I recently shared thoughts on applying the principles of High-Reliability Organizations (HROs) to research administration, framing our work as an adjacent high-reliability function. But what happens when you’re operating within a highly decentralized institution, school, or college where sweeping ch...

For years, research administration has been stuck in the same unproductive debates—centralization vs. decentralization, administrative burden vs. compliance, homegrown tech vs. third-party. We argue over structures and approaches as if one model will solve all problems when, in reality, the ground b...

The federal government is undergoing an unprecedented shakeup—mass firings of federal workers, funding freezes, and policy shifts, including proposals to cap indirect costs for universities and research institutes at 15%. The research funding landscape is rapidly changing, and research administrator...

There’s a fundamental difference between strategy and strategic planning, yet too often, institutions conflate the two. Strategy is about winning, making deliberate choices to position a university, school, or research unit for success in an unpredictable and competitive environment. Strategic plann...