Engineering Change and Empowering Transformation in Higher Education: Takeaways from NCCI’s Annual Conference

Imagine nearly 200 experienced, dedicated higher education professionals, gathered to explore pressing questions, like:

• How are universities facilitating the success of their priority initiatives?
• What simple techniques can senior leaders use to make complex decisions quickly in a rapidly changing environment?
• How can leaders better help employees understand, prepare for and walk through significant organizational changes?
• Can AI help universities identify and prioritize continuous improvement opportunities quickly and without bias?

No need to imagine. This occasion actually exists. It’s the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (NCCI) annual conference, and the Strategy and Implementation team is just back from this year’s event at Georgia Tech.

From pre-conference sessions to the closing event, the NCCI annual conference consistently delivered high-value insights and demonstrated useful tools and techniques. Several NC State peers and other universities shared simple yet powerful strategies for leaders in NCCI’s six core areas of focus:

• Change management,
• Emerging trends,
• Leadership,
• Organizational development,
• Project management, and
• Strategy

The community was welcoming, open and composed of professionals whose responsibilities lie in one or more of the areas above. While many attendees serve at an institutional level, other attendees perform these functions for major business units like finance, HR or IT.

Your NC State NCCI Membership: A Year-Round Resource

Sound interesting? I have good news. You don’t have to wait until next year’s annual conference to plug in. As an institutional member, NC State faculty and staff can join for free and access NCCI’s educational webinars, networking opportunities and exclusive online content year-round. 

To get started, create an NCCI profile:

• Visit the NCCI homepage.
• In the top right, select Log In. A new window will open. 
• Select New Member? Click Here, and follow instructions to create an account.

Questions about NCCI? Contact Courtney Thornton, Associate Vice Provost for Strategy, Implementation and Communication, Institutional Effectiveness, at chthornt@ncsu.edu.