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Presenter

Anne Miller

Anne Miller is an authority on creativity and innovation and one of the world's most prolific female inventors, with 39 patents for a diverse range of products. Her inventions range from power tools for Bosch to the manufacturing system for the Femidom (the female condom).

In 1988 she was a co-founder of The Technology Partnership (now one of Europe's leading technology innovation organizations) and in 2000 she founded The Creativity Partnership www.tcp-uk.co.uk , where she provides consulting and training for some of Europe’s most successful organizations.

Her acclaimed book "How to get your ideas adopted (and change the world)" is now available in paperback. See www.annemiller.info

Abstract

In times of economic uncertainty, challenge and change, innovation is needed more than ever, but it can also seem harder than ever to actually sustain the process.

In this interactive keynote I will be discussing the important but much neglected topic of why innovations get resisted and what you, as an innovator or a supporter of innovators, can do about it.

It is often naively assumed that if you "invent a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door" but as every innovator knows, this isn’t true. Whether your idea is for an organisational improvement, a better teaching method or a cost saving, the more important and disruptive it is, the more deeply it will be ignored.

Skilled innovators know this, so they don’t get demoralised, but apply their creativity to overcoming the four, very different stages of resistance.

In the first stage it is as if people are blind: they literally don’t see the idea. In the second and particularly frustrating "frozen" stage, people are at least aware of it, but they are not yet prepared to act so come up with all sorts of excuses like "it’s not worth it," "it’s too risky," or "it’s too expensive". In the third stage people are finally "interested" and are ready to be told about the idea, but the challenge is to get them to like it. In the final forth "embedding" stage, the task is to provide support and help the innovation steadily become embedded into normal practice.

I will explore these stages with you and share some tips for the practical things you can do in each to improve an innovation’s chances in today’s challenging times.

 

 Facilitator

Peter Bullen

Prof. Peter Bullen is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and a Critical Friend to a number of Universities involved in JISC and HEA supported projects. Until very recently Peter was the Director of the Blended Learning Unit, CETL and Ford Professor of Automotive Engineering at the University of Hertfordshire, having previously been Head of the School of Aerospace, Automotive and Design Engineering. Peter first became involved with e-learning in the mid nineties, when developing and running a masters programme for employees of the automotive industry. This led to a University wide appointment concerned with the development of learning and teaching using the University’s managed learning environment.  In recent years he has been involved in the HEA E-learning benchmarking and Pathfinder projects and JISC projects on technology enhanced learning and learner experiences, jointly editing and contributing to the recent book; ‘Transforming Higher Education Through Technology-Enhanced Learning’. Peter has published widely in the areas of blended learning, engineering education and engineering and was made an Elluminate hero in 2009.