Disruptive Effects of the Coronavirus – Errors of Commission and of Omission?

It is increasingly evident that the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, is more than a health problem; it is and will continue to adversely affect work and workplaces, education, families and social engagements, political and environmental dimensions, and financial indicators. Apart from its health ramifications, the crisis is revealing serious challenges in the global supply chain. Those difficulties are, at least in part, consequences of unwise, short-sighted business decisions made over the course of decades to outsource and downsize

Our Wicked Problem

The Coronavirus is more than a health problem. It is a “wicked” problem disrupting work, education, travel, politics, financial indicators, and more. This label came about in 1973 to help describe a special class of situations that are volatile, uncertain and ambiguous, often difficult to recognize, and difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements. There is no clear problem definition due to interdependencies so the problem cannot be fully understood until after the solution comes about

Rethinking Executive Education: A Program for Responding to Sudden Disruptions Caused by Dynamic Complexity

Lately, many social systems (i.e., countries, organizations and projects) are experiencing adverse situations that are characterized as “dynamic complexity.” These situations usually co-produce disruptions in the day-to-day operations as a result of which many social systems become partially extinct. We posit this is because these situations are not clearly recognized by those who are empowered to deal with them. In this paper we propose a new and updated approach to executive education that takes into account the prevalence of dynamic complexity caused by massive changes in the nature of the internal and external environments of a system. We argue that the educational requirements necessary to prepare leaders who have the cognitive capacity to steer through the “perfect storm,” are very different from leading in simple and stable contexts. We suggest that this proficiency emerges from the interaction of relevant skills, accessed experience, knowledge and understanding of the situation, practical wisdom and sound judgment, and relevant personality attributes. We present a model with a multi-layered approach to executive education which addresses how the ability to rapidly assimilate, sort through, and comprehend vast amounts of data/information in order to make the right decisions depends on approaches to learning, knowledge of critical concepts, particularly systems thinking as a mindset/filter, and knowledge of enabling IT

Designing a Strategic Plan for the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (JCIPE)

https://jdc.jefferson.edu/jscpsposters/1007/thumbnail.jp

Systems & Design Thinking: A Conceptual Framework for Their Intergration

This paper explores the relationship between Systems and Design Thinking. It specifically looks into the role of Design in Systems Thinking and how looking at the world through a systems lens influences Design. Our intention is to show the critical concepts developed in the Systems and Design Thinking fields, their underlying assumptions, and the ways in which they can be integrated as a cohesive conceptual framework. While there are many important distinctions that must be considered to understand the similarities and differences of these concepts, gaining a complete understanding of these factors is more than can be covered in this paper. Nevertheless, the most critical classifying variable used to distinguish these concepts will be discussed in order to make their integration possible. This variable, the recognition of purposeful behavior, will be used to develop a conceptual vision for how a combined approach can be used to research, plan, design and manage social systems…Systems in which people play the principle role

Desigining an Executive Leadership Institute

This report is the result of a combined effort between Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group (GPSEG) and the Doctor of Management in Strategic Leadership (DSL) Program at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU). The objective is to utilize a four phase method, informed by systems thinking and design methodology, to successfully define, design, and develop workshops/educational experiences for leaders wherein they identify, gain, or enhance the necessary capabilities needed for not only today’s but tomorrow’s complex and dynamic business environment within our global knowledge economy. Key stakeholders were identified and invited to participate in a design workshop on April 14, 2016 at TJU. Human Resources employers and recruiters were asked to specify ideal competencies, skills, roles and capacities of the executives they would ideally hire for the C-Suite. The output data from this session, in conjunction with the literature research and one-on-one interviews conducted to identify workforce and leadership trends, competencies for 21st century leader, transition-related insights and barriers, and competitive landscape offerings, has produced the following recommendations as content for developing membership. A more in-depth description may be found in the Recommendations section of this report. Executive intelligence: the ability to be self-aware, emotionally intelligent, credible and courageous, and allows a leader to pivot between collaborative and authoritative Strategic Thinking and Complexity Awareness: augments critical thinking processes and are crucial to the elimination of myopic perspectives. Executive Presence and Storytelling: allows the leader to provide a clear message and enrich personal relationships. Building Bridges: through communication skills motivated by the mindset of value-added relational capital creates the conditions for a leader to recognize not all solutions must come from him/her. Talent Awareness: is not just the acquisition but the development of human capital to ensure a support team focused on the collective vision and capable of making complex decisions. Entrepreneurial Edge: is achieved through design thinking and the generation of creativity and technology/innovation ultimately improving internal and external customer intimacy. These emerging themes represent the leadership content most relevant and useful to design curriculum with a holistic approach to leadership development. However, because the content is not easily separated, the DSL Team recommends that careful consideration be placed on the delivery method and integration of material. Further recommendations include a survey of GPSEG members and stakeholders to clearly define areas of importance based on these findings. This will advance the definition of concentrated capacities as well as the design methodology and assist in the formulation of recommended learning objectives and outcomes. Each of the Four Phases contributes to and guides the development of workshops/educational experiences that center on the importance of balancing cognitive strengths such as complex problem solving, complex decision making, critical thinking, creativity, technology skills/innovation with disposition skills recognized and enriched through being authentic, conveying a clear message, and focusing on relational capital

