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noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:24:00 +0000

Renewable Energy Create Jobs in Colorado

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:34:00 +0000

Julie Malone 4237
Renewable Energy
Final Paper Assignment
May 28, 20111

Renewable Energy Create Jobs in Colorado

Introduction

With gasoline prices on the rise, the expansion of renewable energy (RE) must be a priority in Colorado. However, it may not be that simple. People are now realizing alternative methods, such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, tidal, and wave, need to be used as the cost of energy and fossil fuel skyrocket. The purpose of this paper is to provide information of whether RE in Colorado will grow and create jobs in order to attract qualified people to the State. I will address Colorado's current energy use, generation resources being used, current state of RE generation, renewable technology, projected growth of energy demand, RE potential (current, future, and barriers), and policies to overcome.

Current Energy Use

Colorado’s population has grown to 5.0 million people as of 2010, ranking the state 22^nd largest in the United States. The total current energy use (in Trillion Btu) is 1,498 (304 million Btu per capita) as of 2008:

Fossil Fuels: Coal (385.4), Natural Gas (508.5), Petroleum (496.2) (89.8 million barrels of oil)
Renewable Energy (81.7)
Net Interstate Flow of Electricity (26.2)

That breaks down for (in billion Btu) residential (350.1), commercial (300.2), industrial (412.5), and transportation (435.3) (EAI 2011).

Generation Resources Being Used

Coal at 3,045 thousand Megawatt hours (MWh) and natural gas at 826 thousand MWh fired power plants dominate electricity generation in Colorado. The state produces coal from both underground and surface mines, primarily in its western basins (Sand Walsh, Piceance, Paradox, and San Juan), and ships and markets it throughout the United States (U.S.). Colorado also brings in coal, primarily from Wyoming, to supplement local production. Colorado is a top natural gas-producing State with an output accounting for over five percent of U.S. natural gas production. Coalbed methane (unconventional natural gas produced from coal seams) accounts for over forty percent of Colorado's natural gas production and almost thirty percent of all coalbed methane produced in the U.S. (EIA 2009, 2011).

Petroleum-fired electricity generation is 1 thousand MWh, which accounts for only 0.1% share of the U.S. total. Colorado has enormous deposits of oil shale rock (marlstone) in The Green River Formation, a group of basins in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah that holds an estimated 1 trillion barrels of oil. However, there are no plans for the construction of commercial oil shale production facilities in Colorado. Hydroelectric (200 thousand MWh) and wind power (200 thousand MWh) facilities account for most of the State’s renewable electricity generation. However, much of Colorado’s substantial RE potential remains to be developed (EIA 2009, 2011).

Current State of Renewable Energy Generation

As of 2009, Colorado ranked relatively low in RE generation. In August 2009, a proposal was made for a biomass plant to be located in Vail that would use the thousands of trees that were recently killed by pine beetles to create a new sustainable source of energy. The proposed plant would reduce carbon emissions and forest fires in addition to creating a reliable source of energy that is likely to last at least ten years (EIA 2009). The latest data from EIA (2011) for Colorado, released April 2011, shows Total Renewable Net Generation to be 5,324 MWh generating from primarily wind (3,221 MWh) and hydro conventional (2,039 MWh), with small quantities of other biomass (37 MWh), solar (18MWh), and MSW/landfill gas (8 MWh).

Barriers for Renewable Energy Generation

The main barriers for RE generation include price competitiveness and regulations. Others are:

Unfavorable utility rate structures (rate increases) may increase unless energy is carefully monitored;
Absence of standard interconnection rules, uniform procedures, and technical requirements can make it difficult or impossible for renewable systems to connect to the electric utility's grid;
Necessary environmental permits for large-scale technology at major industrial facilities and officials are familiar with the environmental effects of the generation processes;
Many renewable resources are located in remote areas that lack ready or cost–effective access to transmission (EPA 2011).

Barriers to clean energy are not financial, but rather the bureaucratic red tape put forward by a system that was designed for an outmoded energy paradigm. It involves complex environmental studies, permitting issues, and water laws. Colorado Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) has partnered with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to streamline permitting of small hydro projects in existing conduits in the state (Konrad 2011).

Colorado Renewable Energy Technology

Despite fierce competition from other regions of the U.S., Colorado is a disproportionately large player in the renewable energy industry. Colorado’s gross state product accounts for only about 1.7% of the U.S. GDP, but in 2007 Colorado had roughly 6% of the wind and photovoltaics market, and 5% of the biofuels market. Hottest sectors include: wind, solar thermal, solar photovoltaics, fuel cells, biofuel, R&D (federal government), recycling, energy efficient windows/doors and green building (ASES 2009).

In 2010 clean technology was the only sector within the state to grow with 1,600 companies employing more than 19,000 workers. According to Tom Clark, Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation’s executive vice president, more than 20 wind and solar businesses, manufacturers, and developers such as Aluwind, juwi Solar Inc, and REpower Systems are looking at the state to expand their operations have announced they would expand or relocate to Colorado. The largest committer is Vestas, the Denmark-based manufacturer of wind turbines, will invest more than $1 billion at four Colorado plants in Windsor, Brighton, and Pueblo. Renewable Energy Systems Americas, Inc. (RES Americas) established its North American base in Broomfield in 2008 (Rascalli 2011).

Projections for growth in energy demand going out to 2030

American Solar Energy Society (ASES 2008) posted an article that highlighted RE (wind, ethanol, solar, and federal research facilities, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and energy efficiency (insulation, recycling, energy efficient windows and doors) generated nearly 90,000 green-collar jobs in Colorado at the end of 2007 located throughout the state in major urban centers, suburbs, small towns, and rural areas. ASES produced a report in 2009 listing different scenarios representing how Colorado’s renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE) will create jobs and revenue for the future:

First: 613,000 green-collar jobs and $61.5 billion in annual revenue by 2030;
Second: 192,000 green-collar jobs (under the base case, “business as usual,” and no major change in policy or initiatives) and nearly $20 billion in revenue by 2030, less than one third the jobs and revenue than the advanced scenario;
Third: 238,000 green-collar jobs (moderate policies and initiatives and forecasts), and more than $24 billion in revenue by 2030.

The vast majority of jobs created by RE&EE include: electricians, truck drivers, welders, machinists, roofers, accountants, cashiers, software engineers, civil engineers and energy efficient construction and energy audit specialists. RE&EE is an effective job creation mechanism, generating 70% or more than 2.5 times as many jobs per revenue as the oil and gas sector.

On August 26, 2010 Governor Bill Ritter sent out a press release announcing that 23 New Energy Economic Development (NEED) grants: $2.2 million funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to recipients across Colorado for RE&EE projects that will help create and retain jobs, strengthen local economies, and save money and energy in communities, school districts and nonprofits (State of Colorado 2010).

Renewable Energy Potential, Now and Future

Renewable energy has a strong support team in Colorado. Organizations such as Alliance for Sustainable Colorado have a mission to advance sustainability through collaboration among nonprofits (The Nature Conservancy), businesses (Environment Colorado), government (U.S. Department of Energy) and education (local colleges and universities for real world experience) by working to advance economic, environmental, and social sustainability in Colorado by building cross-sector alliances, networks, and supplying job resources through Colorado Workforce Centers and job training grants. Green Jobs Pipeline for Women Project is one program created by the above organization to increase the number of Colorado women to become aware of green jobs, determine where opportunities exist, clarify what skills and training are needed to secure employment and identify organizations and best practices in helping women and other under-served populations gain and retain green jobs. The New Energy Economy offers a broad array of new employment opportunities in Colorado. There will be millions of job openings over the next 20 years for people with specific training in the so called “Green Jobs” field (Alliance for Sustainable Colorado 2011).

Policies Overcome Barriers

In March 2010, Governor Ritter signed House Bill (HB) 1001 to increase Colorado’s renewable energy standard (RES) from 20% to 30% by 2020. The law opens up a new frontier of RE investment and jobs in Colorado, creating an expansive market for increased development of solar, energy, agricultural biomass and other innovative technologies. By mandating a renewable target of 2020, the RES enforces corresponding reductions in fossil fuel use, and at the same time, the creates a market that attracts new jobs and business investment in emerging renewable technologies to the state (Apollo Alliance 2011).

Mary Broderick, a Renewable Energy Agent with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 68, believes that this legislation makes Colorado a leader in clean energy as well as a leader in ensuring that workers are adequately trained and safe as everyone works together to make the New Energy Economy a reality. IBEW worked closely with the Colorado Solar Energy Industry Association to arrive at policy that makes sense for the workforce, contractors and consumers.

For large-scale RE resources, such as wind farms and solar thermal facilities, the new RES law directs the state utilities commission to consider “best value” factors affecting employment and the economic health of Colorado communities when approving resource plans. Factors include:

Availability of apprenticeship programs;
Employment of Colorado workers;
Long-term career opportunities;
Industry-standard wages, health care, and pension benefits.

This creative approach was the product of close collaboration between environmental and labor members of the Colorado Apollo Alliance (Apollo Alliance 2011).

Over the last several years Colorado has done much at the state level to give Counties a framework and a "toolbox" to pursue and develop RE&EE programs leading to innovations not yet occurring at other levels of government. Local level policies and citizen efforts need to be tracked to promote RE&EE. The Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES 2011) created “The Colorado Local Clean Energy Policy Guide” to showcase and monitor innovations and activities, and to better understand the opportunities for advancing RE&EE projects within each County, and to provide individuals, businesses, and organizations with resources and ideas. CRES Policy Committee identified the State’s 64 county governments, 29 municipal utilities and 22 rural electric associations as some of the key players in local energy policy development. In the summer of 2010, the committee members created a survey of five open-ended questions, designed to allow each organization to tell its story and demonstrate the unique nature of resources and projects in its region:

What policies, incentives, programs or new ideas within the area are related to renewable energy, efficiency and sustainability?
Has the organization supported any type of resource assessments or feasibility studies to advance projects?
What finance innovations or partnerships in the area support renewable energy, efficiency and sustainability?
Any actual, new, or projected renewable energy or efficiency projects in the area?
Organizational barriers and/or what policies are needed to support renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in the area?

Conclusion

Renewable energy is becoming vital to the growth of the State of Colorado and to this country. HB 1001 has made it possible for this state to create RE jobs to attract qualified, skilled people to restore the economy. After examining Colorado's current energy use, generation resources being used, current state of RE generation, renewable technology, projected growth of energy demand, RE potential (current, future, and barriers) and policies, this paper concludes that Colorado will create the jobs, it is just a matter of counties and companies allowing growth and having confidence in the job market and hiring workers.

References:

Alliance for Sustainable Colorado. 2011. Green jobs pipeline for women project. http://sustainablecolorado.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ gjw_resourcesheet.pdf (accessed May 6, 2011).

American Solar Energy Society (ASES). 2008. Renewable energy and energy efficiency generate nearly 90,000 jobs in Colorado. http://www.ases.org/ index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=289&Itemid=58 (accessed May 6, 2011).

Apollo Alliance. 2011. Colorado. http://apolloalliance.org/state-local/colorado/ (accessed May 6, 2011).

Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES). 2011. Colorado local clean energy policy guide. http://www.cres-energy.org/documents/LocalPolicyGuide-20110420-CRES_Final.pdf (accessed May 6, 2011).

Konrad, Tom. 2011. Alt Energy Stocks. Administration lays the groundwork for hydropower boom. http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/hydro/ (accessed May 3, 2011).

Rascalli, Ann. 2011. Colorado Energy News. Metro Denver EDC touts state’s cleantech growth. http://coloradoenergynews.com/2011/05/metro-denver-edc-touts-cleantech-growth/ (accessed May 25, 2011).

State of Colorado. 2010. Gov. Ritter announces $2.2M in new energy economic grants. http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/OIT-2/OIT2/1251579943568 (accessed August 26, 2010).

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). 2008. Consumption, price, and expenditure Estimate. http://www.eia.gov/emeu/states/ hf.jsp?incfile=sep_sum/plain_html/sum_btu_1.html (accessed June 30, 2010).

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). 2009. Analysis. http://www.eia.gov/state/state-energy-profiles-analysis.cfm?sid=CO (accessed May 26, 2011).

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). 2011. Colorado renewable electricity profile. http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/ state_profiles/colorado.html (accessed May 26, 2011).

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). 2011. Data. http://www.eia.gov/ state/state-energy-profiles-data.cfm?sid=CO (accessed May 26, 2011).

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). State and Local Climate and Energy Program. 2011. Renewable energy. http://www.epa.gov/ statelocalclimate/state/topics/renewable.html (accessed May 4, 2011).

Sustainable Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:19:00 +0000

Sustainable Plan

Julie Malone

EPM 4232 Sustainability Policy and Practice

Arthur Purcell

November 17, 2010

Abstract

Creating a sustainable plan is not a simple task. It takes seriously thought and consideration of ideas of how one can help the environment, obtain a reasonable ecological footprint, and provide substance to future generations. This sustainable plan begins with a definition, family background, why a sustainable plan is necessary, eight planned goals to achieve, needed resources, timetable, costs, environmental and social benefits, obstacles, and concluding with an ideal outcome.

Sustainable Plan

A sustainability plan is about developing a process to create a stronger environment, social responsibility, and be bottom-line driven. It is assuring continuous functioning and growth of this planet. Society needs to minimize resource use and maximize resource efficiency allowing future generations to have part of the enjoyment process. Sustainability entails critical resource, and environmental, social and economic components. We need to manage the earth’s resources and get rid of air pollution.

One way of looking at personal sustainability is not dumping one’s personal “pollution” on the next generation. When we are living, we are often hoarders and never get a chance to de-clutter our lives. We often have to die before we release our clutter. This does not benefit our relatives or friends at all since they have the burden of cleaning up our mess, where it becomes a curse. There is not enough money in the world that can help the mental and physical anguish of cleaning up someone’s clutter.

Background

This sustainable plan is about my family and providing various ways we can improve the sustainability of our home. This class is about sustainability, and what a better way of grasping the concept than starting with one’s personal life. I found it time to de-clutter my life and my home. I learned about personal sustainability the hard way: watching grandparents that lived through the Great Depression hoard clothes, chemicals, food, hardware, and wood for over forty years. After their death, I realized there were other folks out there just like them; afraid to throw anything away because they “might need it someday”. That day never arrived but was a learning lesson for me to create a sustainable plan to become eco-friendly.

Why a Sustainability plan is Needed

A sustainable plan is needed when we accumulate years’ worth of “stuff” that could be passed on to another in need. My husband, John, and I accumulated over 40 years worth of stuff. We also inherited my mother’s clutter after her death in March 2009. Being sustainable helps with our environmental footprints; I recently took a test of my footprint and I use three earths just with my needs. I believe that every family is like a little company since we use chemicals, products, electricity, office supplies, food, and dispose of unwanted items. We are all a part of an environmental meltdown (Hart 2010, 8). American families have become consumerists by purchasing electronics, vehicles, clothing and demanding material items. We use raw materials and fossil energy in order to ship products and service. As individual families we contribute to air emissions, dead zones, and waste management by the products we purchase.

Families are used to the industrial revolution with cheaper cars and appliances. The new way of being sustainable is purchasing and using products that will last for years. Similar to a company, families also believe in the “Great Trade-Off Illusion” (Hart 2010, 23) since we believe that we must sacrifice finances to meet social obligations. However, this is not true. We do not need to believe in the make, take, and waste philosophy in a sustainable world. Our lives have become more efficient and we believe in recycling our unwanted items.

When examining at our stuff, I realized that we are part of a non-sustainable consumer-based society. We have extra computer hardware and miscellaneous gadgets for the “just in case days”.

Assessment

The first critical step in the sustainability plan is to assess, identify and inventory our lifestyle, activities, and hobbies to determine the associated environmental impacts.

Define Goals and Targets

For those actions that have a potential to cause an impact to the environment, I will need to develop goals and targets for the reduction or elimination of the associated negative environmental impacts. I need to maintain balance between my personal lifestyle while taking into account economic, environmental, and social costs and benefits.

Action Plans and Monitoring Plans

I will develop an action plan and monitor my family on a daily basis. If such plans need implemented, goals and targets can be edited per my schedule allows. The monitoring plans will measure progress toward meeting sustainability goals.

Implementation Initiatives

Each action plan contains implementation initiatives with general actions that will reduce my family’s impact on the environment.

Monitoring Performance

I will use Word documents, along with dates and actions taken to monitor performance.

Goals and Objectives - Realistic and Idealistic

The main goal for this sustainable plan is to get rid of unsustainable products in the house as much as possible, recycle unneeded items, or give away items that we no longer need. Companies and homes are similar; every company has departments, every home has rooms.

Goal 1: Eco-friendly cleaning products

Increase use of 100% environmentally-friendly products by end of FY 2010

Implementation Method:

Change laundry detergent to Seventh Generation^®, (Seventh Generation 2010) to help with environmentally-friendly ingredients and positive impact on the environment.
Hair and body products that is earth-friendly and better on the hair such as Burt’s Bees® Products (Burtsbees 2010).
Dawn^® dishwashing soap (Dawn-dish 2010) for cleaning dishes and help the wildlife at the same time. Seventh Generation^® also produces dish soap.
Green Works^® All-purpose 97% naturally derived cleaner instead of national brands for cleaning purposes (Green Works 2010).

Goal 2: Energy-efficient

Decrease electricity costs up to 75% by end of FY 2010

Implementation Method:

Replace regular light bulbs (incandescent) with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL).
We can save more than $40 in electricity costs over its lifetime.
Use about 75% less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and lasts up to 10 times longer.
Produce about 75% less heat, so it's safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling (Energy Star 2010).
Replace regular holiday light bulbs with light-emitting diode (LED) technology (Hart 2010 p 160).
LED is extremely energy-efficient (80-90 percent more efficient than incandescent), last 8-10 years, and are durable.

