An Imperative for Leadership and Institutional Transformation: Going Back to Code

In this chapter, Charlton, Senior Vice Provost for Student Success & Academic Affairs and Dean of University College at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, develops the extended metaphor of computer coding as a way to understand how academic institutions work. She explores leadership experiences in which unstated “codes” shaped institutional behavior, as well as her own attempts to “go back to code” and rewrite the rules of the institution. To that end, she provides helpful bits of “code” for leaders, including “co-design the work, even when you think you know best,” “learn to be adaptive,” and “learn how to translate.”