Workstream 6: Culture development
Mission of the workstream
- Further development of the ETH culture with strong values that inspire us all to contribute to ETH’s mission to “show the way forward in a complex world”
- Supporting this development with the values set out in the ETH Charter: openness, responsibility, diversity, team spirit and excellence
Topics
… rETHink-specific
- Support for the workstreams WS 1-5 in discussions about organisation, roles, tasks and skills
- Strengthening cultural values as a linkage in decentralised decision processes
… ETH in general
- Develop an understanding of the existing values, culture(s) and developments
- Initiate a broad discussion of the question “Which culture helps ETH fulfil its mission?” and alignment with the 2021–2024 Strategy and Development Plan
- Consolidation of dialogue and cross-workstream exchange in the 2021 rETHink assembly
- Provide tools and supporting initiatives so that the desired values can be translated into everyday conduct, collaboration and leadership style
Procedure
In a pulse check survey, all ETH members were asked to comment on the existing ETH values. The results were published in a protected page report.
In the next step, the administrative and academic departments, institutes and teams, as well as committees and student associations, were encouraged to take part in the discussion of culture and values. A set of documents was provided to facilitate this discussion:
The results of the discussions were summarised on a protected page Miroboard.
Workstream 6 produced a protected page Culture Report setting out its findings and submitted it to the Executive Board for discussion.
As culture is a key feature of an institution’s strategy, the workstream recommended that the Executive Board should initiate a systematic culture development process for the implementation phase. Specifically, the discussion of culture and values should become an everyday part of ETH life, whether in the retreats of departments or other entities, but also in personnel discussions.
In consultation with colleagues from the Office of the Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, which oversees staff skills, the idea arose of compiling the relevant findings into an overall model that brings together the relevant vision, mission, values and skills:
Results
Significant contributors to WS6 were:
Roland Baumann, Micha Bigler, André Blanchard, Hansjürg Büchi, Maximilian Buyken, Günther Dissertori, Martin Ghisletti, Nikolaus Gotsch, Gudela Grote, Dagmar Iber, Pius Krütli, Ulrike Kutay, Ulrike Lohmann, Chris Luebkeman, Sacha Menz, Joël Mesot, Maxim Polikarpov, Dieter Schmid, Silke Schön, Sarah M. Springman, Judit Szulágyi, Konstantinos Voulpiotis, Werner Wegscheider