Steven parker presentation

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello my name is Steven Parker, I am an educational designer from the TAFE NSW South Western Sydney Institute and my presentation is going to be on igniting eLearning innovation through management across our organisation.By innovation I mean our teaching staff putting into operation ideas which are new for them, in particular the adoption of technology enhance learning in their teaching practice.
• #3: The premise of this presentation is that:Teams of people have a greater capacity for innovation when working collaboratively rather than individually People are more likely to learn about innovation from each other as partThere is a process to set up a good team dynamic Initially this requires some effort with leadership from management to ignite innovation in the teamTo get across what I am saying I have included this picture of some matches which represents a team of teachers, 6 fresh green matches ripe to flare with innovation and creativity, all that is needed is the spark from the red match to set them off. Notice the red match is already burnt out and weathered, this being the team manager as it takes some effort to prepare the team to embed innovative practice, but it is well worth the return on investment.
• #4: Before talking about the embedding innovation as part of a culture shift in our organisation I want to give you a background on South Western Sydney Institute Itis one of Australia’s largest InstitutesIt attracts over 74,000 students who enrol in 600 courses and programs which are delivered face to face online or both.We have over 5,000 staff teaching and administrative part time and full time to support thisOur teachers have the challenge of being expected to be leaders in their industries (Which they are) AND up to date with contemporary teaching practice and technology.Out teachers have a diversity of skills - Trades areas, Bricklaying, refrigeration, Floristry, Business, Programming, ArtsBut Increasingly students are expecting personalised and flexible learning in these areasSo upskilling of all of our staff in a coordinated whole of organisation approach is a major culture shift to manage.We need staff with capability to innovate and develop resilience to be flexible and adaptable to meet our customers demands across the whole organisation quickly.
• #5: I work for a unit which supports innovation and technology enhanced learning practice (iTEL) and our challenge is to support the embedding of technology enhanced learning innovation to improve students’ engagement and outcomes. As said SWSI has 5000 staff, and we are having great success with the first wave of innovation adopters in other words the 20% of teachinh staff who are able to make this culture shift to utilising technology individually.Now we must look to engage the second wave of staff approx 3,000 people, the 60% who still need to embed technology as part of their practice and for that we are looking at a team based approach to innovate.Quite a culture shift.
• #6: So what have we done to support this culture shift and help our staff with the embedding of technology?Well the organisation has invested in a number of innovations called “iLearn” iLearn covers three domains, Engagement, Capability and CommunicationInnovation is born at the interface of these three domains butrequires open flow off knowledge and collaboration between people using iLearn.Lets look at some of the iLearn innovations. 
• #7: Engagement – SWSI Tools
• #8: Capability –mentoring and coaching and iLearn courses
• #9: Communication – iLearn Forums, Intranet, Café conversations
• #10: Shifting the culture is going to require management to provide leadership in innovative practice.The number of teams required to develop new products services and innovations is set to increase significantly this year.We are looking at codifying a process to allow new project teams to engage with iLearn, develop capability to adopt innovation replicate successful project management practice from past bright ideas projects.If we are to mainstream whole of organisation innovation we must support management with a consistent team based approach for projects. This lists the behaviours that we recommend project managers adopt when working with teams on innovation.... A challenge This is supported by the Ref: “2020 Vision Report: The Manager of the 21st Century” – Commissioned Innovation& Business Skills Australia (IBSA) 2006 which core message is that managers will become more team focused in the future.
• #11: So how do you nurture an innovation culture?In codifying an innovation process the design challenge is that every project is different, with varied time-lines, complexity, goals, people involved, capability of team members)We need to bring structure around the process of innovationFor that we have developed the Innovation@Work program.
