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Competence
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Hints
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Context, Activities and Result
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- Ideas and Opportunities
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1.1 Spotting Opportunities
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Use imagination and abilities to identify opportunities for creating value
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Need to identify opportunities to deliver real activity between university, council and college.
- I worked closely with my colleagues and met both council and college to understand their vision of our MOUs and identify what their key drivers and concerns were.
- I met with senior leaders at our university to understand our key drivers and what were and were not desirable activities
- It was clear Wakefield Council and College were keen to ensure the activity was new and added to the local area rather than be an opportunist move by Leeds Beckett to grab the space occupied by the college. Council leaders were also keen to see the benefits of a university presence in a district which does not have a HEI BUT it must not result in activity damaging to the college.
- For Leeds Beckett, activity must relate to our core mission and purpose (i.e. teaching and research) and not be for its own end. It must also not divert financial resources away from core activity.
- I realised that something we could add to benefit Wakefield was a UBC where we seek to grow and sustain new businesses. This would benefit the college too as we would provide opportunities for their students to be supported in starting a business which was provision they did not have.
- We had a sustainable business model from running a business centre in Leeds for over 15 years so I knew we could deliver this (after initial investment) without impacting operational budgets.
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1.2 Creativity
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Develop creative and purposeful ideas.
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Needed to develop these thoughts and check back to original MOU statements.
- I started to check the concept of our vision by meeting with university colleagues about what we could deliver and explore with the college and council what their appetite was and what facilities might be appropriate.
- I became aware of the opportunity to match this activity with a European funded project to help leverage both resources and support and built credibility
- The college’s plans for building a HE building needed to deliver an aspect of student enterprise for which they had no resource our ability to deliver.
- Our university was also thinking about how it grew its recruitment of students from local areas and I identified that having a Leeds Beckett physical presence in Wakefield would provide opportunity for wider student recruitment activity.
- The council and local business leaders were also concerned about high skilled jobs and graduates migrating away from Wakefield to Leeds, Sheffield or other university areas. This sparked my concept of our UBCs starting to slow or reverse graduate migration.
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1.3 Vision
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Work towards your vision of the future
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It was critical to be able to describe plans for our UBC activity in ways which meant things to different perspectives held by stakeholders.
- I had to be able to emphasise different aspects of the UBC to the council in a way which emphasised benefits to the local economy, and wider population through access to better paid jobs.
- The college were presented with a perspective of meeting their target outputs on student enterprise and the enhanced student experience by offering to connect them into the businesses that would be based at the UBC.
- Within my university it was critically important to begin to explore and then articulate how our UBC programme would benefit our academic researchers and our students. However, with the ultimate decision being made by our University Executive Team it was also critical to understand the perspectives of others who would be part of the key decision making process (Finance, Estates, Marketing and Student Recruitment)
- By liaising and working with colleagues from internal stakeholder departments, I was able to share my vision with them and adapt it to build their confidence and gain their support.
- My final paper to UET took on board all key perspectives and presented a vision of wide university benefit and connection into student experience and academic research. The paper was approved subject to business plans demonstrating financial sustainability within one year.
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1.4 Valuing Ideas
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Make the most of ideas and opportunities
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I needed to take account of other people’s ideas and incorporate, amend or reject them as the vision developed.
- I discussed the opportunities for engagement with our UBC with my networks including the Institute of Directors and Wakefield Economic Partnership. This gained me invaluable endorsements and support with the IoD indicating they would be willing to promote our business lounges to their members as approved places to work and network.
- The local authority were able to share my vision in relation to the European project and used their contribution to this programme to provide us the physical space to set up the UBC in close proximity to the college building in Wakefield City Centre.
- The college involved us in the development group for the visioning of their new HE building and we were able to negotiate student start-up space and a business lounge space inside the new build which would be of mutual benefit to college and university as well as encouraging businesses to enter the college building and engage with them.
- I was able to bring all these things together (alongside the thoughts of my direct team) into the final proposal which had all stakeholders stating their support.
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1.5 Ethical and Sustainable Thinking
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Assess the consequences and impact of ideas, opportunities and actions
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Despite all the support and endorsements there remained a hard core of sceptical views amongst senior stakeholders in our university which I needed to address head-on.
- I met with many senior managers (Deans, Deputy Vice-Chancellors) to explore concerns and understand the consequences if their concerns were realised. This resulted in some contingency planning being built into my proposal and additional safeguards in terms of financial resources that could be applied If required.
- I needed to ensure my project could be delivered within expected budgets and that require me to explore opportunities for corporate sponsorship with UBC partners (such as legal, finance and banking agencies and experts).
