Assessment Task 2: Innovation promotion project

Task summary

You are required to write an innovation review for a case study organisation. You will also be required to make changes to one of their policy and procedures and suggest some innovative products and services that the case study organisation could adopt. You will then conduct a brainstorming session with colleagues to establish innovative approaches to improve the case study organisation’s staff’s work/life balance.

This assessment is to be completed in the simulated work environment in the RTO.

Required

• Access to textbooks and other learning materials
• Computer with Microsoft Office and internet access
• Whiteboard
• Meeting Policy and Procedures
• Business Plan
• Innovation Review Template
• Innovation Leadership Report Template

Timing

Your assessor will advise you of the due date of these submissions.

Submit

• Email with Innovation Review attached
• Email with Revised Meeting Policy and Procedures attached
• Email with Innovation Leadership Report attached

Assessment criteria

For your performance to be deemed satisfactory in this assessment task, you must satisfactorily address all of the assessment criteria. If part of this task is not satisfactorily completed, you will be asked to complete further assessment to demonstrate competence.

Re-submission opportunities

You will be provided feedback on their performance by the Assessor. The feedback will indicate if you have satisfactorily addressed the requirements of each part of this task.

If any parts of the task are not satisfactorily completed, the assessor will explain why, and provide you written feedback along with guidance on what you must undertake to demonstrate satisfactory performance. Re-assessment attempt(s) will be arranged at a later time and date.

You have the right to appeal the outcome of assessment decisions if you feel that you have been dealt with unfairly or have other appropriate grounds for an appeal.

You are encouraged to consult with the assessor prior to attempting this task if you do not understand any part of this task or if you have any learning issues or needs that may hinder you when attempting any part of the assessment.

Assessment Task 2 Instructions

Carefully read the following:

King Edward VII College has been operating since 2010. The College is based in Melbourne CBD and has an additional campus in Sydney. The College offers a range of courses in management, marketing, human resources and international business. It currently has 195 students enrolled across all of its courses and both campuses. Courses are offered at all levels, from Certificate II to Graduate Diploma.

King Edward VII College is very popular due to its competitive pricing structure, innovative teaching methods and state of the art facilities.

The College currently employs 24 staff members that include the CEO, a Sales and Marketing Manager and Sales and Marketing Assistant, Promotions Officer, Human Resources Manager, Operations Manager, Administration Manager, Office Assistant, Receptionist, Academic Manager, Student Services Officer and approximately 14 trainers and assessors.

You are the Operations Manager at the College and, following a recent short course on workplace innovation, you spoke to the Management Team about encouraging innovation in the College. They have given their full support to your efforts.

The CEO has asked you to write a review of innovation that can be used to enhance the College’s and its students’ performance. Despite the College’s healthy enrolment levels, management is aware that they must be prepared to adapt to new trends and ideas. Supporting and encouraging innovation is accepted as being integral to this.

Complete the following activities:

1. Develop an innovation review.

To ensure that you have up-to-date information in your review, research and analyse the following in the internet in order to:

• Describe specific workplace conditions in places such as the case study College and your own RTO that encourage innovation. Describe their impact on individual and collective innovative thinking and creativity.
• Describe at least three innovation drivers and enablers that could be used in an RTO such as yours and/or the case study College
• Describe at least three strategies that would contribute to making innovation an integral and sustainable part of an organisation’s activities.
• Explain how risks associated with introducing innovation into an organisation can be identified and managed.
• Describe at least four techniques and tools that can be used to generate new ideas and thinking and two that foster both personal and team innovation.
• Describe the current trends in the environment in which the King Edward VII College operates (RTOs in Melbourne, international students, etc.). Determine which of these could be used to shape the organisation’s future practice. Each recommendation should include financial and/or statistical justification.
• Processes that could be established in the case study College that would ensure that all staff are aware of innovative thinking and practices that are proposed or undertaken by colleagues.

Use the Innovation Review Template to guide your work.

2. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and seek their feedback and approval to move forward with the project.

Attach your Innovation Review to the email.

3. Revise policies and procedures to support innovation.

Review the King Edward VII College’s Meeting Policy and Procedures.

Do some research in the internet into how meetings can be conducted to better support innovative ideas.

Make additions or changes to the Meeting Policy and Procedures that will encourage innovation during College meetings.

Save this document as Revised Meeting Policy and Procedures.

4. Research current trends in innovative learning and training practices.

Use the internet to find at least three innovative practices being used at educational institutions such as King Edward VII College.

1. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).

According to the company’s Document Policy and Procedures, any changes to the company’s Policies and Procedures must be authorised by the CEO before they can take effect. This email should clearly suggest how the changes that have been made to the document will encourage innovation at the company.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and summarise the three innovative learning and training practices that could be adopted by King Edward VII College to attract students.

Attach your Revised Meeting Policy and Procedures to the email.

2. Prepare for a meeting with staff

The CEO was pleased with your work on the Meeting Policy and Procedures, and you have been directed to open up a discussion with staff about innovative ways to improve their work life balance.

Research how companies such as King Edward VII College can improve the conditions that staff work under, encourage more innovation among students and staff and improve their work/life balance.

Look also at how to conduct a brainstorming session. Take notes on how you can conduct the meeting so that participants are encouraged to be innovative.

You will have a whiteboard and markers to support you during the meeting, so you may want to practice using these prior to the meeting.

During the meeting, you will be required to display a personal leadership style that models positive innovative thinking and practice. Consider how that should manifest during the meeting.

3. Conduct a brainstorming session to encourage work practices innovation.

The meeting will last for a maximum of 15 minutes.

The objective of the meeting is for you, as the company’s Operations Manager, to promote and reinforce the value of innovation in King Edward VII College in a way that supports its vision and objectives

Another objective is to collect a number of ideas how working conditions at King Edward VII College could be changed to reflect and encourage innovative practice and improve staff work/life balance.

You are also to conduct the meeting in a manner that models positive innovative thinking and practice

Ensure that the meeting provides opportunities for yourself to initiate the communication and team development approaches that support innovation as set out in your Innovation Review.

Use the whiteboard to record the contributions from all of the meeting’s participants.

When the meeting has concluded, take a photo of what is on the whiteboard to use in the next activity.

During the meeting, you are required to demonstrate effective communication skills including:

• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

At the conclusion of the meeting, you are to hold a short discussion with the other meeting participants.

You should ask them about the way that you led the meeting, and whether that style that you used displayed positive modelling and was supportive of innovation.

Take notes on their feedback to use in the next activity.

4. Write an innovation leadership report.

Following the brainstorming session, you are required to write a short (between 1 and 2 pages) report on the options that the company has for improving the staff’s work practices.

Prior to writing the report, do some research in the internet into the suggestions that you received during the meeting. See how other companies have integrated these ideas into their work culture and how it has benefitted the company.

Your report should include:

• A summary of how the meeting went in terms of audience participation and achievement of objectives
• The innovative suggestions that you received during the meeting, as well as what you found during your research.
• A summary of any risks involved with carrying out your suggestions. You should document at least two risks and how their effects could be mitigated.
• A short evaluation of your leadership style and practice during the meeting in relation to modelling and supporting innovation

Use the Innovation Leadership Report Template to guide your work.

5. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and seek their feedback and authorisation.

Attach your Innovation Leadership Report to the email.