Making Clever Happen in the Tertiary Education Sector

What do you get when you combine a modern day ‘Wizard-Rogue’ with a conference full of tertiary education leaders? Motivation, magic, and more than a liberal dose of forward thinking. Motivational Speaker and best-selling author, Dr Jason Fox will be delivering a keynote address at this year’s Tertiary Education Management Conference, and delegates are preparing for an intense session of fresh thinking and peaked curiosity.

For many professionals working in the tertiary education sector, finding the time and inspiration to make meaningful change happen can be more than a little daunting. How can complex goals be achieved? How can we move beyond default thinking and realise actual, meaningful change? And how on earth do we make ‘clever’ happen?

According to Dr Fox, it all has to do with challenging a couple of important things that he calls ‘the curse of efficiency’ and ‘default thinking’. That’s where we overly rely on quick fixes and revert to ‘how we usually do things’ as we try to get through the day. “Change, progress and growth only truly happen when we challenge our thinking and explore alternative options” says Dr Fox, and it certainly looks like he has a point.

According to Dr Fox, achieving goals and improving on performance is relatively easy when your goals are clear and simple. It’s only when your goals are complex and/ or nuanced that things get challenging: “Sometimes, our worthiest ideas require you to navigate unprecedented work through uncharted territory (into an uncertain future). And yet most of these ideas will fail to manifest into reality. Why? Because we’re up against busyness, default thinking and the status-quo. Against these powers, your fledging ideas have no chance” he says.

As the best-selling author of The Game Changer, and How to Lead a Quest, Dr Fox regularly consults to Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, PepsiCo, McDonalds and Toyota. His work has appeared in publications such as Smart Company, BRW, and The Financial Review.

Dr Fox’s session promises to equip you with the with the wit, skills and savvy to translate your inspired, intuitive reckoning into real and tangible progress. It invites you to preview some of the most important trends emerging in the future of work, as well as considering how to circumvent the pitfalls of self-sabotage, and establish new ways to make good on your best ideas.

Dr Fox will be presenting his keynote address at the 40th annual Tertiary Education Management Conference (TEMC), Crown Conference Centre, at 9.10am Wednesday September 20th.

Further information about the conference, including program and registration details can be found at www.temc.org.au