Saturday

con-nect

Post by Peg Faimon

Image via Wikipedia

You know how things always seem to come in waves. I’ve had several experiences lately that have caused me to pause and think about connections and relationships, both professionally and personally. I’ve been pondering why we organize our culture and systems the way we do, and on the various choices that we make and how we make them.

Working as an educator and administrator is all about relationships and structures. In the educational system we organize ourselves in various ways, sometimes making conscious choices regarding how and when we relate and connect with our colleagues and students. Other times we let others make the decisions for us.

My recent experiences have made me appreciate all the more the two “structures” I most commonly find myself in these days – AIMS and the Miami Design Collaborative. It’s difficult to define AIMS and MDC using our traditional academic language – they aren’t really programs, departments, divisions. Words like “network” or “meeting-place” are better descriptions. These are places were colleagues and students come together by choice, not because of a pre-determined, historically-driven structure.

The majority of my colleagues in AIMS and MDC don’t “belong” because of their contract or title. I’ve been thinking a lot about why this amazing group of people make the choice to add more work to their plates by joining this “merry band of musicians” in an attempt to collaboratively create something special and unique, while still having the responsibilities of their normal departmental lives. They are drawn together by various common characteristics that have little to do with their traditional disciplinary specialty:

They are intensely curious about how others view the world and how people of various disciplines seek to solve the problems of that world.

They are passionate about their work and that passion is infectious to those around them.

They are both right and left brained. One side might be dominant, but the other shows itself on a regular basis, or at the least, there is a great appreciation and understanding of people “from the other side.”

They have an innate understanding of the connectedness of the world and delight in its complexity.

They are natural collaborators and understand that complex problems can’t be solved from one perspective.

They see as much benefit and importance in multi-disciplinarity, as disciplinarity.

They care about solving wicked problems and in making a big impact for their students and society.

As co-director of AIMS, and director of the MDC, it’s an incredible privilege to lead people with these characteristics. (Really, it’s less about leading and more about helping them do their work.) It’s even better to co-direct with someone who has these characteristics, times two.