Subject Wrap Up – Evaluate Learning and Innovation
Having not studied, academically(I’m always doing a course in something!) and managing some really challenging issues at my current work, I was really pleased to complete the subject and with the quality of the delivery and content. The Theory of Change – big theory, little theory – was really helpful to frame the more detailed development for the final assessment, it anchored to the focus so I was able to be quite specific in the stakeholder groups to be part of the evaluation process and the required outcomes needed to propel the project forward and meet the required milestone KPIs.
I have communicated the valuable learning with the project lead and HR at work however there are so many issues the teams are managing my contributions are not a priority. I have shared with colleagues and we have made some adjustments to the evaluation process for commercialising the product – honing in on the talent to achieve this, and the engagement with the broader community, and providing data to support decision-making.
On a personal level it has reinforced my ambition to be more responsible for CHANGE and that I need to be in a leadership role that influences the important planning to ensure change is sustainable and tangible.
I want to thank the team at UTS for their support, particularly Veronica, who provided valuable and compassionate support when I really needed it.
I’m looking forward to Strategic Learning in Workplaces – to further understand strategic awareness in the evaluation process and genuine stakeholder engagement to do this effectively and sustainably.
Subject Learning Goals
I have just completed the subject: Evaluating Learning and Innovation and it has really helped me plan detailed evaluations of a project I’m working on called Pivott – an end to end platform for those wanting to move into an career opportunity with a startup or scale-up business.
I was thoroughly engaged with the learning and feel I’ve chosen the right course to support my career progression, to move into another senior management opportunity in the education sector or organisational capability space. I’m on track, even if my current job is not!
The learning goals for this subject:
– Understand the overarching strategy of the organisation I currently work at;
– Identify the area of learning at different levels of the organisation – have a clear delineation between the internal and external stakeholders impacted by the learning;
– Identify the communications for the learning to ensure buy in and genuine advocates are engaged in the process;
– Ensure and up/down approach a la ABC is adopted, and everyone’s voices are heard in the process (weed out detractors but understand why there is resistance/barriers);
– Use evaluation tools to gather data
Strategy NOTEBOOK:
Learning strategy is not about leaving things to chance or creating inflexible outcomes that require large scale change that the organisations maturity can not meet. Therefore, now that you have seen strategy in action, and had a go at translating the vision and priorities for The Mandalorian, it’s time to do the same for your own organisation. Miro Board – Strategy Learning Workflow. Saved in file as well.
The importance of stakeholders
Links and the differences in their approaches
SCHOOL – the focus is on 3 distinct stakeholders: Students/Staff/Parents. There are often mandated strategic directions – from the Department of Education. I think Community and School Council should also be added to the stakeholder group. I was on School Council as Vice President for 5 years and the Council drove a lot of strategic change, engaging students, parents and staff at all times.
CORPORATE – the Qantas overview was very much a corporate view about engaging business leaders and people leaders within the organisation and ensuring they are advocates for the values and strategy. I’ve experienced a great ‘package’ of strategic learning that has not engaged the right stakeholders from the get-go. When I worked at Bendigo Kangan Institute we made a strategic decision to deliver courses in a flipped learning model – so pre-work done prior to coming to campus, and campus learning focused on practical demonstrations and experiences for the students to apply the theory they learnt independently. The strategic vision was only realised when COVID hit and the teachers HAD to use the digital resources developed. Their buy-in and engagement should have occurred prior to a national pandemic – and it was something I advocated for at a senior management level. I have also worked in some corporate environments when the stakeholder engagement is not expansive enough and the ‘them’ and ‘us’ prevails. Assuming that leaders will be advocates is a mistake – do they have the bandwidth to support the strategic changes? Do they fully buy-in or are they ticking the box as a mandatory task? Authentic leadership is paramount to embrace strategic change.
PUBLIC SECTOR
The ABC also talked to ‘people advocates’ in their strategy to engage the organisation in the developments. The difference between the Qantas model and the ABC model was identifying the micro and macro influences. Building a team of CHANGE advocates and ensuring their is alignment. I was reassured with the notion of identifying WHO are the learners and a genuine engagement with the UP and DOWN focus, the compromise along the way, particularly when the projects are ‘go to market’ initiatives that require shorter, more agile sprints to ‘land’ with the greater audience. Building the profile of advocates – from all levels is vital for a strategic learning initiative to stick.
