Group Size
?
1.) Small group (teams of 4-6)
2.) Individual Task
3.) Large Group
4.) Any
Small group (teams of 4-6)
Learning Environment
?
1.) Lecture Theatre
2.) Presentation Space
3.) Carousel Tables (small working group)
4.) Any
5.) Outside
6.) Special
Carousel Tables (small working group)
QAA Enterprise Theme(s)
?
1.) Creativity and Innovation
2.) Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
3.) Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4.) Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5.) Reflection and Action
6.) Interpersonal Skills
7.) Communication and Strategy
1Creativity and Innovation
2Opportunity recognition‚ creation and evaluation
3Decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
4Implementation of ideas through leadership and management
5Reflection and Action
6Interpersonal Skills
7Communication and Strategy
Introduction:
This event was open to all Combined Honours students, with a cap of 30 participants. It was hosted over a six hour period on one day and supporting members of staff were members of the organisation setting the provocation, members of the Enterprise Team, Combined Honours academics, and Combined Honours graduates.
Students worked in cross-stage, cross-discipline groups formed on the day and were supported through divergent and convergent ideation processes. They then worked to develop their ideas before transforming them into a pitch which was presented back to a judging panel before a winner was selected.
Activity:
The students were placed in mixed teams on arrival to ensure diverse skill sets existed within each group and they were then introduced to the schedule of the day. As lead facilitator I lay down some ground rules to apply to the day to ensure the students could get as much as possible out of the experience – such as no negativity expressed for others ideas and that students could take breaks as and when necessary due to the fast paced, full afternoon programme. I also introduced the aims for the session and what students were able to achieve if they fully engaged with the experience – a stronger set of enterprising capabilities for employment or self-employment, voucher prizes, the potential of an internship with the provocation setting organisation and a greater understanding of what they might like to pursue after university.
The external organisation that was supporting this Challenge was founded by two Newcastle University graduates – one from Combined Honours and one from Architecture. The founders introduced themselves, their backgrounds and how the variety of skills they had learnt whilst studying at Newcastle University in their respective courses led them to be a successful team of founders. They then outlined the provocation for the students to respond to throughout the afternoon, which had a social focus due to the nature of their start-up. The fact I was able to source an external organisation which was founded by a graduate from Combined Honours added lots of value to the day as the student participants were inspired by the graduate business and also motivated to generate impressive ideas to support the civic business goals.
Students were introduced to divergent thinking. Crazy 8’s was used (a core element of Design Sprints which encourages participants to come up with 8 ideas in 8 minutes) for individual idea generation in order to keep energy high, and stretch the students to push past their first ideas. Participants were then encouraged to share their individual ideas with team mates, and decide which idea to take forwards to develop for the rest of the time as a team. Teams were then introduced to the Business Model Canvas and given time to work through this canvas collectively. During this development time each team was provided with a 15 minute time slot to receive feedback from, or ask questions to, an ‘expert panel’ which was made up of a member of the Enterprise Team, a founder of the external organisation, and a Combined Honours academic.
The students were given intensive 10 minute focus points at three separate points of the day to draw attention to specific elements of the provocation. These focus points involved myself as lead facilitator asking reflective questions to the room or demonstrating light-touch models to ensure each team had collectively considered in detail:
- Who their target market was
- How their idea could be financially sustainable
- What specific impacts their idea could lead to.
This was part of the day to ensure that the students were able to successfully communicate their ideas in response to all elements of the brief, and to push them to think in detail about their solutions.
The students were then provided with some pitching tips, before being given a short time to prepare their pitches. Each group had 5 minutes to pitch and presented their ideas back to the whole room and the judging panel. They were able to respond to one question from the panel after their 5 minutes expired. There were two prizes on offer for this activity – The Judges Choice and The Student Choice. The Judges Choice was evaluated by the panel on the strength of the teams’ response to the brief, communication skills, innovation, team work and likelihood of true impact. The Student Choice was a vote by all student participants (who could not vote for themselves) on which team had created the most impressive response to the brief, and the most persuasive pitch. The student vote was conducted whilst judges deliberated and feedback on the event was collected at this time too.
The event culminated in a pizza celebration and networking opportunity to enable the students to talk to other alumni in the room, as well as the external organisation founders and other support staff. The winners were then announced with voucher prizes awarded to The Judges Choice winning team and the Student Choice winning team.
Impact:
The impact of this event was significant for a multitude of reasons. Since one of the aims of the event was to enhance participant’s enterprise skills, feedback was analysed to see if this goal was reached. The feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive as 95% of participants believed that they had enhanced their skills in problem solving, persuasiveness, generating ideas to respond to a brief, and commercial acumen. Further to this 91% of attendees agreed that they had enhanced their pitching and team working skills.
Innovative solutions were definitely created by the participants and the organisation who set the provocation was particularly impressed by the quality of ideas generated. This can be evidenced by the fact that the organisation went on to offer an internship to one of the winning teams to further develop the idea they created on the day, and to see whether this could be implemented in real life. This was also an impressive impact of the day for the students who have found an employability opportunity with a start-up by taking part in the Challenge.
Further to this, 100% of participants noted that they would recommend this event for Combined Honours students next year and 100% of students noted that working on a real life problem made the event feel purposeful. 95% of students agreed that the event helped to prepare them for the world of work which further demonstrates their awareness of how this event aided their employability.
Due to the cross-stage, cross-discipline teamwork students understood the power of diverse teams and what can be achieved by working in such teams. Multiple students commented on the power of this in their feedback and “Team work and being able to collaborate with other people from the combined honours department” was frequently noted as a positive element of the day.
Other qualitative feedback which demonstrates impact of the Challenge from the student feedback forms:
Finally, the Student Choice team went on to win Enterprising Team of the year at Newcastle University Enterprise and Entrepreneurship awards having been nominated for their ideas and contribution to the Challenge and their uptake of further idea development as part of the aforementioned internship.
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