TEDxKarolinskaInstitutet - Carl Savage - Turning tables and fipping pyramids November 7, 2011

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Dr. Carl Savage suggests that universities today are approaching the change and innovation process in completely the wrong way. Drawing upon examples from how we educate doctors, Savage points out that despite amazing advances in technology, our approaches to teaching and change are rooted in 14th century methodologies and industrial era thinking. The failure of universities to adapt to the needs of society lies in a failure of change leaders to grasp the complexity of the context. Paradoxically, by simply asking questions which helped expose the tension between what people want to achieve and what they actually are doing, Savage found that change is within our grasp. Savage argues that strong visionary leaders and centralized planning committees are not the solution, in fact, they are part of the problem. Instead of telling people to do things that they do not understand, do not want to do, or do not see the reason for doing, each and every one of us can drive change if we help each other reflect upon two key questions: "What do we want to achieve?" and "What are we doing that helps us get there?".

Carl Savage is a lecturer and researcher at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. He recently presented his PhD thesis "Overcoming Inertia in Medical Education: Navigating change through Adaptive Reflection", in which he describes a practical process model for improving educational courses and programs. He was awarded the 2011 Sigbrit Franke Scholarship for contributions to the improvement of higher education in Sweden based on his longstanding and broad efforts to develop medical and health professions education.

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