Goal 3: Water Use Efficiency and Management

Obtain healthy drinking water immediately

The mission is to compare Highlands Ranch’s water quality (Highlands Ranch 2009) to a more healthy and environmentally-friendly water, Culligan^® (2010) for our water supply.

Highlands Ranch treats and monitors its water through fluoride and chlorine, yet it tastes similar to “soap”, which could be caused by either the district water or apartment complex’s pipes.
Culligan, on the other hand, uses the Aqua-Cleer^® Drinking Water System, the most innovative water filtration system available today. The system features 13 interchangeable water filters that enable the system to be customized to address specific water problems and offers filters that reduce a wide-range of impurities, including sediment, chlorine, lead, radium, and arsenic. We will receive water delivered (20 pound bottles) on a bi-monthly basis. This service will save on the cost of single-serve bottles ($1.00 each) of water and plastic from ending up in landfills, not to mention offers a healthier alternative from drinking sugary drinks.

Goal 4: Downsize and Reduce Goods

Healthier living

The mission is to organize and reduce personal items in the home and garage to better fit our needs and live more functionally by the end of summer 2011. Clutter is visual pollution and tends to keep your mind busy by avoiding life. We need to focus on the important things in life and not on accumulated stuff.

Implementation Method: Organize all items into four categories: Keep, toss, recycle, and donate. Items to be kept: place in container and label. Toss: big garbage bag. Recycling items will need to be separated into paper, metal, cardboard, glass, and plastic. Donated items can be separated by either Goodwill, Cancer Society, Freecycle™ (Yahoo group), and any other organizations.

Unwanted vitamins, office supplies, hair products, magazines, food, clothing can be offered on Freecycle™ to provide free items to other family in need.
Outdated newspapers and magazines, glass, and plastics can be put in recycle bin to help save on landfills.
Donate wigs, hair pieces and accessories to the American Cancer Society to help cancer survivors.
Donate fabric to the local hospitals for quilt-making (end of life quilts).

Goal 5: Organize Food

Decrease hoarding for end of FY 2010

Being sustainable means only having enough food that feeds a family now, without hoarding, and giving away excess supply. My husband and I designed an Excel spreadsheet and inputted all of the food supply (canned, boxed, or jars) we possess, organized the food on shelves in order by categories, and will give unwanted food to either food shelters or advertise them on Freecycle™ for others to enjoy. Badly outdated food will either be used immediately or discarded. Foods that are not really necessary will be used up first and not repurchased until we need them for specific meals.

Goal 6: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals

Reduce pollution as a continuous goal

While taking a class on sustainable transportation, one of my assignments was to browse the grocery store’s produce section to learn where and how far fruits and vegetables originated from to arrive at my local store. To my surprise, the major countries include Indonesia and Mexico, but very few from Colorado. This experience taught me to look for locally grown food to be more sustainable.

The goal of organizing our food thereby helps with menu preparation. Also, if food is hidden, it costs money to replace the item and unneeded pollution in the air from driving, when a simple inventory can tell us what we have or haven’t got on hand.

Goal 7: Grow Our Own Vegetables

Healthy bodies

My sustainable plan will include growing my own fruits and vegetables for Spring of 2011. First, my porch will need protected from prying neighbors; chicken wire held my four large wooden sticks will be appropriate. I will purchase various types of vegetation that will grow in a small area (5 x 10 feet) such as tomatoes, lettuce, and bell peppers. My plan will include a watering can, planting dirt, pots, and fertilizer for a safe and happy growth.

Goal 8: Reduce Paper

Clutter and visual pollution

My plan includes organizing paperwork such as past statements and college research, scan important information, shred confidential information, and deposit in recycle bin by Summer 2011.

Resources Needed

The sustainability plan will require the following items: a laptop with an Internet connection, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, various size bags, cell phone, shredder, and a vehicle (when necessary).

Overall Plan and Timetable

The overall plan and timetable for my sustainable plan will be immediate, continuous, and up to a year to complete, depending on weather and school requirements as well as unforeseen handicaps.

Anticipated Dollar Costs: Short Term, Long Term

The only dollar costs anticipated will be the cost of grocery shopping. All other items I already own, including CFL bulbs and LED Christmas lights. Unanticipated costs will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Environmental Benefits

My sustainable plan will contribute less to landfills and provide other families with extra household items for free. Using environmental-friendly soaps will help with the already eroded sewer systems and any water runoffs that end up in the ocean. Electricity and fuel savings will reduce air pollution significantly. Growing our own vegetables will also reduce fuel (transportation) costs and pollution.

Anticipated Social Benefits

The anticipated social benefits will involve helping people and organizations through household donations. Wigs and hair accessories will help women cancer survivors. Clothing donated to organizations, such as Goodwill, will help train employees, provide jobs, and clothe others in need. Giving to Freecycle™ will provide others in need of food, clothes, and appliances for free.

Largest Potential Obstacles

The largest potential obstacles facing my sustainability plan are time, school, and proper organization. I need to use my time management accordingly in order to re-organize my home and accomplish all of my goals. I will need to schedule my sustainability plan around my college classes. Organization will play an important key in my sustainability plan.

Ideal Outcome

This sustainability plan focuses on nature’s economy since items in my household are going to be reused or recycled, instead of just throwing out items while other people have to rely on the money economy and purchasing nonsustainable products (Hart 2010, 58). The ideal outcome is to decrease my family’s environmental footprint, so that we are using less than one earth instead of three.

References

Burt’s Bees. 2010. Shampoos. http://www.burtsbees.com/natural-products/hair-shampoos/ (accessed October 24, 2010).

Centennial Water and Sanitation District. 2009. 2009 Highlands Ranch water quality report. Highlands Ranch. http://www.highlandsranch.org/
03_p&os/osicfiles/CCR09.pdf (accessed November 12, 2010).

Culligan. 2010. Products. http://www.culligan.com/en/faq/. (accessed October 24, 2010).

Dawn. 2010. Products. http://www.dawn-dish.com/en_US/home.do (accessed October 24, 2010).

Energy Star. 2010. Light bulbs (CFLs) for consumers. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=LB (accessed October 24, 2010).

Green Works. 2010. All-purpose cleaner. http://www.greenworkscleaners.com/products/all-purpose-cleaner/ (accessed October 24, 2010).

Hart, Stuart. 2010. Capitalism at the crossroads. New Jersey: Wharton School Publishing.

Seventh Generation. 2010. Laundry. http://www.seventhgeneration.com/Green-Cleaning (accessed October 24, 2010).

Critique of The Institute of Museum and Library Services

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:00:00 +0000

To: CEQ

From: Julie Malone

Critique of The Institute of Museum and Library Services SSPF
(Submitted as Midterm Examination Paper for University of Denver
graduate seminar 4232 "Sustainability: Policy and Practice," Arthur H.
Purcell, Instructor).

Date: November 24, 2010

Subject: The Institute of Museum and Library Services Sustainability Plan

This is in response to a request from the Executive Office regarding comments on The Institute of Museum and Library Services Sustainability Plan.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums with a mission to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. The IMLS is strongly committed to supporting and complying with the Federal Executive Order 13514 (White House 2009), which mandates agencies to measure, manage, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, along with meeting a number of energy, water, and waste reduction targets for sustainability. As required in the executive order, the agency director has appointed the Chief Information Officer, a member of the senior executive team, to serve as Senior Sustainability Officer (SSO). With that said the IMLS has numerous current and planned initiatives that strongly support sustainability.

The IMLS have set realistic goals and objectives that can be accomplished:

Goal 1 Convert to environmentally-green office space

The first goal of greenhouse gas reduction is to develop and maintain an agency comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory, high-performance sustainable design / green buildings, regional and local planning, and water use efficiency and management. The agency manages no fleets nor owns any buildings, but instead leases private office space through a General Service Administration (GSA) long-term lease agreement. IMLS has a staff of approximately 70 FTE’s and 8 contractors, in which all employees and contractors occupy a single floor of leased space and have no field offices. Two years prior to the end of the current lease for office space (2013), the IMLS will initiate a project to find leased space in an Environmentally Green building that will need to meet the minimum requirements of the Executive Order.

The Federal Executive Order 13514 requires a 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020. IMLS needs to provide information of what the agency plans to do about water use efficiency and management. In comparison, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) uses water-saving devices for potable water sources in their building. ACHP also mentioned having renewable electricity goals as it will take steps to reduce its consumption of non-renewable energy. IMLS needs to follow in ACHP’s steps and push their goals of reducing or converting non-renewable energy to a more efficient type of energy. The Federal Executive Order 13514 is implementing a net-zero-energy building requirement by 2030.

Goal 2 Telework, reduce commuting, increase webcasting

For the second goal of greenhouse gas reduction, IMLS will encourage the increasing use of telework by having the Human Resources Director take lead in addressing the existing telework policy to revise it to provide greater flexibility for managers and staff, and review the technology tools used to support remote access.

Note: Nearly 25% of the agency staff telework regularly and will be provided a laptop in lieu of desktop systems and be required to use a virtual private network (VPN) that allows secure remote access from any internet access point. This exchange will be scheduled during the desktop refreshment at the end of FY10 or beginning of FY11.

The IMLS will continue to promote the use of alternative modes of transportation for its commuters other than those that produce greenhouse gases. The agency plans to maintain their current usage level for public transportation, which is at 87% of staff. This percentage is a little lower than the ACHP at 93%, but still a positive move toward helping with greenhouse reduction. This percentage may be lower due to the fact that IMLS encourages employees to telework instead of commuting to work.

IMLS can help reduce greenhouse gases from flying by using webcasting extensively when engaging constituents around the country and reducing staff travel requirements.

The end goal will be to use telework effectively one day per week for at least 50% of all staff over the next three years. This will help the teleworkers balance quality of life and work life, not to mention human factors of less stress and improved personal health. While not measured by the agency, by using increased telework greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced. By having teleworkers it will reduce energy, water and disposable waste that were being wasted by occupied leased office space. While the goal of 50% of all staff teleworking at least one day per week is laudable, to better meet the outlines of Goal 2 and Goal 3 greenhouse gas reductions, this could realistically be increased substantially; potential telework penetration in the IMLS could be 75%-80% of employees’ teleworking up to five days per week without needing to occupy office space through the reduction and/or elimination of paper files, increased use of webcasting, and the use of SmartPhone technologies.

The above goals alone will help the federal target mandate of reducing greenhouse gases (from energy use and other sources) to meet its target of 28% and indirectly by another 13% by 2020, including attributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases.

IMLS’s CIO office is working with the federal IT community on the Data Center Consolidation Plan and is planning to consolidate the closet data center via interagency agreement or with a private partner over the next two years.

Goal 3 Reduce printing and emailing large files

The third goal of greenhouse gas reduction, reduce printing and emailing of large files, will be lead by the Office of the Chief Information.

The new implemented method will be to develop a centralized printing station for groups of 4-5 employees; develop centralized location for posting agency documents and train staff on using a central shared location; set limit for size of internal email attachments, as appropriate.

A printer consolidation plan will be established over the next two years as the agency moves forward with plans to reduce the employee to printer ratio. The current ratio (staff to printer) of standalone printers is 1.1. The goal will be to improve this ratio to 5 to 1 over the next two years. Consolidating printers will help save funds on materials and services and as an expense on the federal budget.

Along with decreased printer use, ACHP increased use of uncoated printing and writing paper containing at least 30% postconsumer fiber (in accordance to the required Executive Order) and reduced in-house printing paper use by changing default settings on distributed printers and copiers to double-sided printing. I would recommend IMLS to add switching paper products and using double-sided printing to save on paper costs to their sustainability goals.

The IMLS Agency Sustainability Plan specifies “Reduce Printing/Emailing of Large Files” under Section 2, Goal 2, Goal B. While the goal mentioned of creating and training employees in the use of a centralized repository for electronic documents is laudable and to be encouraged, it is uncertain how this will reduce or eliminate excess printing of said documents. While emailing large document attachments uses up considerable server storage space and can be seen as a way to prevent having to add additional storage (and hence increase the environmental impact of the electricity consumption as well as the manufacturing, shipping and replacement of said storage), it does not directly address how a centralized storage and retrieval system will prevent employees from printing multiple copies of the same documents, which is the idea behind Sec. 2(e)(iv) of the Executive Order. It is recommended that the IMLS Plan be modified to provide more detail on how policies will be implemented to reduce printing of documents unnecessarily, whether through emailed attachments or a centralized repository.

Goal 4 Recycling

The Federal Executive Order 13514 requires 50% recycling and waste diversion by 2015. IMLS has a recycling program in place in coordination with building management and has recycling bins stationed throughout the office space. The IMLS will continue to promote its current recycling program. This is an excellent program that most agencies use including ACHP.

Steps to implement this plan will include the following:

Training on the sustainability plan will be provided for all staff during the next year, and the approved plan will be posted on the agency website.
The agency director has appointed the Chief Information Officer, a member of the senior leadership team, as the Senior Sustainability Officer (SSO) who will be responsible for overall management of the plan and the related efforts.
The executive leadership team will be briefed throughout the year by the agency’s SSO on progress, issues, and other factors affecting the plan. The SSO and other members of the executive leadership team will have a statement incorporated into their performance plans identifying their roles in supporting agency sustainability goals.

The executive leadership team will be responsible for reviewing, prioritizing, and determining which agency policies will need updating to reflect initiatives related to sustainability.

The executive leadership team will be responsible for ensuring that all goals of this plan are integrated into agency projects and plans as appropriate.
The executive leadership team will be responsible for ensuring that all budgetary needs related to this plan are integrated into agency budget submissions.
Agency sustainability goals with associated metrics will be updated every six months to measure against past performance and planned goals.

In order to implement the goals of the sustainability plan, The IMLS executive leadership team will own the responsibility for effective implementation of EO 13514. The team will consist of the agency Director, the Deputy Director for Library Programs, the Deputy Director for Museum Programs and Strategic Partnerships, the Deputy Director for the Office of Policy, Planning, Research and Communications, the Chief of Staff, the General Counsel, the Chief Financial Officer, the Director of Human Resource, and the Chief Information Officer.

When it comes to budgeting there are always holes that need to be filled or adjusted. For example, as I mentioned earlier, there will be an expense for laptops and VPN’s for the teleworkers in the end of FY10 or the beginning FY11; costs will depend on individual needs and responsibilities, such as a particular software license or upgrade. Time will be the judge on any additional expenditure in the budget.

As for building usage, IMLS should show a decrease in water usage and electricity. I believe the IMLS sustainability plan has potential of accomplishing its requirements as long as executive leadership team meet regularly, keep focused on the plan, and educate employees accordingly. It is my opinion that IMLS can mesh with other agencies quite well considering all of the agencies are working toward the same sustainability goal.

While comparing IMLS to ACHP, I noticed that both agencies have an overall similarity of sustainability plans. It was mentioned that the GSA is focusing on an overall “Zero Environmental Impact” goal. IMLS can stride to accomplish this goal but it will take time for the agency to comply.

References:

The White House. 2010. Advisory council on historic preservation. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/sustainability/
plans (accessed October 16, 2010).

The White House. 2010. Federal leadership in environmental, energy and economic performance - executive order 13514. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/sustainability (accessed November 16, 2010).

The White House. 2010. Institute of museum and library services agency Sustainability Plan. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/
eop/ceq/sustainability/plans (accessed October 16, 2010).

Grant Proposal for Management Class (CHADD organization)

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:59:00 +0000

“Proposal to Create Online Children’s Forum to Enhance Research Goals and Funding Potential for CHADD”

JulieMalone

December 25, 2009

Jones International University

Abstract

This grant proposal entails adding a children’s forum to CHADD’s existing website, along with hiring a data analyst to monitor the forum for Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder - AD/HD (CHADD), a nonprofit organization. The components of this proposal includes an executive summary, description of the organization (need, solution, and goals), human resource requirements, organizational structure, estimated budget, anticipated technology requirements, the idea (elevator speech), and operational requirements.

Executive Summary

CHADD offers individual/family, educator, student, professional, and organizational membership, but not a children’s membership of their own. Children represent future computer scientists, doctors, teachers, political leaders, and inventors; many of these children also have AD/HD. Since the explosion of technology and the Internet, the majority of children under the age of 18 have access to a computer for school and home use. These technically savvy young people need their own membership and forum to safely exchange, discuss, and voice their options, ideas, and thoughts about how AD/HD affects their daily lives during work, play, and homework. A children’s forum is a perfect answer for CHADD to reach out to these children.

The children’s membership can be listed as a subgroup under the family membership which links the parents/legal guardians to the children for security reasons. The forum can create value through passing audited information and educating CHADD and outside sources (various agencies, medical groups, government, and public policy organizations) to strengthen CHADD’s financial base. A data analyst can audit and track the children’s forum (through keywords and a database) and provide information as to what subjects are important to children and how educational issues, such as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (civil rights law) and The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (federal law) can affect how children are learning in school. The children’s forum can bring an additional awareness of what specific needs arebeing missed. This forum can increase CHADD’s value through added public awareness, media attention, continued influence on national, state, and local agencies, and better use existing avenues of revenue as well as creating new ones.

CHADD’s Project Plan

An adult with AD/HD, I had a desire to learn more about the subject and was looking for an organization that brought personal meaning to me. While browsing CHADD’s website I noticed the name was based on children, yet the site did not include a section for them. I believe that children need a special place such as a community forum to communicate and voice their thoughts, opinions, and ideas on AD/HD. This was a need that required fulfilling.

