Creativity, Innovation, and Daring

From Great to Best

As part of the Michigan Engineering 2020 Strategic Vision, the College identified culture as a key pillar in moving ‘from great to best.’   Among other actions focused on culture, college leadership charged a committee to help build a culture that enables staff be more creative, innovative, and daring.  Not a small task, which is why we need your help.

The Creativity, Innovation, and Daring (CID) committee is taking their roadshow to all College departments in January and February 2019, asking for your ideas, and seeking your participation.    If you haven’t seen us yet, you will!

Interested?  Sign up for email updates  and we’ll keep you informed on upcoming programs, events, and other ways to participate.    Have suggestions, ideas, or a desire to help?  Don’t be shy in reaching out.  

Three Ways to Participate

The details of the program are still being developed, but here are the three main program elements and some information about program events for the rest of this year.

Overall Program for Staff Creativity, Innovationm and Daring

1. Cultivating Creative Conversations

Get people talking

  • Low barrier to entry – engage staff across departmental lines, build relationships across CoE
  • 30-minute conversation – participants matched with two other CoE staff
  • Open to any subject of interest among participants
  • Can participate once per month
  • Participate three times = Blue Bucks added to your Mcard

2. Dare to Do

Create bandwidth for mission-level thinking

  • Crash course – for staff interested in CID but not sure where to start
  • Mobilizes teams toward action – “explore and do”
  • 3-8 participants matched into team from different departments
  • Structured workshops + unstructured team time to work on a self-selected project
  • Share successes and failures – learn what it feels like to CID

3. Investing in Innovation

Put money where it counts

  • Grant program – award well-formed proposals affecting positive change at CoE
  • Teams of 3-8 from multiple departments – may emerge from Tiers 1 or 2 or form independently
  • Projects must be executable within one year of award
  • Teams whose proposals are not funded will receive feedback and may re-apply

Tying it all together

  • CID-focused events and workshops – four times over program cycle, roughly quarterly
  • Open to all staff as stand-alone opportunities or in complement to each pillar
  • Workshop topics will vary depending on the needs of the program or input from community

Timeline

  • Creative Conversations signups in February
  • Innovation Day kickoff event in March/April
  • Workshops and classes for Dare to Do  from May to August
  • Grant applications accepted starting in August or September
  • Daring Displays capstone event in November/December

What’s in it for you

  • Get outside your day-to-day
  • Meet new people – with gift cards
  • Guilt-free trying
  • Tackle wicked problems – big and small
  • It feels good to fix stuff and be recognized for it
  • Be part of positive change
  • Learn, lead, and grow

What can you do?