This is a pilot study to explore the conditions for the emergence of collective innovation. Comprised of a group of 15-20 faculty and staff from several higher education institutions who are committed to become more equitable not only in their teaching but in their inner selves, the study was undertaken to determine conditions and practices that favor the emergence of collective innovation within this specific sociopolitical system.

The term "innovation" is widely used in business, and adopted by education and other sectors. Due to its wide use, its meaning can get lost. Here are a few helpful definitions:

a change that creates a new dimension of performance (Peter Drucker)

innovation is creating new value and/or capturing value in a new way. Value is the key word, stressing the difference between invention and innovation (Victor Fernandes - Natura)

innovation in a group relies on the ability to make new connections among the diverse experiences of its members (Ken Favaro review of the book Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter, by Cass Sunstein and Reid Hastie)

So when we speak of innovation in our group context, we mean collective change, change that includes ourselves as individuals, our pilot study group, our classrooms, and our institutions; change that creates true value. The value in our case is increased equity.

Our group members are very interested in doing cross-institutional work with each other in this area; the pilot study provides the means for exploring ways to build community and find shared practices that lead to personal transformation and ultimately to the transformation of our teaching and learning environments.

Research questions are:

Q1: Do shared practices that honor whole body intelligence foster collective innovation?

Q2: What qualities of the sociopolitical container foster transformational outcomes? By transformational, we are referring to the ability to consciously choose actions that are outside of one’s conditioned tendencies, habitually enacted.

The group met in person in Santa Barbara, CA for a 3-day retreat during the weekend of February 5-7, 2016. In large group and small group settings and during meals together, the group members shared ideas about their own disciplines, about ways of knowing, about what it means to "develop" ourselves. In their own way, each member expressed the desire to gain a wider sensitivity. As one member, Roger Burton, put it, " to develop ourselves as human beings beyond the important cognitive realm. The results of that could itself be an innovation or lead to innovations." 

One practice that several in the group agreed to do when they returned home was to interview 3-4 people and ask them the following questions. The intent is to be an active listener to the interviewee, reflecting back what they said at various times in the conversation, without judging or commenting.

1. When you think about the development process, what are its most important aspects?

2. Are there conditions that help the process of development? What are they?

3. Where are these conditions present or absent in your life?

4. When you look at my life, what advice would you give me about my own development process?

Several book titles were shared by group members as recommended reading before the group met again.

The group held another 3-day get-together at the same retreat center in Santa Barbara, CA on July 24-26, 2016. They discussed the following:

1. Developing a rich picture of what it would take to collaborate across our institutions toward shared aims.

2. Deciding upon a common practice that all group members are willing and able to do, with the intent that the results of the practice will not only enrich each individual but will also lead to collective innovation that can be transferred to our respective teaching and learning environments.

3. Gaining commitment to launch an open channel on Emerging Systems of Science Education (F1000 research)

4. Discovering further emerging pathways for trans-instititional collaborations (e.g., non-profit).

The F1000 research project is a project that many of the group are interested in; during late 2016 and early 2017 the group will develop an editorial board among its members, invite ideas to post on F1000, and select those ideas that are most pertinent to publish in the format of an online journal.