2 assesments to do

BSBSTR601 Student Guide 11-08-21.docx

STUDENT GUIDE

BSBWRT301 Write simple documents Trainer Guide

MANAGE INNOVATION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

BSBSTR601

BSBSTR601 Manage innovation and continuous improvement | 3

First published 2021

RTO Works www.rtoworks.com.au

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Contents

Overview 4

Topic 1: Working within a team 5

Topic 2: Improvements 17

Topic 3: Implementing innovative processes 22

Topic 4: Developing the necessary c u lture and tools 30

Overview

The Student Guide should be used in conjunction with the recommended reading and any further course notes or activities given by the trainer/assessor.

Application of the unit

This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to sustain and develop an environment in which continuous improvement, innovation and learning are promoted and rewarded.

The unit applies to individuals with managerial responsibilities who aim to build a better and more effective work environment. Continuous improvement and innovation have links with the model of the learning organisation and people working at this level play an important role in building the culture, values and attitudes of the organisation.

No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

Learning goals

Learning goals include:

· You are able to establish ways of working within a team.

· You are able to identify improvements.

· You are able to implement innovative processes.

· You are able to develop a workplace culture and tools for continuous improvement, innovation and learning.

Topic 1: Working within a team

This topic explores ways of working within a team including communicating expectations and outcomes, strategies to monitor and evaluate performance, identifying opportunities for improvement and communicating with the team on ways to innovate and improve.

Continuous improvement and innovation

Continuous improvement is an ongoing effort within an organisation to improve its products and/or services, as well as systems and processes.

A successful company will generally not be happy with the status quo and will always seek to continuously improve. This in turn is likely to mean the company’s performance will improve, along with profitability.

Innovation on the other hand is about creating and implementing new ideas, creating dynamic products or improving existing services. Innovation can be a catalyst for the growth and success of a business and can help the business to adapt and grow in the marketplace.

The words continuous improvement and innovation are sometimes used interchangeably. The following article provides a useful insight into the differences.

	Activity: Read and discuss
	Read through the information at: https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/7022-knowing-the-difference-between-innovation-vs-improvement The trainer/assessor will facilitate a discussion about the differences.

A continuous improvement system encompasses the following:

· People and culture

· Process improvement

· Key performance indicators

· Goals and objectives

· Learning and development

· Innovation and creativity

· Technology.

The continuous improvement systems and processes that can be used in an organisation include:

· Continuous improvement register, where all issues identified and changes made are recorded.

· Feedback form: this could be used to collect feedback from both staff and customers. The feedback can be analysed and then changes shown on the continuous improvement register.

· Pareto chart: used to identify the cause of a problem which occurs most often and to rank from most common to least common.

· Continuous improvement plan that sets out actions to be taken into the future.

Quality management and continuous improvement theories

It is useful to look at the range of theories on quality management and continuous improvement as well as creativity and innovation theories and concepts.

These theories and concepts can provide useful information and processes for managing and implementing continuous improvement. Some continuous improvement theories are explained:

Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese work and essentially means to change for the better. It is a general philosophy that could also be applied to a person’s personal life and not just to a business organisation. The two core beliefs that inform how Kaizen operates are that everything can be improved and that small gradual changes can lead to significant overall and long-term improvements. The philosophy of Kaizen developed from the Toyota Way, an approach that grew Toyota into one of the largest manufacturers of cars in the world.

Kaizen can be applied in a number of simple ways in the workplace. For example, asking staff to look around their work area to discover small problems and at the same time to consider a way to resolve the problem. There could also be a suggestion box for staff that allows staff to continuously locate gaps, inefficiencies and other suggestions for improvement. All ideas from staff could go up to a “Kaizen Committee” which meets to discuss ideas from staff.

	Activity: Read
	Read more about how to use Kaizen for continuous improvement in the workplace at the following link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140610090246-4806191-how-to-use-kaizen-in-the-workplace-for-continuous-improvement/ Take any notes to summarise what you have read and keep for future reference.

Lean

In contrast to Kaizen, which is a general approach to continuous improvement, Lean is a methodology with a background in manufacturing that focuses on specific type of metrics. The methodology was formulated a long time ago and contributed to the success of Henry Ford’s Model T. The main focus of this model is to eliminate waste in order to free up time to increase value to customers.

The main target of this approach is efficiency across the system (value stream). It has proven quite successful in improving or removing all the inefficient steps of a process that waste time, energy, finance or raw materials. Lean provides a competitive edge since it allows a business to manufacture products or provide services faster and at lower costs. It also is easy to learn, which makes it easy for all employees to be involved in improvements.

	Activity: Watch
	Watch this short, amusing video about Lean, Kaizen and continuous improvement. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PcAGlXvXJ4 (03:24) Take down any key takeaways. Your trainer/assessor will facilitate a discussion after you have watched the video.

Six Sigma

Kaizen and Lean both look at resources and ways to optimise a process. However, the main focus of Six Sigma is achieving consistent and reliable results. It is primarily focused on improving the quality of the result or outcome of the process.

Six Sigma strives to achieve near perfection in terms of a process such that the process succeeds 99.99966% of the time. To achieve this seemingly impossible result, training and coaching is required in order to learn the tools and framework. Ultimately use of the model is designed to achieve lower costs, improved customer satisfaction, and helps to drive continuous improvement in order to achieve higher and higher sigma levels.

	Activity: Watch
	Watch this video about Six Sigma. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EDYfSl-fmc (08:58) Take down any key takeaways. Your trainer/assessor will facilitate a discussion after you have watched the video.

Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach that seeks to improve quality and performance which will meet or exceed customer expectations.

The approach focuses on achieving this through integrating all quality-related functions and processes throughout a business. TQM focusses on the overall quality measures used by a company including managing quality design and development, quality control and maintenance, quality improvement, and quality assurance.

TQM takes into account all quality measures taken at all levels and involving all company employees

A number of key principles can be identified in defining TQM, including:

· Top management act as the main driver for TQM and create an environment that ensures its success.

· Staff receive regular training on the methods and concepts of quality.

· Improvements in quality should improve customer satisfaction.

· Quality decisions should be made based on measurements.

· Use of appropriate methodology and tools ensures that non-conformance incidents are identified, measured, and responded to consistently.

· Companies should continuously work towards improving manufacturing and quality procedures.

· The culture of the company should aim at developing employees ability to work together to improve quality.

· Staff should be encouraged to be pro-active in identifying and addressing quality related problems.

Objectives, expectations and desired outcomes

Building teams to support innovation can provide focus and meaning to the process; demonstrating commitment and leadership; can go toward creating an environment that enables engagement, creativity and collaboration.

When you are maximising opportunities for innovation in your team you will be allowing individuals to work independently to create new ideas; encouraging collaboration and brainstorming; using and maximising peoples strengths, skills and abilities and providing the support and environment to show creativity and share knowledge

You will therefore have to identify team members and communicate ways of working by providing them with clear:

· Objectives: a breakdown of goals that they need to achieve. This should align with the organisational goals and objectives. Objectives need to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely).

· Expectations: the behaviours and actions to achieve the objectives.

· Desired outcomes: what needs to be achieved.

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As a manager it would be your responsibility to communicate what these are; this could be through a team induction meeting and going through the organisational policies and procedures.

To manage innovation and continuous improvement you will need to implement strategies to monitor and evaluate performance and sustainability of key systems and processes.

A monitoring and evaluation strategy can provide a process for review and analysis of performance. It can provide a basis for continuous improvement by looking at successes and challenges.

At a high level, monitoring and evaluation should include looking at:

· Benchmarks can be used to provide an indication of how effective systems and processes are working. You have to provide an idea of expected results so this can be compared against actual performance.

· Monitoring plans can be used to establish what is important, what will be monitored, how it will be monitored, by whom and how often.

· Performance indicators can be used to measure whether or not goals are being achieved. This could be result orientated or process oriented

Consultation plays a key part in supporting the implementation of improvement processes. It provides an opportunity to identify improvements through feedback and advice from specialists or experts in their field. It also allows for open communication, promotion of innovation and continuous improvement and can ensure that there is the least resistance to change.

A consultive approach can provide an opportunity for ideas, knowledge sharing, participation and commitment.

Some benefits are to have:

· a better understanding of what needs to be done

· involvement of team members

· team cohesion

· commitment.

Stakeholders may be users of the system, managers from different functional units (marketing, accounts, technology, key decision makers (for instance directors), subject matter experts (for example IT) or workers directly involved in key systems and processes (for example HR).

Mentoring and coaching

A learning organisation is one that facilitates the learning and development of its employees as well has creating and disseminating knowledge and insights.

It is the process used by an organisation to improve over time by gaining experience and using that experience to create knowledge. The knowledge created is then transferred within the organisation.

Some of the principles relating to organisational learning from “The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge (1994) are:

· Systems thinking

· Personal mastery

· Mental models

· Shared vision

· Team learning.

	Activity: Read
	Read more on Peter Senge principles of learning: https://leadtogether.org/principles-of-a-learning-organization-five-disciplines-senge/ Take any notes to summarise what you have read and keep for future reference.

To put this into context, there are some factors that an organisation would need to consider if they were to develop a learning organisation:

· Leadership to support learning

· Taking responsibility for learning

· Aligning learning with results

· Creating a learning culture

· Facilitating learning

· Using knowledge management systems

· Allowing for experimentation and risk taking

· Rewards and incentives for learning

· Creating opportunity to learn, develop, reflect.

Therefore, to support and encourage team members to be innovative and embrace continuous improvement, it is important to effectively communicate, mentor and coach your team. It supports fostering a culture of sharing knowledge, innovation and the promotion and use of systems.

Mentoring

Mentoring is a directive method of instructing an individual based on the prior experience of the mentor. Mentoring can be a valuable solution as a one-on-one training method.

Coaching

Coaching is a process whereby a coach facilitates and supports a learner to access their own internal knowledge and existing experience to problems solve and source solutions to the challenges and experiences they are facing. Coaching is advice and direction free and not suitable where formal training is required.

Using mentoring and coaching can help to develop skills, and in the process identify any additional training and development needs. Mentoring and coaching programmes are a great way of helping employees succeed and ultimately the innovation and continuous improvement process being successful.

It can support ways of working through:

· an innovative culture

· diversity and inclusion

· leadership and management communications

· rewards and incentives

· how resources are used

· information management practices

· understanding policies and procedures.

Creativity and innovation theories and concepts

When you work with teams to build a better and more effective work environment, creative thinking can help to develop ideas, gain feedback, create open communication and build upon developing an innovative workplace.

Collaboration fosters innovation! You can do this by creating an environment for:

· regular brainstorming sessions

· seeking feedback, ideas and thoughts of team members

· cultivating a can-do attitude to motivate employees

· using technology such as collaboration software or video conferencing

· allowing new ways of working such as huddle room spaces for quiet and collaborative use of space

· creating natural meeting experiences and removing technological barriers

There are different ways to stimulate creative thinking and generate ideas. Some common approaches are:

· Brainstorming

· Mind mapping

· High thinking

· Tangential thinking

· Software programs

· Workshops

· Focus groups

· Open discussion

· Desk research

· Using online community for research

· Visualisation/graphical aids

· Lateral thinking games

· Trigger words

· Vision circles

· Word salads

Image by fauxels on Pexels

· Morphological analysis.

	Activity: Read
	Read about Edward de Bono’s six thinking hats: http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php Some good ideas for fostering creativity can be found on this website: http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/30-things-you-can-do-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/ Take notes and keep for future reference.

Mind Maps

Mind maps are used to map out the basic ideas from a central problem. They are used in brainstorming sessions or individuals use them to visualize ideas.

The basic problem is written in the centre and then the ideas are branched out from it in order to arrive at a number of different possible approaches.

This provides a spatially visual overview, which can be easier to then understand or approach

	Activity: Watch
	Learn how to use mind mapping. Video: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm (02:55) Take down any key takeaways.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a process used for generating creative ideas/solutions. It uses a free-for-all group discussion. All members of the group are encouraged to participate, suggesting as many ideas as possible – no holds barred. It is only after the brainstorming session that the issues/ideas raised should then be analysed and discussed in further detail.

	Activity: Read
	See further information about brainstorming: https://www.mindtools.com/brainstm.html

The following are some theories used for innovation and creativity:

Diffusion of innovations

The diffusion of innovations is an example of a past innovation theory. It was developed in 1962 by Everett Rogers. The key purpose of the theory is to explain how over a period of time, an idea or product gains momentum and diffuses (or spreads) through a specific population (or social system).

The end result of this diffusion is that individuals who are part of the social system adopt the new idea, product where adoption means that the individual does something different such as purchase or use a new product or behave in a different way.

The theory maintains that the key to adoption is that the person must perceive the idea or product as new or innovative and thus that diffusion is possible.  The theory also focuses on the fact that there are different types of adopters i.e. some people are more likely to adopt the innovation than others. The theory breaks adopters into five categories being innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. The majority of the population tend to fall into the middle categories.

This theory has a number of limitations. For example, diffusion is difficult to quantify because humans and human networks are complex, and it is very difficult to identify and measure what exactly causes adoption of an innovation. Diffusion of innovation theory cannot account for all variables involved in adoption and may therefore miss critical predictors of adoption.

Disruptive innovation theory

Disruptive innovation theory is a more modern theory of innovation developed by Clayton M. Christensen beginning in 1995 and has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century by some.

In disruptive innovation theory, an innovation is one that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts existing ones, thereby displacing established companies, products and alliances. It is important to understand what a disruptive innovation is, for example, the introduction of cars was not a disruptive innovation because they were so expensive, it did not disrupt existing transport mechanisms. What was a disruptive innovation was when Ford (in the USA) mass produced and marketed a low price Ford Model T which therefore changed the transportation market given the masses access to cars.

The focus of disruption theory is very different to diffusion theory as it focuses on disruptive innovations initiated by companies and although the disruptive process can take longer, once deployed to the market, a fast penetration and high degree of penetration can be achieved. Therefore, in this model, innovation is not dependent on adopters.

Ozborn-Parnes model of creative problem solving

Creative Problem-Solving theory can be traced back to the work of Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes in the 1950s but has been developed further over time. Creative problem-solving theory has at its heart that everyone is creative in some way and that creative skills can be learned and enhanced. The theory indicates that there are five stages to creativity being fact findings, problem finding, idea finding, solution finding and acceptance finding.

This theory provides clear principles, as well as the steps above that can be applied in the workplace to come up with creative solutions and solve problems. For example, the following are key principles to apply:

· Asking problems as open-ended questions. This is because solutions are more readily invited and developed when challenges and problems are restated as open-ended questions with multiple possibilities.

· Defer or suspend Judgment – An instantaneous judgment in response to an idea shuts down idea generation.

· Focus on the positive – When generating information and ideas, it is important to be positive and receptive to all thoughts and ideas.

	Activity: Read
	See the following websites for further information on this model: https://prezi.com/ae99kapkqx6y/the-osborn-parnes-model-of-creative-problem-solving/ http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Brain/cps.htm Take any notes to summarise what you have read and keep for future reference.

Double Diamond

The Double Diamond approach is another model that can be applied to creative processes. In all creative processes a number of possible ideas are created (‘divergent thinking’) before refining and narrowing down to the best idea (‘convergent thinking’), and this can be represented by a diamond shape. The Double Diamond concepts indicates that this process in fact happens twice – once to confirm the problem definition and once to create the solution. The theory states that one of the greatest mistakes is to omit the left-hand diamond and end up solving the wrong problem.

There are four phases of the Double Diamond approach:

	Activity: Read
	For more information on the practical application of double diamond see: https://medium.com/seek-blog/design-thinking-101-the-double-diamond-approach-ii-4c0ce62f64c7 Take any notes to summarise what you have read and keep for future reference.

Synectic’s

Synectic’s is a creative problem-solving technique promoting creative thinking. It uses methods such as:

· Headlining and in-out listening

· The Problem owner

· Spring boarding

· Excursions.

Synectic’s is similar to brainstorming as it suspends judgment, but it also widens and deepens the process of suspending judgment in different ways than brainstorming.

It has a number of characteristics. It allows judgment of the problem description to be suspended and encourages alternative perceptions of a problem. It uses obvious irrelevant thoughts and images as clues to new ideas, allows absurd ideas and uses excursions to reproduce the phenomenon of getting new ideas apparently from nowhere.

Synectic’s also includes idea development which takes new approaches which are not practical and modifies them into feasible courses of action.

Synectic’s has three dimensions: creative thinking, creative action, and creative behaviour. Creative thinking is a technique to generate new ideas. Creative action is the implementation of these ideas, and creative behaviour is the behavioural skills required to build a supportive atmosphere.

	Activity: Watch
	Watch the following short video. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-AfXP3lyiE (04:13)

Topic 2: Improvements

For this topic we will be looking at identifying improvements based on performance, analysing changing trends and opportunities, areas for improvement, gap analysis and communicating improvement needs and opportunities.

A key focus of many of the continuous improvement theories reviewed is an initial review to find out if there are any performance problems. Thus, in aiming to create a better and more effective work environment within an organisation, the first step is to analyse performance reports and any variances from the organisational plans within the workplace and identify any issues.

Performance reports can outline actual with expected – the variances will show a favourable or unfavourable outcome. You may be looking at staff performance data, budget and expenditure, performance standards. The reports could include:

· An analysis of past performance

· A summary of any changes

· The current status

Image by  Alex Knight  on  Unsplash

· Results of variance analysis

· Forecasted projections

Performance reports can be in the form of status reports, progress reports, forecasting reports, trends, variance or work performance.

Changing trends and opportunities in workplace

When managing innovation and continuous improvement, it is important to identify changing trends and opportunities in the workplace. This can provide insights in key drivers of change and impacts. In today’s society the impact of pandemics such as Covid 19 and technology have also resulted in a number of opportunities.

Some of the top workplace trends for 2021 include:

·

BSBSTR601 Manage innovation and continuous improvement | 3

· Use of technologies to support working from home

· Societal responsibilities

· Health, safety and well-being environments

· A decentralised global workforce

· A hybrid approach to working

· Diversity and inclusion

· The use of social collaboration tools

· Shortages of knowledge workers

· Demands for greater flexibility for work

· Sustainability.

	Activity: Research and discuss
	Research three current trends and explain how it is an opportunity for an organisation to be innovative and apply continuous improvement practices. Your trainer/assessor will facilitate a discussion after you have completed your research.

Areas for improvement

It is important to collect data and can be used to analyse areas for improvement in supply chains and operational and service systems. If there is a negative or positive impact on the supply chain, then this is reflected through the business.

Supply chain management is the process of delivering a product from raw material to the consumer which encompasses supply planning, demand planning, supply management and sales and operations.

The key aspects of supply chain management includes all the flow of goods and services and the processes that transform the raw materials into the final products.

It is important for innovation and continuous improvement to develop and implement supply chains that are efficient and also economic as possible.

Data could be collected from surveys, feedback, performance data, data analytics collected from information systems or performance reports.

	Activity: Read
	Read more on the key aspects of supply chains, operational, product and service systems: https://www.michiganstateuniversityonline.com/resources/supply-chain/innovation-in-supply-chain-management/ Take any notes to summarise what you have read and keep for future reference.

Gap analysis

Once this data is collected and analysed, a gap analysis should be conducted to identify improvement needs and opportunities.

A gap analysis compares the actual performance or set of results with what was expected. It provides a way to identify any gaps which can be associated with skills, capabilities, processes, technology or missing strategies and structures. You can then make recommendations to support an organisation to meet its goals.

The method for a gap analysis can broadly cover:

· Identification of the areas needing improvement

· An analysis of the current state (you could use metrics or feedback)

· Defining quantifiable goals

· Understanding the gaps

· Developing a plan of action to meet the gaps

You can also determine improvement needs and opportunities.

For example, you may find that more staff training in the organisation’s procedures for customer service is required or a coach to provide a member of staff with support in using new systems; it could be that a process for sourcing supplier products is causing issues with delivery and there is an opportunity to change how this is undertaken.

	Activity: Watch
	Watch the following video on why gap analysis is important and read the article that follows: https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/gap-analysis-template/ Take down any key takeaways. Your trainer/assessor will facilitate a discussion after you have watched the video.

Improvement needs and opportunities

To support continuous improvement, as a manager, you will need to identify the improvement needs and opportunities of team members. This could be identified from performance reports and gap analysis.

To agree on these, you would need to use the best form of communication (for example this may be a meeting) and agree on the best way forward. Performance reviews can be a good opportunity to go communicate improvement needs and opportunities, working through goals and objectives, performance standards and expectations.

Learning opportunities

Being able to innovate does not come naturally for a lot of people. Your team will need encouragement to undertake learning opportunities to develop the necessary skills required to become an innovative thinker.

A learning and development plan can help to formalise the process of identifying skill gaps \and provide a clearly structured action plan for developing their skills further. A learning and development plan should outline and include:

· Learners needs

· Learning objectives

· A range of learning activities to address learning needs and meet objectives

· A schedule for the implementation or attendance of learning activities.

A learning plan can identify skill gaps for employees and provide a clearly structured action plan for developing their skills further.

Employees can be encouraged to take up learning opportunities through:

· reward and recognition

· personal development satisfaction

· progression in their job

· formal appraisal meetings

· communication of opportunities.

Learning needs can be address by offering both informal and formal learning activities such as:

Training

Formal and informal training can be in a variety of forms, such as internal professional development courses, external workshops or qualifications, seminars or facilitated hands on learning activities.

You can also create opportunities where people can learn from the experience of others. Coaching and mentoring is a common approach used by organisations to support this type of learning. Helping others to learn can be a rewarding experience and is often used in workplaces to support new staff or staff that are requiring further training. Providing learning opportunities help to address any challenges or barriers to innovation. Whether a formal or informal process, an organisation can provide:

Mentoring

Mentoring is a directive method of instructing an individual based on the prior experience of the mentor. Mentoring can be a valuable solution as a one-on-one training method.

Coaching

Coaching is a process whereby a coach facilitates and supports a learner to access their own internal knowledge and existing experience to problems solve and source solutions to the challenges and experiences they are facing. Coaching is advice and direction free and not suitable where formal training is required.

Workshops, information sessions, training programs and e-learning are more focussed on group learning or self-paced learning and can be used as inductions, ongoing learning or for continuous improvement.

Activity: Project

Work in small groups for this project. Divide the work equally and when you meet to discuss activities ensure that you collaborate with one another as part of a team, place an active role in encouraging and facilitating innovation, build rapport with your team and use problem solving when undertaking tasks. You are working with a team to manage and promote innovation and continuous improvement for an organisation. You may choose an organisation from either researching on the internet or one that you work for. During the course of the unit you are to undertake the following: · Consult, facilitate and contribute with your team to: Research background on the organisation Identify two areas where you think improvements could be made; Identify how you can promote the value of creativity, innovation and sustainability and recognising its success · Use one creative thinking technique to test a new idea for innovating the organisation. · Using spreadsheet software provide a cost-benefit analysis for the options identified. · Identify the risks involved in the options · Determine the change management strategy that you could use for implementing new innovations. · Brainstorm with your group and develop insights, experiences and ideas for improvements that could be incorporated into the organisations knowledge management system for future planning. Creative a continuous improvement and innovation plan that could be used to present to stakeholders. Your trainer/assessor will support you in the activity and provide you with timelines and submission deadlines for completing each task.

Topic 3: Implementing innovative processes

To implement innovative processes, this topic covers objectives, timeframes, measures and communication plans, the impact and consequence of change, contingency planning, learning from failure and capturing information through knowledge management systems.

To manage implementation, you need to have a clearly defined plan in place. This can include confirming objectives, timeframes, measures and communication plans. This can be part of an implementation strategy with an implementation plan.

The focus here is on SMART objectives that provides specific and measurable goals are achievable, realistic and timely. The timeframes must also be realistic and be integrated with the communication plan. A communication plan provides a clear framework for what is being communicated, by whom and when. It is usually developed in a table, clearly indicating actions and roles and responsibilities.

Consider the following example:

The college where you are studying has decided to implement a new innovative course. There are many implementation issues to consider, including:

· What will the resource implications be for the new course i.e. staffing and financial?

· What will be the mode of delivery?

· How will we market it, especially to protect our innovative ideas?

· Who will design it?

· Who will write it?

· How will be test it?

· How will we evaluate it?

The implementation plan will follow from the issues identified. The action plan could then be developed as follows:

Actions required	Who	When	Performance measure
Develop proposal for new course including budget and outline	RTO Manager	End June 19	Proposal for new course submitted by end of June in new course template and including budget
Submit proposal to senior management for approval	Compliance Manager	Mid July 19	Proposal for new course accepted
Develop new course	Instructional designers	November 2019	New course ready for consultation by end November
Consult with staff on new course	All staff	December 2019	Feedback on new course incorporated
Develop course materials and update student handbook to reference new course	Compliance Manager	January 2019	All materials ready for publication mid-January
Market course	Marketing staff	January 2019	50 students enrol into the course
Provide training for all staff involved in the course	Compliance Manager	February 2019	Staff participate in training and can apply understandings
Enrol new students	Compliance Manager	February 2019	50 students commence the course
Monitor new course through surveys	Compliance Manager	July to September	50 students complete the course

It is important to remember that a key part of implementation is communication. Note the above plan includes both communication to all staff, as well as students. It also includes training for staff who will be affected by the new course.

Furthermore, the implementation process would need to include monitoring and evaluation so that this can be later reviewed for its effectiveness.

Impact and consequence of change

Change is an unavoidable element of all of our lives, and the ability to seize the opportunities it provides underpins the success of all organisations. It is not enough for employees to simply survive change; people need to flourish in an ever-changing environment if they are to realise their potential and thus contribute to organisation success: this requires courageous leadership. This leadership must be underpinned by good strategies, techniques and approaches.

Change management therefore needs to be carefully considered and factored in when making changes concerning continuous improvement and innovation.

Leading change requires a manager to utilise their resources, implement improvements effectively, understand workplace culture and consult to ensure there is the least resistance to the changes.

Top 10 barriers to change include:

1. Not enough understanding about the change itself and poor alignment behind it – for example, no clear vision, direction, priorities.

2. Lack of leadership – this is needed to inspire and engage people’s energies as well as to keep relentlessly moving forward.

3. Lack of focus and strong project management of the change – no clear accountabilities and inter-dependencies between roles.

4. No engagement and/or buy-in of key stakeholders – start with a failure to identify the key stakeholders (they could be any or all of the following: employees, shareholders, customers, executive/Board, the community) and then a failure to undertake detailed analysis of their needs/preferences and a detailed communication and engagement strategy.

5. No clear process for managing endings and beginnings, and co-ordinating the change process.

6. People’s issues/ barriers to change are not defined and there are no actions to address them leading to low engagement, poor morale, a fast return to 'the old ways' and a sort of 'let's sit it out' environment.

7. People are not involved in developing quick wins and communicating them – this is needed to build credibility around change.

8. People practices are not reviewed and re-aligned – this is needed to ensure the change is sustained and to enable people to operate in a new way.

9. Successes are not recognised, communicated and/or celebrated – this is needed to increase the pace of change and gain commitment to the new way of doing things. Change is very tiring and is often something that requires extra effort – people need to see that this effort is paying off and their contribution is valued.

10. Progress is not measured, and the learning is not reviewed – this is needed to sustain the change.

Source: http://www.mlhconsulting.co.uk/blog/10-common-barriers-to-change/38

Another impact is the resistance to change. Resistance to change comes from:

· Fear of the unknown – strategy to overcome could include involving employees from the outset in decision making

· Habits – used to the way things are – strategy to overcome could be ensuring that the benefits of change are explained and understood.

· Security – existing structures give job security – as above, explain the benefits of the change and give clear guidance on the impact on employees.

· Selective information processing – individuals do not take in all information about changes because they do not wish to – multiple communication channels that students cannot ignore

· Threat to established relationships within the workplace – communication and consultation is essential.

Strategies to address impacts of change

There are a range of strategies and transition plans that can be used to address change as described below.

· A possible strategy is to ensure that there is a communication process in place to explain the benefits of change to all stakeholders, including outlining a promising future vision based on the change processes.

· Another strategy is consultation, that is involving stakeholders in the change from beginning to end and allowing them to voice their concerns and opinions. It would also be beneficial to incorporate employee suggestions into the change process.

· Another strategy is to gain support by outlining negative effects if change does not occur. For example, that the business may become less competitive and therefore that this may mean job losses.

Implementing transition plans is part of the change management process. The key phases of an effective change management process can include:

· Providing incremental change

· Clear communication of changes to all stakeholders

· Consulting with staff and seeking input and feedback

· Providing clear objectives and goals for the change

· Clear roles and responsibilities

· Achievable timeframes.

	Activity: Watch and read
	Watch the following on change management. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ0doKfhecQ (04:49) Write down your key takeaways. Read further information on the ten principles of leading change management: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/00255?gko=6c601

Contingency planning

Contingencies are used to provide a course of action which can help an organisation respond effectively to negative situations that may occur. A contingency plan can be developed to:

·

· protect resources

· prepare for unseen events

· minimising inconvenience and down time

· assigning specific responsibilities

· deal with non-performance.

For example, what would happen if:

Risk management is a structured approach to managing uncertainty and reduce the impact of risk, it includes actions taken to:

· identify

· assess

· monitor

· reduce

· avoid.

Therefore, you need to implement contingency measures, in the event of a risk occurring, for example:

Staff are not following procedures outlined in policies	Further staff training and development
Users are making mistakes with systems and processes	Provide coaching
System failures occur and data is lost	Changing back up procedures, further training
Employees are underperforming	Undertake performance review. Provide mentoring.

However, for innovation to be successful, it may be necessary to take some amount of risk. It’s not often that you can be told to take risks. It should be undertaken with some boundaries and limitations such as the amount of money that can be lost or how much risk can be tolerated.

The biggest reason why a leader may not take risks is because of the fear of failure. Sometimes, however, in order to innovate you may make mistakes and you may fail.

Its learning from the mistakes as to not repeat them and not to be afraid of failure that makes a good innovative leader.

It will depend on a managers leadership style, as covered in Topic 2, how well employees are managed and supported and how much autonomy is given to risk take.

A risk can come from changes in work practices, dealing with unforeseen impacts of innovative ideas, resources or money spent. Risks are identified through a range of processes. There are different risks associated with the type of learning taking place in an organisation, such as the risks of errors due to “on-the-job training”. These risks can be identified at team meetings, using experience or through brainstorming.

It is important that if an innovation is deemed risky, then measures and processes are put in place to minimise the risk. For example, undertaking a project in phases and only funding each phase until one has been successfully completed.

To take risks but reduce the impact you could undertake a risk analysis, find out the impacts and consequences and develop a risk management strategy to support the risks that may be involved with the innovation being implemented.

Other strategies:

· Focus on strategic priorities such as vision, mission and values.

· Use joint ventures.

· Create prototypes.

· Use grants to alleviate financial stress.

· Use incremental innovations or pilots.

· Seek professional advice.

At Google, innovative teams have timelines of three to four months to prove a concept’s viability. If the idea they are working on isn’t proven as sufficiently successful in the timeframes given, teams are disbanded and the project is shelved. Innovative ideas only go forward if they have demonstrable potential.

	Activity: Brainstorm
	How could you be a role model for taking considered risks that will provide opportunities for innovation? List some ideas!

	Activity: Read
	To increase innovation, help your team to take smarter risks: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronashkenas/2016/03/21/to-increase-innovation-help-your-team-take-smarter-risks/#7a8450ed505d Take any notes to summarise what you have read and keep for future reference.

Failures

Unfortunately, failure can occur and so it is important to follow this up through investigation and analysis of causes as well as managing challenges and opportunities.

Sometimes despite careful planning, expectations may not be met. A thorough investigation of the causes should therefore occur. This might involve:

· a review of the external environment to determine if trends have changed

· a review of the effectiveness of systems and process

· further review of employees’ performance

· finding out if there is resistance or barriers to change

· reviewing policies and procedures

· reviewing implementation plans

· analysing data collected on performance.

Sometimes there may be clear causes and in other cases, it may not be. The challenge will be to decide what to do.

Image by Ivan Samkov on Pexels

Knowledge management systems

Such investigation and learnings should always be captured within the organisation’s knowledge management system to inform future innovation and continuous improvement.

Knowledge management systems can be used to improve understanding, create collaboration, by storing information that can be accessed and shared to improve efficiency and enable informed decisions to be made.

A knowledge management system uses a knowledge base that can be accessed for supporting an organisation with:

· Knowledge sharing, supporting a culture of sharing information

· Sharing of best practices

· Establishing communities of practice within the organisation, as well as with other organisations

· Cross-project learning, as well as post project reviews

· Learning

· Gathering information for performance management

Some examples of knowledge management systems are an organisations intranet, decision support systems, content management systems, document management systems, artificial intelligence tools.

	Activity: Read
	Insight Trends look at why the innovation process can fail: http://www.altitudeinc.com/3-reasons-why-the-innovation-process-fails/ Note down any key takeaways.

	Activity: Watch
	Top ten innovations that failed. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04O_cjVqm34 (03:52) The Moment – Why does innovation fail? Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDPNciA3Uj4 (04:18) Write down your key takeaways.

Activity: Project

Divide into your project team and undertake the following: You are to provide mentoring or coaching to one team member in your group. Firstly, each discuss your own skill sets and knowledge. You are to provide a short training session to one member in your group who would need help in your specialist skill or knowledge area. For example, it could be using a piece of software, skills in performing mathematical equations or how to present in front of a group. Before you undertake the training write down a training plan with a list of objectives and an outline of the training that will take place. Your trainer/assessor will support you in the activity and provide you with timelines and submission deadlines for completing the task.

Topic 4: Developing the necessary culture and tools

This topic focusses on developing the workplace culture and tools needed for continuous improvement, innovation and learning. This includes evaluating systems, identifying costs and benefits, establishing rewards and seeking feedback.

At the beginning of identifying improvements, you would have created a list of objectives, along with key performance measures or benchmarks that could be regularly evaluated. This assists in the analysis and evaluation of performance and part of continuous improvement.

Image by  LYCS Architecture  on  Unsplash

Thus, an analysis and evaluation of a business’ current position should always be informed by its overall objectives, performance measures and performance against such measures.

Reviewing systems

In looking at reviewing systems, we might look at how well current systems within an organisation are working. A company may use many types of systems, for example, a customer relationship management system, a human resources information system and so on. A review of the system might involve looking at the user friendliness and/or functionality of the current system. This information is most likely to be gained from surveying staff who use the system and to find out the effectiveness of the system and whether there needs to be changes.

Reviewing processes

In looking at reviewing processes, a company could look at how well their current policy and procedures are working. A good example to illustrate this is the use of paper-based job application forms. While these may be a common way of getting information from job applicants to inform the recruitment process, it may not necessarily be the best way. A better way could be of implementing an online system through which job applicants can apply and which could also integrate into the human resources information management system directly. These improvements cost money of course but in the end may even save money through less staff time on the manual enrolment process.

A range of strategies might be employed to find out this type of information such as surveys. However, a thorough review of the organisation and its systems and processes may be required. The continuous improvement models can help with this noting for course the Kaizen model that it may be beneficial to implement small improvements bit by bit and that improvements will be identified over time rather than all in one go.

The continuous improvement process is a cyclic approach to continually looking to improve using incremental steps.

Among the most widely used tools for continuous improvement is a four-step quality assurance method called the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) Model. The PDCA approach is used for continually improving processes, products or services and for resolving problems. It involves systematically testing possible solutions, assessing the results, and implementing the ones that are shown to work.

The four phases of the PDCA model are:

· Plan: identify and analyse the problem or opportunity, develop hypotheses about what the issues may be, and decide which one to test.