STRATEGY NOTEBOOK & References
theory of practice architectures (Links to an external site.) (Kemmis and Grootenboer, 2008)
Make notes in your strategy notebook about what you’ve been reading and listening to so far. How are your thoughts about learning strategy shaping up? What ideas do you have about a group for which you can plan a learning strategy for your work in this subject?
I really loved listening to Michelle Ockers podcast – Learning Uncut. Instinctively I’ve followed the 9 key elements so it was really great to hear them fleshed out to be a thorough strategic approach to developing a sound and sustainable learning strategy.
I definitely concur that a learning strategy must be aligned with the commercial coals of an organisation to ensure buy in from all relevant stakeholders. I’ve jotted down some key points from the podcast, because they will help with Assessment #2:
1. Vision for Learning strategy – HOW will it help the organisation?
2. Value Proposition – Identifies the different stakeholder groups and the relative benefits the strategy will provide for each group
3. Drivers to Change – Why change is needed. What is the case for change and what evidence do you have to support this?
4. Principles – to guide consistent decision-making
5. Pillars – shifts and improvements required – could be Technology/Culture/Governance/Risk/Innovation
6. Success indicators – track and demonstrate progress and make required adjustments
7. Time Horizons – 3-5 years to achieve vision – identify shifts and outcomes.
8. Operating model – HOW to deliver the strategy
9. Business case – robust and tested business case for investment.
A strong learning strategy will have a clear and compelling case – consulting widely for evidence. Creating high engagement before the strategy has landed.
The other elements I thought were really important to include:
Diagnose – (conducting research/SWOT)
Strategise – Value prop
Implement – test and iterate soft launch
Sustain Strategy – governance structure/evaluation process and continuous improvement
Practitioner tales: Jeremy Millar and Martin Southgate (ABC)
The organisation I currently work for is managing a merger at the moment and there is not a clear roadmap for the strategic developments, education or otherwise.
It was interesting hearing the strategic prioritising practiced at the ABC and the extensive stakeholder engagement required, to establish a strategy. I think the engagement with extensive stakeholders is key to developing a sustainable and effective strategy. The ABC is mandated to engage with political parties and the general public to receive endorsement of their strategy, not just the internal senior managers, board and workers. Perhaps this additional layer of governance creates an accountability that is sometimes lacking in SMEs and even education environments. It also allows for the required rigorous prioritision and utlising their resources effectively and efficiently (to support the commercial imperatives of the organisation) in the senior managers’ strategic practices – in their BAU.
One roadmap, song-sheet or page – the entire organisation must know what the strategy is so plans can always be linked to it. Strategy can adapt, look at the recent global response to learning strategies due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As long as the relevant stakeholders are aware of any required shifts or improvements to be made a strategy can adapt to changing climates – political, geo-political global, financial and others.
Overview: Practice approaches allow us to think more dynamically about both organisations and organisational learning in that they take a more dynamic and networked perspective on what an organisation is and how it operates. The unit of study is not the individual but the “practices” or webs of interaction in workplaces.
Overview: Complexity approaches refer to the theoretical and analytical tools used to investigate specific types of systems called complex systems. A complex system is one where there is a network of components with little or no central control and simple operational rules that bring about complex collective behaviours. Such approaches view organisations as examples of complex systems where the focus is on the interactions between the “agents” in the system.
What can you take away from a practice approach to OL to use in your learning strategy for this subject? What can you take into your professional practice more generally?
I think the practice approach is the best approach to change management – which is ostensibly what my organisation is currently managing.
Using Leadership Training across the entire workforce is an attempt to reinforce practices representing the identified pillars to improve interactions at all levels of the organisation and to implement the much needed change to create a commercial viable model.
Implementing an effective learning strategy requires change, whether that be a change for the learners, change within the organisation or group on how you do things, or even role changes.
Take, for example, when an overarching strategy requires us to create and develop a pipeline of diverse leaders. This means that not only are we developing the leaders, but we are also having an impact on how they are identified, how they are supported by their managers, and how this needs to be communicated to, and with, them.
We can reduce change risk by understanding how people change and what we can put in place to support their engagement and commitment to the change. Below are two models which will help you to understand this concept.
SCARF and ADKAR models
The SCARF model appears to be more focused on research in neuro science and focusing on the individual whilst the ADKAR model appears to be more organisational – looking at how to create a culture of change.
