Herding Cats: being advice for aspiring academic and research leaders ebook | Geoff Garrett, Graeme Davies | 9781908009104

It is well known that in their professional lives most academics and researchers will - like cats - seek to exercise as much independence as possible.

When you consider...

• the very high intelligence of the 'workforce', typically accompanied by high ideals and a frequently argumentative style...
• the often conservative nature of the culture, and corresponding resistance to change...
• the very considerable difficulties involved in seeking cross-boundary collaboration...
• the bureaucratic nature of many institutional processes...

... this all makes for the special challenge of leading and managing in an academic or research institution.

Geoff Garrett and Graeme Davies asked 50 senior leaders in academia and research from around the world:

• What do you know now that you wish you had known when you commenced your leadership career?
• If you were mentoring a new leader, what would you wish to share about 'operations' and/or strategy?
• What are your favourite 'war stories' that provide lessons about the practice of 'herding cats'?
• What in your opinion brings out the best and the worst in your people?

Resulting wisdom is combined with practical advice gleaned from the authors' own
top-level experience of managing/leading international academic and research institutions.

The book's four sections - Understanding the Culture; Getting the Job done; Managing the People and Leading Strategically - reflect upon the dilemmas, tensions and pressures that face any new - and indeed current - leader in a 'cats' environment, including:

• making the tough strategic choices;
• leading change effectively;
• dealing with bureaucracy, inside and outside;
• allocating resources and managing budgets;
• ensuring effective implementation.

In dealing with these common leadership and management themes, Garrett and Davies paint a picture of the culture of a typical 'cats' environment, replete with remarkable intellects, passion, arguments, politics and prejudice, and where trying to push people to a destination is usually doomed to failure.

Herding Cats guides leaders and aspiring leaders in academic and research institutions through the process of learning to accept and embrace the qualities of their 'cats' so they can tempt them to an outcome with agility and success.

An academic for 13 years, Dr Geoff Garrett has led two of the world's major national research institutions, CSIR in South Africa (1995-2000) and CSIRO in Australia (2001-2008). A former South African 'Engineer of the Year' (1999), he is a recipient of the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society through science, and in June 2008 he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Sir Graeme Davies has had the singular honour of leading three major universities in the UK - Liverpool, Glasgow and, currently, London. A New Zealand educated materials engineer, with 16 years as a distinguished academic at Cambridge University, he was instrumental in creating the Higher Education Funding Council for England as Chief Executive from 1991 until 1995. He was awarded a knighthood in the Queen's 1996 New Year Honours List.