**Krueger, Wentz present at AIRUM Annual Conference, November 6 – 8, 2024, Bloomington, Minnesota
Brenda Krueger and Meridith Wentz, Planning Assessment, Research and Quality, co-presented at the Association for Institutional Research in the Upper Midwest annual conference on Nov. 7, 2024 in Minneapolis. Their presentation was on “Effectively Using Continuous Improvement and Innovation to Facilitate Organizational Change.”
**Hudson, Wentz present at Quest for Excellence 2024 Conference, April 7-10, 2024
Seth Hudson, executive director of Corporate Relations and Economic Engagement, and Meridith Wentz, assistant chancellor for Planning, Assessment, Research, and Quality, recently presented at the Quest for Excellence conference in Washington D.C.
Hudson gave a presentation titled “An Institutional Approach to Industry and Community Engagement;” and Wentz’s presentation was titled “Effectively Using Continuous Improvement and Innovation to Facilitate Organizational Change.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20240404165351/https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/qe
https://web.archive.org/web/20240625131202/https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/university-wisconsin-stout
**Alliance for Innovation and Transparency (AFIT) Summer Institute in 2023
Leading Educational Advancement thru Polytechnic Pathways (LEAPP)
Leading Educational Advancement thru Polytechnic Pathways (LEAPP) is UW-Stout’s approach to innovation with the goal of generating discontinuous, breakthrough change.
Have an idea?
Ideawake is the online platform we use at UW-Stout to capture, develop, approve, and begin to implement innovative ideas.
In Ideawake, you can:
- Submit your ideas
- View other ideas and upvote your favorites
- Track the progress of your idea and receive feedback
Already submitted an idea?
Learn more about the LEAPP process →
Want to develop your innovation skills?
Learn more about our workshop offerings →
Who is involved with LEAPP?
Learn more about the people behind LEAPP →
Mission, Vision, Innovation Definition
Mission
Leading Educational Advancement thru Polytechnic Pathways (LEAPP) is UW-Stout’s approach to innovation with the goal of generating discontinuous breakthrough change.
Vision
LEAPP seeks to set a new standard in higher education by inspiring and supporting the campus community in the development and implementation of breakthrough ideas within a culture of accessible innovation.
Innovation Definition
Baldrige defines innovation as making meaningful (breakthrough) change to improve products, processes, or organizational effectiveness and create new value for stakeholders.
Culture of Accessible Innovation
LEAPP seeks to create a culture of accessible innovation by providing framework and resources necessary to reward risk and celebrate failure.
Supported by Structure
- Innovation Coaches
- IdeaPlay Workshops
- Building Breakthroughs Workshops
- Transparency in the process
- Feedback provided to idea owners through Ideawake
- More to come!
Reinforced by Language
- How we talk about ideas and the LEAPP process
- What we provide idea owners in feedback
- Networking idea owners with other people, resources, ideas, and constructs
Re-Innovation
Not all ideas will make it through LEAPP to implementation and not all “no’s” are the same, but we have created a system for transparency, honesty, and support for ideas that could turn a no into a yes. We call this Re-Innovation.
What does Re-Innovation look like?
When we say “no” or “not yet”…
- Review the feedback provided by campus, the Innovation Coaches, and the Innovation Review Team.
- It may not be the right time to try your idea or there may have been barriers you didn’t know about that we’re not yet ready to overcome.
- It may just need more support (research or coaching) to move from its current state to being ready for re-submission.
- The proposed idea is not within the scope of LEAPP.
What LEAPP is NOT
NOT a Business Incubator
- Not a small business start-up
- Not an entrepreneurial start up course
- Not a product launch platform
NOT a Curriculum Approval Process
- Not a way to bypass current procedures
- But may connect you to unknown resources and appropriately accelerate your idea
NOT a FASLAH Work Around
- Not a way to bypass current procedures
- But may connect you to unknown resources and appropriately accelerate your idea
NOT a Replacement for Policy
- Not a replacement for Stout, System, and state policies, statues, and codes
HISTORY
UW-Stout is focused on the future. As a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award in 2001, UW-Stout has a long history of systematically integrating continuous improvement into our operations, but we still have an opportunity to improve how we innovate. Both continuous improvement and innovation are needed for organizations to be successful. Our programs reflect cutting-edge ideas and principles ensuring that students receive the best, most current academic experience and employers have employees ready to “do more on day one.”
To this end, group of UW-Stout faculty and staff from across campus attended the Alliance for Innovation and Transparency (AFIT) Summer Institute in 2023, where they learned from experts and industry leaders about innovation and organizational transformation.
At AFIT Summer Institute, this group began creating the framework of systems and processes to implement breakthrough, innovative ideas by “changing the rate of change” in higher education. Through brainstorming and consultation sessions, they came up with the name and concept of LEAPP.
Upon returning from AFIT Summer Institute, this group became the LEAPP Implementation team and joined forces with PARQ to devote significant weekly time to LEAPP development.
The LEAPP Implementation team spent hundreds of hours in the develop, review, feedback Re-Innovation cycle; met with content experts and innovation scientists; listened to stakeholder feedback and open forums; and continue to host department and unit information meetings.
With the pilot launch in fall 2024, the LEAPP implementation team continues to work hard to improve LEAPP and deliver value to campus stakeholders.
LEAPP Implementation Team
Krueger, Brenda
Project Manager II
PARQ
Kohlmeier, Theresa
Associate Professor
CAHS Faculty
Lammer, Hannah
TRIO SSS Assist. Director
TRIO Student Support Services
Ludwig, Adam
Director of University Housing
University Housing
Risler, Josh
Financial Analyst I
BFAS
Ray, Matthew
Professor
CSTEMM Faculty
LEAPP Process and Criteria
The Innovation Superhighway
Ideas are generated within our culture of accessible innovation.
Innovation Coaches (ICs) support innovators with idea development and LEAPP process navigation.
Ideas are submitted in Ideawake for crowd-sourcing, transparency, collaboration efforts, data management, review, and approval.
Innovation Review Team (IRT) reviews, approves, and provides feedback to idea submitters.
The Re-Innovation Process is for ideas that need more work, it’s about receiving and implementing feedback on your idea for possible resubmission.
The LEAPP Cycle pitch competition occurs at You Said We Did in January for the top ideas that are ready for implementation.
How an idea goes through Ideawake to be considered for LEAPP Pitch Competition
| What | Who | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Idea submission | Idea Owner | Ideas submitted for documentation and collaboration |
| Tier 1 | Six + Innovation Coaches (ICs) | Apply the first tier of screening |
| Tier 2 | Innovation Review Team (IRT) Chair | Chair reviews IC responses and agrees or disagrees. Chair will review the responses of the ICs and if they agree with the recommendation, that’s what will happen with the idea. If the Chair and the ICs have disagreement, the idea will be moved to the IRT for determination on next steps. |
| Tier 3 | IRT | IRT reviews ideas and approves for further development |
| Pre-Tier 4 | Idea Owner | Submitter completes an Implementation Questionnaire for further IRT review |
| Tier 4 | IRT | IRT reviews Implementation Questionnaire and approves for Chancellor review |
| Decision | Chancellor | Chancellor reviews ideas to determine which will be pitched to campus |
| You Said…We Did | Campus Community | The idea is pitched to campus for feedback at You Said…We Did |
| Decision | Chancellor | Chancellor reviews final ideas to determine which will be implemented |
| Implement | Idea Owner | Idea submitter/champion/sponsor begins implementation with PARQ guidance |
Want to dig even deeper into the process?