Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Brian McDonald, Founder of MOR Associates. Brian may be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.
In a prior Tuesday Reading on Meeting the Moment the question posed was how do we as leaders step up when there are so many challenges facing our institutions?
Back in 2015, the Board of Regents at the University of Iowa became concerned about increasing costs. Like many boards or senior leaders, they engaged an external consulting firm to assess several administrative areas and recommend a plan to achieve specific savings. The external firm proposed information technology (IT) could save $4 million. The consultants proposed an implementation plan that they would execute, which would consume a significant portion of those savings.
Steve Fleagle, the CIO at the University, stepped up and proposed to the President and the Board an alternative plan, implemented with local knowledge and expertise, that would reach the same savings target and eliminate the cost of the external consultants. The parties agreed. The CIO would be accountable for achieving these savings and for reporting back to the Board.
The next step was to invite some 40 IT leaders from across central and distributed units to come together to hear the charge. As Steve shared with this group, “We can do this ourselves or have it done to us. Better we work together to bring about these savings instead of having others direct us on this initiative. We know where the best opportunities are and how we can deliver.”
MOR Associates was invited to facilitate this initial working session. Within the first hour, participants from across the campus were working together to identify potential opportunities for achieving the savings goals and improving IT services for the campus. It was inspiring to see people put aside turf issues and collaborate on what became known as the TIER (Transparent Inclusive Efficiency Review) project. The initiative was successful. As one participant said, “The common vocabulary that we share through the MOR program has made it much easier to make progress on these projects.”
As MOR professes, “We believe change works when people feel that a change is being made with and for them rather than done to them.”
Here we are in 2025, with Boards and senior leadership responding to an external environment that necessitates cost reduction initiatives by inviting consulting firms to propose where these savings could be delivered.
Taking the Initiative to Lead
We encourage leaders to be proactive and take ownership for charting a path forward to help meet this moment. Each university has their own challenges, and sometimes external consultants can be helpful in terms of bringing capacity, credibility, or expertise to a project. However, there is no need to wait for the consultants to bring forward a list of potential initiatives when the local campus experts likely know the answers. In some cases, the university may need the consultants for specific expertise or to build political will to undertake changes that various stakeholders will oppose. If so, then leaders need to do as Steve did in Iowa, seize the ownership as the recommendations are brought forward.
The consultant playbook involves interviewing internal stakeholders and returning with a report recommending that the university implement changes. Often, some of these are already in motion or are changes people have been advocating for years. Below is an abbreviated list of frequently repeated consultant recommendations across institutions:
- Secure the IT environment: Implement a comprehensive cyber risk management program
- Develop an integration strategy
- Define roles and responsibilities: Clearly articulate the roles, responsibilities, and performance metrics for IT service providers at all levels
- Embrace data-driven decisions
- Adopt cloud-based solutions
- Combine service desk and back office or infrastructure operations
- Establish an enterprise architecture
- Create a governance framework
- Standardize contract management
- Consolidate and rationalize technologies
- Leverage new technology
Leaders need not wait for the consultants to propose these initiatives. As mentioned, many of these efforts are already underway. Others, like integrating IT across the enterprise, are well known but have been a challenge due to long-standing historical, political, and cultural issues.
Case in Point: How Do You Take Initiative As a Leader?
Developing a One IT design, whether it is a more integrated model or a stronger federated model, can enable the university to make increased progress on a number of these priorities.
It is increasingly evident that it is a costly model to have separate administrative units supporting a distributed set of colleges, schools, institutes, and centers. This design has led to duplication, uneven service levels, and widely different risk tolerances and priorities.
As Don Welch, the CIO at NYU shared, “This decentralized model has exposed the university to security breaches as people who aren’t knowledgeable are assuming risks on behalf of the institution. These units often prioritize capability over security which is increasingly untenable.”
In several universities, a major security incident has led to senior leadership requiring distributed units be folded into central IT, or at least be subject to the same enterprise security protocols. It’s better to address these issues before having to suffer through a major security incident.
Successfully integrating services across the university is as much about people and culture as it is about technology and budgets. In Iowa’s initiative, Steve Fleagle notes that technology was not a barrier for any of their efforts. It was all about bringing people together to leverage the opportunities that were in front of them. It is important to involve all relevant stakeholders early in the process as people appreciate being engaged rather than having this done to them.
The current forces and trends impacting higher education have created a moment in time when this transition from a highly distributed historical model to a more integrated, effective and efficient design is possible.
This is a moment in time to take initiative as a leader and make a compelling case for change, as a more integrated organization will optimize the resources, improve services, and enhance security.
Is your institution currently engaged in significant cost-reduction strategy?
Last week, we asked where you most want to grow in leading change and solving today’s big leadership challenges.
- 34% said more small, daily habits to generate change
- 32% said better collaborating across boundaries
- 18% said better establishing guardrails
- 16% said leveraging grassroots ideas
For those of you looking to make more change through small daily habits, we suggest you check out this Tuesday Reading on stackable habits. Learning to pause is a great reminder for collaborating across boundaries, and additional lessons for leading in uncertain times.