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
Consultancy Project Objective:
Session objectives:
This extended session (5-6 hours) forms the start of the semester-long consultancy project with the key objectives of:
This session involves a variety of very different organisations and students from a broad range of subject backgrounds; students are required to apply knowledge and skills (including relevant theory) in assessment outputs (which in this case is a Feasibility/Market Research Report). The key objective from an educator perspective is to provide scope for co-creation of knowledge and knowledge-transfer between the student group and the ‘Client’; whilst also being mindful of some of the potential difficulties inherent in a cross-faculty and external-facing project (particularly time/resource restraints and lack of previous experience/confidence working with external professionals; misunderstanding of the task/problem to solve). The pedagogical objective is to provide authentic experiences for students to engage in the development and application of their knowledge and skills; but being mindful of the varying (and often limited) level of experience students often have in working environments and managing projects and workloads with unfamiliar team members; giving huge scope for interpersonal skills development.
Introduction :
This extended session forms the start of a semester-long enterprise consultancy project. Students needed to meet the Client; establish the foundations for a positive working relationship; and ensure they (fully) understood the problem they were being asked to solve, as well as any pertinent information around the organisation, industry/sector/field to inform their ideation process. This initial stage of the project was also key in establishing procedures for working together as a multidisciplinary, cross-faculty group. The approach taken was designed as a means to engage the group in project management requirements and take ownership and responsibility over their roles/tasks; to improve confidence and interpersonal skills with the Client on-site [before opportunity to visit the Client further along in the project]; and to help ensure the groups better understood the Challenge so they could improve the quality of original ideas they may have had in response to the written brief.
Activity:
Session pre-work involves reading the written version of the Client Challenge Brief, which gives an overview of the problem/challenge they would like help with; and brief information about the organisation and any ‘need to know’ links for students to read pertinent documentation ahead of meeting; and compiling a list of questions they have for their first Client meeting. Students have ‘bid’ for their top 3 preferences of project to work with ahead of the session so they are personally invested in the scope of the project/type of organisation.
1. Ice-breaker & Creative Thinking: SCAMPER
Introduce overview of SCAMPER acronym elements using visual examples; Use slide (or hand-out) to remind groups of the dimensions of SCAMPER. Give out random object to groups; give 15-20 minutes to use SCAMPER to come up with different ‘ideas’ or reconceptualisations of the random object. Each team will pick one and present to the wider group. [optional opportunity to give a prize for ‘best concept’]. Consider SCAMPER as a tool for Organisational Problem Solving – can break down components and suggest relevant examples to the organisations involved in the project or use alternative resources to bring this to life – I used a YouTube clip (see resources/references) to just highlight the potential uses of the same tool for ideation in the Consultancy Project Challenge and signpost to this work later in the session and to reference MindTools for useful resources they may wish to explore further for their own chosen approaches.
Introduce Hurson’s (2007) Production Thinking Model as one way to break down the challenge into important components. Explain the first three stages/questions (What is going on?; What’s success?; What is the question?) will be tackled during the Challenge event and the remaining steps will form the work need to be carried out in the remaining project length (Generate answers; Forge the solution; Align resources).
Provide overview of data collection frameworks to choose from (SWOT; PESTLE; 5Ps; 7Ss; 5 Whys – see reference section below); and use as appropriate with the Client to extract further data.
BREAK – External Client can depart to leave student groups to start further work and create plans/contracts for working together.
3. Team Canvas
[This activity is introduced via signposting to group assessment brief/criteria, which includes analysing their group work].
This activity requires the student groups to draw out self-evaluation measures they’ve used previously (egs in this case; Belbin and MBTI) to have an objective framework around which to highlight (and critique) strengths and weaknesses; and importantly’, consider how these might be relevant in the context of the group project and assessment success. Students are also invited to consider this canvas in practical terms based around known deadlines for other modules; this is particularly relevant in this group as it includes 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students from different courses, so this engages the notion of contingency/availability planning in their project management.
4. Initial IDEATION
The final activities are focussed on beginning to generate ideas or at least, further deepening the understanding of the problem/challenge. 6 Thinking Hats was used to provide a means to look at the ‘problem’ (or initial ideas) from different perspectives and provide space for different strengths and weaknesses divulged as part of the Team Canvas task so they may identify ways to work more effectively as a team as a result.
5. Reverse Brainstorming
This final Ideation activity provides another creative exercise with focus on the problem/challenge. First, the team should clearly state the problem (this gives an opportunity to summarise the problem now they are more informed from their Client; and to check shared understanding across the group) and then consider how they might: create the ‘problem’; make the problem worse; achieve the opposite of the Client Challenge. The idea is that the group list their suggestions and then see if by ‘reversing’ the items on that list, if they can find some potential solutions.
Event closes with each group choosing a representative to give a 2-minute overview of their group challenge, initial ideas and ‘next steps’.
Impact:
This approach afforded more scope for developing more insight and a positive working relationship with all stakeholders, including external Clients, students and module staff too.
The initial creative thinking ice-breaker activity using SCAMPER worked very well and generated a lot of positive energy and fun ideas.
The approach taken was designed with data collected from a focus group with Clients from the previous year’s challenge projects in mind. Two of these Clients took part in this year’s module project and were able to send the same representatives; and both commented on how much improvement they experienced from previous projects in that they were able to check understanding of the project brief and begin to develop a rapport immediately. All of the Clients that attended told me how pleased they were with how the event had gone and it was good to be able to meet their student team straight-away as well as understand the types of skills and subject expertise they had to lend to the project.
Students submit a group report for their assessment and their final assessment is reflective essay in which many of the cohort cited the project experience as being challenging but very rewarding. Four of the students specifically cited that the experience has influenced their career aspirations, ambitions and opportunities pursued. For example, one student is hoping to take up a part-time role with the organisation she worked with; and 2 students from another group have stated they want to forge a career in economic regeneration after developing a solution to increase tourism in a deprived area of Northumberland. In the case of the latter project, the team of 3 students developed strong relationship with the Client from the start and were able to persuade her to ‘go public’ with her idea despite initial reservations about doing so to protect it. Establishing the insight into the solution and the concerns the Client had from this initial meeting were central to their success with this.
Students often cited the Team Canvas and 6 Thinking Hats activities as particularly useful in getting to know their working group by objectively observing team weaknesses and attempting to plan accordingly; the latter activity was cited as being helpful to give everyone a voice and say negative aspects they might not have otherwise voiced in a new group dynamic. Feedback from module evaluation made specific reference to this hen asked to highlight the positive aspects of the module:
The practical nature of the module. I thoroughly enjoyed working with a local company. I gained so much from this experience and I really can’t think of anything to fault it…I think the content about how people worked differently within teams was really beneficial to me because it allowed me to recognise that people contribute in their own personal way. [Developing Enterprise, Entrepreneurship & Employability student, 2019]
Resources:
References:
