Leading Innovative Thinking and Practice: A Report for Education

This report delves into the concept of innovative thinking, defining it as the process of generating new and improved ideas, essential for standing out in today's competitive landscape. It examines the application of innovative thinking within the German International School Sydney, an educational institution, exploring tools and techniques like Google Trends and mind mapping to stimulate creativity. The report analyzes trends in thinking, such as integrated learning solutions, personalized learning, and the Internet of Things, and their impact on the education system. It also discusses the development of leadership capacity in fostering innovation, key concepts like the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, and strategies for generating and sustaining a culture of innovation. Furthermore, the report addresses drivers, enablers, challenges, and barriers to innovation within an organization, offering insights into overcoming them. The report emphasizes the importance of innovation leadership and provides examples of how to generate and support innovation within an educational setting.

Lead Innovative
Thinking and Practice

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
Context of Response..................................................................................................................................3
Various tools and techniques to stimulate creative or innovative thinking..............................................3
Trends in thinking and emerging practices and how they relate to an organization’s current thinking
and practices............................................................................................................................................4
Develop own capacity to lead innovative thinking and practice in an organizational context.................5
Key concepts, current theories and processes for introducing, communicating, promoting and
supporting innovative thinking in an organizational context...................................................................5
Points of Reference....................................................................................................................................6
Generate innovative thinking and creativity............................................................................................6
Lead innovative practices........................................................................................................................7
Generate and support a culture of innovation..........................................................................................8
Sustain innovative thinking and practice.................................................................................................9
Hints for Response.....................................................................................................................................9
Compare and contrast current and past theories and thinking about innovation......................................9
Explain how theory and thinking on innovation and creativity can contribute to applied practice........10
Impact of leadership style on innovation in organisations, including how specific approaches may
encourage or inhibit innovation.............................................................................................................10
Relevance of organisational and industry context on innovation...........................................................11
Internal and external conditions or factors that impact on organisational innovation............................12
Strategies for identifying, assessing and managing risks associated with innovation............................12
Provide examples of innovation drivers in an organisation...................................................................13
Provide examples of innovation enablers in an organisation.................................................................13
Describe mechanisms at system or process level that can support innovative practices........................14
Challenges and barriers to innovation within an organisation and ways of overcoming them...............14
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Innovative thinking can be defined as the process of thinking something new and
innovative. It can help in converting an innovative and creative idea into practical application.
Being innovative has become a necessary skill for every individual to have if they want to stand
out of the competition (Block, Fisch and Van Praag, 2017). It means implementing innovative
and new ideas in order to improve products and services. Innovative thinking, simply means to
be able to consider something in a new and improved way. Innovation can differ from industry to
industry, i.e., an innovation in the educational industry will differ from the one in smartphone
industry. Educational systems around the world are different from each other among which the
Australia is reviewed as the one having of the leading systems in the world. This report reviews
the Australian Education system using various tools and techniques. It also explains the practice
of innovative thinking in an organizational context. Organization chosen for this report is
German International School Sydney, that offers complete school education from preschool to
Year 12. Respective report analyzes specific conditions for innovation and various issues that
can have an impact on both collective as well as individual innovative thinking. Various
strategies have been developed in order to foster a workplace culture that encourages innovation.
Apart from this, various challenges as well as barriers to innovation and the ways of overcoming
them within an organization have also been discussed.
Context of Response
Various tools and techniques to stimulate creative or innovative thinking
In today’s world, creative or innovative thinking has become an essential requirement for
individuals (Brodin, 2016). This is because it helps them looking at various situations and
problems through a fresh perspective. The different tools and techniques to stimulate creative or
innovative thinking are explained below –
Tools
 Google trends is a tool shows up to date information about what is it that people are
searching for. This can generate an opportunity for creative thinking.

