Keynote: Systems Change

Event Overview

Organizations often respond to persistent challenges by focusing on people — providing more training, introducing new policies, restructuring teams, or replacing employees. Yet despite these efforts, many of the same problems continue to resurface. Why? Because the underlying systems that shape behavior remain unchanged.

Join Professor Nick Fabrizio and Thomas O'Toole from the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy as they explore why sustainable organizational improvement begins with changing systems rather than people. You will learn how to recognize where systems break, uncover the hidden factors that slow organizational responsiveness, and apply practical leadership frameworks — including the Five Responsiveness Killers, Four Leadership Levers, and System Recovery Model — to create organizations that are more agile, resilient, and effective.

What You'll Learn

Why organizations often mistake system failures for people problems
Why fixing people problems rarely fixes organizations and why traditional change efforts often fail
Where systems break, how hidden system failures impact performance, and why treating symptoms rarely leads to lasting improvement
The Five Responsiveness Killers that slow decision making, reduce agility, and hinder organizational effectiveness
The Four Leadership Levers and System Recovery Model for diagnosing, redesigning, and sustaining high-performing organizations

Speakers

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Nick Fabrizio

Associate Teaching Professor

Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

Nick Fabrizio’s expertise spans both the public and private sectors. He advises companies, government agencies, and prominent healthcare institutions on a variety of issues, including strategic decisions, public policy, mergers and acquisitions, turnaround/crisis management, and integrating technology.

Professor Fabrizio is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and has published over 25 journal articles on corporate governance, strategy, and organizational change. He has also published book chapters and two books, and he is a regular contributor to news and media outlets on healthcare trends and current events.

Professor Fabrizio is the Capstone Director for both the MHA and EMHA programs. In addition to teaching in the Sloan Program, he developed the Healthcare Change Management Certificate Program for eCornell and designs custom programs for eCornell.

Professor Fabrizio received his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Cortland, his M.A. from Binghamton University, and his Ph.D. from Walden University.

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Thomas O’Toole

Assistant Dean for Professional Education

Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

Thomas O’Toole is the Assistant Dean for Professional Education at Cornell University’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. With more than 20 years of experience as a successful higher education executive and public affairs educator, Dr. O’Toole collaborates with the Brooks School’s leadership on all aspects of professional degree program operations, including admissions recruitment and marketing, curriculum planning and instructional design, and performance evaluation and quality improvement for Cornell’s residential and executive professional degrees. He also led strategic academic engagement efforts for the Brooks School, including serving as lead for the school’s military student support programs through Service to Service and Service to School, spearheading government and corporate partnerships, cultivating engaged learning projects for students, and overseeing non-degree certificate development with eCornell.

In addition to his administrative portfolio, Dr. O’Toole teaches the MPA program’s core course on “Issues in Public Administration,” the EMPA program’s core course on “Public Administration: A Strategic Planning perspective,” and a seminar on “Comparative Public and Health Administration” taught across the MPA, EMPA, and EMHA programs.

Dr. O’Toole is the recipient of the 2014-2015 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Professional Service. He earned his B.A. in International Relations Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, from Bucknell University; his MPA from Cornell University; and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University.

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