Since all organizations must match their design to the mission, and many non-profits tackle huge problems such as AD/HD, this proposed innovation would expand CHADD’s landscape and focus on children with AD/HD, who would comprise a special sub-membership under a current parent’s main membership, allowing children to communicate safely to each other about AD/HD regarding how it affects their lifestyle, schoolwork, and activities. I believe the benefits of having this forum for children would fulfill the organization’s mission of improving the lives of people affected by AD/HD by extending the organization’s outreach to children. If adopted, this proposal could prove to be valuable information for ongoing research needed into programs to assist children with their educational needs and will increase CHADD’s value to potential funding sources.

When children log into the forum and talk about their daily lifestyle, they can discuss issues with their own parents/legal guardians and get them involved with helping find answers. This is when parents/legal guardians can collaborate with CHADD to discuss current situations and educate the organization on what current and future research needs to be conducted and what type of educational support is needed in K-12and beyond. This program would help improve student performance in school by letting the children talk openly about their feelings, thoughts, and opinions about how AD/HD has affected their everyday lifestyle, while ensuring a private and confidential environment.

CHADD’s Organization and Need for Further Outreach to Children

CHADD’s mission is to get the information of AD/HD out into the public sector and educate people on the disability. CHADD, which is an acronym for “CHILDREN and Adults with AD/HD”, provides a forum for adults and yet there is no place on the website for children to learn and communicate. This proposal is based on adding a children’s forum to the main forum under their parents’ login credentials. Children with AD/HD go to school, do homework, and attend activities, and like their parents, have challenges dealing with their learning disability. Children need a safe place to discuss opinions, thoughts, and comments concerning AD/HD. As the global population grows, more children are diagnosed with the symptoms of AD/HD and their need to improve the quality of education is increasing, hence making the word of CHADD all that much more important; a children’s forum not only makes sense, it increases CHADD’s visibility and status.

Why IsThis Important

CHADD's primary objectives are to provide a support network for parents and caregivers; to act as a forum for continuing education; to be a community resource and disseminate accurate, to provide evidence-based information about AD/HD to parents, educators, adults, professionals, and the media; to promote ongoing research; and to be an advocate on behalf of the AD/HD community.

When examining CHADD’s objectives, there is an important missing audience to consider: children. Children are learning through programs and software at school and home, and some of these children possess symptoms of AD/HD which prevent them from learning effectively. CHADD can reach out to the children’s market and find alternative ways to problem solve and create value for the organization. Through innovation, CHADD can gain a unique edge by adding the new feature of a secure children’s section to their current website and provide a new market while enhancing their visibility as an important center for AD/HD research and support.

The project can measure the performance of the children’s forum by filtering information of what subjects are important to children, how many children sign in, forum traffic, and learning what programs in CHADD are helping children the most through keywords and a database, such as Oracle or Access. If the results of the project prove successful, CHADD, being a non-profit organization, can find funding through think tanks, educational and government agencies. The cost of adding an extra website tab should be fairly inexpensive since CHADD would be using the same website and IT manager; however, there may be some initial expenses in redesigning the database for sub-memberships and parental controls.

Human Resources

For CHADD, adding a children’s membership and forum under their parents account will not affect the organization negatively and will have a positive impact on the workforce. The organization can use the existing Website and IT Manager to add a subcategory for children under the adults’ membership. The forum will need to be watched constantly for parental control, safety, and subject matter. The new addition may require adding one or two additional employees, such as a data analyst. Three people will supervise and work directly with this individual: Website and IT Manager, Membership Database Coordinator, and Membership and Development Accounts Coordinator.

Training for this new position will require becoming familiar with CHADD’s website and the forum. The job description will require the individual(s) to monitor the forum for any improper language and filter popular subjects the children are discussing through a database that can be downloaded and categorized. By tracking this data, the analyst can determine what children are learning or what they need to learn enabling CHADD to promote children’s needs to receive funding from government, private agencies, various partnerships, and medical groups. Note: The forum may see a language barrier as a challenge between children; English may not be the first language of students; this may need to be addressed later if the need seems warranted.

Expense Budget

The following expense budget shows the estimated salary, training, and equipment (computer and accessories) that CHADD will incur for hiring the new data analyst once the initial prototype is a success. The budget assumes that the current servers have the capacity to add at least one additional networked computer and the changes to the forum. This budget represents the upcoming year and a two-year projection. If the current situation of CHADD shows that hiring a data analyst proves to be a hardship, the organization can hire a data analyst on a part-time, one-year or year-to-year contract basis to learn if the additional position proves profitable and CHADD succeeds in attracting outside sources from various funds.

I.T. Requirements for CHADD The existing Website and I.T. Manager at CHADD would be able to ascertain if the organization needs to purchase an additional computer or if sufficient resources are already available. This computer would need to be added or reconfigured to the existing network in order for the data analyst to have access to the Internet and have the capability to download information and to create a spreadsheet to create reports and track performance of the traffic from the children’s forum. The Membership Database Coordinator and Membership and Development Accounts Coordinator can assist the I.T. manager to verify that all of the correct software is loaded properly.

The data analyst position would not have the need to travel extensively, except possibly to provide on-site training to local CHADD chapters, when web-conference and email/phone are not sufficient. When considering privacy or security issues related to this position, all of the information downloaded off this site should be considered confidential since the data is based on minors. High security I.T. infrastructure requirements, including strong firewalls and encryption (HTTPS) are assumed.

Operations Requirements and Timeline

CHADD will have the existing Website and IT Manager add the additional tab under the family membership on the website (to be black-boxed for testing until final release). This procedure should take approximately an hour. The next step would be to have the Website and IT Manager, Membership Database Coordinator, and Membership and Development Accounts Coordinator set a timeline, schedule, and what requirements, responsibilities, and training are needed for the new data analyst position to track the children’s forum. Since the main membership database is already created, modifications to add the children’s section should take only a few days. A prototype of the children’s forum should be able to go live in one or two weeks to test the forum for technical issues, along with a training schedule for the individual, and all the necessary equipment for this new position. As soon as the prototype is proven to be a success (approximately one month), the forum can remain permanently.

The logistics consideration for the data analyst position will require the same office space and maintenance requirements as the other staff members. Transportation needs are unnecessary unless CHADD uses paid parking. The data analyst will need security privileges to access the computer, forum, and email. The data analyst will require supplies that he or she will use on a daily basis such as a computer setup (new or spare), keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, existing or new software (as required), writing tools, and necessary stationary to do the job accordingly. The current staff members will need training materials, such as a PowerPoint presentation and manual, to provide instructions on how the database works.

Summary

Children with AD/HD are important to CHADD and for the future growth and sustainability of our communities. It is my belief that CHADD is missing a crucial population within its website: a Children’s Forum. Children need their own forum within CHADD to communicate and share their ideas, thoughts, and frustrations about having AD/HD. The organization can track this forum and learn what is important to children in order to disseminate vital information to the social movement, partnerships, agencies, and medical groups to obtain financial funding. This idea would support CHADD’s mission statement that CHADD improves lives affected by AD/HD.

Reference:

Chadd.org

Coral Reef Extinction

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:45:00 +0000

Coral Reef Extinction
Julie Malone
University College
University of Denver
MALS 4020 Graduate Research and Writing
May 31, 2010

Introduction

If the average person on the street expressed their opinions or ideas on the topic of the coral reefs, what might immediately come to mind are images of vacationing in Australia, scuba diving, snorkeling, and enjoying the abundant life that lives in the ocean. The general public has had little reason to ponder the purpose of the coral reefs except for how beautiful they are to view, swim around, and look vivacious in a photograph. At times, the public has had instances of exposure to the true function of the coral reefs through news clips on television or the Internet on oil spills, shortage of seafood, or watching a documentary on the Discovery Channel (Discovery Communications 2010). This is when reality sets in with human consciousness that the coral reefs provide a vital function to the coral ecosystem (NOAA 2010) and to this planet and is not just here for its beauty. Media exposure is providing illustrations of the current issues directly involved with the coral reefs.

This paper will provide a brief overview and background of the coral reefs and why they are vital to this planet. Then we will examine the importance of the coral reef ecosystems, such as their biodiversity, coastal protection, and economic value. Once we have established the value of the coral reefs, the paper will briefly summarize the causes and results of coral reef damage. Finally, we will discuss changes that must be enacted, opposing opinions, and possible innovative solutions exist to counteract coral reef damage.

Pollution, overfishing and increased oceanic acidification are causing the extinction of the coral reefs and unless immediate changes occur by everyone to halt the damaging human activities and repair this vital marine biosphere the extinction of the coral reefs will cripple the world economy and cause mass starvation.

First, it is important to understand the composition and history of the coral reefs. This information sets the stage for the discussion as to why the coral reefs are vital to the ocean's ecosystem and mankind's economy. To know about the coral reefs is to learn about their background and how important they are to this planet’s future.

Overview and Background

Coral reefs have existed on the planet for approximately 450 million years and provide an extremely diverse marine ecosystem (Bellwood and Wainwright 2002). Coral reefs are the largest natural structures in the world, and are the result of a remarkable relationship between coral animals (known as polyps) and microscopic algae (known as zooxanthellae) living within the coral tissues (Withgott and Brennan 2008). The zooxanthellae convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbohydrates. Polyps use carbohydrates to make calcium carbonate in a process known as calcification. The calcium carbonate forms the skeleton of tiny colonial marine organisms known as corals (Withgott and Brennan 2008). Most coral polyps have clear bodies and their skeletons are white, like human bones. Their brilliant color comes from the zooxanthellae living inside their tissues. Several million zooxanthellae live and produce pigments in just one square inch of coral. These pigments are visible through the clear body of the polyp and are what gives coral its beautiful color. If the zooxanthellae were to disappear, depriving the coral of nutrition, the coral reef will undergo bleaching leaving ghostly white patches as they lose color and die. Coral reefs return the favor by providing food and shelter for thousands of organisms which co-exist in complex interconnected food chains. Pollution, overfishing, and increased acidification will ruin this relationship forever by killing organisms with toxins, interrupt the ecosystem through seafood extinction, and acidification will deprive coral of the carbonate ions (Coral Reef Alliance 2010) which play an important role in shell formation for the corals in order for them to produce their structural parts. By understanding the coral reefs history and background we can learn why the coral reefs are important to the ecosystem.

Importance of the coral reef ecosystems

Biodiversity

Even though coral reef organisms have different behavior patterns, they all interact as members of the same marine ecosystem and participate as friendly neighbors by sharing common objectives of protecting their space to feed and reproduce. Coral reef ecosystem biodiversity is in a constant state of change since various sea creatures such as sponges, bivalves, urchins, and fish live or feed on the different parts of the coral reefs and are all part of one tropic level or rank in the feeding hierarchy (Withgott and Brennan 2008). Each tropic level provides energy for the next level; from the coral reefs to seafood such as crab, lobster, and fish. When humans consume seafood they are also consuming energy from every organism up the food web from the coral reefs. If corals are damaged by pollution, overfishing, or increased acidification the complex equilibrium of the reef will be permanently altered. Once biodiversity at all levels of the ocean life is lost to human impact, extinction occurs. Extinction is a normal process; however, humans are assisting the process along at a rapid speed. The result is loss of productivity and biodiversity, both of which having a serious economic consequence (NOAA 2010).

Coastal Protection

Coral reefs provide a function to our coastlines; they protect shorelines by absorbing wave energy and provide food and shelter for fish and other sea creatures. Biological structures, such as mangrove forests, salt marshes, seagrass beds, and coral reefs calm waves and, as a result, provide coastal protection. Corals also create shelter for mangrove and seagrass growth (Koch et al 2009). Without the coral reefs, tsunamis and ocean storms can destroy the coastlines such as happened in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

The recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (Dearen and Senensky 2010) discharged plumes of oil over the coral reefs along the coastline and marine scientists fear that Gulf currents will carry the oil to other reefs along the Florida Keys, Louisiana, and as far as Texas. Due to the political controversy over offshore drilling, this type of catastrophic disaster should have been avoided due to lessons learned from the Exxon Valdez spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency briefly allowed BP to shoot massive amounts of potentially toxic dispersing chemicals deep underwater to help protect vital marshes and wetlands on the Gulf Coast. But the tradeoff may result in significant effects on more sea life, including the coral reefs (Dearen and Senensky 2010). Big corporations such as BP and other oil moguls focus on profit rather than on ocean life when making decisions on offshore drilling. Wildlife protection takes a backseat to oil-company profits.

Economic Value

Coral reefs have an important function in sustaining the fish and shellfish populations that provide protein for billions of people. For thousands of years our ocean life has been a part of our lives, from watching the animal life move in the ocean to catching them for profit and food.

Coral reefs are a source of medicine by providing new compounds and technology to treat serious diseases. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2010) says that nearly half of the medicines in use today have their origins in natural products, mostly derived from terrestrial plants, animals, and microorganisms. Creatures found in coral ecosystems are important sources of new medicines being developed to induce and ease labors; treat cancer, arthritis, asthma, ulcers, human bacterial infections, heart disease, viruses, and other diseases, and provides sources of nutritional supplements, enzymes, and cosmetics.

Coral reefs attract millions of visitors spending billions of dollars annually creating economic value to the local communities by scuba diving, snorkeling, diving tours, recreational fishing trips, hotels, and restaurants. Coral reefs can be enclosed as marine protected area (MPA) to preserve them for divers. The Similan Islands, also known as Mu Koh Similan Marine National Park off the coast of Thailand, became a MPA in 1982 where the coral reefs play a significant role in maintaining ecological stability and preserving biological diversity of flora and fauna, as well as offering visitors a variety of attractions for recreation and education. Over 50,000 tourists flocked to the islands back in 2003 to enjoy the beautiful, seemingly untouched, and uncommercialized natural conditions of the Park’s flora and fauna. Tourism at Mu Koh Similan Marine National Park generates the highest revenue compared to other national parks in Thailand and scuba diving is one the major tourist attractions that brings in significant revenue to the Park each year (Tapsuwan and Asafu-Adjaye 2008).

In the next section, we will examine the causes and results of how human have impacted the coral reefs through pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification.

Causes and results of the coral reef damage

Pollution

Pollutants, such as oil or toxins, originating from land and sea are responsible for significant lethal and sub-lethal effects on marine life. Pollution impacts all trophic (nutritional) levels of marine life, from primary producers (plants) to top predators (whales), and interferes with the structure of marine communities and the ecosystem functionality (Todd et al. 2010). Oil tankers leaking oil make up a big part of ocean pollution (Lauinger 2010) and can kill or harm the animal life that live within and care for the coral reefs. The oil coats the polyps on the coral reefs and block out sunlight; when the light is blocked, the photosynthesis seizes up and everything that relies on it dies. All of the dead organisms begin to decompose which produce bacteria that use up the oxygen that is needed for the coral reefs to survive. With this type of pollution there is no way that coral reef organisms can acclimatize themselves to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (American Geophysical Union 2000).

Pollution also originates from a main point on a river, flows down, collecting more pollution as it goes from sources such as agriculture, animal feedlots, urban neighborhoods, factories and disposal sites, construction sites, and mines, and disburses all of these toxins at the mouth of an ocean. Fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides containing nitrogen and phosphorus accumulate from agriculture and are flushed down the Mississippi River and into the ocean. These excess nutrients urge drifting organisms to flourish in the Gulf of Mexico causing a depletion of oxygen (hypoxia) in the ocean known as the “dead zone” (Withgott and Brennan 2008). Nutrients, waste, and bacteria from animal feedlots; salt used on roads during winter season, oil, grease, and chemical from urban runoff; industrial waste and toxic chemicals from factories and disposal sites; eroded soil from construction sites, deforestation, and overgrazed land; and acid drainage from abandoned mines eventually filter out to the Gulf of Mexico and harming the coral reefs and sea life.

Since pollution has a negative impact on the coral reefs, there are solutions to this issue. Federal legislation created the Federal Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 to restrict dumping and discharges in navigable waters, and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (amended to the Clean Water Act in 1977) makes it illegal to discharge pollution from a point source without a permit and sets standards for industrial wastewater and contaminant level in surface water and funded construction of sewage treatment plants (Withgott and Brennan 2008). These Acts have assisted with solving the problem of adding additional pollution that would harm the coral reefs.

Since we learned how pollution is damaging the coral reefs, next we will examine how overfishing can prove to be a harmful affect to the coral reefs.

Overfishing

Coral reef fisheries support tens of millions of people worldwide, mostly in developing countries (McManus et al 2000). Rapid human population growth, demand for fishery resources, use of efficient fishery technologies, and inadequate management and enforcement have led to the depletion of key reef species and habitat damage in many locations, such as the Florida reefs (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 2010).

Overfishing has caused ecological unsustainability due to people depleting fish faster than they can be reproduced. Fishing on reefs is classified into three stages: manageable, ecosystem-overfished (decline of once abundant fish stock), and Malthusian-overfished (use of illegal gear such as blasting devices and poisons, such as cyanide). The latter type of fishing occurs when a hand-made bomb, consisting of chemical fertilizers such as potassium nitrate or in the form of a dynamite stick, is thrown into a coral reef area to stun any fish in the immediate area. After shocking the fish, the divers collect them by hand (Burns 2003).

The Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 created the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (2010) and it has made a positive impact on overfishing by creating fishery management plans and amendments designed to manage fishery resources. The plans or amendment regulate the amount of fish that are harvested in order to maintain the best interest of the people of the United States. On January 12, 2007, former President Bush signed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 to mandate the use of annual catch limits and accountability measures to end overfishing, provide widespread market-based fishery management through limited access privilege programs, and calls for increased international cooperation (NOAA 2010).

