The Shaping Futures update from the November 2017 Leadership Bulletin

Professor Christina Hughes

What makes something outstanding?  I was mulling on this recently as our plan for Shaping Futures emphasises the importance of achieving consistently outstanding, not ordinary, outcomes.  For me, outstanding is not a number or a metric or a statistic.  Rather it is a summation of wisdom, knowledge, capability, energy and creativity.  And, not to forget, achieving consistency requires organisation and planning to make all this happen.   We have outstanding practice in Hallam by the bucketful but I fear that we don’t share this enough with others, learn from our colleagues in other departments, faculties and directorates and celebrate our outstandingness (if there is such a word!).

At the most recent University Leadership Forum event, I asked eight of our colleagues to present an aspect of their work that was clearly outstanding.  And we learnt so much.  You can check this out yourself by clicking on the links below:

• Using her experiences of working closely on the Shaping Futures plan, Claire Ward, Strategic Portfolio Manager in Strategic Portfolio and Business Change, gave us valuable insights into how to organise and manage large scale change projects.  And how not to!
• Dr Emma Heron, Head of Academic Development, Development and Society who is heading up the Listening Rooms project discussed the importance of this approach to understanding the student experience and triggered a conversation of how we might better listen to staff as well.
• Leading a National Student Survey Top 10 library and student services provision, Nuala Devlin, Director of Library and Student Support, outlined the importance of coherence, ambition and foresight in realising such national standing.
• Ann Norton, Head of the Department of Management Studies also demonstrated how to achieve 100% overall satisfaction in the National Student Survey through painstaking attention to the student experience at all levels.
• Looking at curriculum development, Toni Schwarz, Head of Department Nursing and Midwifery discussed the extensive partnership and co-working relationships that are necessary in putting in place a connected curriculum.
• One of our National Teaching Fellows 2017, and with 10,000 followers on Twitter, Sue Beckingham (Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing) gave us a great lesson on how to develop a digital media profile.
• Looking forward, Tony Clark, Head of Department, Computing, set out his plans for radical changes to Level 4 provision that will aid retention and progression of students.
• And Luke Desforges, our new Head of Department in Natural and Built Environment, provided a compelling account of how aspiration, motivation and a passion for excellence is driving his approach.

I hope you find their accounts inspiring as well as helpful. I am aware that they are only a fragment of the excellence we have here at Hallam.  Do get in touch, then, if you have other examples to share.

Excerpt from the November 2017 Leadership Bulletin