Management by Talking About

Another process innovation this week as people were off on vision visits, teaching and doing marking at times when I had suggested we have UG Review Group meetings. At least I hope that's what they were doing, otherwise I would have to take it personally.

Anyway, we still needed to get the second year outline done by the end of this week with or without meetings. And we've done it. The process was a series of one to one conversations, usually with coffee, often by chance, once with someone I didn't even know but turned out to be one of our VL's. A few ideas to start with, some changes here, accretions there and off we go.

We knew we couldn't design a structure for the second year in the way we have outlined for the third year as it will be more focused on the requirements of the distinct degree programmes. So what we have is some principles which we will be proposing for what needs to be in each second year to express the vision and values we want for the Faculty. We are also seeing the patterns emerging which can characterise the programmes - in how we manage transition for example, not just into university but also from one level to the next and from university into work.

Next step is to pull together the scrappy pieces of paper into some notes to discuss with the group and with Mark Atlay next week and then more drop-in sessions.

About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin
Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.