We are on the homestretch of a two-year study of the STEM talent pipeline in the US, including both K-12 and higher education. We are formulating our final recommendations. It would premature to present them. However, it may be valuable to relate a range of observations of the “system” of education in the US. Considering […]
What are reasonable aspirations for a human-centered lifelong education system? In Beyond Quick Fixes (Oxford, 2024), I propose a ten-year, multi-stage plan to transform education in the US. The plan includes five elements: Starting Point (Status Quo), High costs & poor outcomes Baseline Initial Success, National graduation standards Leveraging Baseline, National curriculum standards for STEM […]
Human-centered design, as elaborated last week, is a key enabler of human-centered systems. The elements of human-centered systems include: Efficient & effective ecosystem services Integration across service systems Equitable & affordable access the services Continuous learning & improvement of services Leveraging lessons learned broadly My central premise is that everybody wants our societal systems to […]
We often compare ourselves to the other 36 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The US spends the most per capita on healthcare, but achieves much poorer outcomes than most OECD countries. The US is among the largest spenders on education in terms of costs per student. Yet, the US achieves […]
Let’s say a university needs revenue of $25,000 per year per student. What tuition should they charge? Let’s assume there are three equal populations of students. One third can afford to pay full tuition. Another third can afford to pay 20% of full tuition. The last third cannot afford to pay anything. What should tuition […]
We know quite a bit about human well being, broadly defined to include the physical, behavioral, social, economic, and political elements of the concept. We seem to lack the will and the resources to pursue broadly based improvements in the well being of everyone. Many of us feel that everyone is on their own, and […]
What do these three practices have in common? Selling exorbitantly-priced drugs that provide no relative health benefits, but one cannot buy particular patented drugs and devices from other suppliers Producing very expensive weapon systems that may no longer be needed, but one cannot buy these weapon systems and spare parts from other suppliers One cannot […]
Thirteen months ago, the Trump wing of the Republican party attempted a coup of the US government. They failed despite injuring hundreds and killing several. Many hundreds of these people have been indicted for their acts of insurrection. Prison terms have started to result with hundreds more in the offing. The Republican party has characterized […]
I recently finished reading Patrick Wyman’s The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World: 1480-1520 (Grand Central, 2021). He chronicles the transformation of business and political processes during these two decades that provided the foundations for Western European dominance over the successive generations. Military aggression and conquest, financed by new approaches to […]
Charles Dickens’ immortal phrase portrays a time of radical opposites taking place at the same time in a 1859 historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities. set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. Are we at a similar time of radical contrasts? Are similar consequences likely? Current technology and economic trends […]
Our society is amazingly complex. It serves an enormous number of purposes. An overarching goal is to persist. Without persistence, society could not serve all its other purposes. However, these purposes often compete and conflict for attention and resources. I have spent much time trying to improve defense systems from my commissioning as an Air […]
A recent email brought notice of four impressive National Academy reports. Two were 2021 reports on High Quality Primary Care and The Future of Nursing. One was a 2017 report on Pathways to Health Equity and the other was a 2012 report on Primary Care and Public Health. These are all impressive pieces of work. […]
The world seems to be coming increasingly complicated. Everything seems connected to everything. It seems reasonable to argue that this has long been the case. Diseases migrated from the old world to the new world, as did social and cultural norms. However, this process took years or decades. Now, accelerated by technology, it takes days […]
As I have discussed many times before, a compelling overall goal is a healthy, educated, and productive population that is competitive in the global marketplace. Anyone who is not healthy is a drag on the national economy Anyone who is not educated is a drag on the national economy Anyone who is not productive is […]
We have, of late, been focused on federal policies to assure and enhance the STEM talent pipeline in the US. There is a widespread sense that the pipeline is not as robust as the economy and competitiveness requires. Are we trying to “fix” STEM? Maybe, but we need to keep priorities in perspective. As I […]
