Leading Change in Higher Education: Lessons from the Work
By Amit MrigLeading change in higher education isn’t difficult because people resist it. It’s difficult because colleges and universities are deeply human systems shaped by history, autonomy, and trust.
As enrollment pressures, financial constraints, and rapid disruption accelerate, leaders are being asked to move faster in environments marked by fatigue, uncertainty, and eroding trust. In these conditions, technical solutions and step-by-step models often fall short.
Leading change today is a human challenge, not just a technical one.
What You’ll Gain from This Paper
This concise paper offers a more grounded, human-centered way to lead change in higher education.
These lenses will help you to:
- Diagnose why a current change effort may be stalling
- Interpret resistance and disengagement without escalating conflict
- Design change processes that build trust, capacity, and shared ownership
Rather than prescribing a universal framework, the paper sharpens judgment — helping leaders see what matters most in complex, real-world conditions.
The paper explores change through eight interrelated lenses:
- The leader’s relationship to change
- The level of trust and psychological safety
- How participation is designed
- What resistance is signaling
- Where momentum is (and isn’t) forming
- Who holds real ownership of the work
- How leadership is distributed
- The institution’s learning orientation
Together, these lenses help leaders navigate the human realities of change without oversimplifying them.
If you’re leading change in higher education and want a more grounded, human-centered way forward, this paper is designed to help.
Read the full paper and explore the eight lenses for leading change in higher education.
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