Even when she鈥檚 the one being honoured, Temple Grandin can鈥檛 help but partake in a bit of fashion watching at a graduation ceremony 鈥� footwear, in particular.
鈥淭here were some good turquoise Nikes up there,鈥� she said, speaking to some of the shoe choices of new grads on Dal鈥檚 Agricultural Campus Friday. 鈥淢aybe those were the 鈥榖est in shoe鈥� for this one.鈥�
Dr. Grandin couldn鈥檛 spend all her time sneaker sighting, however, as she had business to attend to: sharing words of advice for the Faculty of Agriculture鈥檚 Class of 2015. The renowned animal scientist, who may be the world鈥檚 most recognized person with autism, was present to receive an honorary doctorate from Dalhousie.
The Dalhousie honorary degree adds to a long list of achievements for the person whom Time magazine named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, the same year she was the subject an award-winning HBO biopic. Dr. Grandin鈥檚 work in animal welfare has had a dramatic impact around the world: today, half the cattle in Canada and the United States are handled with equipment she designed to minimize their confusion and fear. The professor of animal science at Colorado State University enjoys a thriving business as a consultant and has been tireless in her efforts to inform and educate people about autism and the human mind.
Attacking root causes
Alan Pinder, chair of Senate, described in his introductory remarks how Dr. Grandin turned the childhood pain of being different into a life of profound purpose, changing the face of animal welfare and giving hope and inspiration to millions of people and families living with autism spectrum diagnoses.
鈥淒r. Grandin has taught us by example that, as she says, 鈥楾he world needs different kinds of minds to work together,鈥欌�� said Dr. Pinder.
Indeed, that was the theme of Dr. Grandin鈥檚 speech 鈥� but first, she wanted to add to some of the themes that came up in President Florizone鈥檚 remarks, speaking to the value of learning from mistakes.
鈥淚n 1980, I was really young, and I thought I could fix everything with design engineering,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f I could just design the right thing, I would fix every problem.鈥�
That year she had a wake-up call when a conveyer meant to improve pigs鈥� mobility at a plant in Cincinnati turned out to be 鈥渁n absolute, total, crashing failure.鈥� It turned out the issue with the pigs wasn鈥檛 technological, but physical: a genetic defect in livestock from a particular producer. The whole contraption had to be removed and destroyed. 聽
鈥淭his taught me an extremely hard lesson in root causes of problems,鈥� she explained. 鈥淒o not treat symptoms of problems; treat root causes. For a fraction of the cost we could have given that farm new boars that would have solved the problem.鈥�
Communicating and complementing
And the only way people can truly solve such problems, she believes, is by breaking down silos 鈥� not only between disciplines, but also between different types of thinkers.
For example, Dr. Grandin is a visual thinker. 鈥淭hat helped in my work with cattle because I noticed they get scared of little distractions that most people don鈥檛 see, like a sunbeam, a hose on the ground. When you鈥檙e a visual thinker, you鈥檙e a bottom-up thinker.鈥�
In this sense, Dr. Grandin鈥檚 autism has been an asset, and she鈥檚 not alone in that. (She explained that Albert Einstein would likely be diagnosed as on the spectrum today.) For her, specialized minds of all stripes 鈥� mathematical thinkers, verbal or word-based thinkers, etc. 鈥� all have important roles to play in solving society鈥檚 problems, but only if they figure out how to work with one another.
鈥淲hen you understand that different people think different, you can communicate and complement one another鈥� we鈥檝e got to work on communicating different kinds of minds, and in the end, we have to find root causes of problems.鈥�
Dr. Grandin was the first of 10 individuals who are being presented with honorary doctorates from Dalhousie at this year鈥檚 Spring Convocation, which resumes May 25 in Halifax. .