One year in…10 things I’ve learned about launching an innovation initiative within higher education

The question I find myself asking right now is, what just happened?

A year (and a few months) ago, I started at the University of Colorado Boulder, unsure of exactly what I was embarking on, but certain I was entering my next great professional challenge. Here I am, standing at the end of fall semester (our first term of implementation), feeling a combination of electricity, disbelief, perplexity, and hunger for more.

When you’re in the eye of a storm for months on end, you lose track of time and a sense of what’s been accomplished. So, I’m taking a moment to capture a few of the details that have consistently surfaced this year. These are the themes that I face on a daily basis in conversations and meetings, and they keep me up at night when I’m trying to figure out next steps.

Here’s what’s I’m contemplating at the one year mark:

1. Define innovation- Everyone asks what does innovation mean? How are you defining it. And, my answer to them? We’re not. Intentionally, we don’t provide an answer because it will never be sufficient. Since we’re serving so many stakeholders and disciplines, each group thinks about innovation differently (ex. innovation in engineering is different than innovation in alumni relations). However, I do have a personal definition of innovation, which is that innovation happens at the intersection of unrelated ideas. (While this is still generic, it brings some specificity and supports the argument that diversity is critical- you need to bring other perspectives to the table). My other rule of thumb is that innovation contains ideas that are first, best, or only in their area.
2. Place concepts along spectrums and continuums- Instead of defining innovation or entrepreneurship as one thing, we describe how there’s a spectrum of innovation from incremental to disruptive and how entrepreneurs can be novice to serial. This allows people to see a range that is inclusive rather than binary.
3. An innovation initiative is more like a campaign- Even though we’re leading a cross-campus initiative, in this early stage, we’re noticing that it’s getting siloed to certain parts of campus. Our goal is to represent the entire campus and to show how innovation happens everywhere by anyone. We’re starting to shift our strategy towards acting like a campaign so that it gets adopted by all schools, colleges, and departments.
4. Beware of the word entrepreneurship, in a quick pinch, sub with the word innovation- Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur nor do they support entrepreneurship. The main reason for this is some people (mainly in the liberal arts) perceive entrepreneurship as a capitalistic, money-making endeavor (even though there are social entrepreneurs). When we get into this situation, we notice people react better to the word innovation. Lesson, know your audience.
5. Storytelling, holy cow, get good at storytelling- This includes everything from social media to web to print materials. Stories about innovation provide the concrete examples that stakeholders need. From tweets to narratives, you have to be able to tell innovation stories in all shapes and sizes. In order to run a strong innovation initiative, you need a lot of innovation stories (I call these our legacies and legends- the ones you tell and retell), which means you have a lot of writing and research to do (nobody has an archive of innovation stories just lying around waiting for you). Lesson: First, how do you find innovation content on campus? Second, how do you find people who know how to write innovation tales, otherwise, they sound like the same news stories on campus.
6. People struggle to perceive how they are “innovative”, so instead, have them talk about their “creativity”- Ask someone how they are innovative, and they aren’t sure they are. Ask them how they are creative or how they connect unrelated ideas or materials in unique ways, and suddenly they can explain a few examples.
7. The entrepreneurial mindset represents a set of competencies- Entrepreneurship is just a term, and for us, it embodies a host of competencies such as problem solving, adaptability, spontaneity, risk taking, collaboration, and being action-oriented. Listing these traits and talking about the mindset of an entrepreneur helps us build buy-in and convey the spirit of what we’re aiming to achieve.
8. An innovation initiative is really about changing human behavior- There’s no such thing as a culture of innovation. Rather, it’s about creating conditions that allow for innovation to flourish. This means we’re looking for people to shift behaviors, to actually say and do things differently. We’ll know we’ve made it when people are working, teaching, researching, and learning in ways that currently aren’t happening on campus.
9. Show don’t tell, again and again and again- This is a basic design thinking 101 rule. I could talk for hours about what we’re trying to do, but the results and evidence come from experiencing it. After all, seeing is believing. If we (me and my colleagues) can act as role models and create experiential opportunities that embrace the innovator spirit, then others will understand what it feels like and looks like, eventually emulating and carrying it forward into their work.
10. Celebrate it, Change it, or Leave it- I can’t take credit for this phrase, but it’s self-explanatory. If you’re trying to shift culture and behavior, you have three options: celebrate it, change it, or leave it. We’re finding ways of celebrating the good stuff (incentives, rewards, and storytelling), changing the old stuff (new policies, programs, and systems), or leaving other stuff alone because the laggards will get left behind anyway.

Oh, and one more note, innovating here is like innovating within any large organization or bureaucracy. It comes with the typical barriers and snags you would expect, but that’s a long list of lessons for another day.

Have thoughts or questions about these lessons? Please reach out.