AGU ws INNOVATION ABSTRACTS xo-s"
2 GES 9) 1 Published by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development

CS With support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation

 

 

 

ON THE VALUE OF REINVENTING THE WHEEL

When I first joined the League for Innovation in 1975, one of my first tasks was to become acquainted with
the member colleges. During that first year, I visited thirty-five campuses, spending one or two days on each,
meeting staff members, touring facilities, and holding sessions with those interested in the League. After my
visit to four or five campuses, | began assuming a role as a carrier and catalyst for innovative ideas. I realized
that | was stocking up on the cutting edge notions from each of the campuses I visited, and I thought I could be
of great service to other campuses by sharing those ideas and helping to develop networks among staff members
who were dealing with similar topics and issues.

During my visits to the next five or ten colleges, I attempted to share ideas I had discovered on other
campuses and encourage communication among interested parties. When reviewing a new idea on one campus,
I was often quick to respond, "You will be pleased to know that staff members at x-community college are also
developing a similar program, and they are trying some approaches in which I know you will be interested."
The response to my enthusiasm for connecting ideas was more often than not met with passivity, and in some
few cases, scorn. When | examined what was happening, I came to realize that the great educational truism,
"We do not believe in reinventing the wheel," was not universally ascribed to by my colleagues.

In higher education generally, and in community colleges particularly, great allegiance is paid to the concept
of not reinventing the wheel. It is one of the more basic truisms associated with the culture of education. |
have never heard anyone in our field openly disagree with the basic concept. And yet, in my experience, I find
many people disagreeing with the basic concept in their actual behavior.

There is probably something innately human about wanting to make one’s own wheel. "This is my wheel; it
is unlike any other wheel in the universe; | am proud of my wheel." The dynamics of this sentiment are
powerful indeed and probably underscore the oft-repeated behavior of reinventing the wheel on our campuses.

There apparently are values associated with the process of reinventing the wheel, some of which are expressed
as follows:

1. I take ownership of the wheels I reinvent. Adapting someone else’s wheel to my situation may cost less in
time, energy, and funds, and the final product may be better designed; but it is still someone else’s wheel.
The wheel | have shaped for my college, for my classroom, is my wheel; and | own it. It reflects my own
idiosyneracies, my own needs, my own style. It also reflects my special understanding of the way my
college works and of what my own students need. It is a tailor-made wheel tor the special circumstances
in which | live and work. And because I care enough to fashion this wheel for my environment, there is a
chance that it is a better wheel than any | can adapt. In any case, it is my wheel and therefore an
extension of me, a part of me that I give to my college, to my students. The kind of commitment I have to
my own wheel probably adds a great deal to making me a better staff member, making me a better teacher.

2. The process of retnventing the wheel is a process that makes me feel creative and good about myself. 1 know that
other wheels exist. I know there are packages of software for the courses | teach and the programs |
manage. I know that other community college practitioners have designed documents, approaches, and
methodologies that would probably work fairly well for my campus or for my students.

But I do not want to see myself simply as an adaptor of other people’s materials. I am a creative and
innovative teacher and administrator, and I want to mess around with my own stuff. I want to challenge
my own intelligence; I want to explore my own creativity; | want to design innovations that come out of
me. My ideas are just as good as anyone else’s; and if I don’t have a chance to exercise them, I will be
reduced to a copycat.

 

 

rt A Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712