College Studio

College Studio:

It’s now been a long 21 years, approximately, working in the field of education, teaching and training students from PG (Playgroup) to PG (Post-graduation). Working as a training and development professional at various educational institutions, I have seen, observed, researched, analyzed, and experienced the existing education environments well, especially while working with small private college and university setups. Henceforth, evolving as an institutional development and performance coach and consultant came naturally to me.

I observed that small private colleges have been unknowingly operating as fragmented entities where students' well-being and academic performances are not taken up to the desired levels; faculty members have developmental burnout and wage issues; and the administrative team runs short of people and funds, leading to inefficiency in delivering required/important and supportive services to various departments. Vendors have their own issues, and the marketing team has its own set of challenges. Last but not least, management itself faces a lot of problems, like not getting enough students’ enrollment to run the show effectively and efficiently and retaining good teaching and other supporting staff.

Management fails to understand the core issues because of their complexities arising out of the interconnected nature of existing multiple stakeholders and departments. It fails to realize that the optimal solution can be reached by interacting with each stakeholder in their own context, understanding their problems, and solving them with utmost sincerity and intention. Management needs to understand that a college or a university is not a business to be managed but a living ecosystem that needs to be nurtured, nourished, developed, and grown.

I think problem-solving is one of the key techniques, along with strategic initiatives, to run a successful institution or organization, and interacting with each stakeholder section to know and understand their problems and solve them with positive intention and priority is the action initiative needed to be taken by top management everywhere.

The book “College Studio” has been written with an intention to make institutions' trustees and heads aware of the subject/issues, based on my personal observation, analysis, and experience, and to suggest they initiate interaction with different sets of stakeholders separately and understand their individuality and interconnectedness so as to reach a desired solution, which can then be integrated into a larger institutional system, which will ultimately help them create a robust ecosystem for their colleges or universities to thrive, survive, and grow.