Foto: Ingvild Festervoll Melien

Summer is just around the corner and in this last editorial before the holidays, I want to make some observations about economy and culture.

At the start of the year, K2’s finances could resemble an airplane plunging towards the ground, but with persistent efforts we have succeeded in levelling the plane. We are no longer losing altitude and are now set to land on the budgeted deficit. Many have worked diligently to make this happen, not least Maria Holmaas and Beate Bernes. In addition, we have received good help from the faculty.

Going forward, the job will be to gain altitude and get rid of the deficit with the actions I have previously outlined; more research on less space, more teaching with fewer people, more EU and NFR projects and a relatively of 0-overhead grants, restructuring, possible closure of core facilities.

If we are to achieve this, everyone must be willing to “take one for the team”. This means that the tasks and burdens must be distributed more evenly than is the case today. It is not up to the individual employee to decide all his or her work tasks. As a teacher at the university, you can’t say that, no, I don’t want to be UGLE, or I just want to teach my narrow area of specialization – my colleagues have to do the other work. Everyone in an area must share the UGLE task, you may have to devote a little more time and effort to renew your teaching and taking on teaching tasks that you are not entirely familiar with and sit on a committee not entirely relevant for you – then the work will be more evenly distributed.

Since I also work at the Department of Medicine, I get the opportunity to experience another organization. Every morning, the department gathers for a morning meeting with a report from the team on call and the individual units. One might think that a lot of time is wasted on such a joint meeting, but this meeting point creates a unity and a team spirit that translates into offering help when someone is short on staff or hands to solve a task – you grow into thinking more of us than me. Now, K2 is a different type of organization and I am not suggesting that we should have morning meetings, but the team spirit at Department of Medicine is something we need to acquire in order to perform and thrive better at K2.

Use the summer to think about how you can contribute to a better team spirit;  don’t ask what the department can do for you – ask what you can do for the department.

Finally, Professor Silke Appel will be the new Head of Department and will take office as soon as it is practically possible. We congratulate her and wish her the best of luck at K2’s helm.

Have a lovely summer,

Eystein Husebye