Innovation in Higher Education: How Leaders Build the Capacity to Adapt

[Music] Welcome to Changing Higher Ed, a podcast dedicated to helping higher education leaders improve their institutions. With your host Dr. Drum McNaughton, CEO of The Change Leader, a consultancy that helps higher ed leaders holistically transform their institutions. Learn more at ChangingHierEd.com. And now here's your host, Drum McNaughton. Thank you, David. My guest today is Erica Leadees, Executive Director of the Alliance for Innovation and Transformation. AfeD is a National Nonprofit Association and empowers higher education leaders to transform their organizations. AfeD connects college presidents with leaders from sectors beyond higher ed to create strategic collaborations, introduce new models, and pursue emerging best practices. Erica has a very non-traditional higher ed background. And this plus her hands-on work with dozens of presidents and chancellors provides her with a deep and timely perspective on how colleges are evolving and how their presidents are successfully driving these changes. She joins me today to talk about innovation the AfeD way and what colleges and universities can do to build their innovation muscle. Erica, welcome to the program. Hi, Drum. Thanks so much for having me. It's my pleasure. I'm looking forward to a great conversation about innovation. You are the head of an organization called AfeD, which is the Alliance for Innovation and Transformation. You guys are doing some incredible work around innovation. In fact, you're going to be out in my neck of the woods here shortly to scout out your next conference. Before we get into all that fun stuff, tell the audience just a little bit about who you are. Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I never really expected my path to lead me to higher education. It's really been a journey of chance connections and unexpected opportunities, if you will. So I graduated from Lehigh University back in 2003. And that was very much a post 9/11 job market. And all the recruiters that were coming to college at that time were looking for finance majors. And I happened to be a marketing major. And so I didn't really know what industry I wanted to land in. I just knew that I wanted a job that I felt passionate about. And I was very fortunate. I was recruited by one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world to join their sales force. And through that experience, I learned the art of selling, and that is something that has supported me and been useful throughout my career and in my personal life as well. From there, I joined a tech startup that was focused on creating virtual reality training experiences for pharmaceutical companies. And through that, I actually discovered my love of innovation. From there, I worked at an advertising agency where I got to help some of the world's most famous brands tell their story, which was a great masterclass in the art of effective communication. But through all of those experiences, I still hadn't found that passion that I was looking for as a new graduate. So in 2011, I decided to go out on my own and I started a marketing consultancy, which led me to work with a company called Campus Works. And they are an incredible technology consulting firm serving higher education. And when I joined Campus Works, I learned that they were members of an association called the Continuous Quality Improvement Network, Sequin. And Sequin at that time was looking for marketing support. So I started working in a marketing capacity for Sequin. And over the years, I really just fell in love with the work that Sequin was doing and its members. And in 2018, they moved from focusing on Continuous Quality Improvement Practices to focusing on innovation and transformation. And in 2021, their executive director decided to retire and I threw my hat into the ring for the position and was honored to be chosen for that position. And that's how I landed in the role that I am in today, which is the executive director of AFFIT. And I'm proud to report that I finally found that passion that I was looking for all those years ago as a new graduate entering the working world. That's a neat story. Thank you. I'm really curious. You know, higher ed is so much a different beast. You've got tremendous outside experience. One of the things that we're seeing in higher ed right now is there are more folks with experience from industry coming into higher ed at senior leadership levels, as well as other levels as well. How has your experience outside helped you in understanding higher ed and more importantly, how higher ed needs to innovate? Well, you know, my diverse background was a really great match for the work that we do at AFFIT because at AFFIT, we are focused on bringing in thought leaders from all different industry because we believe that innovation happens at intersections. Right when higher ed learns from other sectors, we see new possibilities for how we can serve students and our communities. If I may give you an example of that last year we partnered with Institute for the Future. They're the world's oldest continuously running futures research and educational organization out of Palo Alto, California. They taught our members how to build a foresight practice so that they can sense change and be prepared for systemic shocks and disruptions and really be ready to adapt to the different change that's coming down the pike. And one of our members, Dr. Lisa Reign, she and her team at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, returned to campus and used that foresight training to build their own foresight practice. And what that led them to do was to spot an opportunity to become the first community college in the country to offer an optimized three year bachelor's degree. And that offering has become a game changer not only for the college but for its students and for employers in the community. And so you can see there just how important it is to look