For many years, my research related to design, operations, and maintenance of national security and space systems. Over the past two decades, I have added healthcare delivery, higher education, urban systems, as well as energy and transportation. These complex ecosystems interact in myriad ways. In particular, they interact in terms of claims on societal resources. […]
The 2020-21 “multi-demic” of the coronavirus, economic disruption, and racial unrest has prompted a wealth of promising ideas for how to improve everyone’s lives in terms of health and wellness, economic security, and racial equity. As appealing as these ideas may be, they will face enormous implementation challenges and hurdles. We have been here before […]
According to Wikipedia, “Critical race theory is an academic movement of civil rights scholars and activists in the United States who seek to critically examine the law as it intersects with issues of race and to challenge mainstream liberal approaches to racial justice. Critical race theory examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate […]
One of my recent readings has been the late Hans Rosling’s Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. (Flatiron Books, 2018). It is a fascinating read, loaded with valuable insights. Hans Rosling asked chimpanzees to answer 13 multiple-choice questions about the state of the world. […]
Many problems and potential fixes are being considered and debated to address the pandemic, associated economic slump, and economic and social inequities. Climate change is hovering in the wings. How do all these potential initiatives fit together? I think we can integrate all of these ideas by thinking about how they all support pursuit of […]
I grew up in New England in the 1960s and 70s. My whole family was Republican. We supported John Chafee, Edmund Brooke, Eliot Richardson, and Nelson Rockefeller. Social liberals and fiscal conservatives. These types of Republicans are long gone. Nixon, then Reagan, and recently Trump discovered that courting southern whites could win elections. Social liberalism […]
I have just finished reading Robin L. Fox’s The Invention of Medicine: From Homer to Hippocrates (Basic Books, 2020). I found it interesting that numerous medical treatises were attributed to Hippocrates many centuries after his death. It seems that the content of these treatises was more credible if attributed to Hippocrates. I have read of […]
I often encounter people seeking mentoring. What are they usually seeking? My sense is that they are facing one or more dilemmas. They are seeking help to make sense of and address these dilemmas. One dilemma is that they are facing an important decision about what to do next in their careers. They can see […]
There are several forces currently driving change in our society: Pandemic impacts that have completely upset the status quo Economic impacts of the pandemic that have left many in dire straights Disproportionate effects of economic, educational and social inequities These forces have led to an overwhelmed healthcare system, enormous unemployment, and intense frustration on the […]
Wicked problems defy formulation and resolution. They involve conflicting values, concerns, and perceptions that lead to conflicts, strong positions, and perhaps even hatred of the “others” who have opposing views. We are faced with roughly 50% of the country being in fundamental conflict with the other 50% of the country. Actually, Biden-Harris won 51.3% of […]
Facebook, Twitter, and other emergent platforms have resulted in the Balkanization of the world of information. There are large subpopulations that believe the moon landing was faked, climate change and the pandemic are hoaxes, and the presidential election was fraudulently stolen from Donald Trump. They only pay attention to information sources that support these views. […]
How do people envision the future? How do they consider uncertainties? How do they think about investing today to have a better tomorrow? People seem willing to invest in their personal futures, e.g., retirement. They seem willing to invest in their children’s futures, e.g., education. The further they look into the future, the more difficult […]
How can innovation be cultivated in the public sector? Consider defense, education, and healthcare. These three primarily public sector systems are ripe for disruption and innovation. Enormous improvements of services and decreased costs are undoubtedly achievable. The key question is how to disrupt the status quo. Let’s first consider how a direct approach might work, […]
We have in the US over 400 years of injustice in our country. Native Americans, African-Americans, and more recent immigrants have all been abused. We have taken advantage of them for the benefits of mainstream Americans at the time. What was this mainstream? Initially it was immigrants to Massachusetts and Virginia. Over time, we added […]
Recent challenges suggest that the complexity of society in the US has become increasingly difficult to understand and manage. We seem to have great trouble agreeing on anything. Consequently, we do not act to quickly understand what is happening and competently develop and execute compelling courses of action. Let’s explore the sources of the impasse. […]
