March 24

Hi IIP Partners,

Well I don't suppose any of us started the year expecting to be where we are now, with COVID-19 posing a serious health threat to many of our most vulnerable Australians and major disruptions to almost every industry sector! Our first priority is to protect the health of our students, staff and partners, which is why UTS has implemented a weeklong teaching pause (ending today) and is moving to forms of teaching and learning that maintain social distancing. I hope you are all safe and well, as you are no doubt implementing your own changes to how you work and live.

In true BCII fashion, we'll be dealing with this constantly-changing landscape by focusing on embracing adaptation and working with pervasive uncertainty. These were always key themes for this subject, but will just be a little more prominent than we expected this year! A subject redesign plan was released last week that sees us pivoting towards online learning for students and remote meetings using Zoom or other platforms. If face-to-face classes become possible before the end of semester, we have the flexibility to shift some of our activities back into the BCII studio space. For now, students can continue to meet with you and each another in small group settings (including in your workplaces if that's feasible for you), but we've asked the students to ensure that a remote access option is available for anyone who can't be there in person.

The next few weeks will be a period of adjustment for everyone. The students will be undertaking their elective subjects between now and Easter - either Envisioning Futures or New Knowledge-Making Lab. These subjects will equip them with important skills that they can apply to your complex challenges, but in the short-term they may have less time to spend on the 'deep dive' phase of their complex challenges. I imagine that many of you also have some adjustments to make at this time and hopefully a quieter period for these projects will give everyone a bit of space to adapt to changing circumstances. We will also be working closely with the students to ensure they show understanding and flexibility at this time.

One thing that students will be asking you over the next couple of weeks is a series of questions about trends in your industry sector. We've asked them to arrange an interview with you on this topic between Wed 25 March and Wed 1 April. This can be in-person, via videolink or even just questions and answers emailed back and forth between you and the student team. This work will set them up well for the next phase of their projects starting after Easter, where they will be generating ideas to address your challenges and pitching these ideas back to you to produce an agreed pathway forwards

If you are facing any challenges in supporting your team at any stage or there's anything we can do to make these arrangements smoother, please let me or the Industry Partnerships Team know. Thank you again for all your support for our student teams and I'm really glad we were able to meet in person in the first week to get things started.

Thanks and stay safe

Alex

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.