Stepping Into the Innovation Zone

A presentation by Ray McNulty from the 2015 Midwest Brain & Learning Summer Institute

Transcript

1. Stepping  into  the   Innovation  Zone Ray  McNulty,  Senior  Fellow,  International  Center  for   Leadership  in  Education  and  Dean  of  the  School  of  Education   Southern  New  Hampshire  University  
2. What’s  your  Profile  Survey • You  received  a  “What’s  your  Profile   Survey”  when  you  entered…  Please   complete  the  survey  and  then  score  it… I  won’t  make  a  list  with  your  scores!!!  It  is   just  a  simple  tool…   Thanks,  Ray
3. Gartner  Group   Hype  Cycle MOOC Hype  Cycle
4. What  is  Innovation? • Something  fresh (new,  original   or  improved)  that  creates   value.
5. Yet  some  of  the  best   thinkers  miss  out  on  the   concept  of  innovation  all   together.
6. I  think  there  is  a  world   market  for  maybe  five   computers. Thomas  Watson Chairman  IBM,  1946
7. Western  Union  Memo  1876 The  telephone  has  too  many   shortcomings  to  be  seriously   considered  as  a  means  of   communication.  The  device  is   inherently  of  no  value  to  us.
8. Ken  Olsen,   Founder  Digital  Equipment  Company   1977 There  is  no  reason  why  anyone   would  want  a  computer  in  their   home.
9. Why  ??? •They  are  so  successful  with   what  they  are  doing  they  can’t   see  the  next  curve  or  wave  of   change  coming.
10. ICE
11. The  Big  Mistake •They  define  themselves  by  what   they  do,  rather  than  what  they   “provide”. •You  limit  your  ability  to  innovate   if  you  define  yourself  by  what   you  do.
12. So  What  do  we  do? How  do  we  define  ourselves?
13. CORE Optimizing  existing   systems TRANSFORMATIONAL ADJACENT Expanding  from  existing   to  new  ways  of  working Developing  breakthroughs   and  inventing  things  that  do   not  exist  right  now TRADITIONALLY  SUCCESSFUL  LEARNERS  TO  MOST  DISTANT  LEARNERS TRADITIONAL  SYSTEM  TO  INNOVATIVE  SYSTEM  TO  TRANSFORMATIVE  SYSTEM Best Practices Next Practices
14. Expertise  (“the  way  we  do  things   around  here”)  can  be  a  road  block  to   problem  solving  and  to  the   development  of  Next  Practices.
15. Why is it so hard to change? • The more successful a system is, the more difficult it is to recognize when it must change. By example, market leaders are the last ones to transform. • The American Education System, “The market leader during the industrial era!”
16. Market Leader Thinking • Dominant logic: “That’s the way we do things here.”
17. VII Shown below is the Roman numeral seven. By adding only a single line, turn it into an eight.
18. IX • Shown below is a Roman numeral nine. By adding only a single line, turn it into a six.
19. SIX
20. IX6
21. Mental Locks • We don’t need to be creative for most of what we do (driving, shopping, business of living). So staying on routine thought paths enables us to do many things without having to think about it. • Our training as educators has taught us that there is one right answer.
22. • The Right Answer
23. Five beautiful and well-dressed woman are standing in a tight group. One is crying and she has never been happier. The other four are smiling and they have never been more disappointed. Why?
24. The Second Right Answer • What is the answer? • What are the answers?
25. • The Right Answer • That’s not logical
26. • SOFT • HARD
27. • Logic • Metaphor • Dream • Reason • Precision • Humor • Consistency • Ambiguity • Play • Work • Exact • Approximate • Direct • Focused • Fantasy • Reality • Paradox • Diffuse • Analysis • Hunch • Generalization • Specifics • Child • Adult
28. • SOFT • Metaphor • Dream • Humor • Ambiguity • Play • Approximate • Fantasy • Paradox • Diffuse • Hunch • Generalization • Child • HARD • Logic • Reason • Precision • Consistency • Work • Exact • Reality • Direct • Focused • Analysis • Specific • Adult
