By Dr. Steven Burrell
Introduction
2020 was challenging, even for the most seasoned higher education leaders. While the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines signals a possible return to “normalcy” in the future, the higher education landscape is far from settled. There are three pervasive societal issues: poor physical and mental health, economic inequalities, and systemic racism challenging higher education leaders (Seltzer, 2021). Even our sense of institution as a “place” is disrupted as we experience new pandemic-induced paradigms for work-at-home, flexible learning, and other “next normal” changes to schools, work, and life.
Our institutions will also compete in an increasingly competitive market for students, talent, and funding in this climate of change, unrest, and uncertainty. Higher education CIOs will be particularly challenged with significant strategic initiatives and operational imperatives amidst a sea of institutional and technological change. To succeed at digital transformation (DX), leaders need to ensure teams and customers get empathetic technology interactions. In particular, DX initiatives require a new approach to how campus leaders interact to clarify digital strategy, manage change, and increase institutional agility to meet rapidly changing needs.
Higher education thought leaders such as Ruben (2020) call for the adaptation of leadership, planning, relationships, service, workplace, assessment, information, and achievement needed to evolve our institutional practice. The call for a navigation system to guide renewal efforts, adopting the Malcolm Baldrige framework and utilizing the Excellence in Higher Education model to leverage organizational behavior theory concepts derived from organizational and leadership practice.
However, these frameworks are based on higher education organizations’ traditional perspectives and are rooted in linear thinking as Newtonian era principles. They are top-down approaches that fail to address the pivotal changes in our understanding of organizations and aspects of personal engagement, motivation, and emotional and spiritual thinking that connect everyone intrinsically to thinking dimensions that transcend individuals and institutions. The problem is we cannot just rethink or re-organize our way to prosperity. Our rapidly evolving, unpredictable, and often chaotic climate suggests that new dimensions of leadership are required.
The pandemic recovery will be a digitally enabled one. As our institutions accelerate digital transformation and explore new directions in the wake of the pandemic, CIOs must continue to evolve their “purposeful personal leadership capabilities” by adopting a more holistic and humanistic approach while embracing broader societal change issues. Undervalued CIOs absent from the executive team conversations will be increasingly drawn into discussions that require “introspection and personal growth” (Raskino, Mesaglio, Reina, Bazargan & Evans, 2020).
The pandemic has given rise to the rapid expansion of the CIO’s visible universe. Now that CIOs are more engaged with executive leadership and that the CIO’s influence will be an enduring change (Brooks, 2020), we must evolve our leadership practice and adopt new dimensions of thinking to respond to the challenges that lie ahead effectively. Simply stated, “… the problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them” (Prensky & Einstein, 2001). The 21st century CIO must consider new ways of leading, and quantum thinking provides a new leadership framework.
Max Planck introduced the quantum theory of modern physics in the early 1900s. Nearly a century later, physicist Dana Zohar introduced Quantum Leadership thinking (QT), borrowing heavily from concepts derived from quantum physics and evoking the wisdom of ancient philosophical teachings such as those of Lao-Tzu.
QT is the ability to view the many facets of situations from all sides, concurrently hold opposing thoughts, and suggest that leaders must expand their view of the world and embrace the multi-state and sometimes paradoxical nature of issues. QT also introduces dimensions of thinking that are more empathetic and diverse and draw upon our inner spiritual intelligence, leading us to consider the impact of our decisions in humanistic terms more thoughtfully. Hence, QT is a deeper, more diverse way of looking at our problems by introducing holistic thinking, avoiding bias, and providing a broader basis for modern leadership (Vyas, 2020).
Part two will compare Quantum to Newtonian style thinking as a foundation for understanding Quantum Leadership.
Reflection Questions
- What are some of the difficult situations you are facing or thinking about?
- What is it about these situations that are hard to solve or address?
- If you could change something about the situation, what would that be?
- How might you think about that situation differently through the Quantum Leadership Thinking lens to obtain a better result or outcome?
References in this Section
Brooks, DC, (October 9, 2020). EDUCAUSE Data Bytes. QuickPoll Results: Senior IT Leadership. Available at https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/10/educause-quickpoll-results-senior-it-leadership
Prensky, M., Einstein, A. (2001). The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them. Available at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/citations;jsessionid=8ECF5B8CB5D0BE77F09D942C28BEF18E?doi=10.1.1.186.4598
Raskino, M., Mesaglio, M. Reina, D. S., Bazargan, M., Evans, N. (Dec 28, 2020). Gartner. CIO New Year’s Resolutions for 2021: The Year of Purposeful Rebuilding. ID G00738841. Available at https://www.gartner.com/document/3994918?ref=solrResearch&refval=272729876
Ruben. B. D. (2020). Leading in Turbulent Times: In Search of a Navigation System for This Critical Moment in the History of US Higher Education. Available at: https://nuventive.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Leading-in-Turbulent-Times-Nuventive-white-paper.pdf
Seltzer, R (2021). Inside Higher Education. College leadership in an era of unpredictability. Available at https://www.insidehighered.com/content/college-leadership-era-unpredictability
Vyas, K. (July 20, 2019). Interesting Engineering. Decoding quantum thinking: What it feels like to think free. Available at https://interestingengineering.com/decoding-quantum-thinking-what-it-feels-like-to-think-free