1. Why are we reorganizing?
We are reorganizing so we can respond to the changing world of atmospheric sciences and so we can implement our strategic plan in a more effective way. The challenges facing atmospheric sciences are broader and more interdisciplinary in nature than ever and the organizational structure of NCAR must be optimized to facilitate successful implementation of our strategic plan. Our strategy, on which we will be evaluated and on which our future depends, has emphasized crosscutting and interdisciplinary science challenges and modern facilities. We simply must implement the plan vigorously and successfully. Furthermore, the external funding environment is clearly changing and we should not take future budgetary support for granted. Business as usual is not an adequate response to severe financial stress on the university community, increasing financial stress on our sponsor agencies, an upcoming National Science Board mandated review of the balance of investments in atmospheric sciences, and an upcoming open competition for the management of NCAR.
Atmospheric science is changing. NCAR leadership in developing innovative multi-and interdisciplinary approaches to the atmospheric and related sciences is a fundamental objective of our strategic plan. There is a need to expand support and service to the university community. Many external stakeholders, constituents, and future reviewers are looking closely for evidence of NCAR’s continuing commitment to scientific and programmatic excellence into the 21st Century. The reorganization will serve to demonstrate NCAR’s willingness and ability to adapt in progressive ways to the new scientific and technical challenges facing us.
2. How will the reorganization help us respond to changes in the external funding environment and the changes in atmospheric sciences?
NCAR’s current organizational structure is difficult to explain and is not fully aligned with our mission and our strategic objectives. Our commitment to science, service, education, and the production and transfer of knowledge and technology should be evident from our structure, but it is not.
The reorganization will help us develop and manage large-scale scientific projects that cut across divisional, institutional, and disciplinary boundaries, including multi-divisional NCAR strategic initiatives, which in the past has posed some management challenges. This is true for both newly developing science activities and those with deep roots.
Reorganizing NCAR will enable more effective pursuit of priorities that cut across our current structure, underscore our institutional commitment to such priorities, demonstrate institutional innovation, flexibility and adaptability, and provide new points of interest and entry for potential sponsors, stakeholders, and academic collaborators.
3. The reorganization looks much different than the proposal from the Realignment Committee. Why was there such a sudden change?
The Realignment Committee made three major recommendations: the creation of the three new institutes, the development of an enhanced Advanced Studies Program, and a “flat” management structure.
In January, Tim Killeen called a retreat for the Directors and the President’s Council to consider these recommendations. During the discussion, all members of the NCAR and UCAR senior management team agreed with two of the recommendations, but considered the third, a flat management structure, problematic. The senior management team was specifically concerned about the manageability and complexity of such a flat organization. The proposed organization would have increased the number of direct reports to the NCAR Director to fourteen (11 divisions and institutes and the Directorate Senior Staff), and this is considered to be too many. Even the present organization has twelve direct reports to the Director, which is still too many. The new organization will have six direct reports (plus the Directorate Senior Staff), which is considered close to optimal.
Thus, after extensive discussion, the senior management team settled on the more vertical management structure you see today. The planners of the realignment process had, all along, realized the necessity for a final management decision step and such a step had been described in the materials posted at the realignment web site and in the town meetings.
4. How will the reorganization enhance NCAR service to the university community?
Improving the modes of integrative work with external collaborators is our top priority. In the past few years, NCAR has initiated several activities to increase service to the university community including our many workshops, the Junior Faculty Fellowship Program, the Undergraduate Leadership Workshop, and most recently our NCAR-wide visitor program. Each of these programs demonstrates some of our new approaches to university service. We have found great success with these programs and will continue to build on them.
In the reorganization, we will make more dramatic changes and extend the definition of service to the university community. One change obvious on the organization chart is the Development Testbed Center, an activity that is clearly linked to the university community. It will provide the university community with access to the WRF model and form a link between the research and operational communities. Other substantive changes may not be obvious from an organization chart but are critical components of the reorganization. Several managerial components were designed to specifically address integrative work: a key responsibility of the Associate Directors is to integrate work across NCAR and beyond to our university community; the raison d’etre for the Institutes is to engage in cross-cutting activities, activities that also extend across NCAR and beyond to our university collaborators. The Implementation Committees working on the reorganization are spelling out the details of such interactions.
We will formalize these interactions through institutional strategic agreements with universities, partnerships on large scientific projects such as HIAPER and community models, a more open process for the development of the science agenda for NCAR, and the continuation of our productive collaboration on field campaigns and publications. With the reorganization, we will also foster a cultural change that will make NCAR a more open, participatory and responsive organization.