An opposing argument on overfishing comes from fishers and the fisheries that make a living and profit off fishing. Cod fishing was once abundant off the shore of Labrador and Newfoundland; unfortunately, due to hundreds of years of overfishing from trawling (dragging nets through the water with weighted nets across the floor of the continental shelf) the cod started to disappear and trawling caused severe structural damage to the coral reefs and its habitat. On July 2, 1992 Canadian Fisheries Minister John Crosbie announced a two-year ban on commercial cod fishing. Without jobs, the fishers’ lost income and relied on unemployment benefits and coastal communities faced economic ruin. However, this negative impact created a positive outcome; the fishers were offered alternative training for new skills and incentives for early retirement (Withgott and Brennan 2008). We learned how overfishing has proved to have negative impacts on the coral reef; the third area of concern is ocean acidification.

Oceanic Acidification

Acidification damages coral reefs and has other chemical and biological consequences. The acidity of oceans is changing very rapidly. The hydrogen ion concentration of surface ocean water (a reflection of pH) is now about 30% higher than it was 200 years ago. Princeton University researchers (Potera 2010) found that ocean acidification has negative impacts on the tiny one-celled plants which reside at the bottom of the food web and support commercially important fisheries. Researchers are finding that with a low pH balance, phytoplankton take up less iron, a key nutrient needed for photosynthesis and growth (Potera 2010).

According to Saunders (2010), human industrial activities contribute to climate change and to the CO2 generated that is absorbed by the world's oceans. CO2 reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid which decreasing the hydrogen-ion (pH) concentration of seawater and leading to environmental degradation. This includes damage to coral reefs and the inability of the ocean to absorb low-frequency sound, which sea life relies on as a channel of communication.

In the past 200 years the oceans have absorbed approximately half of the CO2 produced by fossil fuel burning and cement production. If emissions from human activities continue to rise, the average acidity of the oceans might increase by 0.5 units by 2100 causing devastating effects to the marine biosphere (Cribb 2008).

Now that we have read about pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification, we will examine the changes needed to prevent coral reef extinction.

Changes to Prevent Extinction

The coral reefs are part of the foundation of the ocean food chain and are eaten or inhabited by many sea-going creatures, not to mention (Donovan 2010) provide services with an average annual value estimated at $172 billion (Ecos 2009) to millions of people worldwide that depend on coral reefs for their food and livelihood (Skoloff 2010). Preventing extinction takes investment. Investing money in coral reef restoration can provide a great rate of return by working with the coral reef instead of killing it. It is difficult to put an exact price on the coral reefs except for calculating the amount of negative impacts that can happen if we did not have the coral reefs. The ecosystem, coastlines, jobs, tourism, and food supply would suffer immensely without the coral reefs. Investment is necessary in qualified worldwide environmental organizations to clean and purify the existing ocean pollution correctly and fund federal regulations and policies to prevent pollution.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2009) offers solutions to repair damage and prevent further extinction to the coral reefs. There has been an increasing effort to establish better management and conservation measures to protect the diversity of these biologically rich areas such as a joint venture with The NOAA (2010) to establish marine sanctuaries. By having both agencies collaborate together, the coral reefs have a great chance of surviving extinction.
Changes are not simple or easy. In addition, the United States is also faced with politicians and businesspeople who will disagree with the idea that pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification cause coral reef extinction, and believe the issues are an exaggeration. These people tend to look at short-term results and profit rather than long-term consequences. If a catastrophic event occurs, such as an oil spill, the “blame game” is more appealing and disregards personal responsibility. Some people have eyes on the economic value of the coral reefs and disregard the damages that are occurring from their actions.

To change a situation means to find innovative solutions. The next section discusses how we can help solve the problems of the coral reefs.

Innovative Solutions

Innovative solutions are currently being proposed to solve the problems caused by oil and gas development activities in the marine environment. The solutions are based on a holistic environmental approach, which takes into account the complexity of natural processes and also takes advantage of these processes, rather than working against them.

Some of the proposed models include marine protected areas in oil sites (MPAOS), ocean fertilization and CO2 utilization (OFCU), integrated coastal pollution balancing (ICPB), artificial recruitment in fisheries (ARFS), and artificial reefs from oil rigs (AROR). The main goal of these proposed approaches is to maintain and restore ecological sustainability and ecosystem integrity (Khan and Islam 2008, 121-132).

Marine Protected Areas in Oil Sites (MPAOS)

MPAOS are special areas established for conservation, but allow specific recreation and commercial uses, much like national parks. The U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of the Interior implemented The National Marine Protected Areas Center in 2000 to develop a Classification System for MPAs to focus on conservation, maintain diversity, cultural value, and permanent protection of the coral reefs. The center’s mission is to facilitate the effective use of science, technology, training, and information in the planning, management, and evaluation of the nation's system of marine protected areas to protect the coral reef from harm (MPA 2010).

Ocean Fertilization and CO2 Utilization (OFCU)

According to Khan and Islam (2008, 126) OFCU can provide a solution by fertilizing the oceans with iron to help phytoplankton growth and increase their environmental range to help control the ecosystem. Iron and silicon can also help with the accumulation of wastes and be used as nutritional sources for marine phytoplankton. The OFCU model has the potential to minimize atmospheric CO2 levels, which may ultimately slow down global warming. The idea is to balance CO2 emissions by sinking enough organic carbon in the ocean bottom by applying this method.

Integrated Coastal Pollution Balancing (ICPB)

According to Khan and Islam (2008, 127) 700 million gallons of oil enters the marine environment yearly, 55 percent enters the coastal areas through runoffs from agriculture such as the Gulf of Mexico. The ICPB model will make use of the runoff oil and pollution through the use of balancing ecosystem components by implementing bioremediation, fisheries, food web enhancement, aquacultures, and seaweed plantation which will require an ecological plan to implement. The total number of pollutant inputs can be estimated in a selected area such as runoff oil, agricultural waste or municipal waste release, and other industrial pollution, and an ecosystem model would be developed to use those pollutants. Due to their nitrate and phosphate discharge, plants such as seaweeds and other algae can be planted in such a way that they play a role in the phytoremediation of drainage oil as well as oil (or oil products) released from nearby sources. If agricultural or industrial pollution increases, seaweeds and other plankton can go into production overdrive. To control phytoplankton growth, herbivorous fish can be shipped in to control this trophic level. Mussel farming can be set up to control the number of plankton particles in the water. By controlling all levels of the marine environment, an overall ecosystem can be developed in the selected coastal areas (Khan and Islam 2008).

Artificial Recruitment in Fisheries (ARFS)

By studying the stock assessment at oil and gas development sites, one can estimate the status at fisheries and any possible negative scenarios that can impact a particular site. The ARFS method compensates fishery production if anything happens as a result of oil and gas development by helping to increase the existing fish stocks and transplant species in targeted areas such as development sites or an alternative site. This allows fishermen to extend their fishing activities into open waters such as lakes, reservoirs, rivers, seas, and oceans. The main objective of the ARFS is to increase the fish stock of selected species through artificial propagation of seed (fish larvae) in targeted areas and to resuscitate the stocks of over-fished or environmentally altered bodies of water. It will fill ecological niches, use biological resources, and compensate for the effects of barriers on the migratory routes to spawning grounds (Khan and Islam 2008, 128).

Artificial Reefs from Oil Rigs (AROR)

In the last model, AROR will use different types of oil rigs to be installed according to water depth. Oil rigs are huge structures and weigh thousands of tons. By law, abandoned rigs must be decommissioned and removed from marine waters. These rigs are usually cut down to manageable size and brought back to the shore. The AROR model can use the rigs as artificial reefs for fisheries yield and production, recreational activity, prevent trawling, repair degraded marine habitats, and overall economic and social benefits. The rigs can be kept at their original sites to establish a reef community or be transported to another planned site, giving a choice of type of seafloor conditions. Existing oil rigs have spawned lush marine habitats that are home to a profusion of rare corals and ten thousand to thirty thousand fish per rig. Oil companies can save between $400 and $600 million per rig by converting them into artificial reefs instead of offshore decommissioning. Using the AROR model is economically profitable and can be implemented with coordination of other governmental agencies.

Investors and organizations need to collaborate and work innovatively to solve the issues of pollution, overfishing and increased oceanic acidification to repair and avoid further damage to the coral reefs to prevent extinction. They may not entirely halt human activity from destroying the ocean but they can create jobs and innovative ideas to slow the process down and prevent mass starvation in the meantime.

Conclusion

The coral reefs have existed for 450 millions years, yet they have been the center of controversy for the last few decades. Even though they are the largest natural structures in the world, human interference threatens their existence. Pollution, overfishing and increased oceanic acidification are causing the extinction of the coral reefs. Unless every person initiates change today to halt damaging human activities and repair this vital marine biosphere the extinction of the coral reefs will cripple the world economy and cause mass starvation. Pollution, overfishing, and ocean acidification will create turmoil socially, economically, and politically if we do not act today and consider future sustainability.

Scientific consensus shows that the coral reefs are on the path to extinction through observation, direct evidence, and collected data; however, time will tell if society can prevent more damage, repair what has already been harmed and become sustainable before the coral reefs disappear forever.

On the other hand, the global economy is also a human concern since society relies on the coral reefs for their value in tourism, medicine, and food for human consumption. While both sides have great points, it comes down to extinction. If we overuse and abuse the coral reefs, they will die.

The solution is for a compromise between extinction and valuing the ecosystems using creativity, innovation, and sustainability. Pollution, overfishing and increased oceanic acidification can be slowed down through new and updated policies environmental laws, sustainability, and investing in new innovative solutions (NOAA 2010).

References

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05/17/oil_spill_endangers_coral_reefs_on_florida_keys (accessed May 17, 2010).

Donovan, T. W. 2010. 13 threatened animals of the ocean. Huffington Post,
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Khan, M. I., and M. R. Islam. 2008. Sustainable Management Techniques for Offshore Oil and Gas Operations. Energy Sources Part B: Economics, Planning & Policy 3 (2):121-132.

Koch, Evamaria W., E. B. Barbier, B. R. Silliman, D. J. Reed, Gerardo M. E. Perillo,
S. D. Hacker, E. F. Granek, et al. 2009. Non-linearity in ecosystem services: temporal and spatial variability in coastal protection. Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment 7 (1):29-37.

McManus, J.W., L. A. Meñez, K. N. Kesner-Reyes, S.G. Vergara, and M. C. Ablan. 2000. Coral reef fishing and coral-algal phase shifts: Implications for global reef status. ICES Journal of Marine Science / Journal du Conseil 57 (3):572-578.

Lauinger, John. 2010. Crashed and leaking oil, ship threatens Great Barrier Reef. Daily News, April 4. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/
2010/04/04/2010-04-04_crashed_and_leaking_oil_ship
_threatens_great_barrier_reef.html.

Marine Protection Areas (MPA). 2010. About marine protected areas. http://mpa.gov/aboutmpas/ (accessed March 30, 2010).

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2010. About corals.
http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcorals/coral101/plantanimalmineral/
(accessed January 21, 2010).

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2010. Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Reauthorized. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/msa2007/ (accessed April 1, 2010).

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2010. Medicine. http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcorals/values/medicine/ (accessed January 12, 2010).

Potera, Carol. 2010. Will Ocean Acidification Erode the Base of the Food Web? Environmental Health Perspectives 118 (4):A157.

Reytar, Katie. 2010. Great barrier reef accident highlights risks to reefs.
http://www.wri.org/stories/2010/04/great-barrier-reef-accident-highlights-risks-reefs (accessed April 7, 2010).

Saunders, Fenella. 2010. Amplifying with Acid. American Scientist 98, no. 2: 121-122.

Skoloff, Brian. 2010. Coral reef extinction could cripple nations' economies.
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2010/03/26/coral-reef-extinction-cou_n_514742.html (accessed May 26, 2010).

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Project Plan for Online Website Program for Adult Educators and Learners

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:59:00 +0000

Final Project
Julie Malone
October 31, 2009
Jones International University

Abstract

Adult learners inherited an evolutional maternal or paternal behavior of wanting to teach and share knowledge between themselves and future generations. Some adult learners have the opportunity to teach their children while others would rather share knowledge with the world. When adults have the instinct or desire to share information, facts, past experience, or discuss current issues, there needs to be a place to share. When technology combines with the Internet adult learners get an instantaneous learning and teaching environment; this is what this project plan entails. When considering a project plan, I evaluated the parameters of what purposes needed to be served for adult education. The structure of the project plan, type of project, focus, audience, need, goals and benefits need to involve adult learners, globally, to interact and learn from each other using technology and education.

Introduction

This project plan is a model for the purpose of designing an online website program for adult educators and learners solely based on the education in different areas of our lives. What people know or want to learn is vital to the education of the current and future generations and information provides the catalyst for the formation of the educational industry. By combining technology with educators and learners, this plan can fulfill a need for people worldwide to find solutions to their educational desires by having a program available. The following plan is described through six components: 1) Self-Reflection (adult learner self-portrait); 2) Portrait of an adult learner; 3) Adult education learning environment; 4) Teaching philosophy; 5) Teaching strategies; 6) An assessment. This plan initiates from my personal experience as an adult learner, builds through a portrait of an adult learner, my views on teaching philosophies and strategies, and closing with an assessment plan.

Component 1

Self-Reflection (Adult Learner Self-Portrait)

In this segment, self-reflection looks at one of my memorable experiences, the context of adult learning, and my teaching situation. Adult learning can prove to be an exhilarating and challenging adventure, yet frightening when learning a new subject. When enrolling at the University of Phoenix, contemplating on which degree and concentration to achieve was a bit daunting considering a degree should have a purpose, substance, and prove beneficial to my future career goals. This decision would alter and transform my educational beliefs considering it would be a life-changing experience and require years of focusing on a particular type of adult learning.

Memorable Experience

After carefully contemplating on a memorable experience as an adult learner, the main focus of my business degree came to mind. When selecting a Bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in Organization Innovation I felt I could be part of a new transformational (Mezirow’s theory) learning theory and create vital changes within adult learners. This theory is about examining essential changes in the way a learner can see themselves through a mirror (self-reflection, past experiences, and examining one’s own Truth) and the world in which they live. This theory questions if adult educators have the right to ask learners to examine and change the basic life assumptions as part of the educational system. The theory questioned if I could examine who I was and what I stood for as an individual (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 58). Since innovation is a “frame of mind”, the act of developing an idea in its physical form (new product, service or process), and finding solutions to problems, this theory fits well within my degree.

Being an individual leaner, knowing my personality is based on being logical, analytical, and investigative, and realizing that learning happens internally, organizational innovation would prove to be the perfect choice for a degree (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 56). This focus can be categorized as an innovation of a product, process, or service, and can be implemented through idea selection, development, and commercialization.

After attending the five focus classes on innovation (innovation, design, and creativity for a competitive advantage; business management and the principles of design; the innovative organization; disruptive business practices: management and technology; and management of intellectual capital); the realization that classes teaching about organizational innovation would provide a valuable memorable learning experience for me as an adult learner.

Context of Adult Learning

Organizational Innovation provides an environment and framework to teach the adult learner how to bridge the gap between traditional business thinking, innovative and design focused philosophy, while learning how innovation, design, and creativity could be used for a company to use for a competitive advantage. Within the courses, I learned that a company can have a huge impact on today’s economy by educating employees through adult learning, such as participation, training, and motivation, to introduce how innovation, design, and creativity through strategy, process, product, and services of any product can create a profitable and growing company.

Organizational innovation was a learning experience to realize creativity can be used as an essential part of innovation considering it assists with the development of an idea, inspires thinking and being different, thinking laterally, and making new connections. Being creative is not just limited to a few selected individuals; it can be stimulated and supported through training, education, and utilization in the right work environment and atmosphere. Creativity cannot be controlled since it relies on basic motivation, enthusiasm, inspiration and knowledge. Companies must rely on raw data, but creativity and innovation only occur when data is combined with intuition (von Stamm, 2003). This new concept of learning would be considered the theory of experiential learning since it threatens how individuals normally think and persuades self-initiating learning and using past experiences to find solutions to a present problem. My adult learning process could be described as an andragogy (Knowles’ theory), since it is self-directed and my instructors expected students to take responsibility for decisions when writing papers (Kearsley, 2008).

Teaching Situation

Having this type of adult learning experience provided me an in depth opportunity of realizing that there are new ways of learning about how an organization can work. When attending the classes, I experienced teachable moments that I found to be transferable to certain teaching situations. By using the adult learning theories (transformational learning theory, experiential learning theory, and Knowles’ theory) I could educate adult learners by taking an opportunity to ask the students their opinions about a situation, have they ever gone “out on a limb” during a situation using faith, how decisions impacted people around them, how can they learn from past mistakes, trust their decisions and not be controlled by others, and use past experiences, skills, and knowledge to write essays. The idea is to have the adult student learn about themselves and the world around them.

After completing a self-reflection about my memorable and teaching experience, I interviewed an individual with a similar educational background and career focus in adult education of training and development. Below is a portrait of Stori Hybbeneth, her views on the theories of adult learning and development, along with the types of multiple intelligences she uses while training adult learners.

Component 2

Portrait of an Adult Learner (Stori Hybbeneth)

Stori Hybbeneth compliments her background in adult learning by combining a 10-year history of education and work-related experience with receiving a M.Ed. in Education/e-Learning: Global Leadership and Administration, followed by a series of positions to assist her with a focus on adult learning. Stori was a Volunteer Instructor/Lead Teacher where she supervised, coordinated and trained volunteer instructors; facilitated testing for all students; taught English skills to adults to assist them in communicating in an English-speaking society; created curriculum supplements with real-world examples to establish relevance; initiated educational activities in the classroom to maintain a fun, interactive and open environment.

