This project and others working with Canadian universities in recent years has revealed five key lessons:
Start with something simple
1
Create excitement about change
2
Design for positive impact, not perfection
3
Remember continuous improvement is not a band-aid
4
The process can open new career paths for employees
5
Don’t attempt to fix the hardest thing first. It’s important to build confidence and capabilities for implementing change in your organization. Pilot something straightforward (such as updating frequently asked questions for a function’s website to improve students’ ability to navigate information) with a faculty that is keen to get involved. This helps to minimize disruption and allows the team to test and learn in a safe environment before tackling something more complex.
Often employees have pain points that have been left unaddressed or ignored for years. Believing that change is possible can be incredibly motivating for employees, particularly long-tenured employees who have become conditioned to accepting the way things are, instead of the way things could be. Often small changes can be dismissed as insignificant. but leadership should celebrate and communicate improvements broadly. When done right, good news spreads and others will want to get involved.
Challenge yourself to limit scope to what can make a short-term impact (that isn’t thrown away in the future). This creates demand (excitement) for additional features as something to look forward to rather than fear (Apple is genius at this). It also allows the design team to get feedback quickly without investing too many resources upfront. Too often teams get caught up in solutioning for all scenarios, leading to unnecessary delays in launch, cost overruns, and eroding benefits to the community. Sometimes processes are so painful for staff and clients, that they just need to be ‘better’ as a starting point.
CI is part of a longer-term vision with purpose and meaning. It delivers incremental value in phases but doesn’t throw good money after bad, resulting in an even larger mess to unravel down the road. Changes need to align with a strategic vision and be measured over time. Without this direction, you risk wasting time and energy fixing a process that won’t address your users’ future needs.
Many staff and faculty find the opportunity to get out of their normal roles and help co-design the solution to be very rewarding and feel invigorated when they return to their regular jobs. This participation allows for critical upskilling and knowledge transfer to create a culture that invites change opportunities rather than discourages them.
ATTRACTION AND ADMISSIONS
Don’t attempt to fix the hardest thing first. It’s important to build confidence and capabilities for implementing change in your organization. Pilot something straightforward (such as updating frequently asked questions for a function’s website to improve students’ ability to navigate information) with a faculty that is keen to get involved. This helps to minimize disruption and allows the team to test and learn in a safe environment before tackling something more complex.
1
Create excitement about change
Often employees have pain points that have been left unaddressed or ignored for years. Believing that change is possible can be incredibly motivating for employees, particularly long-tenured employees who have become conditioned to accepting the way things are, instead of the way things could be. Often small changes can be dismissed as insignificant. but leadership should celebrate and communicate improvements broadly. When done right, good news spreads and others will want to get involved.
2
Remember continuous
improvement is not a band-aid
CI is part of a longer-term vision with purpose and meaning. It delivers incremental value in phases but doesn’t throw good money after bad, resulting in an even larger mess to unravel down the road. Changes need to align with a strategic vision and be measured over time. Without this direction, you risk wasting time and energy fixing a process that won’t address your users’ future needs.
4
The process can open new
career paths for employees
Many staff and faculty find the opportunity to get out of their normal roles and help co-design the solution to be very rewarding and feel invigorated when they return to their regular jobs. This participation allows for critical upskilling and knowledge transfer to create a culture that invites change opportunities rather than discourages them.
5
Design for positive impact,
not perfection
3
This project and others working with Canadian universities in recent years has revealed five key lessons:
Challenge yourself to limit scope to what can make a short-term impact (that isn’t thrown away in the future). This creates demand (excitement) for additional features as something to look forward to rather than fear (Apple is genius at this). It also allows the design team to get feedback quickly without investing too many resources upfront. Too often teams get caught up in solutioning for all scenarios, leading to unnecessary delays in launch, cost overruns, and eroding benefits to the community. Sometimes processes are so painful for staff and clients, that they just need to be ‘better’ as a starting point.