November 19, 2019
Celebrate Innovate!
Believe it or not, it was just one month ago that we came together at our annual conference, “Innovate!” We have heard lots of positive feedback about Innovate! We discussed and gathered input regarding a variety of issues facing K-State Research and Extension. The most negative statements of concern have been “Will anything be done with the information?”
Of course! I am not a big fan of going to all the trouble of soliciting input and then doing nothing with it. When we gathered information from the Listening Sessions, that information fueled our strategic and operational initiatives for the first two years of my administration. Our Team Building initiative, for one, developed as a result of the Listening Sessions. When issues were identified and discussed at the Joint Council of Extension Professionals and the Extension Administration Team, the information shared identified further issues to be acted upon. The Agent Equity initiative, for one, evolved from these meetings.
This week my Extension Administration Team and the Program Leader Coordinators will meet to discuss the input received at Innovate! The issues will be acted upon based on priority need and ease of implementation. That means some of the issues will be acted upon quickly. Others will take more time. Some will require a lot of time. Nevertheless, they will all be considered and decided upon.
One thing that we do want to reinforce immediately from our annual conference is to continue to emphasize innovation in Extension. We are starting a new initiative called Celebrate Innovate! It will be similar to our popular Shout Out program, but this will focus on innovation and will be recognized on our Difference Makers Facebook page. If you know of a colleague or colleagues that are doing innovative work, please nominate them for Celebrate Innovate! by sending me their name and why they are deserving of recognition for innovation to ghadley@ksu.edu.
By the way, if you are not a member of Difference Makers, you really should request to be a member. It is our closed group Facebook page; only K-State Research and Extension professionals can be members, and it is dedicated to internally promoting our profession, sharing information, and celebrating our success.
What are we looking for with the “Celebrate Innovate!” initiative? Simply put, if people are trying something new in Extension or research, we want to recognize it. Perhaps someone is reaching out and working with a new stakeholder group or new audience. Maybe someone has found a way to work more effectively with their Program Development Committees. You may know of someone who is very adept at promoting our work or delivering programming or information via digital media. In short, if you know of someone that is trying or has tried something new in our system or Extension profession, nominate them for Celebrate Innovate!