- In the first year of our UBC activity we have secured corporate sponsorship in excess of £90k to help sustain and cushion our UBCs. This has also added credibility to my case within the university with now multiple external partners putting their money into the project.
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2 Resources
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2.1 Self-awareness and self-efficacy
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Believe in yourself and keep developing
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It was vital to be aware of my own limitations, both in terms of expertise and level of authority.
- By continually checking with stakeholders, I ensured that not only was there broad stakeholder support for the vision, but also my thinking was being checked and re-aligned and giving me validation to continue.
- It was important to mobilise the support of my team to work up some of the detail with our partners – this kept stakeholders engaged and involved but kept me focussed on senior stakeholder engagement both with external partners and internal senior managers.
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2.2 Motivation & Perseverance
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Stay focussed and don’t give up
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As Enterprise MOUs were not immediately seen by senior leaders at our university as “core business” there were many challenges which presented opportunities to quit or reduce the ambition of the UBC strategy but….
- I knew this was the right thing to do given the stakeholder support, the opportunity to draw down match funding and I knew the prize was bigger than senior stakeholders could understandably grasp at this point in time.
- The support of my own team also kept me motivated to continue as they were constantly feeding in messages of support and progress on plans.
- I had to draw on my 25+ years of experience working at Leeds Beckett knowing how long it takes to convince risk-adverse managers to invest and support an activity which is not perceived as “core”.
- I had to react to direct feedback from my DVC in order to ensure the proposals were ultimately acceptable – this included working on the business case and emphasising more wider benefits to research and student experience.
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2.3 Mobilising Resources
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Gather and manage the resources you need
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I need to be aware of what resources were needed in order to mobilise this MOU into our UBC
- It was critical that the business plan would be credible and not have any “nasty” surprises – this meant being acutely aware of where risks would and could emerge and ensuring my team were managing and mitigating these.
- I met regularly with my team to review and revise the plans as the development phase of the project progressed.
- It was important to empower my team to make appropriate decisions to move things on within certain tolerances so as not to slow progress but retain financial control and avoid mission drift. I did this through clear support when needed but also by inviting and accepting ideas to modify plans as the project progressed.
- It was critical to demonstrate to senior managers that other internal experts had input and that their advice had been assessed and incorporated as appropriate – this included our estates team in particular who were concerned about the ability to support a remote university building. Other internal support was provided by or legal team (and external legal panel) particularly around leases and contracts and our marketing team (to develop new web pages and so they understood the wider application of our strategy).
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2.4 Financial & Economic Literacy
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Develop financial and economic know-how
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To a financially risk adverse institution, financial acumen was critical to both the credibility and success of the project.
- I revised and reviewed business plans to ensure that after initial investment, the UBC plan demonstrated self-sustainability – this demonstrated an acute awareness of the current university financial appetite and helped alleviate concerns around diverting resources away from core business.
- It was also equally important to emphasis the added-value benefits (research opportunities and student experience) without down playing the financial risks to the project which would have significantly undermined credibility and senior stakeholder support. I did this by ensuring our final business plan stated the benefits but emphasised these were on top of a financially self-sustaining business model (not at the cost of it!) – this also meant that the focus of the UBC programme would need to be self-sustainability first with wider benefits flowing after.
- I knew by buying into the EU funded city-region wide Ad:Venture programme, this would aid sustainability in the first few years of the UBC plan. This was in addition to gaining political support and aligning our project with our (HEFCE approved) University Knowledge Exchange Institutional Strategy (which legitimised the initial financial investment of HEIF).
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2.5 Mobilising Others
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Inspire, enthuse and get others on board
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The possibility of any negativity (external or internal) having the ability to tip the final decision the wrong way was a constant danger.
- It was critical that I kept on top of all stakeholder views and concerned so I could reflect on them and address and issues raised.
- My open, honest communication style encourages others to do the same and this enabled some difficult issues to be addressed head on rather than fester away to be raised at a more critical time. (This included some highly significant partner concerns which if left unaddressed would have left the project in peril! – My assuring and open style of communication gave them the confidence that our plans were all aligned).
- I consistently and continuously spoke to senior internal stakeholders whenever possible to share the vision and added value benefits of our UBC plan. I was able to communicate strongly (and somewhat out of character) when necessary to keep stakeholders on board. I became increasingly convicted and emboldened that this project was becoming increasingly significant and an important spoke of our university strategy in delivering local enterprise development and what has ultimately been articulated in the UK Industrial Strategy.
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3 Into Action
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3.1 Taking the Initiative
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Go for it
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Following approval by all stakeholders and our University Executive Team – the next (and current) challenge was to mobilise and deliver the physical UBC and achieve the sustainability of the business plan.
