In some my most recent meetings, I have had the privilege of coordinating with the top guys at private Universities in the country, and I am on the verge of losing all kinds of respect that I had for this fraternity.
Let me base this entire thing on a particular premise - all that I will mention here has nothing to do with anyone personally, and it involves data trends during my course of interactions with these gentlemen and ladies.
1. They lack either the IQ or the courage to make change happen:
Since I am in sales, this is something I have found baffling at most times. These are the very people who are running our educational institutions and are supposed to teach students about how to make the next set of things happen. Surprisingly, these are the very people who are so very grounded to their comfort zones, or they don't have the IQ to understand how things have evolved, that anything thats NEW doesn't really get through the smokescreen.
I figure that no one would want to take the pain and the responsibility to be the "change-agent" primarily because of the kind of politics thats rampant inside such institutions. These political centers will take the lives and careers of such proactive-leaders downhill - such is the thought.
Then there are questions like - Whats in it for me (personally? I really hate to answer that question because the next set of discussions will vary on how much payout am I ready to offer for this decision going my way.
Pushing the buck (and pushing me around) across to other people (Read - ProVC, VC, Director, Finance Director, MCA Professor, MBA Professor, Pro-Chancellor, Chancellor) is an endless process wherein external travel, absence, etc are a regular part of this thing. Why should there every be urgency in order to do something that no one else has done?
2. They are pretty terrible in returning any communication
This happens in almost every case, and exceptions are a welcome sign actually. Simple things like returning calls, mails, or faxes are never done because they probably don't have time. Don't have time? For what? In most cases, I have had meetings with these guys when I was taken by the other person inside the department and we simply waltzed-into the office of a senior guy. They don't reply because of the first point I made - they choose not to reply actually.
They are aware that every reply they make, they will have be asked for an action on the plan or the proposal.
I once asked one person that - Simply put, will you view an ISO9001.2000 certification proposal the same way as you would for a proposal for improving the quality of candidates applying to you, or the quality of placements you are going to have?
He told me that, for a quality certification, he can "show-off" that "he" got that. But for anything on the other side like Admission, he will not be able to claim that it was due to his efforts that things are better in applications or placements. There are different people taking such claims-to-fame. So why should he be bothered?
Now if he is not bothered, then why should be be the bottleneck in the process? Quite simple - To be viewed as IMPORTANT.
I have a very sad feedback about the kind of conversations that I have with most of the top guys I meet across India - none of those (conversations) are really interesting. I don't know if I have learnt anything from any of them, or shared our knowledge on the ways of improvement of their University or Institution.
(Just a practical joke - I met this Director in Mumbai, and somehow, our discussion went onto when should I have kids now that I am married, and he ended up speaking on that for the next 45 mins. I was pulling my hair after the meeting, and am really scared to meet him again. However, on a separate note - the Deal was Done)
Decision making inside Universities involves a very complex mesh or matrix, and its a hard job to convert each of those guys. If they don't have vision or IQ or are scared, that compounds the problems. No one wants to mess around with the other person's ego or sour any relationship. In this status-quo situation, things go on and on as usual.
The good thing is that all this has been identified, and the next step is to break into the "chakravyuh".
Let me base this entire thing on a particular premise - all that I will mention here has nothing to do with anyone personally, and it involves data trends during my course of interactions with these gentlemen and ladies.
1. They lack either the IQ or the courage to make change happen:
Since I am in sales, this is something I have found baffling at most times. These are the very people who are running our educational institutions and are supposed to teach students about how to make the next set of things happen. Surprisingly, these are the very people who are so very grounded to their comfort zones, or they don't have the IQ to understand how things have evolved, that anything thats NEW doesn't really get through the smokescreen.
I figure that no one would want to take the pain and the responsibility to be the "change-agent" primarily because of the kind of politics thats rampant inside such institutions. These political centers will take the lives and careers of such proactive-leaders downhill - such is the thought.
Then there are questions like - Whats in it for me (personally? I really hate to answer that question because the next set of discussions will vary on how much payout am I ready to offer for this decision going my way.
Pushing the buck (and pushing me around) across to other people (Read - ProVC, VC, Director, Finance Director, MCA Professor, MBA Professor, Pro-Chancellor, Chancellor) is an endless process wherein external travel, absence, etc are a regular part of this thing. Why should there every be urgency in order to do something that no one else has done?
2. They are pretty terrible in returning any communication
This happens in almost every case, and exceptions are a welcome sign actually. Simple things like returning calls, mails, or faxes are never done because they probably don't have time. Don't have time? For what? In most cases, I have had meetings with these guys when I was taken by the other person inside the department and we simply waltzed-into the office of a senior guy. They don't reply because of the first point I made - they choose not to reply actually.
They are aware that every reply they make, they will have be asked for an action on the plan or the proposal.
I once asked one person that - Simply put, will you view an ISO9001.2000 certification proposal the same way as you would for a proposal for improving the quality of candidates applying to you, or the quality of placements you are going to have?
He told me that, for a quality certification, he can "show-off" that "he" got that. But for anything on the other side like Admission, he will not be able to claim that it was due to his efforts that things are better in applications or placements. There are different people taking such claims-to-fame. So why should he be bothered?
Now if he is not bothered, then why should be be the bottleneck in the process? Quite simple - To be viewed as IMPORTANT.
I have a very sad feedback about the kind of conversations that I have with most of the top guys I meet across India - none of those (conversations) are really interesting. I don't know if I have learnt anything from any of them, or shared our knowledge on the ways of improvement of their University or Institution.
(Just a practical joke - I met this Director in Mumbai, and somehow, our discussion went onto when should I have kids now that I am married, and he ended up speaking on that for the next 45 mins. I was pulling my hair after the meeting, and am really scared to meet him again. However, on a separate note - the Deal was Done)
Decision making inside Universities involves a very complex mesh or matrix, and its a hard job to convert each of those guys. If they don't have vision or IQ or are scared, that compounds the problems. No one wants to mess around with the other person's ego or sour any relationship. In this status-quo situation, things go on and on as usual.
The good thing is that all this has been identified, and the next step is to break into the "chakravyuh".
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