Tracy West and Jenny Tester of GatenbySanderson reflect on the ETF leadership innovation workshop they led in March, considering how leaders develop the skills and resources to navigate large, complex and ever-evolving challenges in the political landscape, and with budgetary constraints and the emergence of new technology, and asking what innovation and disruptive thinking are and how leaders can apply them in their own institutions.
Exponential change has created a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world where the need to innovate and disrupt has become crucial for Further Education (FE) to thrive. The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and GatenbySanderson delivered a workshop for FE leaders to explore these questions, and to reflect on tools, techniques and frameworks to support innovation and the capabilities of leaders who succeed in a VUCA world.
The ten types of innovation framework (Doblin) is a tool which supports the identification of areas for innovation. The framework has three components – configuration, offering and experience – and a total of ten types of innovation. The framework was originally used in a corporate environment to encourage leaders to consider innovation across the organisation rather than just in product development; hence the reference to ‘profit’ rather than ‘financial sustainability, which is more normally talked about in FE. Nonetheless, it provides a helpful tool to consider different facets of FE, and to consider new advancements and ideas in a new light helping drive positive disruption in an educational context.
