Invent a New Route: Possibilities are Limitless with Dr. Jeffrey Darville
Dr. Russell Strickland 20:25
And it’s really good to do that. Because, you know, a lot of a lot of programs, it really seems like a sink or swim, swimming test. And, and no one, you know, comes out of the womb, knowing how to write a dissertation, people say no one comes out of the womb, knowing how to walk. But that’s sort of in a way, I think that if, if you kept people away from other people, most people would probably learn how to walk not to, without a significant delay, maybe they will learn how to walk it, you know, 2, 3, 4 years old instead of one or two years old. But I bet you they pick up how to walk fairly soon, without other people around to show them. They would never pick up how to write a dissertation without somebody else to show them.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 21:05
It’s a foreign language to foreigners.
Dr. Russell Strickland 21:07
And he simply said the arbitrary, it was a made-up thing. Learning how to do it is obviously a learned skill entirely not innate. But to have a program that sort of helps you in that scaffold, and like you said, it’s really, it’s a great thing. And that cohort structure is also really good. And that’s something I always advise folks, whether you come to get my help, or you want to get it from somewhere else, have a network around you, if it’s a cohort, where people are going through at the same time, awesome. If it’s other folks who’ve been through before, you can call on from time to time to help you out to just keep you going, psychologically, to actually answer some questions so that you can keep going operationally, whatever it is. We I sincerely don’t know of anyone who sat down to write the dedication page at the end of their dissertation. And when they were finishing up, and like drew a blank, like, I don’t know who to pick for this. Everyone had to rely on someone somewhere.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 22:01
Right. Yeah, I think, you know, you mentioned how we don’t typically meet other PhDs and I think go into my master’s degree and talking with some of my professors that are like Dr. Jim Ditmar, and John Stalwart. And then Bruce Bickle I met, and these other men that and women that were teaching, Dr. Steve Cat, and Patricia Carr, and well, then I was working with Mark de Santos, who’s an entrepreneur in Pittsburgh, and I had a PhD. So, these are some people that I talked with and started advising me along the way. And I think that with the master’s degree, I also did that personality assessment, I did some career assessment with a consultant, an HR consultant, that was really helpful. And those affirmed in me those things that I was pursuing in the PhD. That’s part of the reason why I think, like I said, I was leaving something on the table, if I didn’t pursue it, that there was, I could do it, and I had.
Dr. Russell Strickland 23:03
Tell me a little bit more about that. Where did you get to that point of thinking that this is something that you want to do? I know, we’ve been talking about the Ph. D. process for a while, but let’s circle back just a little bit. And what was that decision point for you? What, what made you take that plunge?
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 23:19
It is if I think that the again, I graduated in 2000. In 2001, 911 hits and 2000, there was an internet bubble. So early on in my career, and I. Dan Pink wrote a book called When, where he discussed kind of the timing of major economic events 2008-2009, the financial crisis. If my first decade of career included some major financial and economic earthquake, tremors and events that shook me and other people, I started seeing, okay, by 2010, I’m going to have—I’ll be better off pursuing a PhD and creating that unconventional life around my own ability to teach and do other things related to that, academic credentials, the qualifications and terminal degree that I needed as if I was going to invest in something rather than investing in businesses. I decided to start investing in myself rather investing in a career, which rides I had hit some roadblocks. I wasn’t gonna, you know, and I decided I didn’t really want to be CEO that wasn’t in the cards, wasn’t something I was really interested in even personality wise. I’m more of an architect and a navigator than a, a, you know, somebody who…
Dr. Russell Strickland 24:32
Sets the vision.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 24:34
Yeah, the power of management administration, those that’s something I can think about in terms of leadership is influence rather than power and authority. So, I was more oriented towards the influence side of things. And that meant the academic side was more helpful as an advisor. I could be a trusted advisor for people.
Dr. Russell Strickland 24:50
Yeah, yeah. So um, so that was the art that you were going to pursue, tell us after you graduated? After you got through the process, what sort of opportunities did that that start to bring to you? I know that you mentioned you did some traveling, which is always fun.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 25:08
Yeah, I mean, so it’s kind of interesting, because I think early in my life again, that’s those first 10 years of my career, I had this dream, in my mind of being able to travel more in between job and life and career and family, it just didn’t happen. And part of it was, I didn’t just want to visit Europe for a week and do the taste of Europe and see the Sistine Chapel and, you know, the Louvre or whatever, and, you know, the Westminster Abbey, or whoever, you know, these, like, just going to these places, which were interesting, you know, to, to go to, and that would be fun. And, you know, I did more, you know, the travel around the United States and the islands and whatnot, just for vacations. But it was like, if I was going to go someplace, I really wanted to live there. Yeah, so I could be a part of the culture and learn, you know, maybe a little bit of language, which is always difficult, especially. So, for me getting that PhD in 2017, presented the opportunity. Okay, where’s the next position? Where’s my appointment going to be? And I looked at a few different teaching positions in the United States. One was going to be in a more remote area, and it felt like between my wife and I talking about this, not the right opportunity for me, it felt too far away from family, not that Dubai. So, I ended up going to Dubai, which is the other side of the planet.
