May 21

Hi IIP Partners

It's been a busy couple of weeks in IIP. The student teams have been holding mid-project check-ins with each of you and we've been focusing on proof of concept and diffusion of innovation in our weekly classes. Thanks so much to those of you who've been able to join us the last two Thursdays to share your insights - and thanks to all of you for making the time to have the mid-project check-ins with the student teams and to speak with the tutors about their progress.

The mid-project check-ins fed directly into the student's first assessment task, which covered the material they prepared for the check-in, plus a summary of the discussion they had with you and the next steps going forward. Feedback from the tutors has been that this year's projects are at least as insightful and advanced as last year's - which is really heartening given how disrupted this semester has been with COVID-19.

The proof of concept session on 14 May involved students and partners contributing their thoughts on what proof of concept might mean to a series of Jamboards. The student boards were based on their core degrees and we found some interesting patterns emerging, such as business students focusing more on financial cost-benefit, communications students looking at how you can sell a creative brief or vision, and science students focusing on gathering evidence that is statistically valid and reproducible. The partner Jamboard also ended up with a wide diversity of views around what is most important for a proof of concept and I created a transdisciplinary Jamboard to highlight some key themes from the BCII, like complexity, collaboration, real-world impact, emergence, adaptation and reflexivity. For next steps we asked the student teams to have a conversation with their partner around what proof of concept might mean in relation to their project. 

The diffusion of innovation session on 21 May followed a similar pattern, with partners asked to contribute to a Jamboard on enablers and barriers for innovations to spread within organisations, while students were asked to rate their initiatives based on their relative advantage, compatibility with the organisation's practices, clear need within the target market, the presence of champions within the organisation to drive the change, and a receptive institutional context for innovation. One interesting pattern to emerge was that the students tended to score their initiative lowest for relative advantage (i.e. does the innovation offer a clear advantage over other options) while the partners identified that the greatest barriers to innovations are often institutional culture, leadership and resources. Going forward, the students were asked to develop a diffusion strategy with their partner that considers both the nature of the innovation (e.g. how can they ensure it offers a relative advantage and communicate this) and the nature of the partner organisation (e.g. how can they tap into champions, resources and enabling environments that can help their innovation to spread).

We've also been in touch with each of you about plans for the final presentations on 18 June and we'll send out calendar invitations for these shortly.

Thanks again for your involvement in IIP!

Alex