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VC ’ s corner dominated team effectiveness , describing them in terms of psychological safety , dependability , structure and clarity in decision-making process , meaning and impact .
If these insights sound familiar , they are . Each is a recurring theme in all universities and organisations , but we have the added responsibility of ensuring our graduates have them too .
The drive for meaning and impact in particular loom ever larger in contemporary discourse , whether that be with a focus on the relevance of what universities deliver or the way we operate as places of work . For us , meaning flows from work that is important to our university community and impact shows up when team members think their work matters and makes a difference . In northern Queensland the notion of ‘ power of place ’ lends itself to the realisation of meaning and impact as conceived by Google .
This power of place is in our proximity to the Daintree Rainforest , Great Barrier Reef and the dry tropics of the north west , and in our unwavering commitment to the health and prosperity of regional , remote and rural communities . Power of place is also nested in the built environment and through enabling technologies and connectivity that mean ideas are readily shared . The world is truly becoming a smaller place .
Our power of place embraces the idea that new knowledge , research , science and innovation increases productivity and wellbeing and both are critical to the long-term prosperity of the Australian community . So too our ability to engage effectively with current and future national and global challenges and to demonstrate the environmental , economic and social benefits from research . Put another way , as universities we are plainly in the important business of giving effect to the socioscientific benefits of our work .
JCU is currently at world standard in 38 areas of research , above world standard in 25 areas and in 10 we are well above world class . These 10 include research in some of the most pressing issues of our time – medical microbiology , fisheries sciences , ecology , and environmental science and management . These credentials were achieved within 50 short years and today have meaning and impact for our staff , students and the communities we serve . As does our position as the number one university in the world for global partnerships for sustainable development . Our challenge , and no doubt yours too , is to increase the prominence we give to the socio-scientific benefits from research in a way that delivers better understanding while allowing for ambiguity in the meaning and impact that inevitably accrues from such activity .
A marked issue at the start of COVID-19 was that the community wanted answers in real time to questions which couldn ’ t be answered because we just didn ’ t know . In one JCU Webinar , RNA Viruses for Dummies , thousands of people across Australia listened to what experts had to say about the unfolding pandemic . Our world class credentials in tropical health and medicine weren ’ t sufficient to avoid the recurring theme that more data was needed , in part because we didn ’ t have it , but also to remove the ambiguity in data sets from across the world . And then there was professional disagreement between the experts as to what were appropriate treatment protocols , particularly during the early days of the pandemic .
Ambiguity in data is known to reduce trust by the public in science and in scientists . We like an expert to know the answer rather than to tell us what ’ s wrong with it . In a complicated world , where the data is ambiguous , those responsible for policy development may pass on decisions summed up in sound-bytes across social channels which , in turn , lead to a flurry of posts , tweets and shares to parliamentarians with the question “ Why are we investing in something so uncertain ?” Add to this a sometimes unnerving level of community comfort with commentary that disambiguates , but in so doing overly simplifies things in a politically charged environment , putting our prospects of support for research that transforms at risk .
There is deep irony here . Community demands and policy settings that drive towards more certainty , expressed through neat cost-benefit assessments of research investments and ever tighter links between education and specific employment outcomes , risk compromising our ability to deliver the new ideas and knowledge that will underpin the very transformation our nation needs . The sort of transformative ideation we need cannot flourish where the primordial question is near-term benefit .
The world is inexact , it is ambiguous and it is far from simple . We grapple daily , and imperfectly , with its demands .
The sort of transformative ideation we need cannot flourish where the primordial question is near-term benefit .
Applied research and commercialisation have an important place in our repertoire . We need to do more of this . But we also require the people and policy settings to deliver and nurture new ideas and knowledge untrammelled by short termism and ever tighter coupling to particular outcomes .
For Google , Project Oxygen and Project Aristotle provided insight by articulating the ideal manager and team , working with ambiguity , problem solving , understanding the role of empathy and a need for meaning and impact in all they do .
There are lessons here for policy makers and for universities .
For policy makers , their interests are well served if managers and teams , their advisors and subject matter experts , are Google-like in their capacities to work with ambiguity and cautious about the temptation to overly simplify , or focus on short termism , when the long term requires us to work with ambiguity rather than to remove it from the conversation .
For universities too our interests are well served if we apply the same problem-solving and critical thinking we expect in the academy to organisational development , our processes , and the people tasked with navigating an uncertain future .
More than this , we have a shared responsibility to work with policy makers and the community to celebrate the social-scientific benefits of all we do . These benefits exist across the research spectrum – from ideation to application and commercialisation . They also flow from how well we prepare the next generation of professionals to drive the health of our planet , our country and our people in a post-pandemic world where working with ambiguity is the real new normal . ■
For references go to www . campusreview . com . au .
Professor Sandra Harding AO is vice chancellor and president , James Cook University .
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