There’s a moment at every industry event when you realise you’ve had the same conversation with different people about twenty times. For me, that moment came somewhere between a lukewarm coffee and my fifth lap of the Schools and Academies Show at the NEC last week. Amid the buzz of the exhibition hall, the ebb and flow of audiences at nearby panel discussions, and the steady shuffle of tote bags and lanyards, one theme kept emerging from my conversations with Higher Education leaders: change feels harder than ever.
The sentiment across conversations was strikingly similar: people are tired, organisations are stretched, and money is tight. But what really caught my attention wasn’t the fatigue or frustration, it was the explanations people offered for why things looked the way they did. These reflections were more suggestive rather than conclusive, shaped by experience rather than firm evidence.
This is where my engineering instincts kicked in and in a quiet moment between networking and demonstrating our products I had a pen, a napkin and a random spark of inspiration. I like it when relationships can be expressed simply and started to scribble ideas to express my thoughts as a mathematical(ish) formula – In my defence it was an education event!!
I concluded that C = Why³ + IM
Where:
- C = Change
- Why³ = Curiosity raised to the power of three (Curiosity Cubed if you like)
- IM = Improvement Mindset
It might not win any academic prize, but it does capture something essential about how organisations shift, adapt, and move forwards.
The Engineer’s Instinct: Change Must Make Sense
Engineers are trained to believe that if something isn’t working, there must be a reason. And if there’s a reason, there’s an opportunity to fix it. That rational, evidence-driven logic is stitched into my thinking. So, wandering through the Higher Education Transformation Zone, listening to people talk about student numbers, staffing pressures, financial uncertainty, and operational strain, I couldn’t help but ask the same question: “Why?”.
Why are student numbers becoming less predictable? Why does workforce pressure feel so acute? Why are some institutions thriving while others are stuck in a cycle of firefighting?
This is exactly where our Caja Insights platform enters the conversation. I spent a lot of the show talking to people about their ‘User Stories’ alongside showing them patterns in their data curated on our Insights tool. What surprised me wasn’t that people were actually interested in my geeky fascination with data, it was that so many told me:
“We don’t really look at data in this way at all.”
Not because they don’t have data. Quite the opposite, but because the way data is presented in most organisations doesn’t naturally stimulate deeper curiosity. It doesn’t ask people to interrogate their assumptions. It doesn’t provoke the inevitable, irresistible, powerful question:
“Why does that look like that?” And that’s the first part of the equation.
Why³: Curiosity Cubed
Asking “why” once can be useful, but it’s the third why, the deeper, root-cause-seeking, assumption-challenging why that begins to unlock genuine insight.
- “Why are we under-staffed?” — “Because finances are tight and we’ve had to cut posts.”
- “Why are finances tight?” — “Because our costs are increasing and income is under pressure.”
- “Why are costs increasing?”
This is usually the point where anecdotal instincts can start to take over. Leaders may offer confident, experience-based answers, but they rarely turn to the data to consider alternative explanations. What if staffing pressure isn’t primarily driven by finances? What if the data points instead to productivity challenges, operational bottlenecks, or inefficient processes that play a far greater role than anyone is willing to admit?
These are the kinds of questions that Why³ embodies: curiosity raised to the power of three.
I should confess here, this isn’t new I could reference Taiichi Ohno and Toyota who professed the merits of a ‘5 Why’s’ approach decades ago; however, the principle is the same and I thought ‘Curiosity Cubed’ was quite neat.
But here’s what I realised: Why³ deepens understanding yet understanding alone doesn’t create change. For that, you need the second half of my equation.
The Improvement Mindset (IM): The Engine of Action
As I reflected on these conversations, I realised there was something almost universal among the leaders I spoke to. When confronted with unexpected patterns in their data, most reacted in the same way, they reached for a plausible explanation, a story that made sense of the numbers.
This is entirely human. When we’re faced with complexity, our brains seek simplicity. But it also highlights something crucial: information alone does not create change unless there is a mindset ready to act on it.
This is where IM, the Improvement Mindset comes in.
For change to happen, two conditions must be met:
- You know why things are the way they are
- You have the mindset and motivation to do something about it
Some leaders felt energised and optimistic, ready to move forward. Others felt fatigued, frustrated, and stuck in what one person described as “constantly moving goalposts”.
Some had recently experienced a win or positive change and believed they were ahead of the curve, making “do nothing” feel like a credible option. Whilst others were caught in the opposite narrative: whatever they tried, the goalposts seemed to shift again, making meaningful change feel impossible alongside the pressures of the day job.
The Improvement Mindset is about breaking both of these cognitive patterns. It’s about pairing curiosity with action.
It’s where Why³ meets the willingness to do something different.
Human Factors Slowing Change
Transformation isn’t simply an operational or strategic challenge, it’s a human one. Even when the data is clear and the logic is sound, people avoid action or resist change. Through our work at Caja, drawing on behavioural science, psychology, and operational excellence, we see three human factors time and time again driving this mindset:
- Loss of Control & Uncertainty
- Habit & Cognitive Load
- Fear of Loss (Status, Skills, Stability)
These factors are why insight alone is not enough. This is why Why³ must be paired with IM. Showing compelling data isn’t enough (though it helps). Mandating change from the top isn’t enough (though leadership matters). You need to engage with the human factors that determine whether change actually happens or just creates more frustration, confusion and fatigue.
A New Lens on Change
If there’s one thing I’m taking away from my conversations at the NEC, it’s this: organisations don’t struggle with change because they lack data or good intentions. Change isn’t a technical problem needing a technical fix. It’s a human challenge requiring a human-centred approach, one that acknowledges fear, respects habit, tackles uncertainty, and builds genuine improvement mindsets rather than just demanding them. Creating a compelling evidence led story about the rationale for doing something different is important.
So, if you’re leading an HE Institution (or any organisation really) and you’re frustrated that good data isn’t translating into meaningful change, ask yourself: are you truly embracing Why³? Are you going deep enough? Are you finding root causes or accepting surface stories?
And critically: are you building an Improvement Mindset not just in yourself, but across your whole organisation? Are you tackling the psychological barriers that make change so hard?
Because here’s the thing about equations: they only work when you get all the variables right; miss one, and everything falls apart. So, my learning is that the doodles of an Engineer: C = Why³ + IM is more than a pseudo-equation. It’s a lens, a way of framing transformation so that change feels rational, human, and achievable.
If you’re interested in understanding how C = Why³ + IM might look inside your organisation and how our data insights and change experts can help accelerate results, get in touch with us at Caja. We’ll help you rationalise change.