Dr. Russell Strickland 26:26
Closer right?
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 26:27
Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. It was. My mother-in-law did come to visit us for a week or a couple weeks, and I had some friends come and visit. So there was, you know, it’s, it’s the, the fact that the world so small, I guess meant that it wasn’t, but the fact that it was also in a large city cosmopolitan area with a lot of opportunity, and many things going on, it was almost more of an attractive opportunity to go on the other side of the world, live in Dubai for a few years and come back to the United States with that experience, and kind of trying to set up roots in an area of the country that I wasn’t fully bought into, or intending to go.
Dr. Russell Strickland 27:05
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And, and, and to experience that, that different culture, is amazing. I have not lived overseas for that length of time. But I know when I’ve gone to visit for weeks at a time, it’s always interesting how initially, you feel like a tourist. But after it doesn’t take very long before you start to notice some of the smaller things, which I really enjoyed. You mentioned, they are going to see the Louvre, I actually had the opportunity to teach a seminar in Paris, and it was an English-speaking program. So lucky for me, because I, I that might be extent of my French is “Parlez-vous anglais”. And if you learn that in Paris, you’re gonna be okay about it. They have a reputation of being kind of rude and standoffish to Americans in particular. But what I found is that the problem is if you walk up to them and ask them in English, if they speak English, they consider that rude. But think about it. And I walked up to on the streets of the US and was speaking Arabic or German or whatever, and asked you if you could speak that language, we’d be like, whatever you ask me that for. Do you not see in America?
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 28:16
Yeah, absolutely. It makes sense. You’re right.
Dr. Russell Strickland 28:18
If you could just ask an English, you know, hey, do you speak German? You’d be like, no. And you won’t be rude about it at least. And you might be inclined to help them a little bit. But if they can’t do the small little bit to learn it, and English asked, If you speak their language, then that’s the problem.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 28:33
Right.
Dr. Russell Strickland 28:34
So I actually found that to be that was part of my cultural experience in Paris is how helpful everyone actually was. But that I remember I got to do this seminar a couple of times. I remember getting off the plane One day, the hotel wasn’t quite ready yet. So I walked down the street, set up my laptop and my little hotspot, outside of Notre Dame Cathedral. This was before it caught fire. I don’t know what it looks like now. But I just sat there in the shadows of this huge and historic place, typing out emails, it was like it was surreal to be able to do something like that. It’s just amazing that I’ve been home like, you know, 12 hours prior to that or something. And now I was, you know, typing out emails to students I was teaching back home by the way, while I was getting ready for seminars are conducting here. The opportunities are mind boggling. And that’s not one that I would have expected as I was getting my doctoral degree.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 29:28
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean, I thought Dubai was pretty awesome. You know, my family. So, I went there in the summer of 2019. Excuse me, 2018. I think we got to come visit me we got to, you know, go to the top of the Burj Khalifa do a safari in the desert and other friends that were living in Ras al Khaimah.
Dr. Russell Strickland 29:52
What is this Safari in the desert?
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 29:57
So it’s theirs. They do these different trips. So, one, it’s it’s the Nissan Prada, or the Toyota Land Rover, or the, you know, their dune buggy vehicles or four-wheel drive vehicles that you get to go in the desert. So, they have spots where they know that for the most part, you know, you can find your way out there and they’ll kind of have a path. But you know, the entire country is really a desert. I mean, there’s a couple of oases like LA is a city that’s around an oasis. But it’s, you know, even Dubai was built out of the desert. I mean, there are pockets of desert in and around the city, the city was kind of built-in rings and they leapfrog over the desert to get to another area knowing that if they build too close, they won’t have the space so they planned out the city very wisely to determine here’s the Old City here’s the new downtown and then we’re gonna have different media sites, Media City internet Cities
Dr. Russell Strickland 30:47
Live where they built like actual islands off of the off of the coast was that Dubai as well?