outside of the world we know, to draw inspiration because so much as possible when you look to places that you might not necessarily think of or you might not necessarily be familiar with. It can be a real game changer. When we do strategic planning with institutions, we do a similar process we call it future environmental scanning, which it's looking at trends across multiple areas, technology, innovation, industry, sociodemographics, et cetera. And project out five to ten years what we think the trends are going to be I followed hockey for years or football or whatever and you don't shoot the hockey puck to where the player currently is you shoot it to where the player is going to be. You know, same thing in football if you're throwing a pass, you don't throw it to where the receiver is you throw where the receiver is going to be. Right. To a strategy have to do the same thing because you can't do strategy for where you are right now you've got to do it to where you want to go and what your environment is going to be. Absolutely and that work is becoming harder and harder because you know two things are happening at the same time. One is the pace of change is increasing really this is going to be the slowest change will ever be we're only going to see it increase from here. The other thing that's happening is the convergence of all these different challenges and crises. And so what that means for them is it's no longer enough to simply evolve or to just focus on incremental improvement. They are seeing that really innovation is the way to stay relevant and you know that's great for a fit because that's our focus. Yeah, your focus is innovation and transformation. Tell us a bit about a fit if you would. Absolutely. So as I alluded to earlier, we were founded originally as the continuous quality improvement network. The five-sequen was our acronym back in 1991 and five community college presidents came together at that time and they were reading books. These were community college president leaders. They were reading books by the great business minds of the time like Tom Peters, Peter Drucker and others. And so they could share the things that they were learning and try to employ those concepts at their colleges. And one day they said, you know, why don't we formalize this into an actual learning community. And that was really the birth of sequin. And so for many, many years, sequin focused on teaching its members continuous quality improvement practices focused on achieving organizational excellence. Somewhere around 2018, those sequin members and the board decided that continuous quality improvement simply wasn't enough to rise to the urgent challenges facing higher education. felt that they really needed to focus on and big ideas to address the disruptive challenges facing higher ed. So at that point, they shifted their focus to innovation and transformation. We changed our name to AFFIT, the Alliance for Innovation and Transformation. And today we are a collaborative community of 60 community college and technical college and university presidents and higher education CEOs. And we're leading the radical renewal of higher education. And we do that in large part by learning from thought leaders outside of higher ed to inspire innovation within higher ed and also building a safe community for innovation, experimentation and cross collaborative learning. So you are looking at and bringing in outside experts on particular areas across pollination. That's right. To me, that's worth repeating. Not three times, but just twice. So. Well, I can give you a couple of examples of what that's looked like over the years. Please. When I've talked with some of our members who have been in the membership for a long time, one of the favorite learning partners that we had many years ago was Disney. And I think we're all familiar with Disney, right? And what you may not know about Disney is when you go behind the scenes of the Disney parks, a lot of thought and care and attention goes into carefully curating the guest experience. So as you move through the park, it's very much designed for visitors to feel and do certain things as they move through the park. And so our members were able to draw inspiration from that model to think about how they can carefully curate their student experiences on campus. One of our members, Dr. Terry Murle from Western Iowa Technical Community College, he identified a really cool opportunity back on his campus after going through this Disney experience. He identified that there was a gap in access to laptops among his students. And so he and his team decided to develop a program where they could offer free laptops to all students. There by leveling the playing field and ensuring equitable access to technology to support their success. So that's just one of the many rich examples that have come out of our learning design. Yeah. And going to events like what you put on, you're getting folks to think, I hate this term, but I'm going to use it anyway outside the box. Sir, how can some of the innovations, the lessons that industry has done? How can we apply them here? And at first blush, you would think the example you just gave, you know, about the student experience. How would the Disney experience that? But when you focus it on what is your student experience? And, you know, how many times do you have or do institutions have students they walk in for the first time they go through orientation whatever, they're still lost because they don't understand how financial aid and student advising work together or admissions, how all these things work together behind the scenes. So being able to put yourself, you know, the old saying goes, you don't know me until you've walked a mile in my moccasins. It's the same thing until you look at it from the student perspective. Is it really innovation? Yeah, absolutely. And what we are focused on doing is exposing our members to all kinds of innovative models and next practices. So that way