Develop your innovation strategy using the Innovation Strategy Template.
Carefully read the following:
King Edward VII College has been operating since 2010. The College is based in Melbourne CBD and has an additional campus in Sydney. The College offers a range of courses in management, marketing, human resources and international business. It currently has 195 students enrolled across all of its courses and both campuses. Courses are offered at all levels, from Certificate II to Graduate Diploma.
King Edward VII College is very popular due to its competitive pricing structure, innovative teaching methods and state of the art facilities.
The College currently employs 25 staff members that include the CEO, a Sales and Marketing Manager and Sales and Marketing Assistant, Promotions Officer, Human Resources Manager, Operations Manager, Administration Manager, Office Assistant, Receptionist, Academic Manager, Student Services Officer and approximately 14 trainers and assessors. There is also a Board of Directors consisting of the four owners of the company.
You are the Operations Manager at the College and, following a recent short course on workplace innovation, you spoke to the Management Team about encouraging innovation within the College. They have given their full support to your efforts.
The CEO has asked you to write an commence a process of encouraging and implementing innovation within the organisation by completing an innovation review. Despite the College’s healthy enrolment levels, management is aware that they must be prepared to adapt to new trends and ideas. Supporting and encouraging innovation is accepted as being integral to this.
Complete the following activities:
1.Develop an innovation review.
You are required to conduct research and then develop an Innovation Review report as part of the first steps towards introducing innovative thinking and practice at King Edward VII College. You are required to carefully review the case study information, Business Plan and the results of a recent staff survey for 2019 before you commence. Your report will be 4 to 5 pages long approximately.
Your review report should address:
Analysis of the current trends that shape the company’s current and future thinking and practice regarding innovation. This should include both internal and external environment trends.
An evaluation of the culture of the organisation and its ability to foster individual and organisation innovative thinking and creativity. This should also include an evaluation of the current resources that are available to ensure innovation occurs.
The range of techniques and tools that can be used to generate new ideas and creative thinking and that promote both personal and team innovation. You should identify and describe at least four.
Identification and evaluation of barriers and risks associated with introducing and maintaining innovation in an organisation and strategies that could be used to address these.
Analysis of specific conditions in workplaces that facilitate innovation. Assess how these conditions impact on individual and organisation-wide innovative thinking and creativity.
Review of innovation drivers and enablers in a workplace.
An assessment of the requirements that you consider necessary in order to make innovation an integral and sustainable part of King Edward VII College activities.
An outline of processes that could be established in the College that would ensure that knowledge, ideas and practices are shared with staff and that all staff have the opportunity to contribute to innovative thinking and practices.
Outline potential innovative processes and practices and products/services that could be adopted. These should also include strategies to foster a workplace culture of innovation.
Assessment of the most effective leadership style that will contribute to positive innovative thinking and practice. Include a reflection of how you could develop your own leadership style to model this.
Use the Innovation Review Template to guide your work.
2.Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and seek their feedback.
Attach your Innovation Review to the email
3.Develop an innovation strategy
As per the communication from the CEO, you are now required to develop an innovation strategy to be brainstormed at a meeting with the staff as part of implementing innovation within the organisation and fostering a culture of innovation.
It will also be an opportunity to use the tools and techniques you researched in Assessment Task 1 to generate new ideas and thinking, as well as to promote innovation within the organisation.
At the meeting, you will also be expected to use inclusive and collaborative techniques to communicate, negotiate and consult effectively with the staff. Therefore, you should also research such techniques that you will then demonstrate at the meeting. Bear in mind that staff at the meeting may not agree with all of your actions so you will need to negotiate these.
Develop your innovation strategy using the Innovation Strategy Template.
Your strategy should include:
- Overall vision and objectives for innovation, including ensuring innovation is an integral part of the organisation’s activities.
- Recommended innovative practices, processes and products/services for the College
- Mechanisms at both the organisation system and processes level that can be implemented to achieve innovation, including resource requirements, timelines and responsibilities.
- Communication and consultation processes that can be used to foster innovation, including knowledge transfer and ongoing awareness in relation to innovation and capturing information.
- Key performance indicators to measure adoption of innovation.
- A review of your leadership style and practice during the meeting in relation to modelling and supporting innovation. This should include the feedback you were given, as well as your own reflections on this.
- An evaluation of how you will refine your leadership approach based on feedback and your own reflections on this.
Make sure you have identified techniques and tools that you will use to generate new ideas and thinking relating to showcasing the innovation strategy to staff.
Prepare any supporting resources you will use.
4.Create a presentation.
Using PowerPoint (or another presentation program), create a presentation that will support the meeting that you will be conducting.
The presentation you develop should include all of the content that you have planned in your innovation strategy, including its key points and activities.
You should include notes in the slides to support you when you are delivering the session.
Save this file as Innovation Strategy Presentation.
5.Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and seek their feedback and approval to proceed to the meeting.
The email text should also describe the tools and techniques that the you intend to use at the meeting to discuss the innovation strategy.
Attach your Innovation Strategy and Innovation Strategy Presentation to the email.
6.Conduct a meeting to discuss your Innovation Strategy.
You are required to conduct a meeting with the company’s Management Team about the Innovation Strategy that you have developed.
Your assessor will organise 2 students in the role of staff to attend the presentation.
Conduct the meeting using the presentation you have developed, discussing each issue fully with the meeting participants.
Prior to delivering the presentation, make sure that you practice your delivery, so you are well prepared. You will be assessed on your presentation technique as well as the content of your presentation.
Use the whiteboard to record the contributions from all of the meeting’s participants.
When the meeting has concluded, take a photo of what is on the whiteboard to use in the next activity.
During the meeting, you are required to use the tools and techniques to generate ideas and thinking, as well as demonstrate effective communication skills including:
- Speaking clearly and concisely using language and vocabulary that your audience can easily understand
- Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
- Asking questions to identify required information
- Responding to questions as required
- Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding
You are also required to conduct the meeting using a personal leadership style that models positive innovative thinking and practice as you set out in your Innovation Review Report.
During the meeting you should use inclusive and collaborative techniques to communicate, negotiate and consult effectively with the staff.
At the conclusion of the meeting, you are to hold a short discussion with the other meeting participants. You should ask them about the way that you led the meeting, and whether that style that you used displayed positive modelling and was supportive of innovation.
Take notes on their feedback to use in the next activity.
7.Update the innovation strategy
Following the meeting, update your innovation strategy to reflect ideas raised at the meeting.
Save this version of the document as Updated Innovation Strategy.
8.Write an innovation leadership report.
Following the meeting, you are required to write a report (between 1 and 2 pages) on your personal leadership style.
Your report should include:
Use the Innovation Leadership Report Template to guide your work
