As one of the core Future Fit pillars, the development of the People+ Strategy over the coming months will reinforce that our staff, students and communities are key to the identity, values and success of UNE.
From a People and Culture perspective, People+ will be the guiding framework for improving workforce design and capability, change readiness, leadership development and performance management to help UNE achieve its goal of being a leading regional university.
UNE is truly a University of the regions and the work we do here can be an exemplar for regional communities anywhere, all over the world.
The People+ strategy will help UNE to achieve a more sustainable and competitive course offering and contribute to world leading research. Our workforce will evolve and change accordingly to improve our quality assurance, performance and sustainability.
As part of quarterly SLT workshops, our senior leaders have been reflecting this week on what effective leadership and good governance looks like as we become Future Fit.
Leading for the future involves being able to articulate and share ‘our why’ as an institution, teams and individuals. This meaning making is not just about a strategic plan on a page – it’s about why it matters and how it motivates us.
Good governance enables effective decision making and transparency to achieve organisational goals with integrity. It promotes a strong quality culture rather than just compliance, values diverse perspectives, and recognises and rewards high performance.
UNE’s team-based model of working is a key enabler of strong leadership and governance. It acknowledges that none of us have all the answers, but if we don’t know something, someone else will and can assist. Team-based working is challenging us to step outside of our normal patterns and networks. It’s knowing that there is strength, creativity and innovation in our diverse backgrounds, ideas and perspectives.
Organisations don’t change, individuals do. Hence Future Fit provides a valuable framework for checking in with each other, putting our UNE values [Open, Enquiring, Exceptional and Making a Difference] into practice and refashioning any norms that aren’t serving us well.
Change is also often said to happen one conversation at a time, which is an invitation to be explicit about the responsibility and expectations we have of each other, and how our behaviours connect to assurance, compliance, quality and accountability to achieve our goal of being a leading regional university.
Fiona Murphy
Director People and Culture