Roudebush Hall
Roudebush Hall, home of Miami's administrative offices

Annual Address 2015

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David C. Hodge
September 9, 2015

Collaboration, Persistence…and Initiative

I would like to briefly touch on three additional qualities that contribute to individual creativity and innovation: collaboration, persistence, and initiative. It stands to reason that if an individual can use a broad knowledge to make novel connections, a group of like-motivated individuals from different backgrounds could do even better. This is why Steve Jobs designed the facilities at Pixar to ensure individuals converged on common spaces, knowing that connections among individuals can lead to new ideas. Groups can also benefit from their combined energy and passion that stimulates thinking and drive as well as a sense of empathy that adds emotional depth to the experience. 

At Miami we stress collaborative learning across the curriculum. However, I believe we could do much more to prepare students to participate more productively in a group. A good starting point is to provide students with guidelines for effectively working in a group as those developed by Christina Carrubba-Whetstine, Director of the Rinella Learning Center. Learning to work collaboratively and effectively can have a huge impact on the ability to be more creative and innovative.

There is a common misperception that creativity and innovation usually occur as a flash of insight that reveals itself. While flashes of insight are certainly part of the creative process, the reality is that most creative and innovative ideas owe a lot to plain old hard work. They come as we push through lots of dead-ends and failures, they require a high level of commitment, and above all they require us to be doggedly persistent. As Thomas Edison famously remarked, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” The challenge, then, is to build on that strong work-ethic that is part of the Miami culture by helping our students to understand this process and design learning experiences that are not simply linear. While it may be frustrating for students to experience this type of learning, it is essential to realizing the path of creativity.

Finally, let me add a quick note about initiative. This is a habit of mind that derives from an active approach to learning in which the student has a sense of agency, that is he or she is the driver of learning – and discovery, creation, or invention. It is about a student seeing and seizing opportunity. It requires a good dose of confidence along with curiosity and once again, a willingness to try without the fear of failing. It is in many ways the ultimate expression of intrinsic motivation. Our challenge is to encourage that mindset through the way we structure the general approaches and specific activities in our courses. 

These last points underscore an important observation about creating a culture that actively supports creativity and innovation, namely the need to look at these foundational qualities as a set of interacting qualities that generate significant synergies. Indeed, that is what creating any culture is all about.

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