Building a Culture of Innovation: Breaking Down Silos

Authors

Dina Pacis, National UniversityFollow
Patricia Traynor-Nilsen, National UniversityFollow
Joesph Marron, National UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

Winter 2-12-2020

Document Type

Article

Citation

Pacis, D.; Traynor-Nilsen, P.; Marron, J. (2020). Building a culture of innovation: breaking down silos. Journal of Women in Educational Leadership, 2020

doi: 10.32873/unl.dc.jwel.193

Comments

Copyright © 2020 Dina Pacis, Patricia Traynor-Nilsen, & Joseph Marron

Abstract

Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) are divided into colleges and within colleges are departments. Most departments work with their faculty members and have little interaction with others outside their specialty area. This paper outlines the process taken in year one of a two-year journey that one large IHE department which consisted of five stand-alone programs: Educational Administration, School Psychology, School Counseling, Higher Education Administration, and Applied Behavior Analysis took to work toward building a culture of innovation, collaboration, mission, visioning, and scholarship which brought all faculty members together. The department had been working in silos, with no common mission or vision. As part of the process, a leadership team developed a plan to engage twenty-two faculty members across multiple disciplines to enhance student achievement. This paper is a description of the process.