Being Smarter Together

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

 

Why Are We Here?

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.

Welcome to See You There

Welcome to See You There, a blog to share ideas and reflections.

I chose the title because it references a place. I think of it as an aspirational place where meaningful work done well can take us. In my experience, that takes intention to stay on track. It’s easy to get sidetracked by distractions disguised as opportunity, or urgent issues which demand immediate attention and then waylay us. To stay focused takes stopping every now and then and checking. My hope is this blog can help with that by periodically encouraging a pause to consider where we are, what we are doing, how we are doing it, and most importantly, why.

These posts are intended to spark conversation on issues affecting our community. How do they apply to your unit, department, county, region, or program area? How are you addressing the issues? Let’s make this blog a gathering space for a meaningful exchange of ideas. One note, this is not the place to vent frustrations, please just email me directly if you have concerns.

I’m going to try to post weekly. Some weeks, I’ll write a new entry. Some weeks, I’ll curate an entry from my past blogs, and some weeks, there may be a guest blogger. Please join the discussion or bring it up with your colleagues. Pausing to reflect on what we do, and why we do it can help all of us be just that bit better. See you there.

— Cathann