“All innovation is about letting go, saying goodbye to things to
create space for the new.”


- Geoff Mulgan, Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London
This week, our friends at NGLC published “Amplify, Hospice, and Create: How Schools Should Spend the Money from the American Rescue Plan Act.” It’s a worthy read for districts and schools looking to invest in a sustainable future. 

At the heart of the article are three questions for any leader tasked with managing change and innovation:

  • What do you crave in terms of must-haves for your work?
  • Armed with new learning from COVID, what should you cease?
  • What can you create with emerging resources?
Truths
Setser Group recognizes this fact: It’s a pitfall to spend a little on a lot. True leaders fund top priorities for impact and solve for their gaps.

You came out of remote experiences with the tools, experiences, and data to truly flex time, place, and pace for learning and training. You talked about it for years, and now you have done it. It was not the lab-tested, control-group, blind-study you hoped for, but something more valuable - the real-world solutions under challenging conditions. Do you want to retreat to the Old World that leaves your advancements behind? A better solution is to refine your new processes, making them better and more equitable for all in your charge.

What will you purposefully abandon to make space for new services, products, and solutions? Teams will have to be shifted and retrained for new programs and learning. The American Rescue Plan Act will bring funds that will allow you to innovate in a way that you’ve never been able to before. These new programs will need space to grow.

Start by asking those you serve what should we crave, cease, or create? Or simply listen. They’re probably screaming ideas like the ones below.
Tools
During a year of three pandemics (COVID, racism, misinformation), Setser Group helped our clients crave, cease, and create dynamic solutions for 2021-2025.

Leaders need to have the courage to bridge the gaps between what people want, what they don’t know they want yet, and what they need.

Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Let’s listen and empathize and at the same time stretch the thinking with different people involved in decision making, new ideas, and people who will challenge our echo chambers from their unique perspective and history.

All of the leaders listed below in our first two years in business are intent on designing for change and impact by not doing autopsies of their organizations at the end of the year, but rather by effectively diagnosing how to move forward on a quarterly basis.
Triumphs
This week, we want to celebrate our work with our friends and clients at the Clerc Center and Gallaudet University. Recently, we worked with the Clerc Center on their communications strategy that will continue to unfurl into the summer of 2021 for a reimagined holistic reopening in the fall. Bi-weekly communication is one way to ensure stakeholders are informed, have a chance to provide two-way feedback, and are a part of co-designing and building the future we all seek. Cheers to leaders like Nicole and Marianne who get that high communication equals high morale.
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Share three things you are craving to keep, thinking about ceasing or sunsetting, and/or creating to design a better future of learning and work this summer?

#SummerDesign #SummerSessions #SummerRetreats #FutureOfWork #FutureOfLearning