5. What is the purpose of the additional layer of management depicted in the blue boxes?
The reorganization creates an executive committee that includes the NCAR Directorate Senior Staff, the Laboratory Associate Directors and a representative of the NCAR Scientist Assembly. The NCAR Scientist Assembly will serve as a rotating member of the executive committee, providing a direct voice in the leadership and management of NCAR.
This executive committee will have leadership and high-level management responsibility for NCAR as a whole. The primary responsibility of this group would be to promote integration — cooperation between laboratories, cooperation between divisions and institutes within laboratories, and cooperation with outside university partners, stakeholders, and sponsors. In other words, their job is to ensure the integration of science, service, facilities and educational efforts that are highlighted in the NCAR strategic plan. The Reorganization Implementation Committee will determine the appropriate level or resources necessary to make these activities happen.
6. What is the purpose of grouping existing Divisions and new institutes into five new laboratories?
The reorganization organizes NCAR in a thematic way that closely maps to our mission.
Organizing in this way does not give any laboratory dominance over any aspect of the NCAR mission, but instead provides a clear organizational map of the mission. We also wanted an organizational structure that was more closely aligned with our strategic plan by making our mission and structure more aligned and easier for people outside the organization to understand. One of our design principles was to have a structure that created a management team that was able to effectively manage cross-divisional projects in support of the NCAR mission.
7. Why are we adding a layer of management in this difficult budget year?
Strengthening NCAR’s management team and practices will strengthen our institution and is worth the additional investment. That being said, minimizing the overall costs of reorganization is a fundamental objective, and a number of options for reducing costs have been identified, including adjusting the pace of implementation. Furthermore, one of the principles for the reorganization is to “Go As You Pay,” meaning we will not proceed with some actions unless we have the resources to do so. With this principle in mind, we will appoint managers from our current staff to serve as the acting Associate Directors for these new Laboratories. These positions will be created in compliance with UCAR policy and procedures. The Reorganization Implementation Committee will also look at opportunities to consolidate some activities in those front offices. We will not consider proposals to add numerous administrative staff to the front offices.
8. How will the reorganization help science?
There should be freedom
for scientists to move onto projects, either totally or in part, hosted within
other divisions. The new structure will add an independent science voice on
the executive committee with the presence of the elected member from the NCAR
Scientist Assembly. The reorganization will support NCAR-wide science projects.
The increased emphasis on long-term interdisciplinary team projects will help
strengthen NCAR as a national center. For example, the development of a Sun
Earth System Model would require the contributions of all five laboratories,
each with clearly defined roles. Such a project would integrate theory, computational
science, observations, and experimentation. In other words, such a project
will integrate the efforts and talents of all of NCAR. In this structure,
our scientific researchers will continue to serve as the very strong link
with our external collaborators and help point the way to their role in these
large-scale projects. The HIAPER project is another cross-divisional and cross-institutional
program that will require the expertise of all entities including instrument
developers from ATD and ACD, computer scientists and data experts from SCD,
and modelers from RAP, MMM and CGD to name a few.
9. How does the reorganization foster an increase in integration, collaboration, and cooperation among divisions and programs in NCAR?
The most important aspect of the reorganization is the science dimension and the teams, themes, projects and partnerships. The new organization chart provides an administrative tool to facilitate the management of these activities that cross NCAR. The three new institutes will have as their fundamental charge the responsibility to reach across the institution and foster activities that cross-divisional and institutional boundaries. Similarly, the Associate Directors of the laboratories will have as a major part of their duties the responsibility of looking across the organization for teams and resources that can be brought together to achieve NCAR-wide goals.
10. How does the reorganization enhance services and collaborations between NCAR and the universities?
We have many effective collaborations today as a demonstrated in the number of co-authored publications, visitors, and collaborators listed in the Annual Scientific Report. The reorganization will build on these collaborations to build more large-scale projects and teams that involve more than two or three collaborators. The Biogeosciences is one example of a project that will grow to these large-scale dimensions. The creation of an “integrative” level of management will allow effective management of these increasingly complex projects. The Associate Directors will also have a significant outreach role, i.e., to represent NCAR to the outside community including our university collaborators and sponsors.
11. Doesn’t the organization chart diminish the importance of science?
The “Science Dimension” is the most important aspect of this reorganization. While some have suggested that combining the science division diminishes their role in NCAR, a different perspective of the organization chart shows that science is at the center or core of our organization. By joining the science divisions in one laboratory, we create an entity that will facilitate ongoing collaborations among these divisions and foster new collaborations. Within this Laboratory, we will develop scientific themes that will generate more joint appointments across divisions. These joint appointments won’t be limited to within the Sun, Weather and Climate Laboratory, but will also form across the five different laboratories.