Collaborative SCA Survival Project: Cardiac Arrest Survival is a Mess

Systems diagnoses have been effectively used to understand many complex organizational systems within healthcare, government, military, and global corporate enterprises. Systems methodologies have been effectively used to change the direction and improve the outcomes of complex organizational systems. We feel that framing cardiac arrest survival as a systems problem and applying a systems methodology is innovative, practical, and essential if we are to make significant and sustainable impact

Leadership in Design and Construction Education and Practice

It has been conveyed that inspiration and creativity are the greatest strengths of architects. Those who possess them often demonstrate innovation and ability to transform diverse, often contradictory, information into a cohesive design. Yet, having architectural and design talent may suggest to some that they also have a broader skill set. Among the competencies that do not necessarily co-exist with inspiration and creativity are those associated with managing or leading a complex project or organization. Leadership and many of the administrative and project management competencies needed to operate in the modern complex environment of the Architecture profession are largely absent from educational programs which specialize in producing architects and designers. Therefore, if architects must possess both talent and leadership competencies, what is to be done to support the growth, development and sustainability of the profession? This challenge was presented to the College of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) by their Advancement Council, a community of working professionals who offered advice and support to the College. Specifically, CABE was asked to find a way to add to their academic curriculum new and appropriate education that would prepare their graduates for the leadership and management responsibilities which existed and were increasing within the professional environment of architecture and design. The premise of this challenge was that the current curriculum failed to adequately prepare students with the confidence and competence needed to be successful. In response to this, the approach taken by the Doctor of Management in Strategic Leadership (DSL) Team in this phase of our project was to focus on identifying the characteristics within the architecture industry/ professional that people should possess in terms of competencies, i.e., knowledge and skills that could be learned/developed, and in terms of traits that could be identified and supported in order to emerge as a “true leader.” Using participant interview methods from established professionals in the industry, we identified leadership themes that impact emergent behavior for CABE graduates. At the time of this project, Philadelphia University was beginning the process of integrating with Thomas Jefferson University

Strategic Plan: 2018 and Forward - Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice & Education

Founded in 2007, the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (JCIPE) is one of the premier interprofessional education centers in the U.S. Our center is dedicated to improving interprofessional care (IPC) through implementing and evaluating patient-centered education throughout the Thomas Jefferson University curriculum. We offer robust trainings and educational opportunities, provide innovative teaching models and evidence-based practices to help support emerging priorities in healthcare. To coincide with our 10-year anniversary and the transition to new leadership, we engaged the Jefferson Doctor of Management program in Strategic Leadership (DSL) to help us to reimagine and rethink our interests and needs in the increasingly complex and changing environment. With their facilitation we drew on the experience of more than 120 JCIPE stakeholders including co-directors, staff advisors, faculty, deans, student learners, community leaders, health mentors, and patients. We adopted a system-thinking framework and applied interactive design planning methodology to create the design for an ideal center for interprofessional care. From this prototype, we created our new strategic plan, business model, and roadmap. We believe our design experience and deep understanding of IPC will lead us to an even more prominent role as a model of excellence for interprofessional and professional practice and education

mTORC1-mediated translational elongation limits intestinal tumour initiation and growth.

Inactivation of APC is a strongly predisposing event in the development of colorectal cancer, prompting the search for vulnerabilities specific to cells that have lost APC function. Signalling through the mTOR pathway is known to be required for epithelial cell proliferation and tumour growth, and the current paradigm suggests that a critical function of mTOR activity is to upregulate translational initiation through phosphorylation of 4EBP1 (refs 6, 7). This model predicts that the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin, which does not efficiently inhibit 4EBP1 (ref. 8), would be ineffective in limiting cancer progression in APC-deficient lesions. Here we show in mice that mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) activity is absolutely required for the proliferation of Apc-deficient (but not wild-type) enterocytes, revealing an unexpected opportunity for therapeutic intervention. Although APC-deficient cells show the expected increases in protein synthesis, our study reveals that it is translation elongation, and not initiation, which is the rate-limiting component. Mechanistically, mTORC1-mediated inhibition of eEF2 kinase is required for the proliferation of APC-deficient cells. Importantly, treatment of established APC-deficient adenomas with rapamycin (which can target eEF2 through the mTORC1-S6K-eEF2K axis) causes tumour cells to undergo growth arrest and differentiation. Taken together, our data suggest that inhibition of translation elongation using existing, clinically approved drugs, such as the rapalogs, would provide clear therapeutic benefit for patients at high risk of developing colorectal cancer