Effectiveness and capability
as a team are as important to the good stewardship of a major enterprise like a university as are the knowledge and skills of individual members of the governing body. A great team will not only know of the distribution of skills around the table but also will understand it. The difference means:
- being able to call on expert advice within the team appropriately;
- understanding the expert advice given;
- measuring its accuracy; and
- judging its value to making the decision.
When the whole governing body can exchange knowledge at this level decision-making is more accurate, reliable and faster - and collegiate too. The reverse is also true - the absence of those experts does not halt decision-making by the team. This is about team effectiveness, the extra element to make good performance great performance.
So the objective of these courses is to enhance the average knowledge & capability of the whole council, and increase the performance of the team overall .
The UGPD Program has developed a range of four courses to build up team effectiveness on these principles that are unique in the marketplace:
These workshops are designed to be conducted with the whole Council or Senate at your university. They are intended to challenge participants to analyze what they are doing in practice, and to assess whether it could be improved and how.
Individual university governors may not feel challenged in their field of expertise. Their challenge is to effectively communicate their expertise to the rest of the governing body in the workshop and in Council/Senate meetings. Others should feel their level of expertise challenged , and should be asking themselves and their colleagues whether they require specific professional development.
This applies collectively as well and the best outcome would be for participants to begin formulating a personal and/or Council/Board response to address the issues that are recognized as relevant for their role as a Council Member.
Since inception the National Institute of Governance has delivered these courses with success, raising the collective understanding of governors and delivering practical outcomes for future improvement of an institution's governance practices. but don't take our word for it.
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