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 30:53
Yes. Yeah, they built the Palm Jumeirah, which my family and I would frequently go to because we got the season’s pass at the waterpark at the Atlantis aquaventure waterpark. So, we would visit it once. You know, like on the weekends, if we had, you know, it was kind of just a daily trip. We could go out there and hang out for the day. And we just loved it. I mean, it was beautiful, really friendly people amazing. The students that I had, where about 50% Emirati, so local UAE Emirati students, and then, you know, other Arab students and some from, you know, from Arab countries and Gulf countries, and then
Dr. Russell Strickland 31:23
And that was not a bay or anything, right. Like that was literally the Persian Gulf, that, that they built these islands in, isn’t it?
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 31:30
Right. Yes.
Dr. Russell Strickland 31:31
Amazing. So, for those that don’t know, they literally trucked in earth and sand and whatnot, and just kept dumping it off offshore in a very controlled way.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 31:41
Right.
Dr. Russell Strickland 31:41
Until they had islands that they have built permanent structures on.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 31:44
Yes, yeah. They built a ridge around it.
Dr. Russell Strickland 31:46
From the aerial shot. Yep. The palm that’s that’s the shape of the island. The island. Natural Island at all.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 31:55
Yeah, they, they built another series of islands that were meant to be the world, they were kind of shaped like countries and continents, but they were off, you know, they weren’t to scale or anything, but they were. And that’s, that’s functional. And there’s pockets, there’s some of those islands are able you’re able to go to, and they have some really nice houses out there. But then they also build another even larger palm that that is unfinished and may not ever be finished to kind of, you know, stalled out. So, there was a couple projects, once you start that project, and Dubai is known for these large projects, major investments, and future oriented views of the city, their government is very future oriented, they have, you know, you know, self-service and auto, but you know, vehicles, there are transportation, the RTA and getting a license, you know, just everything is very tied into technology and big data. And a lot of…
Dr. Russell Strickland 32:43
I really wish that we could get back to that in this country. I think that the two, probably, arguably the two best things that we’ve done in the past century or so, were deciding to get involved in World War Two. Instead of instead of sticking that one out, we we got kind of forced into that by Japan in a way. So, it’s not like we can just say that we raised our hand and volunteered completely but but we did more than we necessarily sort of had to and that was great to shape the future of the world for sure. And then I think that that so that was the one of the big ones that might have been the big one. But the next one was the Apollo program. And looking forward to the future. And certainly, historians that know a lot more about this than I do, you might think that it was really a whole lot of political infighting. And it was much more petty than we like to think in do in hindsight, but, but I still think that the message that they put out there about looking forward to the future and doing this big thing was really, really important. It’s, it’s spurred a lot of technology. It, it just created, it created a wave of scientists like or inspire.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 33:47
Hang, you know, some stuff that we wouldn’t have been all good, right. I’m joking, but I’m serious satellite technology, the things that the space program has done and the aspirational nature of it. I mean, I really enjoyed it one series
Dr. Russell Strickland 33:59
Possibly the single biggest invention that came that came out of that time was Velcro.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 34:03
I got sure
Dr. Russell Strickland 34:04
That was that was, that was a, I liked the way people were still talking about in the 80s and 90s. And even more recently, I think Space Age technology, like, you know, that’s just like 40 and 60 years old now. But he’s still talking about his Space Age technology, like is the latest thing. Velcro was one of those people, you know, it’s ubiquitous now.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 34:22
Yeah. And the computer systems that were used the miniaturization, trying to get smaller and smaller and more powerful computer systems. Yeah, it’s amazing. Oh, yeah.
Dr. Russell Strickland 34:29
I remember when I was in high school, and learning about the space program, and how they were talking about, you know, my TI calculator graphing calculator was so much more powerful than what they flew to the moon on. And to think about what my iPhone has these days. I mean, there is no reason why we’re not doing more. There’s no reason why we’re not doing more we have the technology, you know, as they would say, for the $6 million. Man, we have the technology so we need it.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 34:57
Right.
Dr. Russell Strickland 34:58
But that’s the thing. We just need to as a people be more inspired.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 35:01
And visionary. There’s a visionary aspect of leadership that is included there. And that’s something that I’ve really seen in my own life and career and that idea of leadership being more visionary and aspirational and goal oriented and results driven. I think there’s, that’s kind of my kinetic leadership theory is that leaders who can make good decisions and produce results and take action are the kinds of leaders that most organs that look organizations need, you don’t have an organization with leaders that sit back and are responsive, and reactionary to everything that’s going on, you need to be proactive and take initiative as a leader. And that’s the kinetic side, the energy side of leadership that we input into the system. Leaders can affect system by inputting energy, our own heart and soul into that organization.
