Aaron Quigley is a Professor and Head of School in Computer Science and Engineering at University of New South Wales. He discusses his various career moves that have brought him to the current position and the role of both strategic hindsight and foresight around choices. He talks about silent warriors in relation to mentoring and supervision, as well as peer service. And he talks about his three secret powers of not worrying who gets the credit, listening and talking, and how they play out in practice. As part of this we also hear about his approach to leadership, getting the best out of people, and making the world a better place. 

Notable bites:

“That’s the thing about the Head of School job – it is to help others to achieve success and together we work towards greater success.”

“There are a lot of people out there who are the silent warriors, who are doing work that actually makes the world a better place but they don’t necessarily get the acclaim.”

“You can get a lot done in this world if you don’t care who gets the credit.“

“I think the things I can help set up and nurture and support will help make the world a better place in the long run.”

“World leading, world beating, or world building. Pick your poison and work in that way.”

“There is no handbook. Every head of school’s role is different. The handbook is - start building, start thinking, start looking, start documenting, start understanding, start meeting.”

“You have to know how to talk to your audience…You’ve got listen. You’ve got to look. And you’ve got to talk to them in way to keep them encouraged.”

“Success has many parents.”

Overview (times approximate):

02:00 Career path from degree in Computer Science to Head of School at UNSW

16:00 Making choices, strategic hindsight and foresight, and getting the right advice

22:55 The importance of silent warriors and service roles and his secret power of caring about getting things done and not caring about who gets the credit

34:15 His secret power of listening

37:55 Moving into his new role as Head of School

44:45 His secret power of talking

58:21 End

In more detail, he talks about…

02:00 Aaron talks about stumbling into computer science, and about computing being a global field and his various moves over his career – Dublin, Germany, California US, Japan (to teach English), Australia, Austen Texas, lecturing in Newcastle and PhD in Sydney Australia, Mitsubishi Research Labs Boston, travelling in Patagonia and Europe, post doc in Sydney Australia, Dublin Ireland, Tasmania Australia, St Andrews Scotland. 10 years in Scotland, never thought they would leave, but Brexit came along and then a global pandemic and now back in Australia at UNSW as head of school.

16:00 Aaron discusses the extent to which the moves were strategic, that there was always a long term strategy to get back to Australia and how he thinks there is strategic hindsight and strategic foresight. Foresighting activities are where he will go to round out his skill set.

18:30 Aaron talks about an example of unexpected re-connecting with people, using a recent Clubhouse experience as an example, and connecting to his three secret super skills. Your paths always interconnect.

22:30 Aaron talks about the value of seeking advice from the right people, and Bob Kummerfeld and Judy Kay being exemplary as supervisors in how they nurture the next generation, and being silent warriors

25:55 In relation to silent warriors, Aaron talks about he is very aware of this through his work as CHI general chair and his SIGCHI work writing blog posts about SIGCHI policies, and the importance of making policies for codifying decisions and guiding actions; talking in particular of all the people contributing for example to the CHI courses policy – three digits can include weeks of thinking by numerous people about why do we do that; and the balance of trying acknowledge all the people who contributed but also recognising the people trying to claim false credit.

29:45 Aaron discusses his ‘why’ for his various service roles, including lots of small things that are invisible. His secret secret secret power is: “I think you can get a lot done in this world if you don’t care who gets the credit.”  (with a digression into the attribution of Henry Ford’s supposed famous quote)

34:15 Aaron talks about his second secret power being listening. He gives example of how he listens – listening in to podcasts and clubhouse sessions and learning from them. Looking for different ideas and making connections.

37:55 Aaron talks about when he started at UNSW, meeting with every single person and listening – what’s your passion, what’s driving you, tell me about…. He also used a tool that tracked proportion of talking and his goal was to only talk 20% of the time. He is looking for world leading, world beating, or world building and looking for people to convince him they are doing one of those three things and he will have their back. Listening to 55 people was exhausting.

41:10 Aaron started at UNSW 10 Aug, 400 page handbook – but a blank sheet of paper. “There is no handbook. Every head of school’s role is different. The handbook is start building, start thinking, start looking, start documenting, start understanding, start meeting.” He writes his own book, synthesising what he’s heard from colleagues (plus strategy work of the last 6 months)…. The next thing is present, listen … and the students have something to say as well, and the alumni, and international relations people and benefactors. Discusses John Lions – understated influence on the world (open source etc) and a distinguished lecture series starting 27 May.

44:45 Aaron talks about his secret power, talking… how he talks differently to different people. He talks about how he learnt this during his time as an English teacher in Japan and talking to different people there about or in English.

51:10 The icebreaking game, three truths and one lie (that GF fails badly at!)

54:15 Wrapping up. Talking about podcasts. And points to Vicki Hanson and the ACM Future of Computing Academy, the  ACM ByteCast, and Clubhouse, and encouraging people to listen and learn. Listen and don’t wait to talk.

00:58:21 End

Related Links

 People: Aaron Quigley, Paddy Nixon, Joe Marks, Judy Kay, Bob Kummerfeld, Patrick Baudisch, Albrecht Schmidt, John Lions, Vicki Hanson

Misc:

UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering

CHI2021, SIGCHI

Clubhouse

ACM Future of Computing Academy, ACM Bytecast podcast

Event: In augural John Lyons Distinguished Lecture Series starting 27 May

Book: Richard N Bolles & Katherine Brookes, What color is your parachute