12. What is the role of the five Associate Directors?
The five Associate Directors will have line authority, meaning authority to make budgetary and personnel decisions. Primarily, the Laboratory Directors will have responsibility to think about the integration of the NCAR programs and the development of new programs. The creation of these roles was to address difficulties in managing cross-divisional programs. The Reorganization Implementation Committee will consider the role of the Associate Directors, who at a minimum will have the direct ability with the appropriate level of oversight and authority to integrate the programs within that unit.
13. What is the size for the front office of each Laboratory?
At a minimum, the office will have an Associate Director and an administrative assistant. The Reorganization Implementation Committee will take a close look at the responsibility of the Associate Directors and assess the staff necessary to support that responsibility.
14. Who will make budget decisions?
The NCAR Director, the new Associate Directors, and the Division and Institute Directors will all have important roles in budget decision-making. We have not defined exact roles and responsibilities of the laboratories vis a vis the divisions. The Reorganization Implementation Committee will make the resolution of budgetary issues one of its top priorities.
15. How much will this all cost?
We will continue to follow the “Go As You Pay” approach. In this budget year, we cannot afford to create additional layers of management at the expense of current programs. The Reorganization Implementation Committee is looking at means to draw from our current resources. We will move some current directors into the Associate Director positions and perhaps find opportunities to consolidate some activities in those front offices. The Reorganization Implementation Committee will develop estimates of costs related to the reorganization. We will not consider proposals to add numerous administrative staff to the front offices.
16. When will the reorganization implementation take place?
The implementation will take place in phases. We anticipate the implementation to begin in June 2004. We have organized a Reorganization Implementation Committee that is working on the details of what will happen and when.
17. What is the effect of the reorganization on the work of the Appointments Review Group (ARG)?
There is no immediate change. The 2004 Appointments Review Group will proceed as in years past.
The NCAR Scientific Appointments policy states, “the ARG is constituted to possess a balance of divisional representation and scientific skills required by NCAR.” Currently, the ARG membership includes the Director and two senior scientists from each division. In some cases, a division does not have a sufficient number of senior scientists to serve on the ARG.
While the Implementation Committee will consider what, if any, changes are necessary to the membership of the Appointments Review Group, any change in the policy requires approval from the UCAR Board of Trustees and any change in the procedures will involve consultation with the current ARG membership.
18. NCAR has a history of supporting excellent individual research, yet the reorganization emphasizes team projects. Why does the reorganization propose this change and will we continue to have individual research?
One of NCAR’s unique national roles is to catalyze and facilitate large-scale scientific projects — like the CCSM — that gather together the best available talent from NCAR and external members of the science community. The reorganization’s emphasis on scientific teams, themes, projects, and partnerships is designed to facilitate a greater cadence of interactions across the traditional (and continuing) divisions and with the outside community. While we develop these teams, themes, projects and partnerships, we continue to place a high value on individual scientific contributions. The Directors only just began the discussion of the Science Dimension at the retreat and will continue this discussion in its management meetings and with the NCAR Scientist Assembly.
19. How does the reorganization affect NCAR's relationship with other programs and functions in UCAR, including the UCAR Office of Programs, the UCAR Education and Outreach Office, UCAR Communications, the UCAR Office of Development and Government Affairs (ODGA), and UCAR Corporate Affairs?
As with its university collaborators, the intent behind the reorganization is to increase collaborations across divisional and institutional boundaries. We intend to enhance the collaborations with the UCAR Office of Programs and UCAR Education and Outreach Office. We see no major long-term changes in NCAR’s interactions with the UCAR offices of Communications, ODGA and Corporate Affairs.
We will work closely
with UCAR Communications, OGDA, and UCAR Corporate Affairs to educate our
community about this reorganization to hear back from our community about
their changing needs.
20. Is there anything on the organization chart we can change? Are
the names of the Laboratories final?
Pending final approval from the Board of Trustees and the implementation "go-ahead" from the President's Council in May 2004, the way forward is set. We need you to provide your input and suggestions to the Communications Committee members (Tom Bogdan, Bob Gall and Catherine Shea) or to your division director. They will bring these concerns to the Reorganization Implementation Committee for their consideration. As noted in the organization chart, the names of the laboratories and some of the other boxes are “Working Titles.” We look forward to your suggestions on the naming of the different entities.
21. How will the reorganization affect our space planning?
The reorganization has no immediate impact. As we develop more collaborative teams with internal and external members, we will first look to technological solutions, including location of teams, which will assist in bringing people together. As the programs evolve, we expect collaborators will request relocations and more collaborative space.
22. Where do I send my questions and suggestions?
Contact the Communications Committee: Tom Bogdan, Bob Gall and Catherine Shea. They are working closely with the Reorganization Implementation Committee and will forward your questions and suggestions.
Last update: February 12, 2004 by cmw@ucar.edu