Stori was the Training and Development Manager, Bilingual Education Counselor at Jones International University (JIU). She managed and developed on-boarding and ongoing training programs, including the Gagne ISD method (described below) creation of support materials for Admission and Academic Service Counselors; maintained an online portal for collaboration and reference repository; represented the needs of Admissions Counselors for implementation of new Student Information System; coordinated requirements gathering, testing, training and implementation of the Student Information System for Admission; consulted with prospective students to help identify educational goals and correlating to program requirements and areas of interest; presented information at educational fairs to expand public awareness of JIU.

Currently Stori is an eLearning Consultant/Project Manager, in the Advanced Services Group (under Customer Advocacy) at Cisco WebEx. Stori offers consulting services to customers. When customers (ranging from small and home business to large enterprises) purchase the company’s web conferencing software called Training Center (as a service), her company offers a range of services to help them make the transition from a traditional classroom to a virtual classroom. Stori primarily works with the training organization at the client’s facility. The training organization can be within the business unit, under Human Resources or wherever the service is needed. Training can come from different avenues such as learning straight feature functionality of the product, while at other times they do instructional design for the virtual classroom, and at other times it is the roll out strategy or a combination of the services.

Since Stori is both an eLearning consultant and project manager, she combines responsibilities for adult learning including facilitating on-site client meetings and deliver on-site discovery workshops; develop and manage multiple ongoing projects, schedules, resources, and associated project deliverables from initiation through delivery utilizing MS Project and project-related software; plan and manage service schedules, project resources, budgets, and revenue; develop job aids, help text and other documentation required to meet the client's business requirements.

Stori also shares her time volunteering as an instructor as ACCION International, a non-profit micro-lending company in Latin America. She develops and teaches a live ESL (English as a Second Language) (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 441) class over the web, described as an Knowles’ theory of the andragogy learner where online/distant learning is directed towards the non-traditional adult learner in which students learn globally instead of at a local school campus (Kearsley, 2008).

Adult Learning and Development Theories

Stori uses the Gagne ISD (Instructional System Design) method when teaching instructional design to her customers. She believes this method encompasses aspects of experiential learning (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 76) and behaviorism (Baumgartner, 2001). The method is experiential learning since methodology requires the participant to practice and apply the new information (content) along with past experiences and education. This method has elements of behaviorism because there is a set pattern/rhythm to the session and there is also feedback positive and negative reinforcement) given based on the participant practice went.

Gagne ISD consists of four phases: analysis, design, development, and implementation, with evaluation flowing throughout each step. ISD in the basic model is simple to understand and easy to use in almost any training environment and production for training adult learners. Analysis involves research (thoroughness, objectivity, and a systematic approach) and determines training needs and expresses them as information useful for training development through needs assessment, job analysis, and target audience analysis. Design involves planning and converting relevant information into concise, behavioral objectives, and creating the instructional "blueprint" with the end product of training materials, tests, visual aids, handouts, and methods. Development involves writing the lesson plans by using objectives, instructional approach, and media selections from the design phase, and produces course materials for the trainer, course materials for the trainee, and evaluation instruments. Implementation focuses on the training delivery, training facility, preparing an agenda, and setting up the training environment. The evaluation phase flows throughout each of the other phases to ensure that the training material is developed in a timely manner to achieve training goals, evaluates strengths and weaknesses through the stages, and ensures that the material improves performance of the adult learning situation (Air War College, 2009).

Multiple Intelligences

When Stori teaches adult learning at her company, she uses four of Howard Gardner's intelligence theories including linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence. Due to the nature of Stori’s adult learning methods, linguistic intelligence (poet) is used in order to communicate and express her thoughts to adult learners when training them on a particular product. Logical-mathematical intelligence (scientist) is used to analyze and investigate training and client needs, and the ability to detect the adult learning patterns, reasoning, and logical. Since Stori is a motivator, leader, and educator, interpersonal intelligence (salesman or teacher) gives her the opportunity to work effectively with adult learners. Stori uses intrapersonal intelligence (self-reflection) since she has the capacity to understand her motivation, feelings, fears and thoughts (Infed, 2009).

After writing a self-reflection about me, and interviewing Stori Hybbeneth about her philosophy and teachings on adult learning methods, my project plan became clear and adaptable. Education could be fun, learners could come from different avenues of the world, and learning could be functional. The next step would be to explore the possibilities of a project plan.

Component 3

Adult Education Learning Environment (Project Plan)

When researching for a project plan for adult learners, technology and globalization came to mind. The project plan had to be centered on the Internet and education since this is our future. Adult learners, globally, need to have discussion forums and related groups to discuss ideas and educate each other on a variety of topics within the educational world, and find themselves in a situation where they need general or specific knowledge or expertise about a certain subject.

This section answers questions about the project plan such as show context of the project plan, who the program will serve, the characteristics of adult learners, how theories from this course will help construct the learning environment, who are the stakeholders for the program, and who will be involved with the project and what their role is in the organization.

Context of the Project Plan (what organization will the plan serve?)

When interviewing Shaun Manzano, Chair of Business for ITT Technical Institute (ITT-Tech, 2009), he introduced me to a new website he is building called, “757 Empowerment Group” (Manzano, 2009), based on education and networking for adult learners. When asking him about developing a project, he recommended building a social network as a tool for the learning environment where adult learners can post concepts and theories on adult learning. The project can serve the local community about educational events, free memberships, jobs, and advertise.

Who the program will serve, describing the characteristics of adult learners
The program will serve every adult learner and educator globally who are self-directed, problem-centered, results-oriented, creative, logical, bring past experiences (work and education), open-minded, and wish to share knowledge. Adults can also become the student-teacher and visa versa.

How Theories from this course will help Construct the Learning Environment
The learning environment will be based on self-directed learning in order to become independent learners. Constructivism (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 255) can be used by individual adult learners in the forums to motivate each other through an educational issue. People are able to post questions if they need expertise in a certain area. Others will be encouraged to use past experience and knowledge in this adult learning forum. Critical Social Theory is helpful to obtain trust and respect from other adults. Hopefully, people will use patience and passion when dealing with others who are learning about a new concept or idea.

Cross' adult learning theory (Week 1, Theme 3) will be useful when using technology and interaction between adult learners across the globe to help understand the importance of Internet communication and education, and obtaining trust from other group members. Experiential Learning theory (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 76) will be part of this project by providing adult learners the ability to participate in surveys and questionnaires on different avenues of education such as personality and learning style. The learners can identify the benefits of knowing their individual learning styles and create a strategy of their own on how they can use this knowledge to maximize learning opportunities.

Psychological/cognitive (Baumgartner, 2001) approach can be used in this project for adult learners to transform their current knowledge and expertise, while learning about education, knowledge management, and innovation to increase their levels of educational development. Mezirow’s theory will be used during discussions between adult learners as part of the adult learning and development process. The atmosphere in this project will be geared towards trust and respect in which adult learners can feel comfortable expressing their ideas, concepts, and experiences.

The Contextual/Sociocultural theory will provide an opportunity for adult learners to increase cultural awareness and to observe how cultures have impacted education globally (Baumgartner, 2001). Adults will be given an opportunity to question, comment, and share ideas on how societal inequities are reproduced in an adult learning situation.

The integrated approach theory (examines development of mind, body, spirit, and sociocultural outlook) will be used in the project so that adult learners can use various approaches to education (Baumgartner, 2001).

Stakeholders for the Program

Me (website creator), adult learners and educators (locally or globally) who joins the website and educational forums, local community, advertisers, career advisors, employees in the educational field, and professional bodies.

What kind of needs assessment has been done or needs to be done
• Are there enough websites and forums for adult learners to discuss education on
any subject?
• Is current information on the Internet understandable or digestible for the
average adult learner?
• Is education undervalued in this country?
• Create a place where adult learners can discuss any topic to educate each other?
• Will combining all educational subjects be helpful to the site?

Who will be involved with the project and what their role is in the organization
The project will be initiated by me. I will author a website and blog to create an education forum and discussion groups. Once created, the website will be introduced globally through various Internet sources to get the news out about the website for adult learners.

By introducing the origination and context of my project plan, who the program will serve, the stakeholders, assessments, and who is involved with the project, the project will show the important education needs to be distributed globally. In the next section I will narrate a survey that I took, The Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) to determine what type of instructor might teach adult learners in an online classroom setting, my philosophy through the paradigms from Theme 2, a description of my teaching strategies as I would use in my adult education program, followed by discussion of how my philosophy will be an integral part of my adult education program.

Component 4

Teaching Philosophy (PALS Survey)

The results of the PALS inventory survey (Week 4, Theme 1), were of no surprise to me; I could consider linking my results to practicing as an adult education and could teach by the results of this inventory survey, given my background as a student in adult education.

Factor 1 (learner-centered activities) had the highest sum of 37, mean of 3.08 (due to number of the sum), standard deviation (“SD”) of 1.67, and based on negative items. I believe in a minimum of disciplinary action when needed, provide a curriculum for educational objectives, and prefer not to use written tests to evaluate students’ progress.

Factor 2 (personalizing instructions), had a sum of 22, mean of 2.44, SD of 1.87, and based on a mix of positive and negative items. I believe that all students are treated equally, using the same curriculum, and abide by the same assignment deadlines. I think that adult learners should not compete, but rather cooperate and share ideas as a group.

Factor 3 (relating to experience) had the second highest sum of 30, mean of 5, SD of 0, and based on the positive items. This means that adult learners are encouraged to use past experiences, growth, independence, ask questions, and discuss issues of everyday living. The remaining factors showed average to low, depending on the question.

Factor 4 (assessing student needs), had a sum of 11, mean of 2.2, SD of 2.2, based on positive items. I did not score high in individual counseling, but I do believe in helping students to identify educational needs and developing short and long range objectives. Factor 5 (climate building), had a sum of 18, mean of 4.5, SD of 1, and based on positive items. I encourage dialogue between students, use existing competencies, accept errors as a learning process, and allow breaks for students to refresh their minds.

Factor 6 (participation in the learning process), had a sum of 12, mean of 3, SD of 1.63, based on positive items. I somewhat agree that students should participate in developing the criteria for evaluating their performance in class; I think that students should be able to interact with each other in class and discuss current issues; however, I believe that students should be somewhat limited to the topics of discussion in the classroom.

Factor 7 (flexibility for personal development), had a sum of 11, mean of 2.75, SD of 0.95, based on negative items. I would stick to the instructional objectives from the beginning of the program, maintain a well-disciplined classroom to reduce interferences of learning, and avoid some controversial subjects that involve judgments.

Philosophy Paradigms

My PALS inventory scores lined up with progressive and humanistic paradigm (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 75), with a slight influence on behaviorist theory (Week 4, Theme 2) (p. 182). The progressive paradigm, similar to the learner-centered style (Week 4, Theme 1) and Factor 3, is based on the learner’s needs, experiences, and interests (including promoting change in a democratic society). As an instructor, I prefer to be organized, set up learning situations, assist students to explore different subjects and allow them to test theories and make decisions through active participation in the learning process.

Humanistic paradigm is education based on experiential learning (Wilson, 2000, p. 75) and is a way that learners can achieve self-actualization and live up to their full potential as human beings, as in Factor 1. The adult learner is self-motivated and self-directed as they explore their educational future. The behaviorist theory is similar to Factor 7 by focusing on the curriculum objectives, controlling and monitoring classroom activity, providing student feedback, and maintaining a well-disciplined classroom to reduce interference with learning.

Teaching Strategies used in Adult Education Program

My teaching strategy is known as cooperative learning (George Mason University, 2009), since it will encourage adult learners globally to work together for a common goal of teaching various topics in education to each other. My program will be based on Factors 1 and 3 and both progressive and humanistic paradigms since adult learners will bring both questions and answers, experiential learning, skills, and knowledge to the forums and discussions.

My philosophy as an Integral Part of my Adult Education Program

My philosophy has a foundation of progression and will have an integral part in my adult education program considering every adult learner will play an important role in my program. I want adults to express their thoughts, ideas, and comments about educational situations of all types and be able to freely share their knowledge with anyone who wants to absorb it. We have a democratic society where everyone needs to share and transfer important information.

I found the above inventory survey, philosophy paradigms, teaching strategies’, and philosophy on an adult education program to be educational and positive, as it proved that by being an online adult learner that I could teach in the same manner as an instructor in a distant learning environment.

The next section will show student learning objectives, explain which teaching strategies that will be used in my program and how each strategy will help students to achieve the learning objective; a sample lesson plan using one of the teaching strategies; and a description of how technology will match my learning strategies.

Component 5

Teaching Strategies (Student Learning Objectives)

Student learning objectives focus on the audience (who is the target), behavior (learners demonstrate need for this website), and conditions (how will students learn through the website such as graphs, imported images, or attached information) (Clark, 2004). After researching the Internet, I noticed that adults crave education, self-direction and motivation, can offer a rich variety of life experiences, and want to learn more about what the world has to offer.

My adult education program is focused on sharing current and future educational information in a fast changing world (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 224), and to help society, from all demographic areas, get anxious and excited about learning. The audience will include anyone with the desire to want to learn about education. Student learning objectives for the adult education program involve sharing knowledge globally (though a self-directed online forum and discussion questions) which is vital to the growth of our globalized human society. This knowledge is shared through skills, expertise, know-how, problem solving, and specialization.

The program will assist the audience by providing an educational website where adults can demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and specialization of various areas in politics, social-economic and cultural issues that affects adult education. The program will supply a source for adult educators to share knowledge of research methodology and studied case studies such as real-world scenarios, attaching data and documents, and having open-ended discussions (JIU, 2009).

The Bloom’s Taxonomy (revised version) can assist with the student learning objectives through cognitive learning (domain) by remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Forehand, 2005). Students will recall previous experiential experiences and relevant knowledge and write about an event. Understanding will initiate from reading other learners’ written reports and interpret, summarize, compare notes, and apply how their experiences are related. Students will have the opportunity to analyze each others’ work and experiences, organize their thoughts, and discuss options to the discussion question. Students will have to opportunity for self-evaluation when discovering solutions to issues during discussion questions. Students will have the chance to create original discussion questions on the topic of choice once they are comfortable with the format structure.

Teaching Strategies

My adult education program involves teaching strategies that will help students achieve the learning objectives by providing an instructional delivery method and tool for an online educational environment where adult learners (globally) can come together to converse on education. The program will provide an area for case studies on subjects like knowledge management, innovation, and education for adult learners to focus on solutions to different problems. Adult educators can post lectures for discussion, case methods that were used in the workplace (experiential learning), and problem-focused discussion in order for adults (globally) to use cognitive skills to solve a particular issue (Background of problem-based learning, 2006). In this manner, the adult learner can learn and understand this new application and use it to troubleshoot a particular issue in the workplace or home life.

Sample Lesson Plan using one of the Teaching Strategies

In my adult education program, a sample lesson plan may be composed of an initial discussion of a case study, such as the healthcare system, that can expand through conversations. Students can reply by talking about their life or work experiences (negative or positive) within the healthcare system, what they need from a new system, and how their families’ have been effective by the current system. In this type of discussion, students can educate themselves on other students’ opinions towards their own healthcare system without negative politics getting in the way. The website is about sharing information, not for students conducting themselves in an unprofessional manner with arguing about an issue.

Technology Plan when Teaching Learning Objectives

My adult education program will require the use of a computer and the Internet to access the website. This delivery mechanism will give adult learners access to other students worldwide. The program will provide user-friendly tabs to assist the adult learner in navigating through the site, including locating forum(s), discussion questions, and chat rooms to post educational information. Educators will be given an opportunity to post graphics, presentations, videos, word documents, spreadsheets, and databases through an attachment or link button.

According to our text (Wilson and Hayes, 2000), computers are expanding in the rural areas where 6% of the community have access to the Internet. Communication and I.T. can reduce the barriers of distance that disadvantages rural areas. These adult learners are able to gain access to my program, learn, chat, and create discussions of their own. Learners have the freedom of posting a viewpoint of their living and educational circumstances and educating others on what it is like to live in these communities.

After reading about student learning objectives, teaching strategies, a sample lesson plan, and a description of how technology will match my learning strategies, the next section will outline the student learning objectives, supply specific assessment strategies used to measure student progress, and give an example of an assessment plan that incorporates the assessment cycle. The assessment plan is an important part of designing an adult education program since the plan provides data to interpret whether or not learning objectives are being achieved and if the program needs to be adjusted.

Component 6

An Assessment - Student Learning Objectives
(Relating to the above section)

Our society craves knowledge, learning, self-direction, and motivation. The student learning objectives of my adult learning program are for educators and learners worldwide to come together on one website to discuss educational topic, through a self-directed online forum and discussion questions, by sharing current and future knowledge, upload reports, graphs, imported images, and other attached documentation (Wilson and Hayes, 2000, p. 224). This knowledge is shared through methodology, case studies, skills, expertise, know-how, problem solving, and specialization of various areas in politics, healthcare, social-economic and cultural issues that affects adult education. By using the Bloom’s Taxonomy (see above) my program can assist with student learning objectives through remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Forehand, 2005) different ideas and concepts through the forum and discussion questions. Students will bring previous experiential experiences and relevant knowledge to the table, apply the new knowledge to their workplace, self-evaluate themselves, and begin to create synopsis of their own on the forum.

