RiceLeaders

Leveraging leadership for Rice’s second century

Rice supports a variety of career development opportunities for faculty and staff, including enrollment in undergraduate and continuing studies courses, tuition reimbursement for other university degree programs, the Whitaker Scholars, department chairs’ programs, ACT training, and courses offered through Human Resources and Information Technology. RiceLeaders, one of the newest additions to the list, debuted in FY 07.

With RiceLeaders, we recognize that the single most important determinant of our success in meeting the ambitious agenda of the Vision for the 2nd Century is the capacity of our own team to work effectively across school and divisional boundaries to put Rice’s stamp on local, national, and global issues of importance to us. We also recognize that we have not carefully and systematically supported the development of a university-wide team with the tools and skills necessary to achieve our vision as a great research institution. RiceLeaders is designed to address this need, and will be one of a series of efforts to enable us to confront change and use change creatively to meet our collective goals.

RiceLeaders

Four RiceLeaders groups have completed the program. These groups, which encompass almost all schools and divisions, each include approximately 25 deans, department chairs, faculty, vice presidents and administrators from across campus.

January 2007 RiceLeaders - Cohort 1

September 2007 RiceLeaders - Cohort 2

May 2008 RiceLeaders - Cohort 3

October 2008 RiceLeaders - Cohort 4

The RiceLeaders Curriculum

Under the direction of Brent Smith of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, we have developed a 12-day curriculum, offered in four modules over a year’s period. The focus is on the critically important capacities of leadership, teamwork, creativity and strategy implementation. Along with the curriculum, RiceLeaders participants are responsible for completing action learning projects, which are designed to both advance some key V2C initiatives and give participants practical experience in trying out new leadership skills. Each participant’s examination of his or her own leadership strengths and weaknesses is aided by a series of assessments by colleagues, subordinates and supervisors, and by dedicated time with an executive coach. The modules include:

Action Learning Projects

Like the students at the Jones School, RiceLeaders participants don’t get to leave the class without a major project due soon. President Leebron and Provost Levy have asked the RiceLeaders group to make recommendations on the following topics, all of which are closely related to Rice’s Vision for the Second Century:

1. Establish criteria and metrics to evaluate the success of V2C
2. Develop a plan for engaging Houston through broader involvement in civic boards and organizations
3. Recommend achievable improvements in campus vibrancy
4. Recommend achievable goals for graduate student teaching
5. Enhance interactions with the Texas Medical Center
6. Improving Orientation for Faculty & Staff
7. Prospective Students’ & Parents’ First Impressions of Rice
8. Enhancing Interactions with the Texas Medical Center:  Universal Agreement for Subcontracts;  Use of TMC Library Electronic Resources
9. Improving Campus Vibrancy:  Activating the Center of Campus
10. Rice / Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Merger: Strategy (7-S Model)
11. Rice / Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Merger: Structure (7-S Model)
12. Rice / Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Merger: Systems (7-S Model)
13. Rice / Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Merger: Culture
14. Rice / Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Merger: Engagement 

The full charters for the topics, and the action learning groups are listed here.

How will we know if RiceLeaders is a success?

RiceLeaders is targeted at improving the collective capacity of the university to achieve our goals through both the expansion of individual leadership performance and the leveraging of individual performance through more effective team performance. We will look to each class of RiceLeaders to collaborate more effectively with their own teams and with each other, and support fellow and future groups of their faculty and staff colleagues in the RiceLeaders program and in other developmental initiatives.

How can I learn more?

Please email Mary Cronin or Kevin Kirby.