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John Hennessy, the President of Stanford University, made quite a splash recently when he publicly predicted the death of the lecture hall as university education takes advantage of online capabilities.  In his acceptance speech for the 2012 IEEE Medal of Honor, he went on to explain that you certainly can’t fully automate all of teaching but parts of it are an excellent match to current technologies; such as the lectures themselves.

To drive his point home, he cited one faculty colleague who claimed “I don’t feel very useful when I stand in front of a classroom and give a set of lectures, 85% of which are the same as the year before.  It’s not very rewarding for the student, and sitting in large lecture halls is not the way students want to learn, particularly this generation.”  This faculty member pointed out that it has caused her to experiment where she broke her lectures into chunks of ten to twenty minutes.

Each had a mini-quiz in between.  The results of the mini quiz could be played back to the student, identifying areas where the student should go back and revisit the lecture.  The student can then go ahead with the next segment of the content.  There were also regularly scheduled faculty interactions with students.

In the business world, if that kind of inflection point emerges, you see a mad dash by companies new and old to exploit it.  I recently talked with two university presidents to gauge their enthusiasm about the inflection point that online technologies represent.  While both were optimistic long term, neither seemed enthused.  Both quickly noted just how difficult it is to drive change in their worlds.

They pointed to all the constituent groups that would need to support any change; the faculty senate (whose members are typically tenured and tend to fear change), academic department heads, curriculum committees, the alumni association, the university development group, the board of trustees, accreditation officials, etc.  The sense I got from just looking at their faces was that change generates pain and anguish for them, not fun!

These two presidents were quick to point out how much easier it is in the business world to drive change, where leaders are not only given the responsibility for an organization but also the authority to change things if that is what it takes to be successful.

I came away from those conversations with the two university presidents with a deep appreciation for the following three powerful tools which business has, and those university presidents are envious of:

# 1. Reorganizing

When you want to pursue change, innovation, or improvement, it is wise to reorganize the group so that it’s clear what you want to have happen.  While you make sure the current business is well covered, the organization is configured so that it is anticipated the change will occur.

# 2. Personnel

Putting the right people in key jobs when you want change to occur is absolutely critical.  There is nothing like a fresh mindset and a high degree of motivation to achieve in insuring the success of a particular initiative.

# 3. Measurement, with Implications

With change, new measures need to be put in place and individuals need to be held accountable to make progress on those measures.  The results should be reflected in performance appraisals so that people understand that you are serious about achieving the change and making things happen.

For those of you in business, step back and realize the big opportunity you have; then jump in there and seize those opportunities to constantly improve.

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Images:  ”Portrait of young college student using laptop at university hall  / Shutterstock.com“