What are your personal goals for rETHink?
Julia Dannath: I’ve been at ETH for a year now, and I’m delighted that Joël Mesot chose to embark on this project. My personal goal is to foster a community spirit throughout ETH, something that will encourage us all to work together on shaping this university’s future!
Joël Mesot: One of my priorities is to break down silos at ETH. As well as building bridges between the disciplines, I would like to see ETH members at all levels exchanging views, swapping ideas and learning from one another as equals. We need to be thinking all the time about how best to handle discussions with colleagues in more junior or senior roles.
Dieter Schmid: As an external consultant to this project, my goal is to help make ETH even more proactive and to boost the creative freedom that each individual has within this organisation. With freedom comes responsibility, so it’s important that we take steps to cultivate responsibility on all levels. ETH Zurich is a world-class organisation, and I would like to see it become a global leader in management and leadership as well. I very much hope I can help make that happen!
Dieter Schmid, how optimistic are you about meeting your goal?
Schmid: We still have a long way to go, but there are enough positive signs to make me feel confident that we’re heading in the right direction.
Julia Dannath, you mentioned the ETH spirit. Can you already feel it?
Dannath: When I see people working together so closely in the individual rETHink workstreams and delving into key topics, I really feel that community spirit coming to life. But I’ve also been at plenty of meetings where I sense that people are reluctant to come forward and take on responsibility. In many cases, people’s first instinct is to fall back into old, ingrained habits.
Do you notice any difference between discussions inside and outside rETHink?
Dannath: People in the rETHink inner circle knew that the project would require intense teamwork when they signed up, so they’re obviously fine with that. In terms of ETH as a whole, we’ve sown the first seeds and now we must nurture them – but we definitely still have a long way to go.
Mesot: I think that’s about as much as we can expect for now. I’m really impressed with what we’ve achieved so far in the inner circle, which consists of around 600 ETH members from right across the university. Some of the suggestions they have put forward have genuinely surprised me.
Could you give us an example?
Mesot: There have been inspiring moments talking to people about leadership. And I was also impressed with the idea of transforming how we share resources among the academic departments. Putting those ideas into practice could really turn us into a global leader.