• #12: Innovation@Work is a step by step workflow to guide project managers to build up a team’s capability to innovate on a project.It is a five step staged process with the format:The stated outcomes - What should be achieved and by whomThe method to adopt - Logical sequence of steps to follow with links to iLearnThe approach explained - Resources to develop understanding of the cultural elements that impact innovation
• #13: Innovation@Work is also a culture change process which provides management with a series of facilitation activities to build a good project team dynamic such as:Engaging a project team to look at examples of SWSI innovation (Appreciative enquiry)Learning-by-doing through examples and repetitions of using technology (Action learning)Supportingindividuals coming together regularly to help each other learn about technology (Communities of practice)Encouragingcreativity from the team towards achieving project's goals ( “We teach each other”)We teach each other, Bulla gallili– Kosta’sArhem Land Odyssey SBS
• #15: Here is a quick example of an outcome from successful facilitation with a team member.Karen is a talented commercial cookery teacher new to technology and here she is holding onto the wall because she has just done something exciting.
• #16: Heather was the project manager for Karen’s team and from doing the Innovation@Work program Heather helped take Heather helped take Karen from feeling “I was well and truly out of my depth”to thinking – next slide
• #17: “Wow, how an experience that I presumed would be negative transpired into a positive”The Innovation@Work facilitation activities focuses on strength based approach to bring the best performance from people. For example encouraging penny too use the smart board when using the technology with support and encouragement form her team.In Innovation@Work we are trying to communicate what makes people tick and consider on basic human workplace psychologyWhat energises and stimulates a project team and how can creative upheaval bring a fresh source of enthusiasm to a team, thats what we want to know?
• #18: This is Heathers feedback from what she gained from the Innovation@Work process.Read quotes.
• #20: So lets look at an Innovation@Work case study
• #21: These are the Innovation@Work stages Heather the project managerfollowed with her team.
• #22: To begin we need Top down bottom up support for a project so the project sponsor and project manager get together toTarget an easy project to get quick results i.e something where there are pre-existing resources to utiliseAnd Target staff looking for diversity within the project team to maximise outcomes for example:Mixed male and femaleDifferent campusesDifferent ages Different skill levelsCapture the project innovation details in a blueprint, this will be used to pitch the project to the team
• #23: Heather was chosen to lead the project team because of her learning design knowledgeSo in preparing to engage her team she needed an authentic examples of using technology withGood teachingActive learning experiences for studentsHer creative thinkingUse of assessment
• #24: Qualitative reporting built into the project hub
• #25: Heather must do three things really well when first getting the project team together to introduce the projectPresent - Here we are now entertain usListen – People’s hangupsOrganise follow up training based on teams learning needs
• #26: When working as a team one of the tools we recommend is Moodle.
• #27: Heather used the team effectiveness survey at the start of the project to establish the behaviours that matter to the people in the teamThis data is useful for reporting on attitudinal changes within the team at the end of the project
• #28: KEY STAGE!!!Often after training people go back to their desks and put what they have been shown into the too hard basket.To make sure this did not happen Heather putalot of energy into building here team dynamics at the beginningThis stage is about making sure the investment in training does not go to waste by constant hand holding and support until they are comfortable with implementing the innovation in their work.
• #30: We are providing a process to allow teams replicate succesful practice that we know is successfulInnovation@Work brings validity to the process of embedding innovations as we can start to measure performece and roiInnovation@Work changes behaviour
• #31: So where to next?Hold an “Innovation Forum” to brainstorm and challenge people’s ideas about what their project might entailInvestment in teams, roi they repeat the process with colleaguesExpression of interest are a good way to garner the support of people who want to participate rather than being told that they need to engage with a project“Not viable unless time and resources allocated to initiate use I the faculty now”“Allocated schedules and time tables for teachers involved in the project, so more time is spent as a team to complete projects”
• #32: Karen has the last word on innovation.This is the culture shift in thinking that we want for the whole organization, its early days with the Innovation and Work program to achieve this with staff but from feedback the model has good bones for getting the best from our best asset, our talented staff.
• #33: Include quote from teamContact detailsSWSI website?References