1 / In case it is helpful to anyone in a leadership, professional or personal capacity, a few thoughts on how we are thinking about COVID19 at @UNIC_ENG, how we are adjusting our campus operations, and what learnings might apply more broadly than our University
2/ Our starting point is that #COVID19 is a very serious illness - it is not "just the flu". It has a higher death rate than the flu in all age groups, it has a much higher death rate among the elderly and vulnerable groups and it may leave lasting damage even to the "recovered"
3/ Our second principle is that it is highly transmissible and the only truly effective remedy is "social distancing" - a fancy way of saying "spend less time with other people" - this applies in every single context - personal, professional, family, university and so on
4/ Our third principle is that it has a long asymptomatic period, which means that it is difficult to isolate 'social distancing' to certain identifiable groups. You can't assume that even your absolutely healthy friend or colleague is not infectious
5/ Some background context about the University of Nicosia. We have about 13,000 students (about half of them on campus and half of them in online degree programs), we have >1,000 faculty and staff and our campus is 20+ buildings spread in a residential & retail neighborhood
6/ We have a mixed working environment - some colleagues working remotely with online students, many more working in a traditional mode, thousands of students, faculty and researchers in classrooms, labs, cafeterias, gyms and so on. We have a significantly *physical* footprint.
7/ We first became concerned about #COVID19 in late January and concluded that if it had not been contained in China, then by late February we would see clusters appearing worldwide. Given this we started making some preparations internally.
8/ It is useful to note at this juncture that there was significant internal disbelief that this could happen. Most agreed that contingency plans were a good exercise to do in general, but that almost certainly nothing would happen in Cyprus. Normalcy bias is a powerful effect
9/ The contingency planning exercise had the following design parameter: "With no access to campus for an extended period, what would we need to continue our semester on behalf of our students?" It was bracing but it forces the *real* discussion about contingencies.
10/ Last week, we activated the plan on behalf of our students, faculty and staff. Specifically, we are aiming to continue our teaching, research, community engagement and other operations with everyone working/studying-from-home.
11/ What this means in practice is the number of students that will be supported online will double (from 6,500 to 13,000), the number of programs online will quadruple and >1,000 colleagues will be working from home.
12/ Initial results from faculty and staff working from home are positive. A scattering of technical issues but productivity is probably running at about 80-90% which is OK for the first week. Next week, we start student transition, which will be the next challenge to solve.
13/ In this phase we are operating under 6 principles:
a) Work-From-Home
b) University Is Operating
c) Personal and Family Health
d) Flexibility
e) Medium-Term Scope
f) Flexibility
g) Digital Transformation
I will elaborate on each one below
a) Work-From-Home
b) University Is Operating
c) Personal and Family Health
d) Flexibility
e) Medium-Term Scope
f) Flexibility
g) Digital Transformation
I will elaborate on each one below
14/ Work-From-Home (1): For this initiative to have an impact, everyone must work from home, from senior leadership to the most junior level. IT has done an amazing job supporting everyone, including helping us get our home tech infrastructure fixed and connected
15 / Work-From-Home (2): Strictly speaking, the campus is open for some very essential activities (e.g. a faculty member checking a cell biology experiment, IT checking the data center), but on average we have about 10 employees at a time on campus (out of 1,000)
16 / Work-From-Home (3): There needs to be some cultural adjustment/example-setting, including with senior leadership. Five colleagues having a planning meeting is not an "essential" activity and should be moved to Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc. This takes a bit of repeating.
17/ Work-From-Home (4): We have not invented any advanced technology for working from home - Office 365 (Outlook, OneDrive), VoIP, our web-based enterprise apps, VPNs for some internal apps that are not web-based (yet). Many corporate IT environments can do this!
18/ The University is Operating (1): This is very important point - some of the debate in many countries, is about a perceived tradeoff between public health and keeping the country running. We are setting the standard for ourselves to accomplish both during this period.
19 / The University is Operating (2): Whether an organization can go 'remote' depends - 'white collar' organizations can do it easily, 'physical' organizations (construction, barbers, etc) can't do it at all. We are mixed, in the middle. If we can do, so can many others!
20 / Personal and Family Health (1): There is no benefit in going remote for social distancing if everyone instead goes to the mall. We are strongly encouraging everyone and their families to take protective measures, particularly for their elderly family members.
21 / Personal and Family Health (2): It might sound a bit cliche, but it is also true that the health of our University Community (students, faculty and staff) is the most important part. Without good health, it is much harder for anything else in the mission to happen.
22/ Flexibility (1): We are encouraging everyone to be flexible on every dimension - faculty to students, students to faculty, our colleagues to each other. We are in extraordinary times, trying new things and navigating new approaches. Not everything is going to work. It is OK
22/ Flexibility (2): We should also expect that many will be under psychological pressure during this time. There is a lot of scary news, there are parents and children to take care of. It can be stressful. Everyone should try to be extra-understanding and *kind* during now
23/ Medium-Term Prediction: Our planning assumption is that it is difficult to predict when we can return to 'normal' operations and it is a bit of a waste of energy. Right now we are operating in this model so we should do our best and if COVID19 disappears quickly, great!
24/ Digital Transformation (1): The term is a buzzword cliche, but there is a serious point here. Most of our prep measures are "good things to do anyway", but just never happen in day-to-day operations. We do not think of them as a burden, but improving the University faster.
26/ Switching away from @UNIC_ENG, what are some generalizable concepts that other organizations in Cyprus and elsewhere can adopt during this epidemic?
1) Every effort counts, potentially a lot
2) You can move faster than the government
3) It is less scary than it seems
1) Every effort counts, potentially a lot
2) You can move faster than the government
3) It is less scary than it seems
27/ Every Effort Counts (1): I have seem some people and politicians veer from "it is no big deal, no need to do anything" to a fatalistic "everyone is going to get #COVID19, too late to do anything".
Both views are 100% wrong. Every incremental step helps, on every dimension
Both views are 100% wrong. Every incremental step helps, on every dimension
28/ Every Effort Counts (2): Every steps helps in the immediate case (someone might not get infected/sick) and also in the Butterfly Effect case. We will never know if an infection that did not happen would have infected thousands of other people.
29/ Every Effort Counts (3): The public health approach here should be to delay infections. New treatments and vaccines will emerge over time, we reduce the burden on hospitals, healthcare workers and other patients and even recovered patients appear to have lasting damage
30/ Every Effort Counts (4): "One death is a tragedy, one million deaths is a statistic" is another cognitive bias. One death is still a tragedy. If you would have taken big steps to avoid an avoidable death one month ago, you should take the same steps today.
31/ Don't Wait For Government (1): Governments mostly react behind the curve on exponential topics like pandemics and have political pressure and have to take into account all organizations in the country - the lowest common denominator effect.
32/ Don't Wait For Government (2): There is no rule that says an organization can't take steps ahead of the government. In fact, they should. A government directive is the minimum one should do. So go forward and take steps today. You can make a difference in your country!
33 / Don't Wait For Government (3): The math of exponential topics is completely non-intuitive and every day matters a lot. There are some analyses that show that under certain parameters, even 1 day delay can cause a 40% increase in total cases/deaths. Act early!
34/ It Is Not Scary: In many organizations, you will find that these measures will be *easier* than you think. Try them - there is only upside for your organization and community.
Good luck, stay safe, socially distance, be kind and keep moving forward.
/fin
Good luck, stay safe, socially distance, be kind and keep moving forward.
/fin
