LEADERSHIP & CULTURE

Transfer To Degree: Big Problem, Bad Solutions

80% of community college students aim for a bachelor’s degree, but only 16% succeed within six years. The numbers are even lower for minority and low-income students. Finding a solution to this problem has cost hundreds of millions of dollars and decades of effort.

After all that, it’s safe to say —we don’t truly understand the problem.

The Community College Daily recently published “7 Ways To Scale Up Community College Baccalaureates,” based on the CCBA’s recommendations. You’ll find no quick fixes or solutions, just basic steps to better understand the problem.

It’s a good move because here’s the truth: You Can’t Solve a Problem You Don’t Understand.

🦁 Leadership Lessons »

Great leaders don’t magically conjure up great solutions. They push pause, put their egos away, and ask questions that challenge assumptions.

• Do we fully understand the issue?
• What assumptions are we making?
• What confirms our understanding?
• Are we solving the right problem?

Poor Leadership ⭐️	Great Leadership ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Habitually rubber stamps things	Challenges status quo solutions
Goes along to get along	Insists that everyone show their work
Assumes they already have the best answer	Assumes they don’t know and that a better way exists
Settles for good enough	Keeps asking questions to uncover the Root That Produces the Fruit 🍎

The reality is that you can’t make every decision from the “great” leadership column. It’s not practical and doesn’t put into context the “Impossible Job” of leading in higher education.

So, perfect isn’t the target. But we damn well should be making progress. And that’s hard to do when you don’t understand the problem.

 🎯 Cabinet Conversation »

• How will my leadership team and I assume less and ask MORE?
• How will my leadership team and I show MORE of our work?
• How will my leadership team and I uncover MORE of the root that produces the fruit 🍎?

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

The Truth About Skills vs Degrees

Many large employers and government agencies have eliminated degree requirements. However, in 2023, only 1 in 700 hires benefited from companies dropping degree requirements.

But wait a minute: An ASA survey found that 81% of employers believe in prioritizing skills over degrees —68% desire to hire non-degree candidates.

🤔 Why do employers say one thing but do another?

1. Employers don’t practice what they preach. For now, skill-based hiring policies are in name only (see new Harvard & Burning Glass Institute report)
2. Employers find it challenging to easily measure skills
3. Employers struggle to filter through the flood of job applications

TLDR: hiring based on skills AIN’T easy! In a hot labor market, hiring managers have a ton of candidates. And without an easy way to measure skills, they default to what they know and use degrees to narrow down the application pool.

🎓 This will change once skill assessment tools become widely available and companies move from mere policy to real-world processes for execution. Or said differently, skills will reign supreme once skill-based hiring becomes more profitable 💵.

🦁 Leadership Lessons »

Higher education has for generations obsessed over the value of its widget called degrees. But here’s a question: Is Amazon obsessing over the value of books today? Or is Apple obsessing over the value of desktop computers?

No, because if they did, Amazon and Apple would have never innovated beyond their “core” widget.

Higher education isn’t a traditional “business,” but it is a service. And when delivering a service, it’s never about the widget. It’s always about staying true to one core question:

“How Do We Deliver Maximum Value to Our Customers?”

When leaders strategically focus on this question, they start with the end in mind and build a culture that puts customers first —not widgets, not biases, not our preconceived notions.

 🎯 Cabinet Conversation »

• Where has my leadership team and I focused more on the widget rather than the customer?
• How will my leadership team and I better execute on the principle of customer first?

P.S. ~ We intentionally use the designation customers to side-step the preconceived bias of the word student. It also underscores the idea that you must “customize” your widget to the needs of your “customer.”

LEADERSHIP & CULTURE

edX Sells for $800M: Did Harvard & MIT Fail?

Harvard and MIT sold edX to 2U for a whopping $800M, only to see 2U’s stock take a nose dive. Now, a debate has started…

🤔 Did Harvard & MIT fail with edX, or is their new spinoff AXIM just what the doctor ordered?

• According to Times Higher Education:
  • Critics say Harvard & MIT sold out by pocketing $800M and only re-investing the interests from the sale into AXIM.
  • Supporters see a strategic shift with AXIM having the potential to support worthy projects.

🦁 Leadership Lessons »

Did Harvard & MIT succeed or fail? It’s debatable. But what’s not debatable is the core lesson that leaders will face judgment and criticism no matter what.

So it stands to reason that there’s no point in:

1. Fearing criticism and judgment: It’s baked into the cake
2. Taking things personally: Everybody gets it.
3. “Majoring in Minor Things:” If you’re going to be judged, make sure it’s for something that matters.

P.S. ~ Criticism, judgment, and even failure don’t crush most leaders. It’s enduring these things over B.S. that doesn’t matter. Ask any leader inundated with work that doesn’t matter.

 🎯 Cabinet Conversation »

• What criticism and judgment will my leadership team and I move past today?
• What minor thing will my leadership team and I let go of today?
• What major thing will we focus on today? (make sure it’s worth it)