For Immediate Release
Contact: Aaron Weibe, aaronweibe@eXtension.org
April 4th, 2019
Idaho Falls, ID. eXtension’s Impact Collaborative led a statewide Innovation Skill-Building Experience for the University of Idaho Extension at their annual conference. Over the course of two days, the Impact Collaborative worked with 117 Extension professionals on 17 teams from across the state to help build skills in increasing innovation, ideating with project and program teams using a design thinking and lean experimentation methodology, and creating action plans for projects and programs ready for implementation.
According to Dr. Barbara Petty, the Director for Extension at the University of Idaho,
“I believe that the Impact Collaborative methodology has really helped our teams to look at their projects, look at what they are doing, and identify gaps, holes, and resources they may need to move forward. We’ve been able to break down into small groups and really have had the opportunity to have a lot of great conversation around the issues and the problems. [We’ve] been able to look at different things, see what is different in the past, and look to see how we can do things differently. I really feel like this has been an opportunity for our teams to be innovative, throw out new ideas, and look at new ways of doing things to reach our changing demographics and audiences in Extension.”
The University of Idaho Extension will continue working with the project and program teams that attended to help move vetted projects towards implementation. eXtension will provide direct support to further incubate six teams that are involved with projects that align with eXtension initiatives and new technologies.
Every eXtension member can host the Impact Collaborative annually for a statewide or institution-wide event focused on building skills in Innovation. eXtension provides the staffing and support for these events. Each event is designed alongside our members to adapt to their unique needs and desired outcomes and outputs. To learn more about state and institutional events, click here.
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