Department Chair Leadership:Building a Culture of Innovation

Joshua PowersSpecial Assistant to the Provost

for Academic Initiatives

U.S. Higher Education:A Tale of Conformity…

Harvard - 1636In defense of the liberal arts - 1828

Land-Grant Movement: The People’s College -

1862

…in an industry where “excellence” is unclear

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

U.S. Higher Education:A Tale of Conformity continued…

Massification of higher education

begins - 1946

Sputnik & start of higher education’s golden age - 1957

Economic development as new mission –

mid-1980s

What’s Next?

Carnegie Classifications -

1973

American’s Best Colleges -

1983

11 Traditional & Emergent Paradigms in Higher Education

Traditional• 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

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

11 Traditional & Emergent Paradigms in Higher Education continued…

Traditional• 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.

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.

Source: Innosight; Clayton Christensen presentation, 2011 ACE Annual Conference, Washington, DC .

Disruptive Innovations: A driver of leadership failure

and the source of new growth opportunities

Per

form

ance

Time

Performance that customers

can utilize or absorb

Pace of

Technological

Progress

Sustaining innovations

Disruptive innovations

Incumbents nearly always win

Entrants nearly always win

Most demanding customers

Least demanding customers

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...

Source: Clayton Christensen presentation, 2011 ACE Annual Conference, Washington, DC .

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

WGU Indiana triples enrollment in first six months

DeVry plans nursing school for central Indiana

The nation's sixth largest graduate

school is relocating from Illinois to

Indiana.

University of Phoenix launches PhoenixMobile App for iPhone

and iPod touch

The European higher education reform process is having an impact way beyond its borders.

Indiana State’s emerging competitive space

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

8 Things Department Chairs Can Do to Stimulate Innovation

1. Ask the elephant in the room question: Why do we do it this way?

2. Be a big picture facilitator & create unit opportunities for big picture thinking; what do outsiders need vs. forcing conformity to how we do it?

3. Help others to reframe their needs, issues, and goal achievement impediments.

4. Leverage opportunities for revenue generation.

8 Things Department Chairs Can Do to Stimulate Innovation

5. 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.

6. Check your ego; allow the dean and your faculty to take the credit.

7. Empower innovators; sensitively isolate resistors.

8. Celebrate success.

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