- Due to the pre-planning I undertook within this project, the approval point, whilst a significant milestone, was part of the project plan and therefore there was no great hive of activity as a result – just a sustained level of activity consistent with the plan - only now we had the formal backing of our university and a commitment to contract where necessary.
- I authorised colleagues to finalise plans for the physical space for our UBC and also to formally begin our recruitment process for staff.
- I needed to ensure promised support from external stakeholders was now delivered – I linked in with college and council senior stakeholders to confirm what was needed next and to set up relationships/processes for colleagues to follow that would facilitate the activation of support.
- I ensured I followed up with internal stakeholders to check the project remained in line with their expectations and aligned with any changing priorities. This confirmed my confidence in the project as more and more academic managers began to see possibilities for student engagement and linkages to wider academic research and enterprise delivery
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3.2 Planning & Management
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Prioritise, organise and follow-up
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The establishment of the Wakefield UBC was complex as there were three key stakeholders who would be party to multiple legal contracts. All three had differing perspectives but it was critical all three remained committed and that the contractual process came together timely to enable delivery to match staff recruitment and our wider UBC mobilisation programme (which included new UBC sites in 3 other locations).
- I regularly met with my project team to monitor progress against plan and budgets.
- I kept stakeholders informed by series of both strategic and operational meetings as appropriate – ensuring the demands of external stakeholders in terms of their information needs were met. This meant being flexible as to where and when I met, sometimes at short notice.
- Many challenges were faced including legal complications and internal stakeholder concerns around building standards for our university to lease which I had to balance with the availability of physical resource, budget and practical application for a UBC and its planned activity.
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3.3 Coping with Uncertainty, Ambiguity & Risk
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Make decisions and deal with uncertainty & risk
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A major part of the mobilisation of this project relates to my skills in dealing with risk and uncertainty.
- I always kept a pragmatic perspective when faced with challenges (buildings, budgets, university perspectives, staff resources). This enabled me to keep the teams focussed on the end goal (i.e. the UBC) and not be sucked into side-shows or internal dramas which had the ability to distract or even de-rail us form the projects key deliverable objectives.
- Risk management was a key aspect of this project and ensuring my team could always approach me for a considered response to elements of implementation which were not fully aligned with plans was key. It meant plans and decisions could be reviewed quickly and implemented without any undue delays or negative consequences.
- As timings inevitably slipped (due to building lease legalities – “it’s always the lawyer’s fault!”) it was necessary to re-profile the business plans. The UBC business plan was only a small (but significant) part of my service’s overall budget. I needed to keep my manager and internal financial accountant fully aware and bring into play contingencies I had planned within the wider service budget to off-set any negative budget re-profiling.
- Delays also impacted on some external stakeholder expectations (and patience) and so my consistent, open and honest communication with them ensured they remained fully supportive and even became part of some of the solutions to solving delays.
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3.4 Working with Others
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Team up, collaborate and network
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With a project of this size, team work and awareness of what everyone can bring to the project is critical.
- I embraced a diversity of perspectives from networks and stakeholders as evidenced above which made for a richer team and converted verbal support into active participation and in some cases investment.
- The inclusion of diverse stakeholder opinion also helped with internal stakeholders in terms of them appreciating the complexity and giving validation to my pragmatic approach to delivery and compromise. E.G: I played off a recommendation for a “gold plated” estate requirement (internal) against the council’s ability to offer such space and mapped this to the actual activity the UBC would deliver. This enabled us to make improvements to the support the council offered but our university estates team quickly realised the gold standard would never be achieved.
- My manager encouraged me at several points to consider abandoning the proposal – particularly when it attained “peak internal resistance!”. I was always able to rebut this being driven by the conviction that our UBC activity was the right thing to do and would be worth all the pain in the longer term. This plays to my resilience and level headed determination when I am convicted that my project is the strategically important. I was always able to convince my manager to support us in continuing the plan.
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3.5 Learning through Experience
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Learn by doing
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This project created numerous opportunities for self-reflection and development as well as team development.
- I have revised my approach to gaining senior internal approval to become a more effective Influencer in Enterprise Education.
- I have reflected with my team at significant milestones in the project to reflect on how things have been done and consider how we would change things should we do something similar – this learning has been at many levels of my team and supports our culture of personal and team development being mutually beneficial.
- As a result of the sometimes tortuous negotiation process with internal stakeholders a greater working relationship has emerged for moving forward as I now have a greater understanding of their perspectives but they also have of mine. This has already led to more productive relationships and collaboration of mutual benefit going forward including sharing resources.
- Finally, the review of this activity with my immediate line manager has created many discussion points and learning which has improved our working relationship and the representation of our service within our university.
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