Specific Assessment Strategies to Measure Student Progress

To test whether student learning objectives are being met, an assessment needs to be conducted. Since my adult learning program is based on a formative structure (JIU, 2009) the assessment strategy will be different from the traditional student learning process.

Assessment strategies used to measure student progress for my program will consist of classroom assessment techniques (CATs) based on observation (through case studies), attitude surveys, concept mapping, weekly reports, and Kirkpatrick’s Model of Assessment (JIU, 2009). By students posting case studies, the program can assess what students are learning and absorbing throughout the forum and discussion questions. Attitude surveys will provide information on opinions, viewpoint, type of questions asked, and what students agreed and disagree upon in a particular area (Florida Center for Instructional Technology, 2009). Concept mapping, such as a graphic organizer, can evaluate whether or not students understand and relate to the material. Weekly reports can prove what students are learning from replies and comments to discussion question and forums, and clarify any unclear material (JIU, 2009).

The Kirkpatrick model of assessment can be useful during the assessment process. The program can review and measure student reaction and what they learned through surveys conducted at the end of a particular discussion question session. Behavior can be obtained through conducting a survey three to six months after a discussion question or forum has completed. This assessment could prove if the student retained information from and learned from the experience, or if future classes are needed. Results can be assessed by having the students evaluate if a particular lesson has assisted them in the workplace or home environment.

Assessment Plan Incorporates Assessment Cycle

The assessment cycle consists of nine steps: 1) student learning begins with educational values, 2) is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time, 3) works best when the programs it seeks to improve has clear, explicitly stated purposes, 4) requires attention to outcomes and to experiences that lead to those outcomes, 5) works best when it is ongoing, not sporadic, 6) encourages wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved, 7) makes a difference when issues are involved that affect society, 8) leads to improvements or change, and 9) through assessment, educators meet responsibilities to students and to society (JIU, 2009).

An assessment plan that will incorporate the above assessment cycle for the adult learning program will include 1) focusing on student and educator needs globally and can incorporate the assessment cycle by asking people what they value in education; 2) since the program is online, the learning atmosphere will be multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time through assessments; 3) the objective is to provide the best clear, explicit online program for people of all demographics to enjoy learning; 4) the program will need specific assessment strategies (see above strategies) to measure the outcome and experience of each session; 5) considering this is an online forum with discussion questions, the program is geared for ongoing issues and concerns, rather than random discussions; 6) the program encourages students, educators, employers, employees, and the general public to get involved in this educational community; 7) the plan will makes a difference when educational issues are involved that affect society; 8) this type of program is geared for improvements or change considering it is an ongoing Internet educational site; 9) through this assessment plan, student and educators can learn from each other to meet educational responsibilities that are needed globally.

Conclusion

The project plan outlined in this paper provided proof that it will be a program developed for adult educators and learners and solely based in an online environment in order for adults, worldwide, to combine their knowledge and experience and learn from each other. The foundation for this project is to show how vital education is to the world, now and in the future. This analysis provided information to the background of my project plan through a description and who the program served, the stakeholders, assessments, and who is involved with the project. The analysis showed results of my PALS inventory survey, philosophy paradigms and teaching strategies used, and my philosophy towards my adult education program.

When designing my adult education program, I needed to consider the accessibility to this program. Since adult learners come from all types of backgrounds, skill levels, age brackets, and geographic areas of the world, technology was an important concern. My program can help with these issues by providing a pleasant, user-friendly environment for all adult learners to come and enjoy their educational ride. The above plan provided information towards learning objectives, described which teaching strategies will be used in my program and how each strategy will help students to achieve the learning objective. This analysis supplies a sample lesson plan using one of the teaching strategies, along with a description of how technology will match my learning strategies. This analysis also provided specific assessment strategies and a plan to carry out the intention of educating society using the Internet. By using this technological method of learning, this program provides a means to assess the current and future needs of education.

References

von Stamm, B. (2003). Managing Innovation, Creativity and Design. Unites States: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wilson, Arthur L. and Hayes, Elisabeth R. (2000). Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Innovation Guideline

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:56:00 +0000

Innovation Guideline Paper
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 463 The Innovative Organization
Eric Hogan
September 1, 2008

Abstract

When it comes to rules, every company needs some type of direction on what to expect from upper management down to the employees on innovation needs. This report introduces seven different guidelines of innovation (exert strong leadership on strategy and portfolio, integration into business mentality, align with strategy, manage creativity and value capture, neutralize organizational antibodies, establish networks, and use metrics and incentives) that companies need to focus on to make a growing and thriving organization succeed in this competitive global society, along with the samples of how each guideline effects the Siemens Corporation.

Innovation Guideline Paper

In the book Making Innovation Work (Davila et al., 2006), the authors say that a key to successful innovation is for the CEO of a company to perform a periodic health check to determine exactly what part of the organization needs attention. In order to achieve results within a limited time frame and resources requires the ability to focus on the parts of the innovation effort that need the most attention. What is surprising is how few companies have effective diagnostics for the overall innovation activities. Without solid innovation diagnostics, managers have a hard time knowing where to begin, and when the innovative process can become entangled making the task of separating the symptoms of the problems from the root cause. In addition, without periodic diagnostics, a sense of complacency builds lack of focus on maintaining the right mix of innovation. While conducting research, the authors located a short list (known as the Seven Innovation Rules) of the most important aspects of innovation in which senior management should examine.

1. Exert strong leadership on the innovation strategy and portfolio decisions: Managers need a clear direction from the top of the organization and saturates down to employees in order to motivate, support, and reward the activities that encourage innovation (Davila et al., 2006). Siemens offers management training programs that teach managers how to leverage effectively and develop the talents of its employees across the entire spectrum of similarities and differences (Siemens, 2008).

2. Integrate innovation into the company’s basic business mentality: Innovation is not a magic trick on special occasions or a “nice to have” element, but an integral part of the way a company operates every day and is essential to the continuation of the organization. Innovation encompasses two established activities – technological (research and development) or new product development and is strategic (defining the business model) (Davila et al., 2006).

Since 1847, Siemens offers technological advancements in information and Communication (telegraphy, telecommunications and microelectronics), power (power plants, circuit breakers, and gas turbines), transportation (electric railway, subway, and electromagnetic levitation with the Transrapid), healthcare (x-ray apparatus, echocardiography, and cardiac pacemaker), lighting (various lamps), and household appliances (washing machine, television, and dishwasher). For over 150 years Siemens has been a technology powerhouse in electronics. The factors that drive the company’s success include a clear portfolio policy, long-range financial planning, an international setup and strong employee orientation.

3. Align the amount and type of innovation to the company’s business: Innovation may or may not be the key to success for the overall business strategy; management has to determine the types and amounts of innovation needed to support the business strategy and more is not necessarily better. A company’s business strategy is focused on winning innovation is a fundamental element of long-term success. The importance of innovation depends on timing of the last innovation, the nature of the competition, and the overall business strategy. The CEO and senior management team decides which innovation strategy best fits the external competitive and market situation and the company’s internal condition is the responsibility (Davila et al., 2006).

Since 1847 Siemens has always been an innovative company; but in the 1940s and during the final years of World War II, numerous plants and factories in Berlin and other major cities were destroyed by Allied air raids. To prevent further losses, manufacturing was moved to alternative places and regions not affected by the air war. The goal was to secure continued production of important war-related and everyday goods. Siemens was operating almost 400 alternative or relocated manufacturing plants at the end of 1944 and in early 1945. Germany’s political, military and economic collapse led to the closure of Siemens’ plants in Berlin on April 20, 1945. By the time the war came to an end, the greater part of Siemens’ buildings and industrial installations had been destroyed.

4. Manage the natural tension between creativity and value capture: A company needs strength in creativity and profit; innovation requires processes, structures, and resources to manage significant levels of creativity (developing new concepts and ways of doing things) while executing (transforming creative concepts into commercial realities) (Davila et al., 2006). In April 1994, Siemens Medical Systems suffered about a $140 million decrease in sales as a result of suspended production at three manufacturing facilities which manufactured patient monitors, ultrasound equipment, radiation therapy devices, pacemakers, hearing aids and other devices were not manufactured in conformance with the FDA's Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). The FDA determined that Siemens did not adequately address consumer complaints and that the company's quality-assurance programs were inadequate (findarticles, 2008).

5. Neutralize organizational antibodies (resistance): Innovation necessitates change, and change stimulates explicit routines and cultural norms that act to block or negate change. When people have experienced success for a long time, there can be a tendency to become complacent and resist change. In order to innovate, senior management must create a culture that has the ability and the courage to change, explore, and innovate at the same time can be stable enough to deliver on its innovations. Part of an innovation-friendly culture is recognizing that what brought success in the past does not necessarily bring success today. This requires a culture that is open to questioning assumptions and to debating alternatives to the current approach to business. Managers must also understand that only by taking risks (preferably small risks where the cost of failure is low), closely observing results, learning from them, and trying again, can innovation occur (Davila et al., 2006).

In the 1900s, Siemens changed from a company dealing mainly with public customers in regulated markets to a global competitor increasingly due to pressure from the shareholders. To meet these new challenges effectively and efficiently, the company introduced programs that represented a radical change of approach, based on the strategic pillars of productivity, innovation and growth. The company had to optimize its business portfolio through divestments, acquisitions, the formation of new companies, and the founding of joint ventures.

6. Recognize that the basic unit (or fundamental building block) of innovation is a network that includes people and knowledge both inside (R&D, marketing, manufacturing) and outside (customers, suppliers, partners, and others) the organization: A successful organization excels at combining its internal resources with selected portions of the vast resources of the world’s capitalist economy. Innovation requires developing and maintaining this network as an open and collaborative force, which is no easy task considering the complexities of relationships, differing motivations, and differing objectives. Some companies choose to isolate innovation efforts from the organization to avoid its antibodies, through stand-alone departments or incubators. These approaches can be successful but only if they establish and maintain a rich network with the critical resources in the company and with outside partners. These stand-alone or incubator innovation initiatives often fail because, in an attempt to isolate the innovators from organizational antibodies, they sever critical links with key resources and ideas (Davila et al., 2006). Today, Siemens has 66,000 employees in the US and 400,000 persons working in 190 countries worldwide. Siemens builds and strengthens the world's infrastructure in everything from energy and transportation to healthcare and water technologies to communications and lighting (Siemens, 2008).

7. Create the right metrics and rewards for innovation: People react to positive and negative stimuli, and a company’s innovation is no exception. A manager will never achieve the level of innovation that is needed if people do not have the proper rewards to drive performance. Often these rewards focus on meeting budgets and avoiding risk. Rewards of this type cause managers to invest in safe products to prevent big loss but also little chance of a big profit; these rewards totally block whatever motivation there may exist to explore riskier paths. A badly designed measurement or reward system will mute the rest of the rules, even if optimally designed. The question then becomes: What should a company measure and what type of rewards would best motivate employees to get the innovation results that management needs? In some companies, the measurements are a big part of the problem (Davila et al., 2006). Siemens has a tendency of looking at the rewards system from the top downward; upper management receives praise and yearly bonus and the hourly wage-earner receives a small raise if the budget permits. If the company needs to downsize due to economic conditions, the hourly white-color and administrative workers are the first to exit the company.

Conclusion

Organizations need systems in place that provide the proper measurement, motivation, incentives, rewards to foster innovation that is aligned with the innovation strategy, and need to create an environment where taking risks on breakthrough innovations is recognized as valuable to the company. The first innovation rule is leadership since it is where a company needs to start, metrics and rewards is the seventh and last innovation rule since it closes the circle, and creates the motivational and behavioral links to all of the other innovation rules (Davila et al., 2006).

References

Davila, T, Epstein, M .J., & Shelton, R. (2006). Making Innovation Work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.

Design Audit Model

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:39:00 +0000

Design Audit Model
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 462 Business Management and the Principles of Design
Ray S. DePuy, PE
December 15, 2008

Design Audit Model

Design can be a key competitive weapon that companies and managers can examine in their own corporate use of design to address problems in corporate competitiveness. A design audit can be used to help a company identify the design capabilities of the business and identify where and how design can be most effectively applied to boost the company’s competitive advantage. A properly performed design audit reviews the company’s purpose and vision, the competitive and organizational strategy, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and the organization’s positioning, product, people, and process capabilities.

Design audit consists of four different levels: environmental issues, corporate culture, design management, and the physical implementation of the design (strategy, process, products, and services). This report will focus on the corporate culture of Siemens Corporation for its design audit model. The corporate culture includes corporate design strategies’, design awareness/understanding (values and vision), design and other function integration, and design activities undertaken (Cooper and Press, 1992).

An employee opinion survey was used as a design audit for the quality of human resources. This company-wide survey audit can provide the company with important information about the employees’ opinions, thoughts of the company, and personal values and visions. The audit’s objective is to gain knowledge of how employees feel about the company, the job, pay and benefits, work environment, management, training, communication, corporate culture, overall satisfaction, and general overall opinion of how the company is being conducted.

The employee opinion survey found a general sense of lack of communication and feeling of involvement by employees in the aims and goals of the company. This analysis provides information leading to the following recommendation to help the company improve in the overall quality and find ways to re-energize and re-commit employees in order for them to feel a sense of loyalty to the company. The problem identification depends on if the feedback is positive or negative. I would make the following recommendations for improvement:

1. Siemens can improve on communicating with employees by offering conference calls to update them on company updates and changes, values and vision, and to invite employees for their opinions and comments as to the current and future direction of the company.
2. Employees should have the opportunity to express their ideas on how they feel the company could strategize more efficiently, be innovative, and use the SWOT more productively within the company.
3. Employees should be able to express ideas about their current job function (possible re-design the company into a learning culture for employees to share information and knowledge company-wide), additional training and education to expand on the value as an employee, and how to lower the employee turnover rate.
4. Pay and benefits could be improved by adding incentive programs to employees such as extra projects for overtime and offering flexible benefits.
5. The work environment could improve by offering flexible work schedules and telecommuting to the employees.
6. The middle management could take additional leadership training to be a more effective leader to its employees and how to loosen hierarchy constraints in favor of teamwork and employee empowerment.
7. Siemens should improve technology through updated software and computer systems to improve faster technical support assistance to the customer.

If the above recommended improvements were used as a tool and implemented within Siemens Corporation, the communication between the company and the employees could improve the corporate culture and help the employees understand the aims and objectives of the company in order to contribute effectively and to show a general overall satisfaction throughout the company. In the end the company’ management team needs to strategize and execute good management practice to make improvements and change the current conditions.

Reference
Cooper, R., and Press, M. (1995). The Design Agenda. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Design Process Models

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Design Process Models Paper
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 462 Business Management and the Principles of Design
Ray S. DePuy, PE
November 24, 2008

Abstract

A design process model consists of a series of activities and methods drawn together in a way which meets the requirements of a problem or project in order to achieve an intended purpose, goal or outcome. Although, the models have similarities within companies, models can have different design processes which vary depending on the size, scale and nature of the problem. This report describes four different design process models and distinguishes between their similarities and differences. In addition, the report identifies a model that best fits a company known as Pixar Animation Studios.

Design Process Models Paper

Designers play a central role in shaping the world around us. People, products, and places are all touched by a design that was created and produced by a company. Design at any company can be an innovative and ambitious undertaking especially when building on the existing strengths of the current structure. Different designers manage the process of design in different ways. Following are four ways that companies use the design process models, including a sample of a familiar company known as Pixar Animation Studios.

Internal Creative Process of Design

When the design process becomes a creative act within a company, it presents a five-stage model called the internal creative process of design that describes what designers do when working on a problem consisting of defining, understanding, and thinking about the problem, developing an idea, and detail, design, and testing the final product. This model focuses on how designers can think through a problem (reason for the model name).

The creative process is rarely linear since new information or insights may require designers to return to an earlier stage and amend the definition or design at any stage. When problems emerge within the organization, the designer’s results are evaluated and developed further elsewhere in the company. A new product or corporate identity will be launched having an effect on the company’s environment and creating new design problems.

This particular model recognizes the difference between the process used by the individual designer, design skills use to solve a problem, and the design process as the strategic planning of product development. The model demonstrates the design process as it occurs from the individual’s perspective and describes the thought process as the problem is addressed, which is often personal and based on education and experience (Cooper and Press, 1992, p. 36).

External Productive Process of Design

In contrast, on a corporate level the process called the external productive process of design (reflects two key activities of planning and production) has a much broader scope and incorporates external factors such as finance, marketing and tangible measurable aspects of business. The external productive process of design includes:
• Concept: Developing concepts that fulfill given objectives.
• Embodiment: Structural development of the most suitable concept.
• Detail: Confirming precise specifications and production processes.
• Production: Manufacturing the product or providing the service.
This model succeeds in reflecting a combination of the corporate design process and the individual designer’s process, and its more structured methodology and process to design activities can help to anticipate problems and manage risk (Cooper and Press, 1992, p. 38).

Total Process of Design within Management

In the total process of design within management model, objectives are set within each phase, planning procedures are established, and methods of evaluation implemented. The input to the concept phase is a design brief, which defines the nature of the problem (market research) to be solved. The output from the production phase is a product or service which meets the requirements of the brief. This is distributed and advertised, performance evaluated, and a new or amended brief may be set depending on if market research if required.

