World-renowned author addresses HCC faculty and staff at first unified Convocation
Aug 24, 2015
The symbiotic relationship between innovation and diversity took center stage during the first annual system-wide Convocation for Houston Community College (HCC). The purpose was to inspire HCC faculty and staff about the new academic year and the ongoing transformation of the institution. The keynote speaker was Frans Johansson, a globally recognized author, entrepreneur, and leader in organizational innovation.
“Education to me means preparing students for the world. The world is becoming one that is incredibly diverse and evolving at a speed unknown,” said Johansson, who based his first ever presentation at a community college, on his bestselling book, The Medici Effect.
Johansson delivered a message about the need for innovation and change as he shared his views on the value of a culture of sharing ideas and responsibilities. His research shows how holding on to our existing network of doing things can be an inadvertent barrier to innovation, to doing things in a new and better way.
“More and more people have to feel empowered to create new ideas and execute them,” said Johansson. “Those ideas should be built through connections between different departments and styles within that institution.”
“This is exactly what we’ve been talking about since we kicked off transformation. It’s a design-thinking perspective,” said Dr. Cesar Maldonado, HCC chancellor. “The message from Johansson is spot on with what we are doing in our transformation process.”
“The main goal,” Chancellor Maldonado told faculty and staff, “is to make the student experience second to none from the time a student starts at HCC to the day of graduation. It involves transparency and exchanging ideas across the district.”
“I think the more we get individual people out of their silos, the more we have people moving and operating together,” said Dr. Butch Herod, vice chancellor, Innovation, Planning and Institutional Analytics. “Get people out of their silos, get them together and innovation will emerge.”
“We are in one of the most diverse cities in our country and the student population of HCC is one of the most diverse of all the colleges in the nation,” said Robert Glaser, vice chair, HCC Board of Trustees. “So I think we have the ingredients and we’re moving in the right direction.”
To learn more about the HCC vision for Transformation, visit hccs.edu/transformations.