“I sensed a great excitement and openness in our discussions on values”
rETHink, the organisational development project at ETH Zurich, was launched in 2020. Three years later, on 23 March at the rETHink Switch event, ETH Zurich celebrated the conclusion of interpretation phase and kicked off the next phase that focuses on the implementation of the recommendations, initiatives, improvements. Interview with Roland Baumann, responsible for rETHink communications and core team member of Workstream 6 focussing on cultural development.
Looking back on the past three years, how did you personally experience the rETHink project, how was its beginning, its process…?
Three years ago appears a long time ago. At the beginning I was heavily involved in Workstream 6 as a core team member. I remember very well this great excitement and openness we all felt at that time. I really enjoyed the open discussions amongst the Workstream members. Something very special in this Workstream was that the status of the members didn’t play any role in the discussions; there were professors, administrative staff, and students, and they all represented different perspectives and exchanged their ideas on values and culture at ETH Zurich. With this sprit in mind, we also launched the discussions across the entire rETHink project. We had no idea in which directions these discussions were leading to because we had no specific outcome in mind.
I then started in my role as communicator across the rETHink project and realised that this openness was not lived in all the different Workstreams, I witnessed a variety of cultures. Also, when it came to communication: members in the different Workstreams feared that something could be misinterpreted. Furthermore, the issues that were discussed by the different teams were quite complex, and it sometimes was a challenge to see an overall direction in all these discussions, which made the communication to a wider ETH community even more difficult.
Once the analysis phase had started, also clear solutions were developed; and some Workstreams really made a great effort in communicating their ideas, and the project became more tangible. This in turn made my work easier and more satisfying as a ‘rETHink communicator’.
At D-BSSE we conducted two workshops on values and culture, the output became part of the ETH Culture Report 2021. What was the process here in condensing all the input from the different ETH units?
Across ETH Zurich many workshops were held and the output reported back to the core team of Workstream 6. We visualised all the feedback and results in a Miroboard. In addition, before the workshops were held we also launched a survey on the values, inviting all ETH members to participate in the discussions. So, we compiled all these results from the survey and from the workshops in the aforementioned Culture Report 2021. Then something extraordinarily happened: two members of our Workstream were also involved in another project, in which competencies were discussed. And it became apparent that the values we discussed and the competencies they discussed could be linked together. This was the first step towards a visualisation of our values and competencies and also the vision and mission statements of ETH Zurich.
I should add that in the beginning, ‘excellence’ was one of the values. This value was extensively discussed, and it was decided eventually to include the term ‘excellence’ in our mission statement (see box for the ETH Charta).
In the course of many, many discussions six values were identified as important base for developing the ETH culture: Responsibility, Openness, Respect, Inclusion, Empowerment, Ingenuity. Which of these values do you personally consider as well established already and which values need immediate or greater attention?
It’s not easy to pick one of them. For me, the six values complement each other and represent a set of values, which cross-fertilise each other. Respect and Inclusion are widely discussed and very important for the team spirit. Ingenuity is essential for an academic institution. Personally, I think that the value that makes ETH Zurich special is Empowerment: ETH members are empowered to give their very best. This is not only true for professors but also for students and administrative staff, for all employees in general.
The six values link up with six social and leadership competencies. How do we live these values and competencies in everyday life?
Culture development is a process, the values need to be constantly reflected. Every team can reflect, whether they live the values. Nobody can be forced to change his or her values, but we can work together on sharing a given value. A department conference, for example, can be a touch-point for discussing and reflecting on values. This is different to competencies: these can be individually developed and hence, competencies can be demanded from a superior. A touch-point for competencies can be, for example, the annual appraisal interview. Some tips for everyday life have already been published: a small campaign was launched on the ETH internal staffnet, which highlights individual social and leadership competencies. For example, how to enable people, how to nurture well-being, etc. More such tipps will follow during the implementation phase!
Big thanks, Roland, for providing an update on rETHink and valuable insights on the process and next steps.
This interview took place during the Digital Campus held on 27 March 2023. Roland Baumann is a Team leader at ETH Corporate Communications, Core team member of rETHink Workstream 6 on cultural development, and he is responsible for communications across the entire rETHink project.
Charta for ETH Zurich
Vision: Pioneering the way in a complex world
Mission: We serve society by educating the next generations of critical and creative thinkers and doers. With our research, we create knowledge and develop technologies to meet the global challenges of our time. We project a future-oriented and innovative image of Switzerland to the world and network our country with the global community. Together with our partners from science, business, politics and society, we rely on the power of teamwork and strive for excellence - in everything we do.
Learn about the values-competencies model; find tips for the application and development of the social and leadership competencies.