Technology & Innovation
The impact technology and innovation has had on my journey as a scholar practitioner has rapidly increased throughout my journey through the Learning and Leadership program. This critical reflection highlights my growth within this competency as I assisted the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus community to implement the Digital Measures software. With any technology and innovation, change management and organizational culture are keystones for understanding how well an initiative will be perceived, implemented, and diffused across a given organizational setting (Rogers, 2003). Those lessons learned during the Digital Measures implementation have given me a reference for how to better approach other initiatives and the importance of iterative, innovative architecture for ensuring continued success (Morris, 2011).
As an inquiring scholar of Technology & Innovation:
Evaluate and integrate the role of technology and innovation adoption in organizational setting
Demonstrate technological proficiencies as applied to communication, data collection, data analysis, leadership process, and decision making
CR - Technology and Innovation - Behneman.docx
Leveraging the Adoption Curve
How well an innovation intersects with the organizations culture can be an important aspect of its adoption (Rogers, 2003). To enhance the compatibility of Digital Measures with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga I lead the systems integration into the organization's yearly Planning and Performance cycle for faculty. This artifact is a graphic of the entire process and serves as a visual representation of each step. The flow chart is further enhanced by allowing users to click on a step which will bring them to a detailed step-by-step guide.
Using Technology to Communicate Innovation
Innovation is not stagnate, instead we merge innovation and technology with iterative design concepts to continue the diffusion of Digital Measures across the organization and enhance its compatibility (Morris, 2011; Rogers, 2003). Therefore, I author a newsletter to communicate updates to the system, available resources, and to celebrate creative uses of the technology.
Innovative Integration
As an innovation progresses through the adoption curve, reevaluating the role the innovation plays in the organization can assist in ensuring it is relevant and still applicable for stakeholders. (Miller and Wedell-Wedellsborg, 2013; Rogers, 2003). The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga implemented a new website design in 2020 that allowed me to develop a website integration with digital measures with our university's faculty web profiles. In collaboration with other organizational units, I was able to create pathways for faculty to update their own web content and provide them with a space to highlight the great things they have accomplished. This connection of systems further developed the compatibility of Digital Measures with the University's culture (Rogers, 2003).