We have been awash in protests of racial inequality. Assuming we agree inequality is bad — not everyone does — what can be done to greatly diminish this inequality? Those who have suffered this discrimination are poor, unhealthy, and uneducated. How can we address these discrepancies? We could just give everybody money. This idea has […]
We expect that the pandemic will lead to a new normal that will be significantly different than the old normal. Perhaps there will be opportunities for innovations in the marketplace. What changes deserve our bets? We can assume that people will always want pasta, potatoes or rice, as well as beans, broccoli or mushrooms. But […]
Zoom and other online platforms are working out pretty well. Teaching class this way is better than many people expected. Many types of doctor’s appointments are much easier logistically and are more satisfying than driving, waiting, etc. Social get-togethers using these platforms are not as good, but they are much better than social isolation. Once […]
Over the past two days I was immersed in two Zoom meetings, one for 6 1/2 hours and another for 7 hours. The first was a National Academy of Engineering convocation, which I helped organize. I was one of the two speakers who wrapped up each half day. The second was a Division of Behavioral […]
We are trying our best to physically distance ourselves from risks of the coronavirus. Along with washing hands and not touching your face, this practice seems to make much sense. Everyone I know seems to be doing these things. However, the phrase “social distancing” got me thinking. Most of us have been social distancing for […]
After 163 posts of over 90,000 words — a 360-page book if published traditionally – we have reached the 10th anniversary of this blog. So, what has happened? Here are a few highlights, none of which this blog influenced. On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received […]
In my last post, I argued that everyone is cognitively unique. Others have argued that everyone is genetically unique. Can we really tailor assistive technologies and medical care to each individual? Is it feasible? Is it affordable? Of course, there are many examples of how we tailor technology to our personal preferences. We adjust the […]
The reception and dinner for Board of Trustees was held at the River’s Edge an upscale venue on the Hudson River on the eastern side of the Beresford property. “Welcome to everyone – trustees and guests,” Marie opens, after having clinked a spoon of a water glass to gain attention. “Welcome to Beresford Village. Most […]
Brad, Mary, and George meet in Marie’s conference room. Marie will join them later. Pete O’Connor has been recruited to help. Pete is Director of Educational Technology at Beresford. “Pete, we have been doing some benchmarking of course offerings around the country,” George opens. “What have you found?” Pete asks. “There is sufficient high quality […]
Phil Chen, the Beresford Provost, walked into Marie’s office. They greeted each other and shook hands, and then sat across from each other at Marie’s conference table. “Phil, I want to outline a new hiring strategy and get your opinion.” “Sounds great.” “Let me provide a bit of background first.” “Ok.” Marie discussed her analysis […]
Marie and George were drawn to exploring the real nature of value in higher education. “Are we investing in the things that create the most value for students and society?” Marie questioned. “It is not just a question of where we deploy each year’s discretionary resources. It is also an issue of where we deploy […]
“Ok, what is the upside of the subsidy? I think I know, but I want your assessment, George,” Marie opens. “Faculty members publish journal articles, that get cited, and over time increase their h-index,” George responds. “An h-index of N means that you have N or more articles cited at least N times. Right?” “Yes. […]
George has been exploring how money is spent and the outcomes produced. His latest quest has been trying to understand the benefits of subsidizing faculty members so they can pursue research. When Marie and George operated at the department level, it never occurred to him to question this. However, Beresford is trying to make it […]
Marie Cornwall had a distinguished career as an engineering faculty member and department chair at one of the top universities in the US. Her specialty was decision making under risk. She had published widely on this topic and was frequently sought for consulting engagements, as well as prestigious advisory boards. From the perspectives of her […]
To achieve promotion and tenure in science and engineering, you need 16-20 articles published in reputable journals. You need to accomplish this in five years, so you need 3-4 articles per year. You need to publish a significant portion of these articles with your PhD students. I will assume 10 with PhD students and 10 […]
When do organizations fail? It is typically when their financials go south. Their deficits are unsustainable. Cash is draining from the enterprise. Their strategies for stemming the tide are too little, too late. Why do organizations fail? What causes these financial outcomes? The story that led to these consequences almost always started playing out much […]
There is much concern lately that AI will displace human workers and perhaps eventually discard humans entirely. I suppose such scenarios are imaginable. However, I have been thinking about the potential of AI to do work that I currently do poorly. I almost always under invest in this work, often resulting in poor performance, wasted […]
A university chief executive has come to realize that competitive forces are closing in. Fortunately, the president has an AI based cognitive assistant to help formulate plans for addressing this new reality. This assistant is named George. “How can these projections be correct, George? We keep on raising enrollment and tuition to generate surplus revenue […]
In my last post, I noted how Kodak, Motorola, and Xerox delayed introducing new market offerings in order to avoid cannibalizing their existing offerings – film, analog cell phones, and paper copiers. They wanted to milk their cash cows as long as possible. Now these companies are shadows of their former selves. Their cash cows […]
I have spent much time in recent years studying the possibility of transformation, fundamental change, of healthcare and higher education. For many years, healthcare was the poster child for runaway costs. That is still an issue, but cost control has received quite a bit of attention. Higher education is now the poster child for runaway […]
Academia has become rather frustrating. Out of control costs have been leading to spiraling students debts, exceeding the total US credit card debt. Increasingly narrow and unreasonable criteria for tenure have led to people spending endless years in servitude. The overall academic value proposition has been completely eroded for all but the administrative leadership and […]
What are we trying to do by rethinking the ACA? Perhaps we are seeking an ideologically acceptable ACA, one that the Republicans get credit for rather than the Democrats. On the other hand, is insurance coverage really the ultimate goal? I don’t think so. We want a healthy and educated population that is competitive in […]
I have been researching Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), compiling best practices and other good ideas that I sought from a variety of colleagues. I recently completed the first lessons of three courses on the best-known MOOC sites: Coursera course: “Chicken Behavior & Welfare” edX course: “Dinosaur Ecosystems” Udacity course: “Design of Everyday Things” All […]
The wonders of the Internet and social media seem to have radically changed the nature of relationships. This is perhaps most apparent in personal relationships where email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, and other offerings provide constant updates on what a vast network of family and friends are doing and thinking at the moment. Many people spend […]
Engineering and science account for roughly three quarters of all PhD graduates, with half of these degrees awarded to US students and the other half to international students. Many of these graduates aspire to tenure-track faculty positions at universities. However, the percentage of faculty openings that are tenure track has been steadily decreasing for quite […]
An industry executive that chaired an advisory board at a major research university once commented to me that academia’s unit of time is the semester. “When a faculty member says he will get back to me right away, he means by the end of the semester.” We measure performance of computers in cycles per second, […]
The August 2016 issue of Consumer Reports summarizes a much longer report from revealnews.org on student debt. Their headline is 42 million people owe $1.3 trillion. Their survey found that “45% of the people with student loan debt said that college was not worth the cost. Of those who said college wasn’t worth the money, […]
The steadily escalating costs of a college education coupled with spiraling mountains of student debts cannot be sustained. Universities are unwilling and unable to control costs, in large part due to the bloating of administrative and support functions (Rouse, 2016). A great example is the University of California System where, excluding the number of faculty […]
One of the PhD students in the School of Systems and Enterprises asked me a few questions after reading my March 15th blog post on “Thoughts on Teaching, Classrooms, and Computers.” She wanted to know what I would do if I was now a PhD student. Before getting to her specific questions, I need to […]
The purpose of teaching is to enable learning and, over time, mastery. Classrooms and computers – smart boards, workstations, laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. – are enablers of learning. The most important enabler is student engagement. This can be a challenge as ubiquitous digital devices often lead to significant student multi-tasking, much of it irrelevant […]
