Opening Avenues of Innovation Through Partnership
In this era of influencers, life coaches, wunderkinds, and tech gurus who constantly introduce new ideas that profoundly change the way we work, play, and interact with one another, it’s easy to feel like the next big idea is right around the corner. We might even hope that, with a little luck, we’ll stumble upon our own visionary concept.
However, effective leaders know that shifting the status quo requires more than just hope or luck. True change is born of the ability to see things differently. This can be challenging in the rapidly changing and ultra-competitive world of today’s colleges and universities.
To make profound changes that differentiate your campus, support positive student outcomes, and strengthen the long-term resilience of your institution, you must be willing to step outside of your comfort zone. Transformative innovation requires opening yourself up to new ideas and no longer limiting yourself to previously accepted boundaries. Only then will change happen.
Higher education is full of game-changing shifts and ideas that college presidents must plan for and address. This year’s President to President thought leadership series, titled “Game Changers in Higher Education,” explores the perspectives of college and university presidents who share their visions for the future and their strategies for prioritizing the game-changing innovations that will ensure the ongoing success of their students and colleges.
From Partnering to Pioneering
In the first chapter, “The Power of Yes: The Surprising Benefits of Collaboration,” Adrian College President Jeffrey R. Docking, Ph.D., explores the important role of creative exchange as a source of innovation and how powerful it can be not just for individual universities, but for the future of higher education. Dr. Docking provides specific examples of how his teams looked beyond their campus to spark creativity, encourage innovation, and ultimately improve the academic experience in a mutually beneficial way. His insights convey a valuable lesson about the benefits of being open and allowing new opportunities to unfold, leading to the creation of a community that energizes and empowers students and faculty. As a proud partner of Adrian College, we experience first-hand the culture of innovation that Dr. Docking encourages on campus.
Opening Avenues of Opportunity Through Partnerships
Modern higher education leaders must lead within an ever-changing kaleidoscope of priorities, expectations, and values that requires creative thinking and a wide range of expertise that would be impossible to address—much less take to the next level—without being open to new sources of ideas and assistance.
In short, innovation does not and cannot exist in a vacuum. It requires new energy and the ability to explore opportunities that you may not have expected or considered. That’s where developing partnerships is critical. However, for partnerships to be successful, it is essential to create opportunities where you can listen and learn—whether it’s from other campuses that are facing the same challenges, your faculty and staff, or the students themselves.
Campus as an Innovation Incubator
Fostering collaboration has always been instrumental to my own success as a leader. At Sodexo, mutually beneficial partnerships that encourage new ideas are the foundation of everything we do, and they’re the key to delivering unique initiatives that differentiate our partner campuses.
Because we know that innovation is never one-size-fits-all, we tailor our efforts to each individual campus, always building on our commitment to collaboration. We give our creative culinary professionals the freedom to bring local chefs and culinary stars to campus. We prioritize partnerships with community farms and local vendors to source fresh food that students can feel good about. We encourage our teams to harness the power of mutually beneficial collaborations between our subsidiaries and an extensive network of trusted service partners to implement unique concepts that elevate the dining experience.
In short, we enable each campus to differentiate itself by curating customized partnerships, programs, offerings, and initiatives that contribute to long-term success.
As Dr. Docking points out, opening your mind to a varied source of creative input and collective feedback allows you to explore options that would have otherwise been unknown in your quest to create future-focused solutions. Collaboration makes it easier to implement game-changing initiatives that build trust between organizations, communities, and the people they serve. And at no other time in higher education has that been more important.