SCARF:
Status – sense of personal worth
Certainty – sense of what the future holds
Autonomy – sense of control over life
Relatedness – sense of safety with others
Fairness – sense of Fairness
ADKAR:
Awareness – of the need for change
Desire – to participate and support the cages
Knowledge – on how to change
Ability – to implement new skills and behaviours
Reinforcement – to sustain the change
COGNITIEVE LOAD AND CHANGE FATIGUE – John Sweller
Load up a few pieces of information to your memory at a time. Working memory. SCHEMA – structures which we organise and hold information.
Reduce your cognitive load. Increase focus.
References
- Kübler-Ross, E. (1969). On Death and Dying. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203010495
- Bridges, W., & Bridges, S. M. (2016). Managing transitions: Making the most of change (4th edition.). Da Capo Lifelong Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Based on your reading, what are the elements of organisational learning most aligned with sustainable organisations and sustainable OL? What can you take from this article to apply to your own professional practice and to your learning strategy for this subject?
A management orientation supporting continual
adaptability and learning, leads to a better linkage among the three pillars (i.e. economic,
environmental and social) of sustainability (Jamali, 2006).
adds to knowledge in the field by approaching
sustainability as a systematic business process (Jamali, 2006).
openness to new ideas and
participative policymaking,
e dimensions: learning orientation;
learning process; and learning leadership.
Battistella, C., Cicero, L. and Preghenella, N. (2021), Sustainable organisational learning in sustainable companies (Links to an external site.), The Learning Organization, 28(1), pp. 15-31.
The company objectives are economic (pursuing economic
Sustainable
companies
21
sustainability through the concept of shared value creation with stakeholders);
environmental (pursuing environmental sustainability through the concept of
respect, which translates into the principles of not polluting, not wasting and using
renewable resources); and social (pursuing social sustainability through the concept
of growth, knowledge-creation and self-realisation). The concept of sustainable is achieved by
focus on
learning processes and social learning
- Economic sustainability: Is your strategy aligned with the resources and budget that you have available? If you need more, what do you need and where will it come from?
- What can you re-use or re-purpose from earlier projects? (e.g. online learning modules or assets, videos, programs that can be updated)
- What is no longer fit for purpose and can’t be re-used or re-purposed?
- Does your strategy place an economic cost on learners (time or money)? Is this justified? Could it impede access?
- Environmental sustainability: How can you use resources responsibly?
- Are you using existing resources responsibly? Are you only creating new things that are truly required?
- What choices can you make to be environmentally sustainable (e.g. producing resources, using venues)?
- Do you need/want to educate people about environmental sustainability as part of your learning strategy? Will this be stand-alone or incorporated into all programs/materials where possible?
Key questions for your strategy
- Social Responsibility:
- Is you strategy inclusive? This includes the tools you plan to use, language, etc.
- Is your strategy respectful of different cultural and other backgrounds? Are you making any inappropriate assumptions about the people who will be a part of the strategy?
- Is your strategy accessible for all? Does it provide equitable opportunities for workplace and professional learning for all concerned?
- Does your strategy provide sufficient resources to enable wide participation?
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
The answer (or answers) to the question — where are we now? — address the foundation of your learning strategy, and it can serve as an outline for the following sections of your strategic learning plan:
- Mission or vision statement – what does the end-state look like?
- Core values and guiding principles
- Identification of competing organizations
- Analysis (e.g heat maps)
WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Answers to this question help you identify your goals for the future in terms of learning for your organisation or group and to assess whether your current trajectory is the future you want. These aspects of the plan outline a strategy for achieving success and can include the following:
- Vision statement about what learning will look like in the future
- What is happening (both internally and externally) and what needs to change
- The factors necessary for success
HOW DO WE GET THERE?
The answers to this question help you outline the many routes you can take to achieve your vision and develop a plan for getting there. This is where you might map out specific initiatives and provide timelines for projects.
You could include the following sub-sections here:
- Specific and measurable goals
- Objectives
- An execution plan that identifies who manages and monitors the plan
- An evaluation plan that shows how you plan to measure the successes and setbacks that come with the implementation
BetterEvaluation (2014) BetterEvaluation Rainbow Framework and Planning Tool. Retrieved from www.betterevaluation.org
UTS Portfolio - Professional & Organisational Learning 