The First Delusion: We Can Keep Doing Things the Same Way

The more things change, the more they stay the same; and that's the crux of the problem.  Things change all around our [schools, hospitals, universities, museums, etc.], but we don't really change how we do business in these institutions.  A mid-level academic administrator at a major U.S. state university lamented to me yesterday that her budget was being involuntarily reduced for the fourth consecutive year: "How will we pay faculty for teaching the classes required for our major?  Or those in our department that are required for other majors?  If I don't have discretionary dollars, how will I support high potential junior faculty who need course buy-outs for the research to flourish?"

The answer, of course, is that she won't.  None of us can keep doing things the same way as resources dwindle unless we (and others) are willing to work for free.

I heard this same lament 25 years ago when DRG's threatened to turn health care financing upside down (the more things change ...).  Nurses asked how they could continue doing nursing the same way with, in some instances, a third fewer nurses on the floor.  The answer, then as now, is that they won't be able to do things the same way.

And so we have have the First Delusion of strategy-makers: that despite enormous constraints, we can still do school the same way.  Can't be done. Not without violating laws of physics.  We can cut, but that's not doing things the same way.  We can work faster, but that hits the wall quicker than anything.  Or we can accept that we must experiment more aggressively with alternative ways to do school.  The on-line education industry is already there, but there's room for more than one model.  And finding alternatives is itself a strategy, but it does require accepting that we can't keep doing things the same way.