Department Chair Leadership: Building a Culture of Innovation

1. Department Chair Leadership:Building a Culture of Innovation Joshua Powers Special Assistant to the Provost for Academic Initiatives

2. U.S. Higher Education:A Tale of Conformity… Harvard - 1636 Land-Grant Movement: The People’s College - 1862 In defense of the liberal arts - 1828 …in an industry where “excellence” is unclear

3. U.S. Higher Education:A Tale of Conformity continued… Rise of research mission – Johns Hopkins 1876 The rise of faculty professionalism - 1915 Carnegie Foundation & birth of the academic calendar, credit hour, and a modicum of scientific management - 1910

4. U.S. Higher Education:A Tale of Conformity continued… American’s Best Colleges - 1983 Economic development as new mission – mid-1980s Sputnik & start of higher education’s golden age - 1957 Carnegie Classifications - 1973 Massification of higher education begins - 1946 What’s Next?

5. 11 Traditional & Emergent Paradigms in Higher Education Traditional Emergent Credit hour = measure of student workload or learning Academic calendar = learning blocks or JIT College = 3 years Students = 18-80 “We pray at the feet of U.S. News & World Report.” College as community embedded, econ dev engine • Credit hour = measure of seat time • Academic calendar = semesters or quarters • College = 4 years • Students = 18-21 • “We are good because we say we are.” • College as ivory tower

6. 11 Traditional & Emergent Paradigms in Higher Education continued… Traditional Emergent Faculty = Contract Faculty hiring, an interdisciplinary endeavor. Professor Guide, facilitator of learning. If we build/built it, we better justify its existence. Technology is enabling customized learning. • Faculty = Tenured/Tenure Track • Faculty hiring, an independent sport. • Professor Sage, lecturer of content. • If we build it, it stays and will never die. • Learning always best in face-to-face environment.

7. Pace of Technological Progress Performance that customers can utilize or absorb Disruptive innovations Disruptive Innovations:A driver of leadership failure and the source of new growth opportunities Incumbents nearly always win Most demanding customers Sustaining innovations Performance Least demanding customers Entrants nearly always win Time

8. Disruptive Innovation & Regional State University Schizophrenia • The intent and effect of sustaining innovation is to drive prices up. Disrupting innovation drives prices down. • Replication, rather than disruption, characterized higher education in the past. The future might be different with the advent of customized, cost-effective learning. • Institutional aspiration confusion for places like ISU… • “My God, graduate education barely made it into the mission statement and when will we have a Dean for Research!” • “Well, we aren’t Purdue or IU, but we aren’t USI either.” What is looming...

9. Who is Leading in the Race Toward Customized Learning • For-profits and some others are working in overdrive to develop customized learning tools. • Currently seen as bottom-feeders. But, consider the students they serve and what they are likely learning. • Resources

10. University of Phoenix launches PhoenixMobile App for iPhone and iPod touch WGU Indiana triples enrollment in first six months The nation's sixth largest graduate school is relocating from Illinois to Indiana. Indiana State’s emerging competitive space DeVry plans nursing school for central Indiana The European higher education reform process is having an impact way beyond its borders.

11. So, What Can Department Chairs Do About It? • Recognize and align interests above and below. • What faculty value (the IAM principle) • Independence • Attention • Mattering • What the dean values (the RGM principle) • Resources • Growth • Mattering • What senior administration values (the CEM principle) • Cooperation • Efficiencies • Mattering

12. 8 Things Department Chairs Can Do to Stimulate Innovation • Ask the elephant in the room question: Why do we do it this way? • Be a big picture facilitator & create unit opportunities for big picture thinking; what do outsiders need vs. forcing conformity to how we do it? • Help others to reframe their needs, issues, and goal achievement impediments. • Leverage opportunities for revenue generation.

13. 8 Things Department Chairs Can Do to Stimulate Innovation • Don’t be paralyzed by what you can’t control and what $#@& rolls downhill. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. • Check your ego; allow the dean and your faculty to take the credit. • Empower innovators; sensitively isolate resistors. • Celebrate success.

14. Closing Thought:Pride in Being Who We Are and What We can Be To be a model for a new American University, measured not by who we exclude, but rather by who we include; pursuing research and discovery that benefits the public good; assuming major responsibility for the economic, social, and cultural vitality and health and well-being of the community. Arizona State University Mission Statement