Aligning improvement and innovation: some issues and challenges

Valerie Hannon, Innovation Unit, UK

DECD Research and Innovation Committee, South AustraliaAugust 30 2012

Has the case for transformation (as distinct from improvement) yet been made with compelling force?

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Technological change is accelerating.

World Recession

Profound long-lasting consequences for all public services

Swingeing cuts in services either underway or in prospect

The search for ‘more for less’

In many countries, deep problems with public sector borrowing, spending and debt

Globalisation, so what?

Understanding identity, core values and cultural practices is more important than ever

Jobs can be quickly transferred from one side of the world to another

Consumers/researchers look across the world for the best

Higher order skills are at a premium

Integrated world markets (IT & containerisation mean new lower-cost producers in the world market)

Education itself is globalising: mobile students, distance/online learning, competition between providers

Worldwide demand for learning

DEVELOPED WORLDDEVELOPING WORLD

Worldwide demand for learning

DEVELOPING WORLD

Youth bulgenew demand for learning

Worldwide demand for learning

DEVELOPED WORLD

Ageing populationnew dependency ratio

Workforce crisis

Lifelong learners

Career Paths are changing.

20TH CENTURY1-2 jobs, mastery of one field

21ST CENTURY10-15 jobs, breadth, depth in several fields

Pedagogy Place

Transformation means fundamental shape-shifting changes in…..

Time Partnership

‘Awaking possibility’ means modelling real alternatives to the current paradigm- but they have to demonstrate the shift

Are ‘super schools’ doing this in your context?

Do you have real consensus about the key changes to be made?(e.g. it’s not just about the technology…. )

S-Curve: raised goals or different goals?

Architecting the future

Scaling for growth

Operationalizing the results

Extracting Efficiencies

Closing / Transitioning

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Jumping and Transforming

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The innovator’s (and the evaluator’s) dilemma

Adapted from Ready or Not? Taking Innovation in the public sector seriously (NESTA 2007)

proposition 1:

The best way to engender a powerful (impactful) research agenda is to foster a culture of inquiry at all levels: involve teachers AND students (and communities?)

How could this be done?

proposition 2:

Innovation needs D&R not RCT. Do you have spaces where genuine experimentation and transformation is intentionally explored in a disciplined way?Is there scope for such an approach in your context?

Differentiating leadership of improvement and leadership of innovation

• Intense knowledge of your sector; preparedness to look outward and beyond

• Attitude to data – choice of indicators

• Attitude towards research: the final word, or a starting point?

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it’s not either/or

it’s both, and….

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Conditions for Innovationincentivising student led curriculum developmentcoalition buildingleveraging use of mobile technologieslow barriers of entry for new providersmodels for co producing learning with learnersInvesting in and supporting innovation zonesmandating personal learning plansopen access to a technology infrastructurepromoting transformational leadershipreviewing the role of ‘teachers’valuing and validating disciplined risk takingstrong engagement with families and communitiesfreedom for merger and demerger activitylocal reinvestment of cost savings

“The most important characteristic of an innovative firm is that it has an explicit system of innovation which pervades the whole organisation, which is visible, known about, generates a stream of new ideas, and is seen as vital to creating new value”

John Kao Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Corporate Creativity