Annual Big Hunt for Ideas: Starting with A Spark by Identifying Problems First

Minnetonka Innovation Update 2018 from Minnetonka Public Schools on Vimeo.

This is the eighth year that Minnetonka has had an annual Big Hunt for Ideas to find ways to make education better for students. Rather than developing a strategic plan with a few representative voices deciding district priorities, we use we use a crowd sourced software platform to gather input from all of our staff. Innovation is now our strategic plan. We also have student innovation groups that use this process to develop new ideas. Some major ideas over the past few years include our Vantage program, TonkaOnline, Minnetonka Research, Design for Learning program, and Tonka Codes program.

Gathering Sparks vs. Solutions

This year we are encouraging staff to simply post problems rather than jumping right to solutions. These problems are called "sparks" and are meant to get a conversation going in an effort to empathize with those affected by the problem and identify all stakeholders. From these starting conversations ideas will be generated in the coming months and possible solutions discussed, piloted, and as a result, changes implemented.

The video above was produced to highlight this process with a example scenario--a crowded hallway during passing time. The video showcases a wide variety of school employees participating in the spark discussion- classroom teachers, a counselor, a custodian, and a school principal. Together they collectively work to identify the issue and it's impact.   

All of our staff participate in this hunt--besides these staff positions highlighted in the video we also have paraprofessionals, food and nutrition services, office support, after school staff and all administrators involved. In just the past two weeks, almost 100 different sparks have been identified with hundreds of comments and views from staff. Pictured is an infographic made by our Innovation Coordinator, Nicole Snedden. The idea hunt is open for another week, so we will certainly have more added with more participation. It will be exciting to discover what new innovations and solutions result from this year's hunt!

Related posts:

• Student Led Innovation Through Human Centered Design
• Minnetonka Schools: Innovation is Now Our Strategic Plan
• Minnetonka Schools Big Idea Hunt
• Minnetonka Schools Innovation
• Flipping Parent Curriculum Night
• Systematic Innovation: The Top 4 of 40 Inventive Principles to Solve Problems
• The Mindset of Innovation: 5 Behaviors for Accelerating Breakthroughs
• Accelerating Changes Needed in Education
• Minnetonka Research: An In Depth, Highly Advanced High School Research Program
• Tonka Online High School Starting Year Five with 40+ Courses & 1200+ Students
• Why Teach Coding? Same Reasons to Teach Writing Even When Not All Students Will Be Writers
• Minnetonka Top 100+ Ideas for 1:1 Integration in 5th grade, English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Language
• Design for Learning Project Lead Nicole Snedden Wins ISTE Award

Student Led Innovation Through Human Centered Design

A while ago I wrote about our school district's new method of strategic planning--we have a crowdsourced idea hunt. To do this, we use a software program called Spigit to post ideas to our colleagues, who in turn can comment, question, and vote on each idea. Ideas are fleshed out, further developed and tested and range from small ideas that are easy to implement to big ideas that require extensive work and funding. Big ideas have included our Vantage program, TonkaOnline, Minnetonka Science Research Center and Tonka Codes program. Numerous smaller ideas have started from this process as well such as moving school picture day to be the same day as open house before school begins and another to flip parent curriculum night with teacher presentations as videos online. 

Over the past six years of this innovation work, we have incorporated Human Centered Design in the process. We begin with empathy, working to imagine the needs and feelings of those whom the idea and/or change will help. Then we brainstorm ideas and mock ups or prototypes, talking through the possibilities and solving for potential problems. Finally, the idea is tested and revised in the implementation phase. 

Students' ideation around problems and
opportunities to solve at school.

As part of her quarter long STEM Class, teacher Sara Hunt taught her students this human centered design process. Students learned to identify a problem and use empathy to identify possible problems and opportunities. They then worked on brainstorming possible solutions. As you can see in the video, the students looked at an issue affecting all of their classmates: the impact of homework. They used empathy and ideation, and then used the same software that our staff use for our innovation idea hunt to vote on ideas. This helped them find the main themes and areas of interest as they worked on possible solutions to lessen the impact of homework. 

You can read more about this innovation process, some of the past ideas that have been developed, and some related reflections below: 

• Minnetonka Schools: Innovation is Now Our Strategic Plan
• Minnetonka Schools Innovation
• Systematic Innovation: The Top 4 of 40 Inventive Principles to Solve Problems
• The Mindset of Innovation: 5 Behaviors for Accelerating Breakthroughs
• Accelerating Changes Needed in Education
• Minnetonka Research: An In Depth, Highly Advanced High School Research Program
• Tonka Online High School Starting Year Five with 40+ Courses & 1200+ Students
• Why Teach Coding? Same Reasons to Teach Writing Even When Not All Students Will Be Writers
• Minnetonka Top 100+ Ideas for 1:1 Integration in 5th grade, English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Language

Minnetonka Schools: Innovation is Now Our Strategic Plan

This is the fifth year Minnetonka Schools has run a innovation idea hunt using a crowd sourcing software program. In the past, we had a district strategic plan and a representative committee of teachers, parents, and administrators who met to brainstorm ideas of ways to improve our schools by generating a multi-year plan. We stopped that process and replaced it with this idea hunt. Innovation is now our strategic plan, and we have an ongoing process to collect ideas to make education better for our students. 

Each year around 120 ideas are posted in three categories: small (below $1,000), medium ($1,000 - $5,000), and large ($5,000+). Over the past five years, many ideas have come to fruition as the result of proposals our staff have submitted. For example, some major ideas have include our Vantage program, TonkaOnline, Minnetonka Research Center, Design for Learning program, and Tonka Codes program. Numerous smaller ideas have started from this process as well.  A couple of examples include moving school picture day to be the same day as open house before school begins and another to flip parent curriculum night with teacher presentations as videos online.

The software we use, Spigit, is also used by a number of major companies like Citi, Siemens, and United Health Care, which is locally headquartered in Minnetonka. We use the software to post ideas to our colleagues, who in turn can comment, question, and vote on each idea. Everyone can participate, from custodians to teachers to administrators. We have students and parents involved in the process of helping vet, test, and support ideas as well. This year, all ideas start out at the site level, with small ideas being developed and tested. The highest rated medium and large ideas from each site will advance to a district-level review.

As one of our principals, Cindy Andress stated, "Innovation is an important way for Minnetonka to respond to the changing needs of our students as well as the changing dynamics of our 21st century world. The great ideas that staff share through the idea hunt is making a big difference in the lives of our students." You can read more about the process and background here as well as in the video below. 

Spigit & Minnetonka Public Schools