29. • SOFT • Shades of gray • Hard to pick up • Many answers • Flood light, diffused • HARD • Black and white • Easy to pick up • Right answer • Focused like a spot light
30. Cat - Refrigerator
31. The  Challenge • Build  the  tallest  free  standing  structure   with  the  marshmallow  at  the  highest  point. • You  have  20  sticks  of  spaghetti,  one  yard   of  tape,  one  yard  of  string  and  a   marshmallow • Teams  of  4 • 18  minutes • Use  as  much  or  as  little  of  the  supplies  as   you  like.
35. The  skill  set  for  doing  this  is  called… We  all  work  hard  in  education  to  efficiently   deliver  the  next  thing  that  should  be  done  to   help  our  students  learn.
36. Delivery  Skills • Analyzing • Planning • Detailed  Implementing • Disciplined  Executing
37. The  transformative  person  incorporates   skills  from  a  far  different  dimension. • Why  accept  the  status  quo? • Look  for  new  and  better  ways!
38. Delivery  Skills • Analyzing • Planning • Detailed  Oriented   Implementing • Disciplined  Executing Discovery  Skills • Questioning • Observing • Networking • Experimenting • Associational  Thinking
39. Question  Storming • What  is… • What  caused…. • Why…  Why  not…. • What  if…
40. Why  do  we  breakup  content  into   disciplines  and  structure  learning   that  way?
41. Forget,  Unlearn,  Dismantle • This  is  the  first  step  in  innovation. • We  need  to  let  go  of  the  old,  in  order  to  make   way  for  the  new. •More  Importantly,  we  need  to  let   go  of  the  old  concepts  that  have   been  guiding  us  in  the  past.
42. Examples.. • The  world  is  flat • Smoking  is  not  bad  for  us • Telephones  need  cords
43. What  does  this  tell  us? • We  may  not  be  right  all  the  time. • Times  change • What  was  right,  appropriate,  common   knowledge,  politically  correct  at  one  time  may   not  be  so  anymore.
44. Now  focus  on  education  and  learning.   Forget  Unlearn  Dismantle • IQ  determines  ability  to  learn • Cursive  is  essential
45. Stupid  Rules • If  you  could  kill  or  change  all  the  stupid  rules   that  get  in  the  way  of  better  serving  our   students,  what  would  those  rules  be? • Make  a  list  of  those  stupid  rules  in  your  group.
46. Stupid  Rules • If  you  could  kill  or  change  all  the  stupid  rules   that  get  in  the  way  of  better  serving  our   students,  what  would  those  rules  be? • Now  as  a  group  come  up  with  your  Top  Two   Stupid  Rules  to  share……
47. If  you  are  to  innovate  you   must  define  yourself  by: “What  You  provide”
48. Danger  Zones • Prioritizing….  Think  about  combining  best   features • Tactical  vs.  Conceptual….  Don’t  worry   about  going  off  course • Group  Think….Brilliant  ideas  are  not always  created  by  groups  or  consensus.    
49. Activity  #  2
50. What  kind  of  education  is  needed   at  this  moment  of  history?   Take  10  minutes  of  fanciful  thinking  on  your  own.     _____________________________ Now  take  another  15  minutes  and  come  up  with  a   group  design/theory/idea  for  Education  Next to   share.
51. Reporting  Out
52. Don’t tell me there is something that educators can’t accomplish in the field of education.
54. WE need to become the AGENTS of change.
55. Thank  You
56. Knowing  with  certainty  that  someone  has   mastered  a  discipline  means  it  shouldn’t   matter  how  the  person  got  there  or  what   school  they  attended.  At  that  point,   traditional  education’s  monopoly  on   delivery  would  end  and  America  would  see   a  myriad  of  new  models  and  providers  of   education.   Kwela  Sabine  Hermanns, “The  Great  Shift: Moving  from  Inputs  to  Outputs”
57. First  practice  must   change,  then  results,   then  policy.
58. System Innovation
59. Sustaining  Innovation Next  Practice
60. Disruptive  Innovation