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  

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

Gartner  Group  Hype  Cycle

MOOCHype  Cycle

What  is  Innovation?

• Something  fresh (new,  original  or  improved)  that  creates  value.

Yet  some  of  the  best  thinkers  miss  out  on  the  concept  of  innovation  all  

together.

I  think  there  is  a  world  market  for  maybe  five  

computers.

Thomas  WatsonChairman  IBM,  1946

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.

Ken  Olsen,  Founder  Digital  Equipment  Company  

1977

There  is  no  reason  why  anyone  would  want  a  computer  in  their  home.

Why  ???

•They  are  so  successful  with  what  they  are  doing  they  can’t  see  the  next  curve  or  wave  of  change  coming.

ICE

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.

So  What  do  we  do?

How  do  we  define  ourselves?

COREOptimizing  existing  systems

TRANSFORMATIONAL

ADJACENTExpanding  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

Expertise  (“the  way  we  do  things  around  here”)  can  be  a  road  block  to  

problem  solving  and  to  the  development  of  Next  Practices.

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!”

Market Leader Thinking• Dominant logic: “That’s the way we do

things here.”

VII

Shown below is the Roman numeral seven. By adding only a single line, turn it into an eight.

IX

• Shown below is a Roman numeral nine. By adding only a single line, turn it into a six.

SIX

IX6

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.

• The Right Answer

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?

The Second Right Answer• What is the answer? • What are the answers?

• The Right Answer

• That’s not logical

• SOFT • HARD

• Logic• Metaphor• Dream• Reason• Precision• Humor• Consistency• Ambiguity• Play• Work• Exact• Approximate

• Direct• Focused• Fantasy• Reality• Paradox• Diffuse• Analysis• Hunch• Generalization• Specifics• Child• Adult

• 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

• 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

Cat - Refrigerator

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.

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.

Delivery  Skills

• Analyzing• Planning• Detailed  Implementing• Disciplined  Executing

The  transformative  person  incorporates  skills  from  a  far  different  dimension.

• Why  accept  the  status  quo?

• Look  for  new  and  better  ways!

Delivery  Skills

• Analyzing• Planning• Detailed  Oriented  Implementing

• Disciplined  Executing

Discovery  Skills

• Questioning• Observing• Networking• Experimenting• Associational  Thinking

Question  Storming

• What  is…• What  caused….• Why…  Why  not….• What  if…

Why  do  we  breakup  content  into  disciplines  and  structure  learning  

that  way?

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.

Examples..

• The  world  is  flat• Smoking  is  not  bad  for  us• Telephones  need  cords

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.

Now  focus  on  education  and  learning.  Forget  Unlearn  Dismantle

• IQ  determines  ability  to  learn

• Cursive  is  essential

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.

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……

If  you  are  to  innovate  you  must  define  yourself  by:“What  You  provide”

Danger  Zones• Prioritizing….  Think  about  combining  best  features

• Tactical  vs.  Conceptual….  Don’t  worry  about  going  off  course

• Group  Think….Brilliant  ideas  are  notalways  created  by  groups  or  consensus.    

Activity  #  2

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.

Reporting  Out

Don’t tell me there is something that educators

can’t accomplish in the field of education.

WE need to become the AGENTS

of change.

Thank  You

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”

First  practice  must  change,  then  results,  

then  policy.

System Innovation

Sustaining  Innovation

Next  Practice

Disruptive  Innovation