4 months in a research and development department. The job requires me to generate ideas for new products for different customers. I have been utilising the SynNovation tools daily, and they have been working very well so far. The tools really help to streamline creativity, thus maximising on innovation.”
Other opportunities to ‘sow seeds’ in Stellenbosch • A workshop with130 student leaders – Student Council,
and committees of
residences and associations – sharing basic skills and principles with them, to encourage a collaborative, idea-friendly climate • A strategy workshop with top management, with the Vice-Rector
enable active participation and practical planning at a conference organised by the UWC HIV and AIDS Research Centre. On 26 and 27 March 2012, over 90 delegates from national and provincial departments of Education and Health, educationists and academics, health professionals, people from NGOs and international donor organisations met at UWC to explore new approaches to HIV/AIDS education.
Teaching and team,
focussing on how to integrate the work of three divisions in order to enhance student success • Industrial Engineering: Half-day workshops with final year students in Industrial Engineering, giving them basic tools and ground rules, for use in projects and to take into their careers; and working with Master’s and doctoral students giving them thinking tools to build more creativity and innovation into their research; • Training mentors who guide first-year students – mainly in behavioural and problem- solving skills; • Workshops at USB Business School, in the Post-graduate Diploma in Dispute Settlement and the Certificate in Neuro-Leadership, exploring linkages, benefits and applications of the approach in these fields; • Training staff working in Student Affairs, Student Communities and
Leadership
development in thinking, innovation and relational skills for use in their work, and to pass on to students as valuable life skills.
Helping to build an AIDS-free South Africa: Projects at UWC
SynNovation has also been working with the HIV and AIDS Programme at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to develop new approaches to their work. Twenty peer educators have been trained in the principles and tools – which they have found very useful in planning innovative new interventions with fellow students, and with learners in schools. A team of 10 facilitators helped UWC to
The Innovation Journal
The 4th Annual UWC ‘HIV in Context’ Research Symposium featured several experts in the field, both national and international. At the start , Lu-Marie Sobey introduced participants to the key principles of SynNovation, to encourage them to ‘listen for ideas’ in order to get the maximum out of presentations. On 27th
March a team of
ten SynNovators facilitated creative small group problem-solving sessions , to ensure delegates go away with a selection of fresh ideas and approaches
each of them can
implement, and action plans they can adapt to suit their specific situations.
Delegates also experienced the key ground rules and tools, which they can now use both personally, and back at work to encourage creativity, collaboration, open-mindedness to achieve practical problem-solving.
Feedback was that this conference was:
“really productive and enjoyable.” “It was invaluable from the point of view that stakeholders from various organisations could get together to share perspectives – rather than debate points of view – and so generate new ways to put formal policies and national strategies into useful practice. It opened the door for communication and made the need for closer collaboration evident.”
Scattering seeds at a German University In April 2012 four innovation skills workshops were conducted with staff and students of the Department of Home Economics and Nutritional Science – Facility Management at the University of Applied Sciences Muenster, Germany. Below is feedback from Professor Carola Strassner who initiated this.
“The four workshops you held reached students from our undergraduate and graduate
September 2012 | Management Today 83
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