What an “Ah-Hah” Moment of Design Thinking Looks Like
January 22, 2016Innovation takes time; it can be messy and uncomfortable, and there are times when even the keenest designer-thinker might well ask “are we ever going to get ‘there’?” And then there is that moment of “ah-hah!”, when the expansive thinking, discovery, research, brainstorming, and idea maps snap into focus. At the Tilton School, I am…
State of Innovation, Part 5: What Do CEO’s Say About Successful Innovation?
January 20, 2016This is the final post of my five-part review of the state of innovation, prompted by a year-end summary by Paul Hobcraft. In “Innovation: the New Competitive Equation”, The Business Performance Network published data from a survey of 200 CEO’s about what they felt are the keys to successful innovation in their organizations and industries. I…
Five Innovations to School Design Thinking Process Yield Powerful Results
January 16, 2016I am engaged in several year-plus design thinking efforts with schools and districts that are sincerely committed to finding and implementing user-centric solutions that create lasting value. The basic processes are those developed by the Stanford d.school and the Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation, along with others. At the Tilton School in New Hampshire (HT Kate Saunders…
Get Time Right; Don’t Settle for “Vanilla+”
January 14, 2016Every school serious about change will struggle with the use of time. After our people, time is our most precious resource. Reimagining the use of time is one of the most impactful discussions your school will EVER have. Get it right and all sorts of innovation are possible. Make a few modest tweaks and almost all…
State of Innovation, Part 4: School Innovation Portfolio Dashboard
January 7, 2016“How do we know that our innovation strategy is effective?” This question freezes many organizations, including schools, from creating an intentional, systematic approach to changing traditional practices. Organizations with effective innovation strategies have a portfolio of programs that spread resources (time, people, ideas, money) across a range of projects with varying levels of risk and…
Lessons From the Best: Gold Medal Strategies for Schools
January 5, 2016What can the ricochet of an elusively aimed volleyball teach us about effective innovation in schools? Plenty. How an elite group of athletes and coaches deal with new ideas, growth mindset, organizational vision, leadership, uncertainty, and stress is a near-perfect analogue for other team-based groups, including schools and school districts. Fortunately, I have a window into one…
State of Innovation, Part 3: Five Key Questions to Frame School Innovation
January 2, 2016In his year-end summary of innovation best practices, Paul Hobart references discussions and key questions from the annual executive innovation summit held by consulting firm Innosight. The five key questions below are theirs from “Leading Transformation: 2015 CEO Summit”; the commentary on how these manifest in schools is mine. Is our balance of exploitation vs.…
What is the Altitude of Your Focus Today?
December 29, 2015Does your school team have a clear view of where and how you will focus on innovation and change? This is a short post with one graphic I just created for two school workshops in January. These three layers are all critical. We have to create an all-school 30K foot vision. Innovation required to adjust…
State of Innovation 2015 Part 2: High Hurdles
December 22, 2015What are the common obstacles to innovation in a school? What are the characteristics of a leader who can routinely overcome those obstacles? In my book #EdJourney, I identified fear, inertia, silos, and college admissions as some of the key obstacles to innovation and school. Now we can drill down into, and learn lessons from, similar studies…
State of Innovation 2015 Part 1: Stepping Up Attention to the Customer
December 19, 2015How do you know if your school is increasingly innovative? How do you know if innovation is changing the school culture? How can we improve our chances that innovation actually results in positive outcomes for our students and our school’s future? Paul Hobcraft, a thought leader on innovation practice, has published a summary of authoritative reports…
Sustaining Innovation: Focus at 3,000 Feet
December 9, 2015How can your school best create the conditions that support innovation? There are essentially three broad levels of concern that take up the attention of innovation-oriented educators: The 10,000 Foot Level: creating a powerful, value-laden, forward-leaning vision, and building towards it through long-term strategies. The 3,000 Foot Level: creating and sustaining the processes and practices…
Create a “Compass Collaborative” at Your School?
December 7, 2015How might we best capture and build upon the swirl of talent, ideas, and knowledge within our schools? How might we build and sustain systematic distributed idea creation and collegial feedback as a core function of an evolving school? I have previously written about, and use in my workshops, elements of the brilliant book Creativity,…
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