they can think about how to translate those concepts to their institutions, whether it's to create a better student experience or to build stronger relationships with the employers in their communities. I'll give you a couple of examples of some really cool stuff that we've done. Last year we took our members on an innovation field trip to DreamScape Learn. Are you familiar with DreamScape Learn? Oh yeah. Okay, perfect. So for those listeners who may not be, that is created in partnership between Arizona State University President Michael Crowe and DreamWorks, the movie company DreamWorks co-founder Walter Parks. And what they've done is they've brought cinematic storytelling to educational pedagogy. And so what we did was we brought our members to DreamScape Learn, put them in VR headsets and allowed them to attend a biology class, one of ASU's biology classes in virtual reality. And our members were so moved by that experience that many of them went back and started looking at how they could implement VR into their curriculum. So that's just one way that they are, again, kind of looking at the different innovation that's happening and thinking about how can we use this to enhance teaching and learning. Of course, so much is happening in the space of AI. One of the things that we've done this year is we've created an AI community of practice where our members can come together once a month and share the tools that they're trying, the experiments that they're running. And we're seeing really cool use cases, everything from institutions that are experimenting with implementing AI into the HR and hiring process to using it for student services, to connect students with tutoring support and other basic needs support. And, you know, folks are even building custom AI platforms to generate faster actionable data. There's all kinds of cool work going on. And so that's part of that cross-pollination of learning that we talked about just a minute ago. We come together as a community to share what's working, what we're trying, and learn together so we can move forward together faster. And when you get the right kind of people in the room, people who want to innovate, people who are open to innovation and new ideas, great things can come. Absolutely. And I mean, with all the different people I've worked with over the years, I just find that educators have a heart of gold. And if you want to take a look at how we can use AI for good, you know, our members are doing that work in space. It's looking for how they can use AI to lift up their students, to make their operations more efficient and effective, all of which is to, of course, serve their missions, in which serves the greater good. Innovation doesn't happen in a silo. It has to happen with cross-pollination, whether it be different industries, different people, whatever. What do you do at AFAID to create that environment of innovation for your president members? Yeah, so we have a couple of ways that we do that. The first is we have monthly CEO networking sessions where we create a safe, candid space for our members to have conversations where they can really lean on each other to navigate the challenges of the day. So having that kind of private CEO-only, pure-to-peer learning space has been really valuable for them as they navigate these different unprecedented challenges that are coming their way. The big thing that we do is at our Summer Institute, we employ a team learning approach. So unlike most conferences where if you go with a team, you're learning in different tracks and you're going in different directions, at our Summer Institute, our member CEOs, hand selected team of people to come with them. They're seated at a team table and for two and a half days, they go on a learning journey together. And we build dedicated team time into that learning experience so those teams can hit pause, digest what they're hearing and learning, and then actually translate those concepts into an action plan that they can take with them back to campus. And in that way, it becomes a really actionable learning experience. And it supports change management and transition management because you've had all the right people at the table participating in these conversations. So when they get back to campus, it's not just one person's big idea. It's something that the team has incubated together and then is ready to take the next step once they get back to campus. That makes so much sense. Years ago when I would do strategic planning workshops, not with just individual colleges, but multiple people, we would suggest bringing three or four people who are intimately involved with the strategic planning process at their campus. And as we'd go through the various stages and steps in the planning process, they would have, you know, we go through an hour's work and then they'd have half an hour of an hour to put that into place or put that plan into place for themselves. And we found that the folks who did this and really applied themselves came out with the foundation work that they needed for an overall strategic plan in really great ways. Yeah, I mean more and more, I'm just becoming such a believer that collaboration, especially innovative collaboration is the key to success moving forward. Change can feel isolating when you're the one leading it, but when leaders see others tackling those same challenges and they have others involved in the process. in tackling those challenges and innovating, it brings a whole new energy and perspective to the table. And that I think is what makes the AFFIT community so special and so powerful is that we create a safe space for innovation and transformation. - You've got to create a shared vision for the change. And there's got to be an urgency for change, but then you've got to be a shared vision around where that change is. And shared vision doesn't mean it's one person's vision. That means everyone, it's their vision and they've bought into it. That's critical in getting these