 Ubersuggest is another tool that suggests the most popular keywords that are related to a
particular search query. This can provide an innovative inspiration for new topics that can
be covered.
 Content Strategy Generator is another valuable tool that can provide information about
relevant keywords (8 Creative Thinking Techniques and The Tools To Use, 2020).
Techniques
 Mind Mapping – It is also referred to as brainstorming can be defined as a diagram that
is used to organize information visually. The main purpose of this technique is to take up
all the ideas that come up during the discussion (Caldera, Desha and Dawes, 2017). Once
the discussion is over, the ideas are then critically analyzed and the most relevant ones
are selected. This is one of the most commonly used techniques for stimulating creative
or innovative thinking.
 Lateral thinking – In this technique, a step by step approach is adopted to find answers
to a particular problem. This allows people to re view the problem from a much more
creative point of view. Lateral thinking opens up different ways of dealing with a
situation.
Trends in thinking and emerging practices and how they relate to an organization’s current
thinking and practices
There are various practices that have emerged within the educational industry overtime
and have contributed to its complete transformation (Campbell and Huffington, 2019). German
International School Sydney is an educational institutional that offers complete school education
to students in preschool to the ones in Year 12. The school currently follows the NSW school
year calendar and has also adopted various trends of the educational industry within its system.
One of the major trends within the industry is Integrated Learning Solutions that provide
effective digital infrastructure requirements besides keeping traditional textbooks as base. The
management of German International School Sydney thinks that the retention of knowledge
among students improves when the learning process involves audio, video and other visuals
which the Australian Education System currently lacks. Virtual reality helps the students to
understand and learn things in an effective manner by experiencing a particular subject overall.
As per the view point of Kristina James, with the help of virtual reality, teachers can create any

kind of environment within the classroom (7 Education Trends to Watch in 2019, 2020). Another
emerging practice is personalized learning, wherein the students can learn at their own pace. The
management of respective school believes that different students have their own pace of learning.
Personalized Learning is a teaching trend that will be really helpful for children/students with
special needs. Last but not the least, IoT or Internet of Things is helping teachers within schools
to organize their day to day activities in the schools effectively and in a much better way. IoT
can also be used to evaluate different teaching strategies.
Develop own capacity to lead innovative thinking and practice in an organizational context
Innovation is transforming the world at an explosive rate and thus has become an
important component for all organizations today (Campbell, Coldicott and Kinsella, 2018). It
comes along with many benefits like improved quality of services, enhanced productivity etc.
Within the education industry, nearly all schools and colleges are adopting different ways in
order to enhance their overall process of learning as well as gain a competitive edge against
others in the industry. German International School Sydney has adopted various ways to impart
best possible education to its students through various innovative and creative ways.
Brainstorming sessions are carried out from time to time so that innovative and creative ways of
teaching can be implemented within the system.
Respective school is a multilingual school that teaches different languages to the
students, German being one of them. The school has a team of highly qualified teachers who are
dedicated towards guiding and supporting every student so that they become competent,
independent and responsible adults. Adopting various innovative and creative ways in teaching
help in improving the overall productivity of the students and also inculcating a sense of
involvement among them. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality are among the rising trends within
the industry that have enhanced the overall process of learning among the students (Cecchin,
Lane and Ray, 2018). Therefore, it can be said that innovation can help organizations in
rethinking and re-evaluating their business strategies in a much more efficient way.
Key concepts, current theories and processes for introducing, communicating, promoting and
supporting innovative thinking in an organizational context
Organizations should make sure that their cultures encourage innovative thinking within
the employees. This will not only help them in enhancing employees’ productivity but also the

