Contra Costa Community College District Convocation on Innovation Nurturing positive change in support of student success January 9, 2015
Convocation on Innovation Innovation ?
A brief history of innovation hint Leonardo da Vinci
A brief history of innovation hint Isaac Newton
A brief history of innovation hint Bob Dylan
A brief history of innovation hint Marie Curie
A brief history of innovation hint Nikola Tesla
A brief history of innovation no hint Albert Einstein
What do we have in common here?
Innovation myths 1. Innovation thrives in the realm of the gifted, the prodigies…
Innovation myths “ In the modern complex world innovation is far less likely to emerge from the single brilliant mind, but from teams composed of committed people who care deeply about the issue before them. Collaboration and passion are the key ” - Scott Berkun Author of Making Things Happen
Innovation myths 2. Innovation happens by way of epiphany…the magic moment… a visit from your muse
Innovation myths Innovation is not a lightning strike phenomena. It’s the moment the last piece falls into place “The last piece isn’t any more magical than the others, and it has no magic without its connection to the other pieces .” Tim Berners-Lee
Innovation myths 3. Today we want to believe there is some map or model that we can follow that will yield more innovation 00
Consider our story • This District has no shortage of good ideas. • Innovation is flourishing in pockets Our challenge : how can we be more purposeful in helping one another transform our ideas into new approaches that help students?
So what do we do? How do we establish a foundation that encourages innovation? Some guidance from the literature. A short set of signposts that are intended to help you anticipate what you will likely encounter on the path to pursuing an innovation.
Innovation signposts • Take time to frame the problem • Check your assumptions • Build a good team • Experiment • Harness failures • The role of culture
1. Take time to consider the problem “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it. ” - Albert Einstein
Look at the problem from different perspectives Melvin Tolson “The world looks very different from up here” “ being able to question and shift your frame of reference is an important key to enhancing your imagination because it reveals completely different insights.” - Sarah Greenberg Executive Director, Stanford Design School
The power of perspective “When we make a conscious effort to get out of our own way and look at things from another person's perspective, good things happen. Relationships grow, ideas flow, and we make better decisions.” - Warren Berger Author of A More Beautiful Question
Ask solution-oriented questions How we frame a problem often emerges from the types of questions we ask. What went wrong here? Blame oriented vs How might we make this work better? Solution oriented “Organizations gravitate toward the questions they ask and how they ask them” - David Cooperrider founder of Appreciative Inquiry
The questions we ask convey how we see the world What is the college completion rate?
The questions we ask convey how we see the world How do we increase student completion? First Time Successful Student Completion
The questions we ask convey how we see the world What programs do we have to help improve student completion? First Time e.g. Learning Successful Student Community Completion
The questions we ask convey how we see the world What programs do we have to help improve student completion? First Time Learning Successful Student Community Completion Early Alert An education plan Program
The questions we ask convey how we see the world What is the student experience?
Still hasn’t Participates in Fin Delays Concurrently completed required Aid workshop enrolling in enrolls at nearby math course advised dev Joins a community college ed courses learning community Has great Enrolls in too meeting many classes the with faculty Enrolls in Rebuilds an first semester summer during office education plan sessions hours with new Struggles to program of build an First Time study educational Successful Fails a key Student plan Completion gatekeeper course Takes assessment Misses two test without counseling Becomes a adequate appointments student preparation Joins a mentor student club Attends orientation Recommended by Eventually professor to meet completes counselor Meets with Some required necessary college outreach courses are full coursework Applies to professional institution
2. Check your Assumptions Good ideas often get stuck when teams hold different or competing assumptions about their environment. Prior to the invention of the metal hull in 1787, imagine the response you’d receive to the question: Why are ships made of wood?
Discuss your assumptions “When we make assumptions, we’re limiting ourselves to a narrow view of things - and it is surprising just how often our own perceptions of the world don’t match that of our neighbor ” - Chip & Dan Heath Authors of Made to Stick
Consider the universe of factors that influence student success
How much influence does the college have over student success? World View A College’s Influence
How much influence does the college have over student success? World View B College’s Influence
We have many viewpoints Findings from a 2014 professional development workshop attended by teams from 23 California Community Colleges: Q : If you had to assign a percentage, how much control do you believe the college has in determining the overall success of its students? 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
3. Build a good team “In the current world, solving complex problems requires multiple minds and multiple perspectives. The days of Leonardo da Vinci are over” - James Surowiecki Author of The Wisdom of Crowds “Given enough of the right eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” - Linus Torvalds The Linus Law*
Find people that know and care “…we learned early on that when faced with a really tough problem, … not to seek out your “ best people ” but to find those that were closest to the problem and willing to bring the most passion to solving it” - Sergey Brin Cofounder of Google
We can leverage the power of multiple perspectives and passion Placement Office : Does our Tutoring Office : Do basic math placement prep program help Math Instructor : Would an skills math students that come to students place higher in the math us within the first four weeks of accelerated curriculum/program sequence and do they succeed the semester do better than lead to higher levels of student when they get there? those that come later? learning and persistence? How can we increase the Math Dept : Would it be percentage of students helpful to build opportunities Counselors : Would pre- completing the pre-transfer for our these students to meet transfer math students perform with math faculty informally math sequence? and persist at high levels taking outside of the classroom? fewer or more units? Student Activities : Are Outreach : Can we work more Book Store : Would providing there clubs or activities that could effectively with our feeder high more open source material for be linked to those courses that schools to identify early on which developmental math courses help might improve persistence among students are most likely to require students persist longer? pre-transfer math students? math remediation at college?
Dialogue problems If you want to learn you have to take part in the conversation “Learning emerges from an ongoing conversation about things that matter with both passion and discipline ” - Parker Palmer The Courage to Teach Learning is fueled by on-going and structured inquiry
Teams drive change Professional development in higher education is focusing more and more on team development and team approaches to change. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has .” - Margaret Mead American cultural anthropologist
4. Experiment Asking why without taking action can yield stimulating conversation, but it is not likely to produce change Questioning Action Innovation + = - Questioning Action Philosophy = Source: A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by warren Berger.
We learn by doing “ The gap between knowing and doing is much larger and more important than the gap between ignorance and knowing “ refine tweak adjust Successful No Idea implementation Idea adapt rethink of Idea “ When knowledge is acquired by doing it comes with all the nuance and subtle information most critical to success“ - Jeffrey Pfeffer Stanford University Author of The Knowing-Doing Gap
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