University research centers are delicate organizational systems. They bring together faculty, research staff, and graduate students for several reasons. Centers are often formed as a result of a large NIH or NSF grant or because of a large gift or grant from industry or wealthy alumni. So, there is money on the table and researchers […]
A few years ago, I co-chaired the National Academies Healthy America Initiative. The members of this committee came from both the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering. Our assignment was to wrestle with issues surrounding the effectiveness and costs of healthcare delivery. However, we wanted to put this in a larger context. […]
I have been lately digesting an enormous amount of material on biological systems and urban systems. For both systems, I am interested in their health. The focus in biology has been on cancer and understanding the signaling mechanisms whose aberrations allow uncontrolled cell growth. Within cities, I have been exploring urban resilience, including historical narratives […]
Enterprise transformation involves redesigning or creating new work processes that enable remediating anticipated or experienced value deficiencies. This implies that some aspects of the enterprise have to be discarded. Why not discard everything? That is certainly as option, but it is called liquidation rather than transformation. A central question is what do you keep and […]
Who is more American? Is it the Kenyan or the Mormon? Who created or destroyed more jobs? Is it the community organizer or the private equity economizer? The candidates are focused on attacking personalities and circumstances rather than reality. But, what really happened to blue collar jobs? This answer is straightforward. Our blue-collar laborers became […]
You are leading a very successful enterprise in airplanes, automobiles, mobile devices, healthcare — or perhaps higher education. The business model that got you to where you are — successful, profitable — seems to be faltering. The growth of revenue is diminishing while costs are escalating. The costs of infrastructure — physical, financial and human […]
The organizers of the 3rd International Symposium on Engineering Systems asked me to provide a brief story of my journey to engineering systems — how I came to be at this Symposium on this June evening in Delft. The idea is to stimulate your thinking and perhaps motivate you to share your stories during dinner […]
It is fairly common for the perceived benefits of current market offerings to fade and new value propositions to displace older offerings. As noted in earlier posts, Schumpeter called this process “creative destruction.” Steel ships replaced iron ships, which replaced wooden ships. Microprocessors subsumed transistors, which replaced vacuum tubes. Change happens and creative destruction causes […]
So, the game plan, according to me, is to create the future. Who is on the team? You might think, based on my last post, that the team is all engineers and scientists. But, that is not how it has worked in the past. Regardless of the technology — steamboats to automobiles to computers — […]
I am a student of history, particularly economic history. Lately, I have been immersed in reading about technological innovation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Transportation was transformed from stagecoaches and steamboats to railroads, automobiles and airplanes. Electricity transformed communications from mail, telegraph and telephone to radio, television and now Internet. In the […]
Change happens when it is forced. The force can be an opportunity or a threat, perhaps embodied in a crisis. In many domains, the forces for change are manifested as market forces. Competitors, large or small, recognized or unrecognized, are the sources of market forces. Thus, change happens when there is competition to meet market […]
A few months ago, a colleague asked me, “What if our big idea does not get approved by the powers at be?” I said, “We will start an insurgency and just do it anyway.” We are still waiting for approval, and may get it, but we are quickly progressing despite the lack of formal blessing. […]
There are many impediments to addressing and solving executives’ toughest problem – see my last post. Resource limitations – time, money, and people – can obviously be impediments. Less obvious, and often much more troublesome, are the stewards of the status quo. These stewards include people and organizations who are determined to keep everything as […]
I recently visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. One can question the whole “City on the Hill” imagery, but the Great Communicator was undoubtedly able to evoke a positive emotional response from me three decades after the original narrative. How does this compare to the Current Communicator? Both Presidents inherited troubled economies– one could easily […]
I recently resigned from an administrative leadership position at my university, having served for ten years in this position and an earlier one. The precipitating event involved decisions by senior administrative leadership that I felt limited my abilities to continue in my role. My guess is that it was not intended to have that effect, […]