overall performance of the organization. The key concept behind innovative thinking is to
improve the existing products and services. The theory for introducing, communicating and
promoting innovative thinking in an organization is as follows-
Diffusion of Innovation Theory
Diffusion of Innovation Theory was developed by E.M. Rogers in the year 1962 and
evaluates how different ideas spread among groups of people (Cummings and Bridgman, 2016).
According to this theory, any innovation is not adopted at the same time by all individuals.
Instead, there is time sequence in which they adopt the same. This can be divided into different
adopter categories that are based on how long it takes them to begin using the innovation.
Innovators – In context to German International School Sydney, innovators are the
students who want are interested and want to try out the innovation first. These people are
willing to take risks and very little efforts are required to appeal to them.
Early Adopters – These are the people who represent opinion leaders and enjoy being in
leadership roles. They are comfortable in adopting themselves to change.
Early Majority – These are those people who want to see an evidence if the innovation
works before adopting the same.
Late Majority – These are the people who are not very sure of adopting the change and
only do so after a majority of people have tried the same.
Laggards – People in this category are very conservative and are the hardest to make
believe that the innovation is actually useful.
In order to introduce, communicate and promote innovative thinking, respective school
should formulate strategies and hire appropriate resources to do the same (Ding, 2019). The
management of the school should make introduction of innovative thinking within the system
their priority and should thus make efforts to make this work.

Points of Reference
Generate innovative thinking and creativity
Brainstorming, storyboarding, lateral thinking, visualization and role playing are some
techniques to generate new ideas. They can help in increasing the overall productivity and
performance of individuals within an organization. Different trends like Big Data, Internet of
Things, Automation and Globalization are shaping organization’s current and future thinking and
practice (Eurich, Schroer and Lilie, 2016). They are helping companies in changing the ways in
which they interact with customers ad being able to connect with them anytime and anywhere. In
order to enhance innovation among teams and individuals, brainstorming is one of the most
efficient and effective ways of doing so. This is because it gives an opportunity to all the
members of the team to share their ideas and thoughts without any hesitation. Both individual as
well as collective innovative thinking and creativity contribute to the overall growth of an
organization and also, help it gain a competitive advantage against others within the industry.
Apart from this, they also allow finding new and unique ideas of addressing a particular
situation or problem. There are some conditions that are necessary for innovation like
organizations should promote curiosity and be ready to take risks. Also, it is important that all
the management processes within the organization are innovation-friendly, this will allow
bringing in the change effectively. Different issues that can have an impact on both individual as
well as collective innovative thinking and creativity include lack of resources and time, a
systematic innovation process, micromanagement and no training for creative thinking (Top 30+
key obstacles to innovation, 2020). But there are many drivers and enablers of innovation like
welcoming new ides in the system, creating teams that support innovation within the company,
providing incentives and generating awareness regarding the same among employees etc.
Lead innovative practices
Innovation leadership can be used in order to promote innovative thinking and practice
within German International School Sydney. The teachers might come across some challenges
from the students but it will be useful in the future. Teachers within the school can adopt various
tools and techniques like lateral thinking, brainstorming, storyboarding etc. because they will
help in fostering new ideas among students and at the same time build creativity within them. In
order to promote creative thinking within the individuals, teachers should schedule brainstorming

sessions every week, train the students to be innovative, support all kinds of ideas and thoughts
that are put forward by the students keeping aside their personal opinion and continuously stress
upon the importance of innovative thinking and practices (10 Ways to Promote Innovation in a
Team Environment, 2020).
Since students have to be involved in the innovative activities, the teachers are required
to adopt various strategies so that they feel involved. They should be encouraged to share their
ideas and thoughts (Gelb, 2018). This will lead to an increase in the overall productivity as well
as performance. Different means should be adopted to promote knowledge transfer like students
who perform well should be recognized and rewarded in front of the class. A knowledge sharing
culture should be fostered which will help in increasing overall productivity of the students
which will also be helpful in the future. The various risks associated with innovation within
German International School Sydney include lack of patience among the students, unavailability
of resources, unhealthy competition etc.
Generate and support a culture of innovation
In context to German International School Sydney, the audience are the students studying
there. The management can use various innovative practices in order to encourage creative
thinking such as using creative audio and video tools, scheduling brainstorming sessions from
time to time, reviving environment of the classroom etc. This will generate interest towards
learning among them and also inculcate innovative thinking. There are various ways that
teachers can adopt in order to communicate and share innovative and ideas and tools like cross
over teaching, using smart boards and virtual reality for teaching etc. This will promote the idea
of sharing creative and innovative thoughts among the students which will further lead to an
improvement in their overall performances.
Collaboration is one of the many approaches that teachers within the respective schools
can adopt in order to promote innovation. This can be done by forming teams of students and
encouraging them to come up with a unique and creative idea. This will train them for their
future endeavors in life and become successful adults (Hanington and Martin, 2019). The
learning process should be made easy instead of tough and complex because having such a
learning process can prove out not to be useful. For innovation to occur, money is one of the
most important resources because without it, management of German International School

