Culture

Being Smarter Together

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Last week, we hosted two important planning events within the college. First, the Leadership Team (including cabinet and the Director/Chair team) had a planning retreat, followed by the Animal Sciences Summit on Tuesday. I appreciate when people are willing to invest time in reflecting on our work and planning for the future. I especially appreciate our ability to come together and think as a team. We really are stronger together.

Scott London refers to this as the “Power of Dialogue” and that it is through dialogue that we can overcome differences, find common ground, build meaning and purpose, and set directions. The Greeks believed that if you are unsure about a question, by working together, we can solve almost anything.

Physicist, David Bohm believed dialogue was critical for intelligence and that in the past, individual intelligence may have been enough, but the nature and complexity of today’s problems requires collective thinking. Dialogue is not the same as decision-making or problem-solving.  It requires listening, searching for common ground, exploring assumptions and ideas. It requires that we build relationships with one another. Let’s be smarter together. See you there.

http://scott.london/articles/ondialogue.html

 

Becoming Less Wrong

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Last weekend, I was reorganizing my kitchen. This is an ongoing effort because there are appliances in my house which the original designer never foresaw when the kitchen was designed. Like the Keurig coffee machine, which doesn’t quite fit under the cabinet. Or the major duty blender which makes smoothies but is shaped differently than the one we used to have. There are also a few items in my kitchen that are a bit of a mystery to me, like the ice sphere mold my son bought me and the remote grill thermometer my brother sent last Christmas. In other words, my kitchen has gotten somewhat complex.

Some things are complicated. Others are complex. For example, airplanes are complicated. But air traffic control is complex. The more complex something is, the more information it takes even just to describe it. To manage complexity effectively, we have to account for things beyond our understanding. Complexity tends to yield what many call “wicked problems”- those predicaments that cannot be definitively resolved and attempts to fix them often generate more trouble. Wicked problems emerge when we have uncertain data, multiple value conflicts, economic constraints, ambiguity, resistance to change, limited time, no central authority, or no clear answer.

Business consultant Greg Satell says that instead of assuming we can find all the right answers to complex problems, we should strive to become less wrong over time. That means shifting from finding solutions to improving our problem-solving abilities. We have to think through problems to figure out whether we’re even applying the right type of solution. We think of it as trying to be “directionally correct.”

The truth is there are few problems left which have easy and simple solutions. To break down complexity, we need to stay focused on our priorities. We have to keep our principles in mind. We have to ensure that people understand their roles and purpose, because it’s easier to innovate when you know where the  boundaries are, and we have to be comfortable with the ongoing experimentation. We may have to partner with others who have expertise we don’t have. We may have to operate in fiscal situations we did not foresee and evaluate opportunities that are uncertain. We have to be ready to take responsibility for that which we cannot control. We can solve some problems. We can strive daily to become less wrong. See you there.

— Cathann

 

https://www.inc.com/author/greg-satell

Moving Forward

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One thing I’ve learned over the years, is that the complexity in large organizations can become a huge obstacle to doing compelling work, OR the people who inhabit these organizations can provide structure and show up in a way that helps move things forward. Rob Bell says that is a great litmus test for whether the work you’re doing is work that the world needs: does it move things forward?

Because some work doesn’t. Some work takes things in the wrong direction. Every day, we have choices- small, incremental ones- rarely the big life-changing ones. It becomes easy to think that choices define us, like “You are what you eat” “You are what you do” but that’s not true.  You are the person who makes those choices.

How we decide, how we respond to what happens to us, is what gets at who we are as a person, and as an organization. I had the good fortune of growing up in several countries and cultures before landing in the Midwest. One of those countries was Israel. While there I learned about Tikkun Olam. The most broadly understood notion is that of “repairing the world” through human actions. That each of us has a responsibility to change, improve, and fix our surroundings. That the way we repair the world is not by taking on the whole world, but through behaving and acting constructively and beneficially where we are. As a child, I found that powerful. As a middle-aged person, I find that powerful.

It implies that each of us has a hand in working towards the betterment of not just our own existence but that we have responsibility for our community, our state, our world and importantly, the lives of future generations. Essentially, our world is unfinished and we can participate in the ongoing creation of what it will be. Tikkun olam implies that we take responsibility for our world. That we are the stewards of our communities. Like our CFAES community. See you there.

Why Are We Here?

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For this post, I went back to the comments I made during my first weeks at OSU. It is my hope, that this might remind you why I came and what this work means to me. I encourage you to consider why you’re here and what this work means to you too.

What do I care about?

My early childhood was overseas as part of a military family until I came to the USA as an early teen and lived with my Mennonite family in rural Iowa. While those environments seem extreme and there was some culture shock in coming from Brazil to Iowa (in February). Both families were defined by a strong belief in the importance of service, and that it is through service that we co-create the world.

A second thing you will discover about me is that I’m curious. I’m a question-asker. I have great comfort with “Beginners Mind,” which is that place you are whenever you start something new. I have great appreciation for diversity or conflicting ideas, and I can separate ideas from who I am. That also translates to a deep value for discovery, research, and education. In Extension, there is a creed which is meaningful to me, especially this line:

“I believe that education is basic in stimulating individual initiative, self ­determination, and leadership; that these are the keys to democracy and that people when given facts they understand, will act not only in their self ­interest, but also in the interest of society.”

No matter what topic of human interest, our work likely connects. We are one degree from nearly everything: food, ecosystems, trade, health, manufacturing, foreign policy, and I would argue even the arts. There can be no chance of nearly anything else if we don’t have food. We don’t have food without viable and productive agriculture. And we don’t have productive agriculture if we don’t sustainably manage our resources and preserve biodiversity. I simply can’t think of anything more important than that.

Why am I here?

I’d answer that with questions like why are we here? What can we uniquely contribute? I believe we have the capacity to have profound impact on the world. I believe we can be a place where people can be rewarded and valued for investing themselves in work that is meaningful. I believe there is no better place for a curious question-asker, committed to creating conditions for a better world. See you there.