Hi, I'm Rachel Sandby-Thomas and I'm the Registrar at the University of Warwick.

In the value sessions we asked our staff how do we behave when we are at our best?

and also what stops us behaving and being at our best?

And what they said to us very consistently across the University was that we like to go further and forward.

We like to lead the way, and we're very gritty and resilient about doing that.

We like to think freely and we thrive on difference.

We love finding creativity in those uncertain spaces in between views.

We're also really good at creating connections, and we love sharing opportunities.

And that is very much Warwick at its best.

However, there are some things which hold us back.

One of them, which we called stuck in the mud, was bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy processes, we all know we have all experienced them.

So Warwick Transformation is very much about trying to simplify and streamline those processes and make them fit for the future.

The other thing that holds us back, which was quite unpleasant to hear, is that we can be hierarchical. And sometimes the behaviours of our managers and leaders are not what they should be.

So we have introduced a raft of leadership and management courses, which we’re rolling out, in order that our leaders and managers will produce a culture where people are encouraged to be the best that they can be.

So we already have a strategy, excellence with purpose, and it still holds good,our two core strategies of research and education and that has four enabling strategies of innovation, international, inclusion, and regional.

But we've added a fifth of sustainability because we were already doing so much work in that area.

The other really important addition is a heightened sense of ambition, which came out of the work we did and exploring our purpose with many, many members of our community.

And that is to point the way ahead, to lead the way ahead, to lead the sector so that others can follow where we go, not the other way around.

We will achieve our strategy by being at our best and when we're following our behaviours and values and acting in accordance with them that is us behaving at our best.

So one last thought. I'm really proud of our Warwick values because they came from our community and they reflect our community.

You won't find another set of values like them anywhere else in HE, because they very much represent our community at its best.