Sydney won’t be able to incorporate innovation in their system. Other essential resources for
innovation to occur are people, time and the equipment. Also, in order to foster the workplace
culture, strategies like internal contests and competitions being held from time to time, most
creative ideas being rewarded and efforts made to make the overall culture of the organization
innovative. Different mechanisms should be set that support innovation in some or the other way.
Sustain innovative thinking and practice
In order to make innovation an integral part of organizational activity, it is important to
provide both teachers as well as students with various resources so that they can implement
innovative ideas. This is important because with the lack of such resources, they won’t be able to
convert the ideas into reality (Hienerth and Lettl, 2017). A sufficient amount of time should be
invested on training the students about how can they think creatively and innovatively. These
processes should be monitored regularly by the management in order to ensure that innovative
and creative thinking. There are various barriers and risks to innovation like a lack of resources
or staff, the management or teachers not being able to understand the requirements of students
etc.
Apart from this, there can also be the case that there is no shared vision and strategy. In
order to overcome these barriers, students within the school who make attempts to think
creatively and innovatively should be rewarded. Also, the teachers should always be there to
guide and provide support to the students at all times. This way, the school will be able to create
a culture of innovative and creative think in its system. In order to develop effective strategies
for improvement, innovation performance can be taken as a base. This will help in formulation
of innovative and unique strategies so that different problems or situations can be dealt with in a
more refined manner.
Hints for Response
Compare and contrast current and past theories and thinking about innovation
Innovation today, is thought of to be one of the most essential requirements for an
organization to succeed (Høegh-Guldberg, 2018). But this was not the case a decade ago when
the schools used to follow the traditional ways of teaching and no creative or innovative ways
were used. Innovative and creative thinking have become a part of the curriculum of all the
schools wherein students are encouraged to share and put forward their point of view about a

certain topic. Brainstorming, lateral thinking and story boarding are some innovative techniques
that teachers are incorporating in the classrooms in order to enhance the process of learning
among students.
Even current theories of innovation differ from the ones of the past because the concept
has changed a lot from what it was earlier although their themes are still the same. Diffusion of
Innovation Theory is one of the widely known theories about innovation. It states that everyone
does not adopt a new concept or innovation at equal pace, rather they are grouped into various
adopter categories based on the time they take to adopt the change in their daily life. Innovators,
Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards are the categories in which they are
grouped. Therefore, it an be said that innovation has come a long way and is estimated to grow
even bigger in the future.
Explain how theory and thinking on innovation and creativity can contribute to applied practice
Innovation and creative thinking can significantly contribute to the applied practice
because they are interrelated with each other (Holbeche, 2018). Encouraging creativity and
innovation in the classroom can help the teacher in enhancing the overall productivity levels of
students. On the other hand, theory on innovation groups different adopters based on the time
they take to incorporate change in their day to day life. Innovative practice will enhance which
means that the students will have a fresh and new mindset of dealing with different situations in
different ways. The Australian Education System has adopted many ways in which this can be
done so that students grow up to be intelligent adults who have strong innovative and creative
thinking skills.
And this can only be done when different schools and colleges, including German
International School Sydney adopt various strategies to incorporate innovation and creativity in
their systems. This will allow both students as well as teachers to explore different new and
creative ways of teaching and a completely new way of looking at situations/problems. Apart
from this, students start applying their knowledge to find solution to different problems. Also,
both innovation as well as creative thinking have become important if organizations want to gain
a competitive advantage against competitors (Horstmanshof, Gallagher and Lewis, 2018).
Therefore, it can be said that both creative thinking as well as innovation contribute to how
organizations function in an effective way.

