Capturing Innovative Change
This interpretation of successful change initiatives at Coast Mountain College (CMTN) comes from my experience, interviewing colleagues and considering the literature, revealing that successful changes at CMTN have emerged from small scale innovations that eventually integrated with organisational systems. To accomplish this, two distinct roles are apparent: the innovator and the advocate. At CMTN, successful changes have originated with innovations made by individuals who possibly demonstrate what has been described by Thomas Carey as “pro-social scholarship” (2015) or who have adapted to external forces. The innovation can only be considered successful change when integrated into the organisational systems and this was accomplished by the work of the advocate. The advocate leads the innovation towards successful organisational adoption through similar stages as the last half of Kotter’s change management process (Al-Haddad, S. & Kotnour, T., 2015).
While discussing the origins of innovation at CMTN it became apparent that both interviewee A and B, who were from the administration team at our organisation, believed that innovators of change were either spontaneous adopters of innovation or community members who adapted to external forces in ways their colleagues did not (Leavy, B. 2011). The diagram includes these two different origins for innovative change described by my colleagues. However, it’s important to note that my interviewees may not have been able to identify how change could have originated at the classroom level, as it is out of their purview. My interviewees chalked up innovations discussed to the innovators’ aptitude which led them to be more innovative, not from the need to adapt to the learning environment. They were able to differentiate that some innovation emerged due to the need to adapt to external conditions impacting the organisation but were unable to see how the classroom itself may have been demanding innovative adaptations (Personal communication, 2022). I have labelled this as spontaneous change because that was their common perception (Fig.1). Discovering innovation is part of successful change at CMTN but it requires advocacy to escort the innovation through a process that leads to integration into the systems of the organisation to truly be considered successful.
Innovation requires advocacy at CMTN. Chad Flinn describes his leadership focus as one where he will “remove any roadblocks for my faculty and my staff so they can do the best for their students” (Flinn, 2022, 2:48). One interviewee noted there is likely innovation emerging as a response to pivoting to online teaching at CMTN, but we may never know about it because management most often acts in the advocate role and there is currently a lack of will to capture innovative practises (Interviewee A, 2022). Interviewee B noted it would take extraordinary pro-social behaviour for an innovator to carry their innovation through to institutionalised change. There is always an advocate, normally a person on the management team who discovered the innovation their colleague was engaging with, who then shepherded the innovation through a process of systemic integration into the organisation. This is similar to what Chad Flinn (n.d) described when he discussed how his role is to amplify innovative teaching his faculty are engaging in that is not institutionalised or even commonly known. There are also parallels with how advocates have achieved integration of innovation into the organisational systems at CMTN with the final stages of Kotter’s change model.
Kotter’s change management model stages; removing obstacles, creating short-term wins, building on the change and anchoring the change in the organisational culture (Al-Haddad, S. & Kotnour. T., 2015) are engaged in by the advocate in successful change at CMTN. From my own observations I recall that prior to 2020 one management team member consistently championed change in this exact model, where once discovered, they would bring the innovation into the organisational view by showcasing it to different organisational groups, that some of those groups would adopt the innovation and adapt it and then once the innovation had been built upon, it created a demand from the organisational systems to change to accommodate and then support the innovation.
Successful change initiatives are characterised as ones that have integrated with the organisational systems at CMTN and have relied on two roles: an innovator and an advocate. Further questions I am compelled to consider are, whether digital learning environments (DLE’s) can be a solution for innovators to also advocate for change in the absence of an advocate and how to use DLE’s and networks to expand the boundaries of sharing innovations beyond the organisation for advancing and showcasing change in teaching and learning and stakeholder engagement successes
References:
Al-Haddad, S. & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2),234-262. https://DOI10.1108/JOCM-11-2013-0215
Carey, T. (2015). Toward a more inclusive definition of faculty scholarship. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/toward-more-inclusive-definition-faculty-scholarship
Flinn, C. (n.d.). Unique challenges. [Audio Recording]. Voices, LRNT 525 – Leading Change in Digital Learning. MALAT Leadership LRNT 525. https://malat-coursesite.royalroads.ca/lrnt525/schedule/voices/
Leavy, B. (2011). Leading adaptive change by harnessing the power of positive deviance. Strategy & Leadership,39(2),18-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878571111114437