folks together like you're doing. You've got other meetings. You've got a February design conference coming up here in the near future. - We do and that is one, that's actually one of my favorite events of the year. We call it our CEO Forum and reps meeting. And that is a one and a half day conference. We are coming out to Albuquerque to our friends at Central New Mexico Community College in February, 2026 for that event. And what we do at that conference is give our member CEOs and one or two people from their organizations a chance to meet our learning partners and preview the learning design for the year. And what that event does is it allows them to provide feedback on what they're seeing and hearing and learning and participate in a dialogue with us so they become co-creators of the Summer Institute learning experience. I personally have never been to a conference that has asked me to co-create the conference experience. What's really nice about this model is that it ensures that our Summer Institute learning is really tightly aligned with our members' needs. And it gives them an opportunity to preview what they're gonna be doing in Learning at Summer Institute which informs the team members that they select to bring with them. So it all adds to really creating a very rich learning experience at our Summer Institute. - That's fabulous. Now, of course my mind is going to, you limit your membership or you've got the ideal membership at about 60 right now. And it's only exclusively for community colleges and technical college. What about someone who's not an A-FIT member, whether they're community college, whether a four year, whether a comprehensive, what do they do to innovate? Because there's no formal structure set up for that. - That's a great question. I do want to just address one thing which is that we're not only limited to community and technical colleges. Our members can come from any segment of higher education. It just so happens. I think because we were founded by community college presidents, we very much have the community college spirit within our membership. So most of our members are community and technical college presidents. We do have a member who's a chancellor of a four year polytechnic university. We have a couple of CEOs who lead nonprofit organizations in higher ed and we have six CEOs who lead corporations in higher ed. So just to give you a sense of our mix and to clarify. For those who are not members and wondering how they can advance their own innovation practices, I would encourage you to draw inspiration from our model which is to learn from thought leaders and organizations outside of your industry. Over the years, we have looked to world class organizations like Ritz Carlton and Apple and Amazon and Southwest Airlines and Kimberly Clark Healthcare and many, many others to learn about different topics and concepts and then of course thinking about how you can take what those organizations have done really, really well and apply it to the work that you're doing at your institution. One other thing that I would encourage folks to think about is how to make innovation more accessible at your organization. And what I mean by that is thinking about how to pull everybody in to the innovation process. Not restricting innovation as a C-suite only activity. I want to Afe at member that does that really well is Chancellor Catherine Frank and her team at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. What they've done is they've started a program called LEAP and that's leading educational advancement through polytechnic pathways. And what they've done, and this was actually inspired by Afe its 2023 learning partner, Larry Keely, who's an innovation scientist, they drew inspiration from Larry's model and they created a space to make innovation accessible to their entire community. From faculty to staff, everyone at the college and in the community is welcome to bring forward ideas to improve the student experience to further their mission. And many of those ideas end up getting funded and turned into real pilot projects. And the reason I bring that up is because when everyone sees themselves as an innovator, transformation becomes part of the culture and not just the leader's job. And I think that's a great mindset to have as we move forward. - Thank you. You've got a structure that you built around Afe. But most colleges are out there by themselves. What do you recommend for individual colleges and universities? How do you build that structure, that group of people or group of colleges to be able to do this with? Or is that just kind of a fool's errand? - Well, and I would encourage you to think about, even moving beyond just colleges, but think about the other stakeholders in your community. I was just talking with a member yesterday who shares that once a month he meets with other leaders from other organizations in his community. And they all talk about the different innovative experiments that they're running, things that they're trying. And because they've all got different world views because they're in different segments, it's a really rich source of inspiration for him as a college leader. And this person, he's not currently a member. He's interested in membership. But that was an example of somebody how he's built his own creative solution for innovation right in his backyard. - And I see that at multiple colleges, they have advisory boards, but they don't typically use advisory boards in this manner. What you're suggesting is more like a Vistage group where you have different people coming in from different industries, no one's in competition with one another. They're all working to improve their own institution. And they have guest speakers come in. It could be around innovation. It could be around multiple other things. So I think that's a good way of doing it. - That's a fabulous analogy. And drawing inspiration back to 1991 from the five community college presidents that started this. It