Impact of leadership style on innovation in organisations, including how specific approaches
may encourage or inhibit innovation
An innovative leader/ manager within an organization can help it in becoming successful
by coming up with new and innovative ideas. Similarly, in context to German International
School Sydney, teachers can motivate their students not only to work hard but also address
different situations in an innovative manner. Innovation can help in formulating and developing
creative teaching methods so that the students can learn in a much more improved manner (Kim,
Kim and Foss, 2016). Innovation leadership is a kind of leadership in which different leadership
styles are combined in order to influence subordinates or students in order to generate creative
and innovative results. Some approaches of this leadership might encourage innovation while
some of them can inhibit the same.
If the approach of the management or teachers within the school is not appropriate the
students will not learn to think creatively. In such a case, even if the management of the school
provides various resources of doing so, it will not prove out to be effective and as a result the
students will not be able to learn the concept that is being taught by the teacher in the class. But
if the teacher adopts ways in which students feel involved within the class room, they will be
encouraged to think in a creative way and address various situations in an effective manner.
Relevance of organisational and industry context on innovation
Education industry is relevant for innovation because the way in which students learn has
transformed from what it was earlier. Both teachers as well as students are seeking ways to
explore different ways of learning something new. Technological innovation is a kind of
innovation that, if incorporated, can not only lead to the overall success of an organization, but
also enhance the way in which students learn different things (Kriyantono, 2020). Education
industry specifically is relevant for innovation because how minds of young students are molded
in the present will certainly define how they are and approach various situations in the future.
This is also because the learning needs are changing rapidly and indicate what people working in
a particular company will be required to have.
Therefore, it is important for management of the respective school to either update
existing processes or replace them with new ones. Introducing better practices will help them in
preparing the students to function in a better way in the future. Students should be provided with

exposure so that their ability to grasp and learn new things increases which therefore leads to an
enhancement in their overall performance as well as productivity. Also, teachers should provide
feedback from time to time so that students can adapt themselves to the same. Thus, educational
industry is one of those industries for whom innovation is most relevant if companies want to
stand out against competitors.
Internal and external conditions or factors that impact on organisational innovation
Every organization wants to be successful and build a business that is not only profitable
but also sustainable (Mertler and Henriksen, 2018). It depends on different factors that impact its
innovation either in a positive or negative way. Some of the factors are explained below -
 Management of objectives – The success of an innovation within an organization is
based on how well goals and objectives are managed within the company. If this is not
done effectively, the organization will not be able to bring in innovation in a proper
manner.
 Innovative activities – German International School Sydney has incorporated any
innovative and creative activities in its curriculum in order to help students develop the
skill of creative thinking. This will also help in developing their confidence and
enhancing overall productivity.
 Adaptability of students – It is important that students are able to adapt themselves to
the new and innovative methods of teaching that are adopted by the school. If they fail to
do so, the different techniques will not be successful.
 Design of different activities – The different activities should be designed in such a way
in order to generate maximum output in the form of innovative and creative thinking
among students. Therefore, the teachers should keep the understanding levels of children
in their minds while designing activities for them.
Strategies for identifying, assessing and managing risks associated with innovation
There are various strategies that can be used to identify, assess and manage risks that are
associated with innovation (Nurutdinova and et. al., 2016). This helps in incorporating the same
or adapting to it much easier. Some strategies are explained below –
 Identify risk as an opportunity – Whenever an organization comes across a risk that is
associated with innovation, it should treat it as an opportunity as it can lead them to new