This course was nothing like I imagined it to be. More so than any course I’ve ever taken, I was challenged to think differently. To see room for innovations and improvement in the everyday products and services I come in contact with. Below I have listed my biggest course takeaways:
- Sustainability encompasses the four dimensions of environment, people, economy and culture. Walking into this course, I had a very basic concept of sustainability and thought of it solely in terms of the environment. I never thought about how sustainability can be thought of in terms of diversity, how it can also impact the individual, or how it can develops the economy. The issue of sustainability has more breath and depth than I could even imagine, and while that may be a daunting thought, it is also comforting to know that there are so many brilliant minds working to counter or solve sustainability issues.
- The power of listening. If I learned to value anything in this class, it was definitely feedback. I think as humans, it is natural to be defensive when receiving feedback on something you’ve worked very hard to develop. The very first time my group presented to the class, we made the mistake of trying to pitch our product without taking the time to appreciate the questions and feedback we were receiving. Even if we didn’t have an answer to a question, we would make up an answer rather than appreciate that hey, the fact that we don’t have an answer may be an indicator that this is something we should look into. New perspectives are the breeding ground for growth and development. I have come to value, welcome and even initiate feedback from others because I now understand that I am operating between the limitations and boundaries of my mind. As much as I can explore my thoughts, I can only see the colors I paint in. If that is red, blue and orange, then there may be greens and yellows and purples out there I may never have been able to experience without someone helping paint those colors for me. Honest feedback, feedback that is designed to help individuals grow, is one of the greatest ways to critically reflect.
- Power lies in the process, not the product. At first, I didn’t understand why we had to go through so many tedious activities and steps rather than just jumping to the big picture. I remember even lamenting when we had to go through the “How might we” process again, because I thought that we had already achieved the perfect HMW statement. But as soon as we started the process, I realized that there were so many aspects of sustainability (culture, people, economy) that we hadn’t taken into account in our first HMW statement. Without these steps, I think I would have missed out on so many opportunities for our ideas to diverge and develop and grow. Time and time again, my big picture thinking was challenged as my group took the time to explore and learn from each step in the process. I now have a newfound appreciation for the process of innovation, and as tedious as it may have seemed in the moment, I am so grateful that that was the basis of our final project because it taught me to appreciate the thought development behind each step.
- Optimism. The very first day in class, when you asked whether this world was changing for the better, the worse, or the same I said the worse. In my mind, the world was rife with too many politicians who had colluded to benefit themselves. I’ll be honest, I was very skeptical when you said the world was changing for the better. But then I read the article assigned. And I kept being shown truly astounding innovations that were happening right now all over the world. And I kept being pleasantly surprised by every single one of my classmates. And I began to realize I, too, had slowly become optimistic about the world’s future over the course of the semester. I do think perspective is about the people and information one chooses to surround themselves with. And I now choose to surround myself with people who challenge and inspire me and stories that give me hope and optimism.
- People are pretty (forking) amazing. As much as I learned from the course and lecture, I learned equally as much from my teammates and fellow classmates. And they never ceased to stop inspiring me. People are SO brilliant, but I don’t always get to see that in my day to day interactions. In a classroom setting like this, I think I was in an environment that fostered creativity and depth, and I got to see that everyday. Even in classroom discussions, everyone offered such insightful perspectives. And my teammates, wow, they continuously pushed me to persevere and challenged my realm of thinking. When I was exhausted from a three-hour meeting, reading the paper for the 5th time, they never ever wavered in their determination and effort, and that inspired me to do so likewise. In every step of the innovation process, our ideas conglomerated into one messy, amazing picture that I never would have imagined on my own. They made up so much of my classroom experience and I learned so much from my peers.
As a second semester senior, I’m glad that this was a class I had an opportunity to take before I graduate. To sum up this experience in one word, I was chinspired (challenged and inspired). To close my last reflection blog, I hope to leave you with a piece of music that inspires me and hopefully inspires you as well: