4. Developing support and sustaining the momentum

The project has allowed us to explore our flexible side and provide an opportunity to discuss how this will influence the way work. We are still working towards this and it will be ongoing in 2010. Some of the main points include:

• Apply for a Bright Ideas Faculty Project 2010 to implement Mentoring Program


• Develop an online site for information diffusion ensuring it based on active behaviour rather than information


• Develop and implement workshops to assist with Business and Planning (This is being trialled over the next few weeks.


• Implement a range of communication strategies with HT; use of Sharepoint, SMS rather than email. Incorporate opportunities for discussion in Faculty Meetings rather than information giving and receiving.

Managing the Current to the Desired State

At this stage of the project we needed to determine what is the desired state?

WE had a meeting on 12th November 2009 to discuss this very important statement. A group of head teachers from the Faculty came to discuss ho we might be able to achieve this. Today we were fortunate to have Jenni Harding, SWSI Manager Workforce Capability and Development come along and speak with us about the Institute Induction Project. Part of our project was about developing and implementing an Induction package for the Faculty. This had been developed as a written package and uploaded into Moodle. A head teacher had started with us from Sydney Institute and gave feedback on how it could be improved. Today we wanted to make sure we were not duplicating any of the resources from the Institute Project. We were able to provide some useful feedback and discuss how our Induction Package may sit with the Institute one.

We spent the next hour discussing how we might be able to determine what is the desired state. We reviwed Moodle, Wiki and Sharepoint to discuss which system may be used. It was generally felt that Sharepoint should be the main platform and anything developed could come of this site. We are still exploring this as to the best way to communicate and manage information and how to incoporate what the desired bahaviour might be. Final discussion was to map the processes a HT needs to implement and what mechanisms could best support this.

Innovation and Business 29th October 2009

Today was the last of our workshops and it focused on Innovation and Business.
We started with a warm up activity: 5 minute Lift conversation. You have 5 minutes to describe your business or latest innovation. Definitely a skill to develop and we all need to focus about being articulate: being able to do this in a minimum of time.



We were fortunate that Grant Casey from Centre for Learning and Innovation provided some useful ideas about Innovation and ways to identify and foster this in our day to day operations.

Grant started with the following video:




The definition put forward was What is Innovation?
The usual definition relates to “something new”. However, true innovation needs to be a lot more than simply a new idea. True innovation needs to have 3 key components:

1. innovation involves a creative process
2. it results in something distinctive
3. it yields a measurable impact.

Source: Chen and Kai-ling Ho page 2

Think of a common activity in workshops where new ideas are brainstormed. Often that is the end of the exercise. Innovation can only effectively happen when something happens to these ideas. Innovative organisations have “formal processes to generate and nurture innovation from idea to realisation” (Martin, 2006).

How long does it take from the moment the idea is generated to its being adopted? “Do all those ideas have a process to follow, or do they go right down the drain?” (Phillips, 2006)

A Case Study
Cathy Moore in the podcast interview described her ideas on learning design which truly engages students. Cathy’s key message is that effective learning design focuses on behaviours i.e. what the student needs to do rather than what they need to know. True learning occurs when behaviour is changed rather than by regurgitating content.
Futurelab
The report from Futurelab “Overcoming the barriers educational innovation” is an excellent piece on describing innovation, outlining the steps for successful innovation and giving strategies for overcoming the barriers. The executive summary of this report is copied in this appendix to this handout. They tell us that “if the idea is new to an individual, it is an innovation” (p10).

There are 2 types of barriers to successful innovation :

1. barriers due to the work environment e.g. access to resources, time constraints, lack of training and technical problems
2. barriers related to individuals such as confidence, willingness, motivation or no sense of why change is needed (p13).

Much of the current innovation we are experiencing in TAFE relates to technology. Futurelab tells us that “teachers tend to adopt a new technology when that technology helps them to do what they are currently doing better” (p14).

Of particular importance was the following example:

We talked about examples currently in the Faculty. A range of ideas and strategies were discussed. This included:

• Developing an Industry Reference Group
• Promotional materials and ways they could be effectively used
• Growing the Business: ways to increase non-core funding.

We finished with a current Example: Productivity Placement Program. A Quick Reference Guide had been developed and we discussed what is needed. Talked at length about the value of having access to to the explicit knowledge but how do we diffuse the information. Grant provide some very useful ideas about how we focus too much on knowledge which is passive. We need to move to the active- it is about the behaviour in the real world. Should be relate more to simulations and scenarios. certainly something for us to think about when we determine the diffusion of information.

Knowledge Creation and Management 22nd September 2009

This workshop was for all aspiring and beginning Head Teachers. Outcomes for the session included:
•Contribute to the Faculty Head Teacher Development Framework and Strategy.
•Describe the roles of mentor, mentoree and coach.
•Demonstrate an awareness of the professional development opportunities available for Head Teachers.
•Reflect on the role of a Head Teacher by sharing your experiences with others.
•Identify strategies that would support beginning Head Teachers.


The HT Framework and strategy were shared with the group and then we had a discussion on:

• Explicit knowledge
• Tacit knowledge.

The bright ideas project highlighted that it is easy for explicit knowledge. This is knowledge that can be articulated, documented, transferred, shared, and communicated. For example: Policies – Procedures through Intranet - Sharepoint – Email – Newsletters. So to support HT there is many explicit forms of knowledge avaiable. The main issue here is the management of this knowledge so you can find it when you need it!!

For tacit this is more complex and depends on your networks and identifying supporting information. That is tacit knowledge is knowledge that comprises experience and work knowledge that is with the individual.
For example experiences shared through conversation, story-telling


So for this project the goal is to:
Transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and share this knowledge in innovative ways. Strategies to support the Application to Management of Knowledge include:

Learn
1.Train
2.Reflect
3.Collaborate

Access
1.Orientation
2.Quick Reference Guides
3.Head Teacher Kit

Coach
1.Communicate
2.Develop confidence
3.Synthesise Ideas

Mentor
1.Personal Goals
2.Self Learning
3.Feedback

The next part of the session was presented by Robyn Bosley, Head Teacher Community Services using Appreciative Inquiry to determine strategies that would support aspiring and beginning new head teachers. This will be provided in the next post...so stay tuned.

People Are Our Business Workshop 17th September 2009

This workshop introduced the CHAPS Head Teacher Framework and Strategy and commenced on the focus area of PEOPLE.

We revisted the TMS Team profile which all head teachers of the Faculty had completed. This provides an overview of people's preferred approaches to work. For example:
•How you relate to others
•How you gather and use information
•How to make decisions
•How to organise yourself and others

For the CHAPS Faculty the first graph shows the three work preferences of all of the Faculty with a high concentration towards assessor developer/ eplorer- creator. This was further demonstrated in the overall percentages for the Faculty.

Sharyn Kucher from Human Resourecs provided a session on how to profile staff in each and everyone's section and then we did a round table discussion on what support strategies are needed for our Head teachers.

We started with a reflective exercise which included:

1. How many years had you been a Head Teacher? We had 8 teachers and in the room we had 48 years of experience!!!

2. Why did you become a Head teacher? Some responses included:

"Didn't want someone else to do it, liked the work, fell into it, liked challenges and making change, natural progression and encouraged to take on the role."

3. What do you like about the role? Some responses included: "Love the job and SWSI, everything, mood dependent, depends on the time of the year, like to manage, new things, get to know staff, share ideas, planning and working with policies and procedures"

We had two case studies that day.

First presentor was Melissa Arnold, Head Teacher Hairdressing: talke about implementing change to a procedure with her team. She had unsuccessfully tried to change the way CLAMS was managed in the section and have an improvement in the way roll books were managed by staff. Used a variety of strategies: meetings, unduction, training, one on one. Ended up using a tried model from Caterin Harb, HT Beauty Therapy. This was introduced by Caterina and the model is now in place. Small team approach, systems procedure and positive reinforcement. Now in roll book audit has had an 80% compliant increase. Great example!

Second presentor was Julie Walker who provided an overview of the mentoring system that is used in the section to support new staff. An overview of the way the system works, including proformas were discussed. Ensures staff develop quicker, and smoother transition from practitioner to teacher. Natural process and soon assesses those who will be successful. Another great example.

Final question: so what changes can be made for the Faculty?

1. Induction process inlcuding mentoring and coaching and needs to be resourced.

2. Faculty staff meeting can there be more opportunity to share and collaborate?

Faculty Head Teacher Framework

After discussion, reflection and much thought the CHAPS Head teacher Framework was developed. This was to put onto paper the many messages that had come from the Bright Ideas project as well as annecdotal information.

1. Head Teacher Continuum:

• Aspiring: this level is staff interested in becoming head teachers and would like to know more and develop skills and knowledge about the role.


• Beginning: this level is staff who are acting or new to the Head Teacher Role


• Career: this level is staff who are substantive Head Teachers

2. Skill Development

• Develop: this is understanding and appreciation of models, frameworks, cycles, concepts and strategies operating in the TAFE system.


• Apply: provides opportunity to apply knowledge and to develop practical skills through experience.


• Lead: is the ability to lead and mentor others.

3. Strategies:

For Aspiring Head Teachers developing skills will be achieved through:

• training


• task performance goals and


• shadowing.

For Beginning Head Teachers applying skills will be achieved through:

• Induction


• Section Goals


• Coaching


• Mentoring

For Career Head Teachers who will lead others they will achieve this through:

• Leadership


• Self Development Goals


• Strategy

3. Head Teacher Focus Areas

• People: staff are developed to meet the needs of customers.


• Planning and delivery: meet business requirements


• Administration: Polices and procedures are implemented.
  

4. Head Teacher Development Strategy

Mentoring Session - Anne Rolfe

Today we had a session with renowned Mentoring Queen Anne Rolfe. This session was to design a mentoring program for sections and the Faculty. It was an interesting session and the written materials was very detailed and gave us some interesting ideas. As a group we decided that a Faculty Mentoring Program should be developed. Lots of ideas and interest.