5 Conditions for Innovation Self-Assessment

Your school design team should focus on cultivating Conviction. Conviction means that your team has a deep and sustaining belief in the importance and need for change in your current context that fuels your desire to continue the work that is being undertaken and ensure that it is prioritized.

To help build conviction your team should try the following:
-Refine and share your Case for Change and get feedback from key stakeholders
-De-prioritize other activities so that your innovation work can be a top priority for the upcoming school year
-Complete the "Future Trends" activity with other members of your school community
-Do another round of empathy interviews to better understand students' needs, wants, desires, and aspirations
-Complete an equity

Your school design team should focus on cultivating Clarity. Clarity means that your team has a cohesive vision about what learning outcomes matter most for your graduates and what kinds of learning experiences will work best to realize those outcomes for all students.

To help build clarity your team should try the following:
-Get input from your school community on your current version of your graduate aims
-Use the graduate aims database to refine your aims and also identify indicators and/or metrics of success
-Complete the “Design Sprint” activity with your entire school staff to create a new signature experience aligned to your graduate aims
-Take your design team and other staff members on an experiential learning visit and audit the experience using the Science of Learning and Development cards
-Do another round of empathy interviews to better understand students' needs, wants, desires, and aspirations

Your school design team should focus on cultivating Capacity. Capacity means that your team has the support of knowledgeable and skilled leaders and team members, the funding, and time and space required to successfully innovate and execute on your goals.

To help build capacity your team should try the following:
-Expand your design team. Identify other individuals who have the skills needed to support the innovation work
-Apply for additional grants to support short-term and long-term costs associated with initiating and sustaining school design or redesign work
-Research and connect with other innovative school models that are addressing similar graduate aims
-Schedule frequent, regular design team meetings throughout the school year

Your school design team should focus on cultivating Coalition. Coalition means that your team has the key, diverse stakeholders (e.g., students, site leaders, educators, families, community members, employers, funders) who are committed to helping realize a shared vision.

To help build coalition your team should try the following:
-Join Transcend’s YHL community and connect with other education innovators in the field
-Host a design sprint with students and families to create a signature student experience
-Identify local and national organizations that are willing to dedicate time and energy to drive your innovation work forward
-Regularly evaluate whose voices are heard and included throughout your design journey and ensure that those voices reflect the demographics of your community

Your school design team should focus on cultivating Culture. Culture means that your team's values, norms, and practices encourage and support collaboration, creativity, risk taking, and innovation.

To help build culture your team should try the following:
-Plan an offsite team retreat for your design team or entire school staff
-Share your innovation journey thus far with the wider school community- do a presentation or put up a bulletin board that showcases your work
-Define the guardrails for innovation- when, where, and how are staff able to test new ideas
-Create a shared centralized system for tracking and synthesizing new learnings

It seems you rated most items as Unsure.

You have two options:
1. Take this assessment again and re-evaluate some of your ratings
2. Use the 5Cs single point rubric and write down evidence for areas of concern and areas strength for each condition to determine which condition your design team most needs to cultivate.