Things just keep getting better and better

Congratulations to Mark Kirby from Planning, Quality and Reporting for winning the Vice Chancellors Award for Professional Staff Excellence in the Individual Category!

Aristotle said that "quality is not an act, it is a habit". Mark Kirby is the first to say that he is far from any philosopher, but many would agree that he embodies this approach to his work at UoN.

Mark is being recognised for his contribution to increased engagement with the value of quality assurance amongst staff and driving a real culture change within the organisation.

“Quality is more than making sure we do a good jobâ€, he says. “It's about embedding continuous improvement into our underlying assumptions, beliefs, values and processes. It's about always trying to do things better.â€

Mark, whose past includes teaching art theory and history, warns that this won't happen without open and safe dialogue. Many of you would have seen his familiar figure around campus as he scurries from one meeting to the next in a bid to meet face-to-face so that a sense of mutual trust can be built. “Continuous improvement implies change of some sort, so it's important to be as inclusive as possible. I just provide the information and allow conversations to help people find solutions to their own improvement opportunities. But talking in itself is not much if it doesn't result in actions that lead to improvementâ€, he says.

Mark is determined to make clear that he is only one part of a team of people interconnected throughout the University community. “At the end of the day, I don't make the improvements. It's the people on the front-line of service delivery that do the hard workâ€, he asserts. “Sure, I have my role to play, but this is as much about the fabulous people I work with.â€

This may be true. But if so, what about the steady increase in student satisfaction since Mark arrived in 2009? “Much of this can be put down to a change in strategic focus, lots of hard work by everyone…and Anne Young's leadershipâ€, he grins determined to share the accolades.