Tuesday, October 10, 2006

This comment cracks me up or a PhD High priest writes in.

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight. You are THE local expert on higher education, but you do not subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Is that correct?

I don't think that I am a expert on higher education. I'm not sure that I know that much about it. I do know about leadership and building organizations. I also know how to hire and fire. What I'm writing about here is running an organization and analyzing SIUC's management, how to get a student to write a poem, research a term paper, grade on a curve and the rest of academic trivia isn't something that interests me.

The Chronicle is a don't care. I'm putting my finger on problems at SIUC here in this little blog. Mostly, I am just writing about the problems people tell me about and spinning it through my management beliefs. If I was in charge of SIUC and was going to make money by fixing it, I would find a sudden interest.

Let me suggest something to all you readers. Instead of wasting your time reading the Chronicle, why don't you go and read "Good to Great" instead? That is a book about getting the very average organization to become a great one. The wisdom is in there. To ignore our cultures mainstream management press is a mistake if you care to fix this place. It is an easy read, you can go back to the Chronicle after you are done.

The reason most people become professors is because they don't want to hassle with the management nitty gritty that I thrive in. I don't blame you, but please don't complain if you don't want to help fix the problems.

To the commenter, if you want to tell a joke you need to include a :) at the end. :) Either way, it made me laugh.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peter, and "the expert":

Have either one of you read the Collins monograph on Good to Great and the Social Sectors? I think there are some differences...

1. Discipline is not just a business concept. Non-profits are just in need for discipline as businesses.

2. The goals are reformulated slightly because of the nature of differences between businesses and social organizations.

3. Getting people on the bus is just as important for SIUC (personally, I LOATHE that term as I look at us as THE Southern Illinois University) as it is any business.

PeterG said...

Hi Fraydog -

Good points.

We need the professors to read about how to improve SIUC. They have all the power to fix things. A worthless business guy and a well read student are just cheerleaders. :)

Thanks for the comments.