Tomorrow morning, our Town Hall will focus on a favorite topic of mine: innovation. After attending our Innovation Retreat last spring, where many of our discussions were centered around lessons from聽Creativity, Inc.聽by Ed Catmull, I鈥檝e been deliberating on how our division can effectively lead in innovative practices at the university.
As I鈥檝e said before, our division is in the best institutional position to lead innovation and change. This is due to our understanding of the changing demographics of the digital generation of students, our ability to produce with increasing competition for financial resources, and our striving to meet students鈥� expectations for great services and new technologies. Catmull used specific mechanisms to shape the innovative culture at Pixar, and we can draw from those same mechanisms to simultaneously create an engaging environment and break down silos.
A key theme we explored was how changing our mindset and how we approach problems or challenges leads to innovation. With this, I wanted to聽聽that also highlights this theme. Sir Ken Robinson has many thought-provoking points in changing education paradigms, and his message correlates to our efforts in creating a different innovative mindset in how we approach problem solving. Both Catmull and Robinson reiterate the importance of not relying on current practices just because they are the way things have always been done, and that great things happen when we work together to find improved solutions to common problems.
To be innovative as student affairs professionals, we must learn, evolve and continue to build partnerships within our division and throughout the campus. We started the process of creating a learning culture, while building a capacity for innovation and change, with the introduction of our short experiments; our Town Hall tomorrow is the next step in this process and a big opportunity for us to continue evolving as professionals.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to meet with about 50 parents and when I went over the innovative short projects, they were intrigued and happy to know that we are thinking about the future and what their students鈥� needs will be.
I look forward to seeing you聽tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom聽for an inspiring, interactive, and educational Town Hall.
Christina Gonzales