Hollins and Hollins (Cooper and Press, 1992, p.38) compared their concept of the total design to Walker’s and came to the conclusion that the total design should include an indication of market pull or technical push, emphasize the multidisciplinary and iterative nature, and to explain that the purpose is to produce a product or service, and goes beyond the start of production, including the issues of product disposal. Total design integrates market research, marketing strategy, engineering, product design, production planning, distribution, and environmental monitoring within one cyclical model. Both theories see design as internally applying new technologies, developing product concepts and externally meeting the needs of the market and the wider environment, and guided by planning process. Both see design as a process involving more than just design skills. The difference between the two theories is that Walker’s design process contained on one side by planning and production on the other side.
The total process of design within management model is based around the internal and external environment of a company. The Internal and external part of the environment include the brief, proposals, product launch, market test, and research. These five areas encompass objectives, concept, embodiment, detail, production, advertising, distribution, use, perceived value, and reassess. Planning, design and development, production, and market response surround everything (Cooper and Press, 1992, p.39).

Design as a Planning Process

Design as a planning process, begins with the design process, extending out to information collection (markets, technological innovation and competitor activity), strategy (product, distribution, marketing, and production), and specification (product performance characteristics, product image, production processes and allied activities) that develops strategic planning on new product development (Cooper and Press, 1992, p.41).

Similarities and Differences

Each design process model of internal creative process of design, external productive process of design, total process of design within management, and design as a planning process all have the similarity of sharing the basic process of defining a problem, developing an idea, design, and testing the final result. The difference between all four is the expansion of the process. The internal creative process of design works internally and uses the basic process; external productive process of design goes beyond the basic process and uses external factors such as finance and marketing; total process of design within management uses both internal and external parts of the environment and the process is extremely thorough from conception to production; design as a planning process tends to “plan” the design by using product specifications and gathers information for research.

Design Process Model at Pixar

Pixar Animation Studios (filmmaking process) can be described as an internal creative process of design since designers define and contemplate a problem, develop ideas, provide a detailed design, and test the particular piece of artwork. The artwork may require designers to return to an earlier stage and amend a design at any stage. When problems emerge with a particular piece, the designer’s results may be evaluated and developed elsewhere at Pixar. Each designer used personal education and experience during the process. Pixar’s design process is based on a few simple approaches, traditional skills (drawing, painting, sculpture and storytelling, and low-tech (rather than high-tech). The designers work as a team and ideas are developed slowly using an iterative process that adds value to everyone’s work (Pixar, 2001).

Conclusion

The above report introduced four types of design process models and how each worked within a company, a comparison of how each model offered similarities and differences, and provided Pixar Animation Studios as a sample of a model. As one can see, each design originates as the basic process, but then expands with the process needs of the company.

References

Cooper, R. & Press, M. (1992). The Design Agenda: A Guide to Successful Design
Management. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Design Definition

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:53:00 +0000

Design Definition Paper
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 462 Business Management and the Principles of Design
Ray S. DePuy, PE
November 17, 2008

Abstract

Design can basically be perceived as the conception of a product that meets specific human needs and where the development of strategies, processes, products, and services within an organization begin. Design is about the function, nature, and appearance of things and involves communication, problem solving, and creativity (Cooper and Press, 1995). This report provides a definition of design, introduces six different perspectives on the way design is used in an organization, and provides examples of how design can impact the organization.

Design Definition Paper

Design covers many different disciplines and perspectives and is recognized as being essential to an enterprise that goes beyond individualism (painting or sculpturing) to globalization by reaching across traditional boundaries within organizations to create innovative business ventures. This is achieved through a corporate planning process to meet market demands through focus on discrete activities, management functions, and cultural phenomena industry-wide. Design has a multi-faceted impact and provides value in several areas such as organizational, economic, competitive, cultural, and social values. By applying design principles universally, an organization can effectively meet its strategic and operational needs, objectives, and operations through reduced costs and improved quality and branding.

Compare and Contrast Six Types of Design

Design offers six perspectives: artistic, problem solving, creative acts, family of professions, an industry, and a process. As one can see, while each perspective can be part of the organization, each type of design offers its own personality and individualism as to what design can offer an organization.

When design is an art, it expresses ideals and expression like in a painting, sculptor, play, musical, or a combination of art, crafts, and advanced technology with the result of a visual product. Consumers look to art to communicate value, find personal truth, and that shows an interest in culture, rather than just amusement. A CAD drawing or mock-up made of ceramic or wood can be used for a marketing strategy at an architectural firm when building a model of the finished product. In the text, The Design Agenda: A Guide to Successful Design Management (Cooper and Press, 1995), Dieter Rams, designer of domestic appliances, believed that products should manifest their purpose and a good design means as little design as possible. Design can be viewed as a visual barometer to the cultural perspective due to changing times since products evolve value and aspiration to future designers. Presenting design as art can be a marketing strategy, but the nature of design is changing as the boundary between art and culture expands since consumers are looking for products to symbolize their personal values.

When design is a problem solver, a need to fulfill a specific function or problem the currently exists including balancing a range of requirements determined by technology and materials, production constraints, market considerations and human factors (physical and psychological characteristics of the user). Problem solving is based on understanding the human factor that determines how easy or difficult a product is to use. When a product is poorly designed or includes a safety concern or an obsolete fashion, it can create a problem and an organization needs to research, strategize, and combine specialty knowledge in order to problem solve for a new product.

When design is a creative act it consists of 98% common sense and 2% creative, which means creating an environment to encourage creative thought consisting of combining previous unrelated structures into a new innovative structure which proves valuable in a project. The creative process includes five stages: first sight (formulating the problem), preparation (understanding the problem), incubation (relaxation to allow subconscious thought), illumination (emergence of the idea), and verification (idea development and testing) (Cooper and Press, 1995).

Design can be a family of professions such as different divisions or departments of a graphic design company. This type of design is also known as a design family tree, along with roots in traditional skills and methods such as drawing, modeling, and simulation; the tree can grow into disciplines (trunk) such as graphics or fashion that rely on artistic abilities, to engineering and electronics, which rely on science. The branches of the tree combine art and science such as CAD, fabrics, ceramics, tools, photography, along with product, environmental, information, and corporate identity design.

Design as an industry can be telecommunications, fashion, cosmetics, or automobiles. An industry can develop when business opportunities emerge for college students majoring in design. The role of the designer first materialized as a consultant rather than as an employee since the market was driven by need. Later companies created in-house design teams and based them within the engineering department. The role of industrial designer was created when the government required the specialized knowledge during wartime. The industry has played an important part in history with the creation of decorative streets, magazines, fashion, to decorated retail stores.

Design can be viewed as an individual creative activity or strategic planning process that applies the innovative potential of the enterprise with the changing requirements of the market when the product solves the consumers’ needs. The internal process of designing involves defining, thinking, and understanding the problem, developing an idea, reviewing the details, and testing the products. The external process of a design includes the concept (fulfill given objective), embodiment (structural development of the most suitable concept), detail (confirm specifications and production process), and production (manufacture the product or provide a service (Cooper and Press, 1995).

Design’s Impact on Organizations

Design has an impact on every organization since every product starts with a “design.” Design as an art lets individuals express lifestyle in the fashion industry; art affected Levi 501’s jeans by giving consumers the expression of rebellion and freedom. Design as a problem-solver can be shown through Seventh Generation, one of the country's first self-declared "socially responsible" companies and authentic, safe, and environmentally-responsible products for a healthy home. The product is making a difference by saving natural resources, reducing pollution, keeping toxic chemicals out of the environment and making the world a safer place for this and the next seven generations (Seventh Generation, 2008).

Nike uses design as a creative act when the co-founder, Bill Bowerman, made an observation of the endless possibilities for human potential. Their response was to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world by developing products that help athletes of every level of ability reach their potential, and to create business opportunities that set Nike apart from the competition and provide shareholder value (Nike, 2008).

The automobile organization is an example of design as a family of professions, an industry, and a process and has impacted the entire world economy. Management and employees focus on the manufacturing of a particular line of vehicles, use management teams with expertise and design skills of every part of the vehicle and who know the process of completing a vehicle in its entirety.

Conclusion

This report supplied a definition of design, introduced six different perspectives in which design can be used in an organization, and presented examples of how design can impact the organization through art, problem solving, creative acts, family of professions, industry, and process. It was interesting how organizations often combine methods when creating and designing a product to distribute to the public.

References

Cooper, R. & Press, M. (1992). The Design Agenda: A Guide to Successful Design
Management. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Organizational Transformation

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:37:00 +0000

Organizational Transformation Paper
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 461 Innovation, Design, and Creativity for a Competitive Advantage
Brandon S. Smith
March 22, 2008

Organizational Transformation Paper

Siemens Corporation is a world leader in industry, energy, IT, and healthcare. Each division offers a variety of benefits and opportunities to the employees. Some of these benefits include the following: Incentives, training, and education in promoting innovation and leadership roles in creating, managing, and sustaining innovation. Siemens Corporation considers the ethical implications of an individual reward system which involves all employees. We will also look at whether Siemens could be considered an innovative or non-innovative company.

Incentives, Training, and Education in Promoting Innovation

Siemens Corporation wants to create an atmosphere where employees can feel secure while occupying their minds creating new idea for the company using incentives, training, and education to promote innovation with the company.

Incentive

An incentive for upper management can be a yearly bonus, while an hourly wage worker may receive extra paid time off. There are equal incentives such as offering employees medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, long term disability, PTO coverage, retirement, Employee Assistance Program, flexible work schedules, tuition assistance, service anniversary program, and matching gift program for higher education. Siemens offers a Development Promotion Reward (EFA) program that believes that performance and success must be rewarded for every employee. The EFA system puts an employee in charge of their own professional development by letting the employee suggest what training courses that will enhance their skills and negotiate individual targets for the coming year with the line manager and the HR manager. Siemens promotes open communication by offering regular development and mentoring sessions, in addition to the annual employee survey. This management dialog is an employee’s opportunity to give feedback to the line manager (Siemens, 2008).

Training

Siemens offer over 1800 types of online training programs such as NetG Learning (online specific training) if an employee wants to learn Oracle, Remedy, Microsoft Office, Accounting, Project Management, Lotus Notes, Six Sigma, just to name a selected few courses. By learning the above software programs or managing a project, an employee can learn innovative skills to assist the company in a more productive manner. Other types of training are geared towards managers. Management training programs teach managers how to effectively leverage and develop the talents of employees across the entire spectrum of similarities and differences. The Fast-Track Management Training program is a rotation program which develops key leadership talent through cross-operating company rotational assignments in designated functional areas (Finance, HR, IT, Project Management, Procurement). The objective of the program is to strategically place program graduates into future functional leadership positions as needed by Siemens USA.

Siemens offers an intern program called “The Siemens Intern Experience”, which targets the top Siemens US Interns (as identified by each operating company) and is composed of an annual meeting and dedicated website, newsletter, and web chats. The objective of the annual meeting is to initiate and maintain relationships with the interns on a corporate level and assess the intern talent pool to identify high potentials. The overall objective of the program is to increase the conversion rate of top talent interns into employees and facilitate placement across the operating companies.

Leadership Excellence, an integral part of Siemens’ strive for People Excellence as part of our ongoing business strategy, was established to support Siemens top executives in their current and future challenges. The courses are designed to align leadership and value standards, impart corporation-wide business management tools, give an impetus for new approaches, strategies, and tools, and facilitate a global, cross-business network of management leaders.

The Emerging Leaders Forum provides a unique learning and networking experience for the future leaders of Siemens USA. Meeting content is designed to help participants learn from the senior-most ranks of Siemens leadership, address major culture change issues like post-acquisition integration, prepare to inherit leadership positions, network and share best practices with other program participants, understand and apply the Siemens value proposition, and navigate their career path within Siemens.

Siemens Professionals Engaged in Active Communications (S.P.E.A.C.) was established to help identify high potential communication managers, and provide professional development opportunities. During the 18-month program, members learn about the various Siemens business units through plant tours and presentations as well as networking with their peers from Siemens companies in the US and Europe (Siemens, 2008).

Education

Siemens offers education assistance to help employees better themselves in obtaining a degree in order to move upward in Siemens by using new ideas, thoughts, and creativity. The company allows employees to study any course and reimburses up to $5,500/year.

Role of Leadership at Siemens

The various Siemens Divisions provide different roles of leadership in creating, managing, and sustaining innovation with the organization. Below are some examples of how Siemens transforms the world with its global network of innovation that spans 190 countries.
• Siemens Building Technologies won the 2006 Ohio Governor's Award for Excellence in Energy for its work with the St. Elizabeth Health Center and the Humility of Mary Health Partners
• The 2007 Fortune AMERICA'S Most Admired Companies list ranked Siemens number three in the country's electronics industry
• The 2007 Fortune WORLD'S Most Admired Companies list ranked Siemens AG number two in the global electronics industry
• Siemens manufactures one out of three traffic signals used in the United States
• Siemens Water Technologies serves more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500 manufacturing companies as well as approximately 100,000 industrial clients
• Siemens was granted 1,622 U.S. patents in 2006. We're the top-ranked German company on that list and ranked higher than General Electric.
• Every business day in the U.S., radiation therapy systems from Siemens treat more than 30,000 cancer patients and Siemens' systems process more than 164 million U.S. healthcare information transactions
• Power generation systems from Siemens Power Generation supply more than one-third of the nation's electricity
• Seventy-five percent of cars on U.S. roads rely on Siemens-Sylvania lighting technologies
• Siemens PLM Software creates and manages more then 40 percent of the world's 3D data (Siemens, 2008).

Ethical implications of an individual reward system

The company that rewards all employees as a group promotes team work, great growth, high moral, creativity, and motivation. Individual recognition and rewards have both positive and negative aspects; on the one hand, they may spur friendly competition within a company to achieve greater levels of creativity and innovation. On the other hand, in many companies, executives and upper management are still treated differently than middle managers and wage earners by receiving often undeserved yearly bonuses, awards, trips or promotions, while employees in the lower rungs may only receive a $.35 raise once a year and free donuts in the break room on occasion.

Siemens: innovative or non-innovative?

Siemens can be both innovative and non-innovative, depending on the division. My division, IT Solutions and Services, is generally non-innovative. It is tightly structured (following established policy versus seeking creative ways to meet new problems), very management-heavy (relying on managers and executives to make all the decisions based on endless reports, meetings and minutiae, without involving the “people on the ground” in the process), and focused on squeezing the bottom line (nitpicking contractual details ad infinitum rather than doing everything possible to ensure the overall satisfaction of the customer). Other divisions, however, exemplify innovative thinking and more horizontal structuring. Examples of innovation are shown in the above section of Role of Leadership at Siemens. The company overall views innovation as the key to entrepreneurial success by providing a rigorous innovation management and invests more than $6 billion in research and development. Siemens generates more than 30 inventions a day and works in cooperation with customers to transform ideas into new products, systems and solutions. Each day Siemens, located in the U.S., dedicates nearly 8,000 employees to research and development.

Organizational Impact

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:35:00 +0000

Organizational Impact Paper
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 461 Innovation, Design, and Creativity for a Competitive Advantage
Brandon S. Smith
March 8, 2008

Abstract

Innovation can be defined as a “frame of mind” and the act of developing an idea in its physical form such as a new product, service or process. It means finding solutions to problems and can be categorized as a product or process innovation, product or service that an organization offers, and the way in which they create and deliver the product. The impact in innovation can be dramatic on society globally if the product helps with customer service, health, and service. We examine three companies, Shinfin, Colgate and McKinsey & Company, to discern their unique application of innovation processes.

Organizational Impact Paper

When examining a company’s impact on innovation, one can find reasons on how the product impacts the organization and society, and what strategy and process they utilized to achieve success. Three companies, Shinfin, Colgate, and McKinsey & Company, are introduced below, providing information on how each of their companies have impacted society with their innovative products. Each of these companies provides a different service using four different but complimentary processes of innovation: architectural (basic configuration of product and process); market niche (innovation that opens new market opportunities); regular (change that builds on established technical and production competence); and revolutionary (disrupts and renders established technical and production abilities obsolete, yet can be applied to existing markets and customers) (vonStamm, 2003). Shinfin designs and distributes unique swimming fins, Colgate provides improvement to the quality of life, and McKinsey & Company assists companies with performance issues.

Shinfin

Shinfin™ is a company that created a unique type of swim fins product, an evolution from foot flippers, and an impact on the innovation of the swimming fin. The fins enhance the enjoyment and benefits of swimming and other water sports. Marc Lee, inventor, conceived and designed a swimming fin for a natural streamlined kick to assist a swimmer with their freestyle, backstroke and butterfly stroke. The swimmer kicks from the hips with only a little knee-bend and very little ankle stress (unlike foot flippers which require much more knee-bend and impose large stresses on the ankles). His process was to correct swimming biomechanics, allow fins to be utilized in a variety of swimming activities, and avoid foot flipper problems such as on-land safety. The inventor designed fins that are comfortable and flexible, fitting to the front of the legs with straps fit securely just above the ankle. They are adaptable for various types of legs kicks, allowing a great deal more muscle power from the thighs and torso, and a comfortable bend at the ankles and the soles of the feet free so walking… or even running… is possible while wearing them. The fins were designed to be utilized in swim training, fitness, aerobics, snorkeling, bodyboarding, kneeboarding, and even surfing, and are especially attractive to people with disabilities and amputations. The inventor wanted to avoid foot flipper problems such as sore feet, good fit, tripping and falling, weight, stress and strain, and tear and rot. The impact of the product appears to be successful for the company due to customer satisfaction ratings and complements ranging from lack of cramping, better workouts, and feet comfort (Shinfin.com).