I gave a keynote lecture on “Enterprise Transformation” at the Logistics International Congress last Wednesday in Bogota, Colombia. I also listened to several other talks from government officials in various ministries, as well as a few academics. I spent quite a bit of time talking with a wide range of people. Overall, I learned much […]
We often see dire assessments of our educational systems. K-12 is judged to be quite poor compared to other developed countries, as reflected in comparisons of educational achievements across countries. This is particularly true for STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. More broadly, our high school graduation rate of roughly two thirds means that […]
It is difficult to transform a large enterprise. Leaders of many private sector enterprises have told me that their toughest job is managing the enterprise they have while trying to create the enterprise they want. Not surprisingly, the failure rate is very high, as illustrated by 200% turnover in the Fortune 500 in the past […]
I am in Beijing and Shanghai for a few days. The reason for my being in China is to chair the International Review Board at Tsinghua University where we are reviewing the Department of Industrial Engineering. The basic statistics are chilling. In the U.S., 4% of undergraduates matriculate in engineering. Of those that graduate, 12% […]
Our graduate seminar on “Transforming Academia” started this week. We focused on the roots of the modern university in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and The Enlightenment. We debated the interpretation of developments in terms of transformational versus evolutionary changes. Also of central interest were the causes of change. The plague, printing press and paper all […]
Here are all the suggestions received thus far: Altbach, P.G., Berdahl, R.O., & Gumport, P.J. (Eds.).(2005). American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political and Economic Challenges. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Barke, R. (2000). Sustainable Technology/Development and Challenges to Engineering Education. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education, St. Louis, MO. […]
The first universities in Europe — University of Bologna (1088), University of Oxford (1096), University of Paris (1150), University of Modena (1175) — began as private corporations of teachers and their pupils. Soon they realized they needed protection against local city authorities. They petitioned secular power for privileges and this became the model for academia. […]
I have worked with well over 100 enterprises and several thousand executives and senior managers, often focused on initiatives that have the potential to fundamentally change their enterprises. Somewhat simplistically, these initiatives depended on three ingredients – technology, people, and organizations. Frequently these executives and managers commented that technology was the easy part. People and […]
I am pleased to report that this week John Wiley released “The Economics of Human Systems Integration: Valuation of Investments in People’s Training and Education, Safety and Health, and Work Productivity.” I edited this book with contributions from many economists, systems engineers, and behavioral and social scientists. The overarching question that motivated this book was, […]
Malcolm Gladwell popularized the notion of a “tipping point,” the point at which something is displaced from a state of equilibrium and evolves, either quickly or slowly, to a new and different state of equilibrium. For example, my telephone bill used to be something like $20 per month; now it is several hundred. The capabilities […]
I am at the IEEE Workshop on the Future of Information at the National Academy of Engineering in Washington, DC. The purpose of the workshop is to consider how engineers and scientists will access and use information in 2020, including what types and sources of information they will seek and find available. Yesterday was the […]
In January, I discussed the notion of transforming organizational silos in academia to collaborative networks that can address large-scale research problems. At the moment, I am sitting in a meeting at the University of Illinois that is, in part, focused on this possibility. People are discussing the difficulties that they have encountered in pursuing this […]
Last August, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Douglas W. Elmendorf, sent a letter to Congress informing them that most preventative health interventions tend to expand utilization of services with costs that far exceed the eventual cost savings due to avoiding disease or detecting it earlier. In other words, he reported that prevention […]
Starting with the overarching objective of a healthy, educated, and productive population that is competitive in the global marketplace, what should be done? Let’s work through this piece by piece. Start with healthy. We are facing an epidemic of chronic disease, driven in part by an epidemic of obesity. The eventual financial costs of diabetes […]