doesn't even have to be colleges in your own state. It can be colleges in different states. Find those people who have that same kindred spirit of innovation and wanting to change and wanting to create a better future. Find those people and whether they're in your community or in your state or not. And whether it's starting a book club like our founding presidents did or having a Vistage style mastermind call once a month, there are ample ways to foster that level of innovation in a community setting of your own creation. - This has been a fascinating conversation. Before we get to our takeaways question because we always do that, what else can you tell us about how institutions their leaders can innovate? - Sure. So one of the things that I'm really excited about that we are focused on at AFA is our three moon shots. So if you don't mind, I'd like to tell you about that and share the direction that we're heading in for the future. So last year we set out to update our strategic plan and through that process and in conversation with our members, we realized that higher ed and our members don't need another five year plan. What they needed was a shared sense of purpose and something aspirational enough to unite leaders across systems and across states. And so what we did was we drew inspiration from a book called Exponential Organizations 2.0 and we decided to instead of updating our mission and our vision, we decided to adopt a massive transformative purpose supported by three ambitious moon shots. So our massive transformative purpose is that we are a collaborative community of innovators leading the radical renewal of higher education. And our moon shots are the first one is to transform AFA member organizations into technology-driven powerhouses. The second one is to propel AFA member organizations toward financial prosperity. And the third is to cultivate member organizations as incubators of human potential. All three of those focal areas came from the needs of our members. So what we're seeing is that our massive transformative purpose and these moon shots have become fuel for innovation within our community. It goes right back to what you were saying, drum, about the work that you do to help your clients with strategic planning. I think what presidents can think about is how to build innovation into their culture and a lot of that work can start with the strategic plan. Mm-hmm, very true. Well, Erica, this has been fascinating. I want to thank you for your time today as we always do. Three takeaways for university presidents and boards. How can they better develop their innovation muscle? Sure. Okay. So first, I would say, think of innovation as a leadership imperative, not a luxury. We're seeing that it doesn't feel like the pace of change is going to slow down. So I don't think leaders can afford to wait for more stable times to innovate. I think you need to build innovation into your strategy, into your culture, into your daily conversations. And I think that's how institutions are going to stay relevant and resilient. The second thing I would offer is that, you know, culture is really the foundation of transformation. We've seen time and time again, and we've talked about this a little bit in this conversation that changed sticks when people feel trusted, empowered, and connected to purpose. So I would encourage folks to invest in their people, to create psychological safety, toward curiosity, and make space for experimentation. Because what I've seen is that culture is where transformation either takes root or dies. And then the third thing I would encourage is to think big and don't go it alone. Today's challenges are just too complex for any one institution or one person to solve an isolation. So collaborate. Collaborate whether it's across sectors, across institutions. Share what works. pursue your moonshots together. That's how we'll create radical renewal that higher education needs. Great suggestions. Thank you. Great takeaways. What's next for you? Gosh, let's see. Well, personally, I'm personally passionate about telling the stories of courageous innovative leaders who are building a better future. So I recently launched a national storytelling project on LinkedIn called the Road to Innovation, where I'm shining a spotlight on bold ideas and unexpected breakthroughs happening across the country. So if you and your listeners are interested in following along, you can subscribe to my newsletter, the Road to Innovation on LinkedIn. And then of course, for A-FIT, we're focused on advancing those moonshots that I just talked about and continuing to create spaces where leaders can learn, experiment, and grow together. Because as I mentioned before, we believe that innovation and transformation doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in community. Great. Well, Erica, thanks again for being on a program I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I love meeting innovators. They just keep me excited every day, so thank you. Thanks for having me, Drum. I appreciate the conversation. Take care. Thanks again. Thanks for listening today and a special thank you to my guest, Erica Leah Deese, Executive Director for the Alliance for Innovation and Transformation. Erica, thanks so much for being on the show. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I look forward to the next time our paths cross. To my listeners, thanks again for tuning in. See you next week. Changing Higher Ed is a production of The Change Later, a consultancy committed to transforming Higher Ed institutions. Find more information about this topic along with show notes on this episode at changing higher ed dot com. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show. We would also value your honest rating and review. Email any questions, comments or recommendations for topics or guests to podcast at changing higher ed dot com. Changing Higher Ed is produced and hosted by Dr. Drummick Norton, Post Production by David L. White.