8 Steps to Innovation-led School Growth
With a right framework any school can innovate
There are four kinds of innovation that should be implemented in a school namely
Systems Innovation - This is all about thinking and improving your SOPs, Documentation, Data Flow, Measurements, Facilities, etc
People Innovation - This is all about making people ready to work in a way that you want them to work. This part here is the key to building the culture of your school
Learning Innovation This is all about, how will you create a conducive environment for learning. Here you differentiate and implement the learning at your school from all others
Brand Communication Innovation This is all about letting your parenting community be updated about what your school is up to.
Now that you know about all 4 kinds of innovation, let me try to share a sequence of steps to implement innovation at school.
8 steps of School Innovation
NOTE - It is just an indicative process. We strongly recommend you improvise and improve, and share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Choose your Unique Positioning - When you are starting the innovation process, choosing and finalizing your brand positioning is of utmost importance. So what kind of school do you want to make? Will it be a sports-based school, will it be Montessori, will it be a military education school or will it be a futuristic education school? A lot of later steps are dependent on this step. (Brand Communication Innovation)
Infrastructure and Supplies Innovation - Let’s say you are a School under a Tree, even then you cannot run it without that tree and maybe Board and Chalk and notebooks, etc. So the first focus should be to innovate your existing infrastructure. with existing people and resources (Systems Innovation)
Define, Convey and Implement your desired school culture - This is I think the most critical step. Most schools fail here because they do not have well-laid-out Standard Operating Procedures and the workflow for teachers and staff always remains in question. Such a school is dependent upon the capability of individual star teachers, Without this step, even your ERP will not work as a viable solution and the SOP is for a principal, what a Lesson Plan is for a teacher, everybody knows about it, nobody actually uses it, (People Innovation)
Data Flow Automation - Now that you have well-laid-out Standard Operating Procedures, you need to find a suitable Automation software. Very rarely do schools have a person at their end who knows how to choose a good automation software and they usually chose the wrong one. Pick the software to give more time to your teachers. (Systems Innovation)
Classroom Innovation - Now your teachers have more time and they do understand, what you want from them. It is time that you put a mechanism that binds your teachers to innovate (Learning Innovation)
Tech Labs Innovation - Now you are all set to start developing more exposure for your students and teachers in technology labs (Learning Innovation)