[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”4″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ featured_placement=”above” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
We\u2019re\u00a0shaping our future\u00a0and\u00a0delivery\u00a0of\u00a0our\u00a0strategy, together.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What makes us distinctive as a university is how we connect our research, students,\u00a0partners\u00a0and civic institutions locally and globally to achieve more together.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With\u00a0more than\u00a013,000 colleagues and\u00a047,000 students our collective\u00a0will,\u00a0and effort can and does make a very real difference here in Manchester and across the world.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re\u00a0a large university with big ambition.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u00a0feels\u00a0like\u00a0a great time\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0part of our\u00a0university\u00a0community. The opportunity and the agency that we have,\u00a0united behind our new strategy\u00a0to 2035,\u00a0is energising and exciting.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our\u00a0colleagues\u00a0are our greatest asset\u00a0in so many ways; you enable our incredible ambitions and none of this is possible \u2013 not the ideation or the delivery \u2013 without your input.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Whether you are\u00a0teaching\u00a0our students\u00a0or\u00a0upskilling our colleagues, helping us become more digital\u00a0or helping run our campus,\u00a0keeping us informed or informing\u00a0groundbreaking\u00a0research,\u00a0it all matters.\u00a0We are all part of the glue that makes\u00a0the University of Manchester\u00a0an amazing place to be!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A strategy is just words on a page unless we all come together to deliver.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So here comes the\u00a0\u2018but\u2019….\u00a0delivery is not easy.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a large complex ecosystem, bringing\u00a0together our\u00a0resources, our work, our\u00a0ideas\u00a0and our enthusiasm\u00a0take\u00a0effort and dedication.\u00a0It requires clarity, commitment,\u00a0accountability\u00a0and focus.\u00a0At times it will require us to speed up, to\u00a0hustle\u00a0and to work at speed making\u00a0difficult decisions\u00a0and leading well.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes it will require\u00a0us to slow down a little, to listen\u00a0with intent to change, to collaborate and cocreate. Knowing what is\u00a0required\u00a0at any given point in\u00a0our\u00a0delivery\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0be easy and we\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0always get it right every time.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s\u00a0why it is critical that we have the tools,\u00a0support\u00a0and psychological safety to\u00a0do our jobs well. To experiment and innovate whilst keeping\u00a0the train on the tracks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our delivery handbook\u00a0is there to guide us and\u00a0sets out\u00a0how we\u00a0need\u00a0to deliver\u00a0to get it right;\u00a0using user centred design, being agile\u00a0and adopting a\u00a0fail\u00a0forward approach,\u00a0with\u00a0co-creation\u00a0where it matters.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0always led change well in the past, and we are committed to improving that.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Making things better, changing to improve,\u00a0brings with\u00a0it\u00a0periods of\u00a0uncertainty and as we deliver our first\u00a0<\/span>3-year work package<\/span><\/a>\u00a0there will be plenty that is\u00a0still to be worked out together.\u00a0Transparency\u00a0and feedback are essential. Your voice matters, not just during our annual colleague engagement survey\u00a0although that is in itself\u00a0an important tool\u00a0for progress!\u00a0but every day in your local fora.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We recently held our\u00a0first delivery\u00a0conference with\u00a0over\u00a0200 leaders\u00a0and nominated colleagues\u00a0to focus on the first\u00a03-year\u00a0work\u00a0package \u2013 we\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0deliver everything at once and we\u00a0will need to move at pace without rushing.\u00a0We asked those\u00a0leaders to\u00a0work with you in your\u00a0teams\u00a0to understand where your current work aligns to our strategy and start to figure out what must continue, what needs to change and what might need to stop to allow your focus to pivot to where it\u2019s really needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u00a0want to\u00a0encourage you to reflect on this question and talk with your manager,\u00a0and\u00a0in your teams, to re-set your focus\u00a0and check in on pace and the expectations of you.\u00a0\u00a0There may be a stop\/start needed or you may be unaffected at this point and the message may be \u2013 keep doing the\u00a0great things\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0already doing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As your People Directorate\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0working on\u00a0new tools\u00a0and\u00a0development programmes\u00a0to ensure all\u00a0colleagues have the skills\u00a0and\u00a0knowledge\u00a0to\u00a0do their\u00a0roles to\u00a0the best\u00a0of\u00a0their ability, creating the\u00a0best\u00a0experience and environment for you to\u00a0thrive.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Being a place where you matter and a place organised for success means we need to look at the entire colleague experience\u00a0to set ourselves up\u00a0to achieve our ambitions.\u00a0We need to build learning programmes and reference guides to support every individual from the moment they join us\u00a0right\u00a0through their\u00a0career journey \u2013 making sure they are supported to be their best and do their best work here at Manchester and for the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An essential part\u00a0of supporting\u00a0you to deliver on our strategy is equipping leaders and managers to lead teams well.\u00a0We\u00a0have started to\u00a0launch\u00a0a new suite of development courses and programmes to help leaders\u00a0develop\u00a0team\u00a0skills, grow\u00a0careers\u00a0and tackle poor behaviour and bullying that has no place in our university.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re\u00a0working hard to respond to your feedback and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0making\u00a0progress\u00a0but\u00a0we know we have\u00a0much\u00a0more to do.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0our collective responsibility and opportunity to get the culture and the environment\u00a0right\u00a0here at Manchester. To ensure this is a place where you matter, where you feel you belong and where you see how your individual contribution\u00a0makes a difference.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019re\u00a0shaping our\u00a0future;\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0delivering our strategy.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Please keep sharing your experience with us, keep\u00a0telling us\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0going well and where things can improve.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Thank you<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Best,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ele\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re\u00a0shaping our future\u00a0and\u00a0delivery\u00a0of\u00a0our\u00a0strategy, together.\u00a0What makes us distinctive as a university is how we connect our research, students,\u00a0partners\u00a0and civic institutions locally and globally to achieve more together.\u00a0\u00a0With\u00a0more than\u00a013,000 colleagues and\u00a047,000 students our collective\u00a0will,\u00a0and effort can and does make a very real difference here in Manchester and across the world.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0a large university with big ambition.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0feels\u00a0like\u00a0a great time\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":4212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]<\/p> When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]<\/p> [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ue","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4077"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4210,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions\/4210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Chris Taylor: Grasping the opportunities of AI<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
April Mcmahon: The hype and reality of ChatGPT: Exploring its impact on teaching and learning<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
April McMahon: Replacing Blackboard Learn with Canvas by Instructure<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>