years of observing and studying the maker, we have identified five common reasons SIS implementations never meet expectations:

Reason 1: The Expected Transformation Is Not Clearly Defined

Reason 2: Lack of Leadership

Reason 3: Poor Decision-making 

Reason 4: Pseudo Investments 

Reason 5: SIS Implementation Driven by External Players

Over the next few days, we will dive deeper into these five reasons and some preventative steps you can take. We will close out the series with guidance on how to generate uncomfortable conversations with your SIS teams and hopefully set you on a new path toward true student-centric transformation. 

Don’t like to wait? Neither does innovation. Download the full five-part article here:

Are You as Student-Centric as You Think You Are?

A few weeks ago, Inside Higher Education ran an article describing a survey of course catalogs from 30 Community Colleges. The survey* found the catalogs were bulky, hard to use, with lots of policy and industry jargon. The texts were dense, written by academics for academics. New students found it difficult to understand what classes they needed for their majors, what the costs were, what each class contained, or how it was delivered.

I am sure the administrators for each of those colleges would identify as student-centric and committed to their students’ success but think about a student who is the first in their family to attend college, who has no knowledge of college jargon, where to go to get their questions answered, or that they even could go anywhere to get answers.

For these students, the catalog is a hurdle, not a path. Here, at the first step of many students’ college career, they must climb over a wall constructed by the very same administrators claiming to be committed to their success.

Hidden Hurdles

Being student-centric is not about installing software. It is about developing a constant, relentless focus on the student at every step of every process. It means keeping eyes open for barriers that we as administrators, teachers, and consultants, unknowingly create (like the course catalog.) To be truly student-centric, we need to have a clear understanding of our students’ needs and get rid of the hidden hurdles we have mistakenly overlooked.

How can you find these hidden hurdles?

  • Firstly, and most obviously, ask your students. Talk to all different types of students; older students, ethnic students, mid-career students, 18-year-olds, veterans, and students with physical challenges. Don’t ask how they interact with your technology. Ask about their experience in your institution from beginning to end. Ask how they interact with your school, your processes, and your people. Have the courage to ask what they find difficult and the integrity to listen to their answers.
  • Secondly, complete the business process yourself as if you were a student. Don’t read the procedure or ask a staff member—complete the process as a student would. For example, travel the road your students must follow to register for a semester. Read your catalog, figure out what classes you need to take for your major, and try to enroll. Call the help desk and ask a question. Pay your fee. What was your experience? What went well and what didn’t? What can you change? Step into the shoes of your students and watch your organization transform.
  • Thirdly, bring in a third-party to help you look for hidden hurdles in policy, processes, and technology. Do you make your students go to different places to solve parts of the same problem? Do you have a process in place to keep the same problem from happening again? A fresh perspective can identify issues that you had previously been blind to.

Ask Yourself “Why?”

Don’t leave a process in place because “we’ve always done it this way.” The goal is to make each process as frictionless for the student as possible. One way to do this is to ask “Why?” 5 times. The “5 Whys” is an iterative but powerful technique developed by Sakichi Toyoda. It is based on the idea you can’t arrive at the root cause of a problem or a process until you ask a “why” question at least five times.

For example, when examining a step in your registration process you might ask, “Why does the student fill out this paper form?” The answer might be “We need the information.” Then ask, “Why do you need this information?” Repeat this sequence of “whys” and answers and by the fifth “why” you have either discovered the form is vital or its not needed at all.

If the information is needed, find out if it is captured somewhere else and you can keep the student from having to fill out a form. If it isn’t needed you can get rid of the form and reduce friction for both students and staff. Either way you have released the time and energy spent on supporting a form to supporting a student.

Software Enables, But People Transform

Becoming a student-centric institution is a journey, not a destination. Installing “student success” software is only one step along the way. Software only enables what you currently do. By itself, software won’t eliminate the barriers your students must overcome and transform your institution. People drive transformation. Being truly student-centric is a result of everyone in your faculty, staff, and administration seeing your institution through your students’ eyes and having the power to remove every barrier they find—no matter how steeped in tradition it is. Only then can you transform into a student-centric institution.

* The survey was completed by Terry O’Banion is a senior professor of practice at Kansas State University and president emeritus of the League for Innovation in the Community College. Cindy Miles is a professor of practice at Kansas State University and chancellor emerita at Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. Rick Voorhees, principal and senior scholar with the Voorhees Group, for assistance in identifying their research study sample.
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