Colgate

Colgate® originated as a small soap and candle business that William Colgate created in New York City back in the early 19th century. The people at Colgate work globally, share a commitment to the company’s three core corporate values: Caring, global teamwork and continuous improvement. As a leading consumer products company, the company is deeply committed to advancing technology which can address changing consumer needs throughout the world. The goal is to use technology to create products that will continue to improve the quality of life for consumers wherever they live (Colgate.com).
One of the products that has impacted innovation is the Colgate 360˚ ® original toothbrush, a revolutionary new toothbrush specially designed for sensitive teeth and gums, with less wear on sensitive tooth areas compared to a regular soft, flat-trim toothbrush. Its unique design features clean the teeth, tongue, cheek, and gums by removing more bacterial; this is why it is more than just a toothbrush. The company discovered that 80% of the bacteria in your mouth are not on the consumer’s teeth and formulated a way to create a toothbrush that gives a gentle yet superior clean with a unique cheek and tongue cleaner that removes over 96% more bacteria and produces less wear on sensitive areas of the tooth with multi-functional bristles (Colgate.com).

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm consisting of a global network of offices, is a trusted advisor to the world’s leading businesses, governments, and institutions. The firm’s process is to help leaders make distinctive, lasting, and substantial improvements to the performance of their organizations and undertake their most difficult issues and serious challenges. The firm is about world-changing impact, developing exceptional leaders, and finding innovative solutions. The firm is not a corporation tied to earnings pressures or bound to increasing returns to the shareholders. Instead, the firm is constantly measuring new ideas, opportunities led not by one person, but by the partnership group.

The firm’s product: Associates. Associates at the firm have the a scale, scope, and knowledge which allows them to address problems that no one else can and consist of a network of people who are passionate about taking on immense challenges that matter to leading organizations, and often, to the world. Associates are the trusted advisors and counselors to many of the most influential businesses and institutions in the world, serving more than 70 percent of Fortune magazine’s most admired list of companies. Associates are problem solvers, analytical, creative, intellectually curious, have the ability to work with people at all levels of an organization, and are highly collaborative with a passion for excellence. The firm does not regard individuals based on their title, but their competence and leadership. The firm believes in the power of one consistent set of high standards for service and people so that they can always attract and bring together the best team of minds from around the world, along with the broadest range of industry and functional experience. McKinsey & Company believes in teamwork, coaching, and collaboration. Associates develop better solutions in teams than as individuals, so as to eliminate competition against each other and share a structured problem–solving approach, in which all opinions and options are considered, researched, and analyzed carefully before recommendations are made.

Conclusion

Innovative companies can play a significant role impacting individuals, organizations and society globally. When examining all three companies’ impact on innovation, it was easy to see the motivations that drive them and how their products impact humanity, as well as the strategies and processes they utilized to achieve success. When each company utilized one or more of the different forms of the innovation process, their products became successful globally and helped mankind achieve vital goals.

References

von Stamm, B. (2003). Managing Innovation, Creativity and Design. Unites States: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Mental Process

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:14:00 +0000

Mental Process Paper
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 461 Innovation, Design, and Creativity for a Competitive Advantage
Brandon S. Smith
March 15, 2008

Abstract

When understanding the creative intelligence, they consist of four styles such as intuitive, innovative, imaginative, and inspirational. People can have one main style or share two with one dominant and the other submissive. Society is also offered five forces that influence the mental models/mind sets that include education, training, influence of others, rewards and incentives, and personal experiences.

Mental Process Paper

When examining both the four styles of creative intelligence and the five forces of mental models/mind sets, one can see the intense and in depth these concepts are to society, and yet how simple they can be viewed once understand. Following are descriptions and examples of each type of both creative intelligence and the five forces of mental model/mind sets. There is also information provided about my personal experience with dealing with the mental model/mindset in the workplace.

The Four Styles of Creative Intelligence

The four styles of creative intelligence include intuitive, innovative, imaginative, and inspirational. The first style of intuitive focuses on results and relies on past experience to guide actions and decisions. An organization can revitalize a stagnant company by focusing on action and results; it can be fair, but tough on competition. This philosophy can turn an organization into a highly successful and profitable business. Intuitive means bringing out creativity and potential and describes resourceful individuals and is typical of managers, actors, and politicians. It emphasizes on achievement, hard work, results, common sense, past experience, and the ability to find good answers quickly (Rowe, 2004). An example of an intuitive personality would be Mahatma (Mohandas) Gandhi considering his philosophy of civil disobedience and non-violence, as well as his personal spirituality, struck a deep chord with Indians and can best be understood as a logical outgrowth of this type.

The second style of innovative concentrates on problem-solving, inquisitive, persistence, experimentation, and careful analysis, systematic, relies on data, willing to work hard, and insist on precise and careful experiments. This style is typical of a scientist, engineer, or an inventor. One’s qualities are perseverance in the face of difficulties, can be absorbed in their work, and handles complexity with ease. Although the working environment often affects how people perform, truly creative people transcend physical discomfort and inconvenience to pursue their goals and visions (Rowe, 2004). An example of an innovative style person is Arthur Schnitzler. Mr. Schnitzler is one of Austria's literary heavyweights and received extensive training in medicine and was especially interested in psychology, an interest that influenced his writing a great deal.

The third style of imaginative is able to visualize and identify opportunities, artistic, take pleasure in writing, open-minded, risk-taker and thinks “out of the box.” This style describes insightful individuals and is typical of artists, musicians, writers, and leaders. Steven P. Jobs is an example of an imaginative style personality. Mr. Jobs is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive of The Apple Computer Inc. and brought digital technology to the world. As a visionary, he saw that computers could be more than just a plain productivity tool and they could help unleash human creativity and sheer enjoyment. A marketing genius, he conceived of elegant products that captured consumers' imaginations. Due to his relentless perfectionist, he came up with creations that actually delivered on their promise and raising the bar for rivals. A quarter-century later, he rocked the music business with Apple's iPod music player and iTunes online store. This created a blueprint for the music biz in the Net era. His Pixar Animation Studios was the first to show that computer animation could be used to tell imaginative, touching stories (Businessweek, 2008).

The final style is inspirational which focuses on social change, has a positive, act on instincts or feelings, action-oriented outlook on societal needs and is willing to give of self to achieve goals. This style is concerned with introducing change that helps others. This style describes visionary individuals and is typical of educators, leaders, and writers. Senator Barack Obama is an example of the inspiration style personality. This man is proving that he is capable of having the opportunity to becoming the first African-American to sit in the Oval Office as president of the nation where black slaves were once considered property. He gives people hope to take a chance to fulfill their dreams and desires and to look beyond color and ethnicity.

When comparing the four styles, the intuitive style responds quickly to operational problems, innovative individuals rely on a considerable amount of information and take time to study and gain insight into problems, imaginative style use value judgments as the basis for their decisions, and the inspirational style are concerned with the welfare of others rather than their own. In an emergency, the intuitive style makes good, quick decisions, but when it comes to understanding the far-reaching effects of certain problems, the imaginative style will generally be more effective. Although each of these styles describes a specific creative intelligence style, a majority of people have more than one creative style. The level of intensity for each style results in a guide for each individual. This approach to creativity expands the possible number of creative intelligence styles. The importance of having many styles of creativity is that one is able to more fully and accurately describe an individual’s creative intelligence (Rowe, 2004).

Five Forces Influence Mental Models/Mind sets

Along with having four styles of creative intelligence, we also have five forces that influence the mental models/mind sets. At first glance, mental models may seem intangible and insignificant; however, they cannot be dismissed as optical illusions, parlor games, academic curiosities, and all in the mind. These models affect the quality and direction of our lives and they have profit-and-loss and even life-and-death implications.

One of the most enduring and perhaps limiting illusions is the belief that the world seen is the real world. Individuals rarely question their own models of the world until forced to. One day, the television seemed attractive and full of information, the next day it was ugly and dramatic. The broadcasted information did not change and yet in one instant society saw it as a vital piece of informative and the next minute it was literally garbage. Society was hit with the “gestalt flip.” The lines and data points are the same, but the picture is dramatically different. Does one wonder what changed; the information did not, but how society currently viewed it did. The same information suddenly produced a very different perception. This perception is called “mental models” (or “mindsets”) and describes the brain processes that are used to make sense of the world (Wind et al., 2005).

In the past, science and technology have progressed to the point where scientists can observe the brain resulting in the transformation between philosophy and neuroscience. Instead of just thinking about thinking, scientists can now monitor brain processes as society thinks and observes. This research is generating an enormous amount of experimental data while confronting the incredible complexity of the brain, resulting in a range of neuroscience theories that has emerged to explain what is going on inside the brain. In business and other organizations, these interactions become even more complex as individuals with their own mental models interact through group decision-making or negotiation, and they are susceptible to biases such as “group think” that can limit flexibility and constrict options. The ways people make sense of the world are determined to a large extent by the internal mind and to a lesser extent by the external world. It is this internal world of neurons, synapses, neurochemicals and electrical activity, with its incredibly complex structure functioning in ways society have only a vague sense of that is called the “mental model.” This model inside the individual brains is the representation of our world and ourselves (Wind et al., 2005).

Mental models are broader than technological innovations or business models, and represent the way one looks at the world. These models or mindsets can sometimes be reflected in technology or business innovations, but not every minor innovation represents a truly new mental model. For example, the shift to non-hydrogenated butter was a tremendous innovation in the butter industry, but it represents only a minor change in mental models. Our mental models are much deeper, and often so deep that they are invisible. Mental models affect every aspect of an individual’s personal and professional lives, and our broader society including these five forces of education, training, influence of others, rewards and incentives, and personal experiences:

• Education: Education shapes people’s mental models very broadly and forms a foundation that molds the world view. A scientist learns to approach the world in a different way than an artist. This broad education is often the least visible force shaping the mindset. People surround themselves with people of similar background. A liberal arts education is intended to give people a common language and world view from which to operate and makes it easier for this educational foundation to blend into the environment for any type of career path.
• Training: Is a specific learning related to education in that people learn to deal with transitions or handle new tasks. A data entry person may learn keyboarding or a musician may learn a particular instrument. This training is more specific and visible than education, and can be easily transferred.
• Influence of others: Society can be influenced by mentors, experts, books, family and friends. These individuals, their philosophy of life, and approach to problems affect people deeply in how they approach personal challenges. For example, a child who constantly reads about Thomas Edison may grow up to be a scientist. Society is also influenced by the mass such as in the 1960’s with drugs and rock and roll. Society is can be influenced by the result of a transition in television shows such as American Idol. People watch singers from all walks of all perform and actually win a recording contract.
• Rewards and incentives: The mental models and actions are shaped by the rewards people receive for holding them in the hands. These rewards can be tangible such as direct financial gain like a raise, or less tangible ones, such as social approval.
• Personal experience: Some artists and scientists are self-taught since they create their own style through personal experience which makes it easier to think outside the box.
• The tradition of apprenticeship is also based on a process of combining learning from both experience and a mentor or expert craftsman. People also develop capabilities for learning how to learn that help them to make sense of our experiences such as past successes and failures which dramatically shape the view of the world. Severe traumatic ordeals such as prison or abuse may affect how a person views the world.
• Today’s experience quickly becomes tomorrow’s theology. Military leaders are often fighting the last war. They have shaped the policies based on past equipment and military strategy, carefully learning lessons from debriefings on the last battlefield that may no longer be relevant to the current one (Wind et al., 2005).

Although the above mental models/mind sets are wonderful individually, they might limit the decision-making process due to the fact that need to work together in order to be effective. Education alone in not an effective decision-making tool since an individual needs influenced through mentoring, rewarded, and personal experience to provide leadership and be a team player in any organization.

Personal Most Commonly Used Mental Models/Mind Sets

While working as a Help Desk Analyst, I utilize personal experience from the performing the job function for two years, observing, and analyzing what is successful and failure with the performance. By observing and analyzing data, I can make clear decisions on what strategy to take to perform the job to my best ability.

Conclusion

The above information and examples provided an examination of how the four styles of creative intelligence and the five forces of mental models/mind sets affected society in the thinking process.

References

Rowe, A.J. (2004). Creative Intelligence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education publishing as Prentice-Hall.

Wind, Y., Crook, C., & Gunther, R. (2005). The Power of Impossible Thinking. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Wharton School Publishing.

Innovation, Creativity, and Design

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:36:00 +0000

Definitions Paper
Julie Malone
University of Phoenix
OI 461 Innovation, Design, and Creativity for a Competitive Advantage
Brandon S. Smith
February 25, 2008

Abstract

The terms innovation, creativity, and design are frequently used in today’s business world and are essential in helping businesses flourish. Along with having a variety of meanings associated with these terms, innovation, creativity, and design are disciplines that span boundaries, and need to be understood in an integrated manner. These topics deal with curiosity, experimentation, dissatisfaction with the status quo, and the desire for continuous improvement.

Definitions Paper

Every business or organization exists to solve problems, which means that every business and individual has the opportunity to develop new solutions and resources for growth. Within a business, the terms innovation, design, and creativity are used frequently while associates are conducting business. In order to compare and contrast innovation, design, and creativity, one must understand the meaning behind the terms.

Innovation

Innovation can be defined as a “frame of mind” and the act of developing an idea in its physical form such as a new product, service or process. It means finding solutions to problems. It can be categorized as a product innovation, things an organization offers, process innovation, and the way in which they are created and delivered. It consists of two components: implementation and creativity. Implementation is putting ideas into practice and is made up of three aspects: idea selection, development, and commercialization. It is about behaving differently, being organized, structured, and using a methodological and systematic approach which cannot be left to chance. Time is of the essence in some cases and one is required to work fast. Organizations need processes, procedures and structures to achieve implementation in order for projects to be completed in a timely manner. While implementation is putting an idea into practice, creativity is the fundamental business process of developing the basic idea from the beginning. Creativity is an essential part of innovation and is the act of developing an idea, thinking differently, being different, thinking laterally, making new connections, and development of an idea.

Creativity, whether applied for individual purposes or within a business context, is not necessarily a moment of inspiration, but rather is a culmination of an entire body of knowledge acquired by several years of refinement in the arts, history, sciences, and mathematics. Being creative is not just limited to a few selected individuals; it can be stimulated and supported through training, educating, and utilization in the right work environment and atmosphere. Creativity cannot be ordered (“ordained”) since it relies on basic motivation, enthusiasm, inspiration and knowledge. Companies must rely on raw data, but creativity and innovation only occur when data is combined with intuition (vonStamm, 2003).

Creativity

Creativity is defined as grace (divine inspiration, ideas that comes to the mind), accident (serendipitous), association (lateral thinking and brainstorming), personality (a particular human ability, an intrinsic part of life and growth, natural talent which directs attention towards removing mental barriers and creativity), and cognitive (creativity is relies on normal cognitive process such as recognition, reasoning and understanding). Scientist such as Thomas Edison used a wide range of different filaments before developing a functioning light bulb. This emphasizes on hard work, productivity, and intense preparation. Some assume that creativity is not just something that happens to us, but that it is something that can be encouraged and perhaps even trained. But even when accepting that creativity can be learned, there are some people who are just more creative than others, and much research has been undertaken to identify what their characteristics may include.

Creative people have the ability to formulate new problems rather than depending on others to define them, and they have the ability to transfer what they learn across different contexts. Creative people come with a variety of different traits, including sensitivity, observation, fantasizing, imaginative, intuitive, original, energetic, and many other qualities (vonStamm, 2003).

Design

Design is about looking at everyday things with new eyes and working out how they can be made better. It is about challenging existing technology and methods. Design is the tangible outcome, such as the end product of design such as cameras, cars, etc. It is a creative activity and is the process by which information is transformed into a tangible outcome. Design is the conscious decision-making process by which information (an idea) is transformed into an outcome, be it tangible (product) or intangible (service). It is about comparing alternatives to select the best possible solution, exploring, and experimenting. Design deals with grace (inspiration), association (application of procedures from one area to another), lateral thinking and brainstorming, and personality viewing creativity with our human ability. Design is about doing things consciously, and not because they have always been done in a certain way; it is about comparing alternatives to select the best possible solution; it is about exploring and experimenting. Designers usually share many or all of the same traits as creative people, because they usually involve much the same activities. (vonStamm, 2003).

Business Implications

The business implications for innovation, design, and creativity include, as an example, information technology. The I.T. industry has changed the way people can share ideas and information through the use of email, presentations, and video conference. People working in different organizations, on different continents can work on the same project either together at the same time or, if on different continents, during their respective working hours. For example, Ford Motor Company can hold project teams in several different locations and time zones while working together on one project, accelerating development time significantly (vonStamm, 2003).

Conclusion

As one can see, the business world can use the terms innovation, creativity, and design in very different, yet similar ways. Today, more businesses are starting to realize that each topic is needed to thrive and grow to be productive companies. Because of the new generation of people, each associate of a company is learning that in order to remain a great team member they will too need to become familiar with these terms.

References

von Stamm, B. (2003). Managing Innovation, Creativity and Design. Unites States: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BS degree in Business/Organizational Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:16:00 +0000

What is a degree in organizational innovation?

Innovative Design and Creativity for a Competitive Advantage
Business Management and the Principles of Design
Disruptive Business Practices: Management and Technology
The Innovative Organization
Management of Intellectual Capital
Organizational Innovation Integrated Project

Misc Papers

Intellectual Capital

My M.Ed. Papers

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Adult Learning Theory

Memorable Experience I
Adult Learning Self-Portrait
Portrait of Shaun Manzano - mentor and educator
Portrait of Stori Hybbeneth - Adult Learner
Memorable Experience II
Project Plan
Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS)
Teaching Philosophies

Passing Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Malone) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:10:00 +0000

How do we pass knowledge down to future generations, new and current employees? What methods can we use? This has become an important issue among generations.

Like in the movie, "The Age of Stupid", if we do not pass and share knowledge, the future will become stupid.