Whole Systems Thinking in the Context of a University

We daily observe across the University of the West campus an inescapable mutuality of our roles and functions. Our most creative work is frequently accomplished in collaboration with others at the borders of our different units. How might the university effectively build bridges to new and current initiatives, leveraging this mutuality to enhance a synergy of positive, sustainable growth?

To ensure quality programming, a healthy workplace environment, financial viability, and recognizable educational brand, UWest must address all decisions at all levels of operation from a whole-systems perspective, rather than from an exclusive focus on isolated parts. A systems orientation to organizational development eschews acting ultimately as if programs are “stand-alones,” isolated from the whole by one-off procedures or implementation strategies. We should be weary of office-based or program-related “languages” and mini-cultures that foster intellectual silos, undermining team-orientated work.

A whole systems approach reinforces our intuitive insight that no discrete function can be understood isolated from the complex whole of which it is an integral part. “Silo-ed thinking” is atomistic, reducing things to its smallest component and favoring reductionism. As such, one may miss the forest for the trees. Systems thinking is, by contrast, contextual thinking that uses the logic of “both/and” and honors the long-range view, while favoring collaboration. Working in silos favors “nothing but” thinking, as in, “I am responsible for nothing but what’s in my job description and program.” Whole systems thinkers understand that, without discernment of the complete context, organizational meaning is truncated and partial. As a result, our knowledge of any single part is misleading, compromising the whole. This is as true for an organization that is a university as it is for a proprietary corporate business.

UWest’s holistic educational commitment by definition requires a systems orientation toward daily operations that addresses two important elements: structure and process. Our planning and implementation must have sufficient structure, so that we are not reinventing processes when a new opportunity emerges, thus dissipating resources, human and financial. At the same time, our systems must be flexible enough to enable us to respond nimbly and creatively to student and faculty needs, as well as to the interests of our community partners and university trustees. How might we achieve organizational deftness to make smart values-based decisions quickly?

When too many players are involved, it’s often difficult to quickly pivot in new directions or implement new measures. A strategy to overcome these issues is to convene “skunkworks” projects. These are experimental teams of faculty and staff serving to provide the campus an entrepreneurial function and granted a freedom from conventional university procedures that can constrain customizing ideas and seizing opportunities on and off campus. Skunkworks operations can inspire and define feasible initiatives for investment. The initial campus learning community initiative referred to as “Self & Society” sprung from exactly this source. A small group of faculty and staff gathered under the auspices of the Office of Academic Affairs, armed with a “let’s make-it-happen” philosophy.

That learning community of first-time college students stood firmly upon the existing general education structures and processes of student support, featuring academic advisors, course coaches, community service learning, dialog and meditation groups, interdisciplinary courses, diversity activities, field projects, invited guest speakers, and a developmental math sequence highlighting quantitative reasoning. The learning community linked academic and student affairs with the offices of the registrar, wellness, student success, enrollment, marketing, and financial aid. The President and his Executive Team monitored developments and provided support.

Our learning community is now expanding into an innovative Undergraduate Curriculum Transformation initiative, launched by President Stephen Morgan, supported by the Trustees, and currently in the design phase. The first two courses of “Life and Culture” are scheduled for a fall 2018 launch. An interdisciplinary faculty team of boundary-crossers, who are insightful collaborators and designers of articulated pathways from classrooms to the campus to the community-at-large, has been for several months diligently at work. They are building toward a campus-wide cooperative accountability for the new undergraduate experience.

At the heart of our new undergraduate curriculum lies the big vision of a coherent and unified program of interdisciplinary learning, linked by a block schedule, common inquiry, socially relevant themes that will alternate over time, high impact learning activities, student-centered pedagogy, community service, and significant faculty/staff collaboration. This is meant as an antidote to the piecemeal-style curriculum extant throughout higher education that lacks clear vision and purpose.

Within the transformed undergraduate curriculum, UWest students and parents will easily perceive a learning arc, moving from the development of individuals capable of independent thought and self-agency to compassionate citizens capable of self-less service for the common good. We believe they will appreciate the focus on the interior and exterior life of individuals and groups. In core courses in the first two years and offerings in degree majors in their final two years, students will inquire into what it means to be and live as a human being in community. Critical thinking, self-reflection, intellectual agility, and pursuit of truth through inquiry, research, group projects, campus employment, and career advisement will develop skills that cross-train the heart and brain, suitable for personal satisfaction and global citizenship. Mutuality will be our watchword and our ethic.

Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD

Chief Academic Officer and Accreditation Liaison Officer

University of the West

Rosemead, CA