When I think about innovation, it has a dynamic sound. Something in motion, letting our creativity take flight to create new ideas. Innovation drums up images of fun, movement, even chaos. But ideas are one thing, putting them into practice is a whole other challenge. Execution matters. And when it comes to execution, the devil is in the detail. And details never sound like fun.
Photo Credit: Portland State University
At a recent webinar, USU highlighted two universities using project management techniques to execute innovations to advance student success. Portland State University (PSU) developed a project management framework to implement a set of innovations they identified by crowdsourcing ideas from their faculty and staff as part of their reThink PSU initiative.
When Portland State shared their success at a meeting of the APLU/USU Transformational Planning Grants effort, it provided a solution to the staff of University of Illinois, Chicago, who were looking for strategies to implement their own Undergraduate Success Initiative.
Photo Credit: University of Illinois at Chicago
If you are struggling to execute the great ideas emerging on your campus, here’s a one hour video of the webinar. The project management approach works. Its worth your time to take a look. If you don’t have time to watch, then you can also access the powerpoint here.
Enjoy.
How do you implement innovation? What strategies and techniques have you found to be effective?