After lecturing on the subject of 鈥渞apid prototyping,鈥 Spencer Harrison (Management and Organization Department) calls his nearly 70 first-year students into groups to do some complex problem solving. The class, co-taught by Harrison and Theatre Department Chair Crystal Tiala, is bracingly titled 鈥淐an Creativity Save the World?鈥 Inside the first-floor Stokes Hall lecture room, several students in one group are trying to help solve the problem of storm water runoff. They鈥檝e hatched an idea for a brick fountain that would serve the purpose of rain barrels without the unsightliness that can repel homeowners.
Listening in on that group, Harrison asks, 鈥淲ho are the people you should be talking to?鈥 Professor and students talk about fountain designers, plumbing suppliers, and various others who try to control storm water runoff (which can, among other challenges, wash pollutants off lawns and carry them into sources of drinking water). 鈥淵ou could get insights from them to make your innovation better,鈥 Harrison explains.
Welcome to this experiment in interdisciplinary learning鈥攑art of a broader three-year experiment aimed at聽reshaping Boston College鈥檚 core curriculum. The University began piloting new core courses in the fall of 2015, and the class taught by Tiala and Harrison, subtitled 鈥淎 Process for Solving Complex Problems,鈥 is the first one offered in part by the Carroll School of Management.
RENEWING THE CORE
Formal discussion of the 鈥渃ore renewal,鈥 as it is called, began in the fall of 2012. At the time, now University Provost David Quigley (then dean of Arts and Sciences), Carroll School of Management Dean Andy Boynton, and Institute for the Liberal Arts Director Mary Crane spearheaded a yearlong series of campus discussions on the future of the core at Boston College. They did so, uncommonly,聽, headquartered in Boston鈥檚 Seaport District.
The company is best known for developing consumer products (most famously, the Swiffer mop and the Reebok Pump athletic shoe), but its teams spend much of their time helping institutions to choreograph the conversations and shape the processes that will lead to innovation. From such discussions at Boston College came the dual framework of interdisciplinary, collaboratively taught courses offered under the headings of 鈥淐omplex Problems鈥 and 鈥淓nduring Questions.鈥
During this academic year, 鈥淐an Creativity Save the World?鈥 is one of five six-credit courses聽addressing Complex Problems.聽Each of these is team-taught by professors from different disciplines, and includes the three-times-a-week lectures, small-group lab sessions for project work, and weekly one-hour evening sessions that promote reflection and further learning. Among other Complex Problems courses are 鈥淪ocial Problems on the Silver Screen鈥 (History and Fine Arts) and 鈥淎 Perfect Moral Storm: The Science and Ethics of Climate Change鈥 (Philosophy and Earth and Environmental Sciences).
There are also 11 pairs of linked courses聽dedicated to Enduring Questions. These are smaller, seminar-style classes in which faculty members teach separate courses with overlying topics to a shared group of students. One example of this pairing in the spring will be 鈥淲hat is the Good Life?: Tolstoy to Chekhov鈥 (Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures) and 鈥淕od and the Good Life鈥 (Theology)
SCRIPTING, STORYBOARDING, AND PROTOTYPING
This past semester, the creativity class included a mix of management and arts and sciences students along with a handful from the nursing and education schools. The class has introduced to brand-new college students a range of topics that crisscross boundaries between management and the fine arts. These include scripting, which is useful not only if you鈥檙e launching a film project but also for presentations to clients; and storyboarding, which involves graphic illustrations used not only to sequence events in a dramatic production but also for developing products and services.
Referring to overlaps between management and theater, Harrison points out that creativity requires drawing from a diverse array of sources and insights. 鈥淪o it doesn鈥檛 feel odd to pull ideas from different bodies of knowledge,鈥 he says. From her fine arts perspective, Tiala agrees, noting that when she hears about innovative business practices, 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 feel foreign to me at all.鈥
The two professors take turns lecturing, and on October 26, it was Harrison鈥檚 role to explain the art of prototyping. He did so in part by showing a video produced by Google that highlights the virtue of 鈥減utting your ideas in front of people as soon as possible,鈥 in tangible form. That鈥檚 鈥渞apid prototyping,鈥 and at least initially it鈥檚 best done in a low-tech way, with paper and pen or pencil, according to the Google video. (Yes, when it comes to quickly generating ideas, Google design teams often prefer paper over digital prototypes.)
Afterward, Harrison told the students that prototyping 鈥渃reates momentum to get you going.鈥 He added, 鈥淧rototypes are boundary objects. They make it possible for people to have a dialogue about the same thing rather than talking past each other.鈥
On the evening of November 1, a dozen student teams delivered five-minute presentations on a social enterprise they were each creating, in front of the class and a panel of three 鈥渏udges鈥 or outside experts. Part of the purpose of the course is to explore links not only between management and the arts but also between those disciplines and social consciousness.
HAIRCUTS FOR THE HOMELESS AND SMOOTHIE TRUCKS
One group of students unveiled an idea for a service that would match beauticians in training with homeless people who could use help with grooming so they could go on job interviews and otherwise make a good appearance. The name given to the enterprise was 鈥淗ead Start,鈥 and the team came armed with PowerPoints and statistics including that there鈥檚 one beautician for every 19 homeless people in Boston and that beauticians need to log 65 hours of practice time before they鈥檙e licensed.
Referring to the possible impact on Boston鈥檚 homeless, one young woman pointed out: 鈥淚t brings back a sense of humanity and empowerment.鈥 She said a few area shelters including Boston鈥檚 Pine Street Inn had already expressed interest in the idea.
Another group limned an idea for smoothie trucks that would sell highly nutritious versions of the thick beverage at a healthy profit in Boston鈥檚 affluent North End鈥攁nd offer them for free in low-income areas such as Mattapan and Roxbury. 鈥淪moothies are easy to digest,鈥 said a young man, pointing out that the poor and homeless are far more likely than others to suffer from digestion problems due to unhealthy diets.
The three judges鈥攁 CEO of a tech company, another CEO of a design firm, and a Carroll School doctoral student focusing on creativity鈥攕at in the front row. They pressed the students on such matters as financing and sustainability.聽For example, in response to a team that proposed solar-powered plastic screens aimed at helping to promote literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa, one panelist asked, 鈥淲ould people sell or barter them away?鈥 Students, citing a hunger for education among impoverished Africans, voiced confidence that recipients would find it more valuable to keep rather than sell the devices.
STRESSFUL鈥擜ND SUCCESSFUL
This assignment was just one of four major projects undertaken by the freshmen, starting with a public service announcement, or PSA, created and acted out by each team.
Several students interviewed used the word 鈥渟tressful鈥 to describe how the creative process, especially at high speed, felt at first. But Madison Choo, a management student from Dayton, Ohio, said it became 鈥渁 tad easier鈥 as she and her team realized that they didn鈥檛 need to get everything 鈥渞ight鈥 from the start. One idea behind the class is that the best creative approaches involve stepping back and exploring problems (rapidly) before attempting to solve them.
鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting, intense, stressful. How do you solve a world problem in 30 minutes? It鈥檚 kind of crazy,鈥 Carroll School student David Keene, a Floridian, said with a chuckle. 鈥淏ut the process is drilled into my head at this point. And it works.鈥
William Bole is senior writer and editor at the Carroll School.
Photography by Gary Gilbert.