Dr. Russell Strickland 35:43
It’s the only thing that affects it. You know what? I don’t remember the quote, but there’s some quote to the effect of you know, people. People think that folks that think they can change the world are crazy. But those are the only people that actually do change the world is, you know, when you’re crazy enough to actually have a vision go out and try to do it.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 36:03
Um like the apple, the Steve Jobs, the crazy ones the things differently. campaign. Absolutely.
Dr. Russell Strickland 36:08
Um, as we’re recording this, recently See, Elon Musk was on Saturday Night Live. And he had one little one little throwaway line he had in there. It’s like, hey, I, I you know, I electrified cars, and I’m wanting to turn humanity into a spacefaring society and send people to Mars. I think those are pretty, you know, lofty goals, pretty worthwhile goals. And if he just stopped there, he had a little joke after it. But if you just stop there, we need more of that, whether you agree with his specific goals or not, the fact that you have these goals that could really inspire are huge. And I wish they would figure out ways of funding this and bringing people into it. So that was a little bit more inspirational, because people if you’re looking at it, it is amazing some of the things that folks are doing now. But then you get all of the snide people commenting on how people are going to spend a million dollars to go fly on one of you on less spaceships or something like that. Like, it’s not just so that they could say that they did this fun, cool thing. It’s their funding, you know, something that can be beneficial to all of us. And we don’t know how it will be beneficial. But it almost certainly will just like the Apollo program was way back when.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 37:17
Right.
Dr. Russell Strickland 37:18
So well, tell me a little bit more about, you know, some of the things that you’ve been doing since getting on this this doctoral journey, you mentioned the getting to move to another country of halfway around the world and living in that culture. What did you bring back from that? And how’s the doctoral portal journey progress for you since then?
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 37:39
Yeah, so I, I am, I got to serve on an accreditation Committee for the WACSB, the business number unit, one of the top business school accreditation program, which the university is pursuing. And that was really helpful to see the kind of internal workings of school but also gain that experience for myself to be able to help other universities go through that same process. So, the assurance of learning and the standards that are required and the level of integration between the faculty and the staff and that type of work is really interesting to me, SACS accreditation to Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which is similar to the Middle States, but SACS is one of the is really the only international accrediting body group in the United States that accredits International University.
Dr. Russell Strickland 38:25
Where do they go internationally? Because I know they’re in our area. I’m in North Carolina.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 38:30
Right. So, they, they physically are located within the United States as a regional accrediting body, but they’re the only regional accrediting association that accredits schools internationally. So, they’re a US based regional accrediting body, but they will accept accreditation from foreign University universities and other countries. So that’s just their policy, other Middle States and northeastern and whacks Western, they don’t accredit international schools, but Sachs does. So, I was able to kind of go through that program, which was interesting. And there’s similar, a lot of the accreditation bodies are very similar.
Dr. Russell Strickland 39:05
Yeah, that is interesting. It seems like there’s there’s a need for that. I don’t know how we’re going to do that worldwide. But when I was at the University of Chicago, we had so many foreign students that would come in, and I got to see a little bit of what they would do to try to figure out like, what is this guy, you know, when he’s coming in? Does he belong in our program? Does he not belong in our program? Because you’re coming from China or you’re coming from Russia or somewhere else like that? The things don’t line up very well. Some educational systems don’t look at all like ours. And we got to figure out how they plug into our graduate programs. We do have so many foreign nationals who have graduate students here which I think is a good thing. But it is always a sort of a difficult one off process to figure out how. To what extent they belong in one of our programs.
Dr. Jeffrey Darville 39:55
Yeah, it’s a it’s that’s a very real issue, something I got to experience firsthand in Dubai. Seeing students coming in and transferring credits and degrees overseas recommending students to Masters and PhD programs in England, especially because there’s a strong history relationship between the UAE and England in terms of education and jobs and economy there. But you’re right. And I think that sometimes when I hear the description of the it’s like the blockchain systems that undergird cryptocurrency, but aren’t related to Bitcoin, specifically, just the idea that you have a distributed ledger may be a solution for things like real estate ownership, or the accrediting or determining how these degrees are generated. Because if you like, you know, the simple example is something like oranges that could be grown in one area, but that’s each orange or the set of oranges, but each one is tagged and transferred. And you can see a link along the way, an unbroken chain that shows how that that set of oranges made it to your country. Education could be done similarly, where you have classes and degrees and universities and research and, you know, maybe a dissertation or a thesis gets tagged, and those links in the blockchain start building and that student has a authoritative distributed ledger that can show that their work is done. This is something that, you know, again, I wonder if we’ll ever get there, even in the United States, it’d be nice to know what those classes were from different universities that you’re transferring in. And there should be ways to validate each of them. So that becomes huge ideas for other people.