· Do: test the potential solution, ideally on a small scale, and measure the results.

· Check/Study: study the result, measure effectiveness, and decide whether the hypothesis is supported or not.

· Act: if the solution was successful, implement it.

	Activity: Watch
	Watch this short video with more information about the PDCA. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij0y7bqRP6Q (04:40) Take down any key takeaways. Your trainer/assessor will facilitate a discussion after you have watched the video.

Costs and benefits

With any type of innovation and improvement that an organisation implements, they will need to show the costs and benefits of doing so. This should be communicated to stakeholders such as shareholders, CEO’s, directors or workers in an organisation. This will be providing meaning to decision makers and can make a difference as to whether it will be sustained and accepted as being successful.

Cost benefit analysis provides a systematic approach to identifying the costs and benefits of a range of alternatives and then comparing these to find out the net costs or benefits of each alternative and ultimately the preferred options.

There are a number of cost-benefit analysis methods that can be applied to continuous improvement and innovation, some of these are:

Incremental Benefit Cost Ratio

This method helps to determine the margin by which a project is more beneficial or costly than another project. It is used to compare alternative options to help determine which is more feasible over other projects.

Cost Net Present Value

This method considers the difference between the total discounted benefits minus the total discounted costs, which gives the Net Present Value. The higher the NPV, the greater the calculated benefits.

Sensitivity Analysis

The calculated benefits and costs may vary depending on differing assumptions about the input data and methodology applied in the cost benefit analysis. The range of potential outcomes for differing inputs can be gauged using a sensitivity analysis.

By providing a cost benefit analysis, you are able to provide clear value to continuous improvement and innovations implemented.

Activity: Case study

A business has decided to introduce new products. However, they have the option of introducing any of three new products. Establishment costs identified for each product are as follows: Course 1: $50,000 Course 2: $75,000 Course 3: $100,000 Benefits are considered to be: Product 1: Many similar products on the market but easy to sell Product 2: Easy to sell lots of the product Product 3: Highly innovative product The business will therefore need to weigh up the costs and benefits and come to a decision based on such. As you can see from this example, it would not be necessarily straight forward. Use a spreadsheet to show calculations that could be made to show the costs and benefits for running each course. You would need to make assumptions and add timeframes to provide a clear picture of the process. The following article also provides interesting guidance on cost benefit analysis: https://web.utk.edu/~nolt/courses/costbene.html

Rewards

Employee acknowledgement can be an essential tool for the success of a business as it engages employees to be more productive and motivated as well as promoting ownership and providing a platform for incentives and rewards.

Rewards and incentives for employees can be both formal and informal and engagement can be done through a number of ways:

The type of rewards and incentives can be:

· Mandated time-off: a policy that employees are encouraged to take time off at regular intervals

· Well-being activities and incentives such as gym memberships, game rooms

· Flexible working hours

· Providing a comfortable environmental set up

· Providing monetary rewards

· Informal feedback mechanisms.

Feedback

Finally, as part of reviewing the effectiveness of the systems and processes, it is important to seek and respond to feedback from all the relevant stakeholders. This could be employees, directors, shareholders or key decision makers.

Assessing the efficiencies of innovation and continuous improvement once implemented is pivotal to ensure it remains sustainable within the organisation. This can identify the strengths and limitations of systems and processes.

Using performance metrics and key performance indicators identified at implementation, provides benchmarks for comparison, however, seeking feedback can provide a different view and add toward continuous improvement.

Consulting with the users of a system will also provide a way to identify any improvements to the system. This can involve:

· Formal feedback procedures

· Informal feedback

· Focus groups

· Surveys

· Performance reviews.

Feedback from learning can help to identify any gaps or problems with the process. Once you have implemented learning activities, it’s important to track the effectiveness of them and address any further needs or to meet the organisational learning objectives.

You might do this through processes such as:

· Attaining feedback from the learners

· Record engagement and or attendance rates of learning opportunities

· Seek further input from other relevant stakeholders

· Report on the overall feedback and data collected, through the development of a report documenting the success of learning undertaken

· Seek feedback from supervisors or managers on coaching and mentoring.

You may use the feedback you collect to respond by:

· Updating and improving the learning activities implemented

· Suggesting further learning opportunities to meet learning objectives not achieved

· Design and or develop new learning opportunities

· Address the feedback on approaches used for learning

· Making changes where systems or processes have failed to be effective.

	Activity: Practical
	Using a spreadsheet, demonstrate how you could analyse the performance of staff learning activities. You may make assumptions and use dummy data. Your trainer/assessor will support you in the activity.

Performance indicators

Metrics

Outputs

Contribution to the system

How relevant the system is and to what quality it is performing

Learning and development outcomes

Budgeting and costs

Roles and responsibilities are being met

Staff retention

Accuracy and currency of content or data within the system

Discover customer problems

Define specific customer problems

Develop potential solutions

Deliver feasible and viable solutions

staff are not following procedures outlined in policies

users are making mistakes with systems and processes

system failures occur and data is lost

employees are underperforming

Using the right approach for individual’s language of recognition

Giving and providing feedback

Asking and acknowledging feedback

Genuine and immediate praise

Engaging in the interests of others

Providing appropriate, relevant and timely rewards

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