Page 273 - Crisis in Higher Education

244 • Crisis in Higher Education

11.5.3.2 Improving Productivity for Professional Managers
and Specialist—Middle Management

Making improvements here depends on success at the executive level.
First, eliminating an executive reduces the need for managers, specialists,
and staff who support this person. Second, middle managers are more
willing to participate in innovation and change if their bosses are doing
their part. At this level, there are opportunities to identify and eliminate
unnecessary work, but efforts must be more systemic because the people
who hold these positions are part of processes that supports faculty, who
are teaching and researching, and students, who are learning. The pro-
cesses include things like registration, financial aid, IT support, schedul-
ing, and dozens of others that can be improve but not eliminated.
As mentioned earlier, the problem is not the people; it is unreliable, inef-
ficient, and costly processes that take too long. Processes must be rede-
signed to improve performance, and this requires the following:

1. Understanding how an existing process works, including its strengths
and weaknesses
2. Setting stretch goals to signify that a drastic increase in outcomes is
expected
3. Designing and implementing a new process that meets these goals
4. Working to continuously improve performance.

It is the right combination of radical change as identified in steps 1
through 3, which leads to dramatic improvements, and continuous
change, step 4, which drives uninterrupted, incremental improvements.
Making these changes is a mindset/cultural shift that requires consider-
able time and effort. Providing details on how to do this cannot be accom-
plished in one chapter or even an entire book. Following is an overview of
the steps including references to books that are likely to be helpful.

1. Lean thinking: It is essential to change how legislators, board mem-
bers, and presidents think about universities. In most cases, their
thoughts are of important research, innovative ideas, and gradua-
tion. These things are necessary and desirable outcomes, but it is also
important to think about the processes for achieving these outcomes:
whether universities use resources effectively, have low dropout
rates, and have graduates who complete their degrees in four years,