From idea to action in 5 steps

When it comes to educational innovation, inspiration is all around. Go to one conference day and you can hardly see the forest for the trees. We can well imagine that comparative judgement then gets lost in a long list of ideas that you have written down as interesting. Unfortunately, many of these lists of ideas die a quiet death. So how do you turn such an idea for innovation into concrete action? We’ve come up with a very simple step-by-step plan.

1. Write down (prominently) your motivation to change.

Think back for a moment: what was the reason you were interested in comparative judgement in the first place? What won’t bother you anymore if your innovation succeeds? Keeping the goal in mind helps you stay motivated. Write your motivation in a prominent, public place where your colleagues will see it, such as a whiteboard or a poster on the wall. That way, you’ll hopefully start an interesting conversation, too.

2. Find the first moment you could get started.

Intentions are more likely to succeed if you start thinking as concretely as possible about how and when you will implement the intention in your own context. If you want to get started with comparative judgement, something will have to change in your routine to take the first step. Waiting until you have time is not going to work; after all, we almost never have time spontaneously. What task you have to do soon could you put off for another time? Grab your calendar now!

3. Make it less easy to get out from under your resolution.

We know that reading or figuring something out on your own has to give way first when other more important things come in between. That’s why it’s more useful to talk to someone about your idea. For example, you can contact us; we are very happy to think with you. You can also look up who you would like to talk to yourself. It could be a teacher who is already working with comparative judgement or an educator in your organization. Whoever it is, make sure you have a helpline to fall back on.

4. Include a colleague in your idea from the beginning.

With more people, you are more likely to make your idea succeed. You can think strategically about which colleague to take along with you. For example, you can involve a colleague you know will quickly embrace the idea. That way you increase your impact and, more importantly, make your startup just a little bit easier.

There is also another option. Do you think there is a colleague who will not like the idea at all, or who is reluctant to change? Precisely by involving that colleague at the beginning of your process, you can be critical together. As a result, you don’t have to face each other later if you are already completely convinced of your idea and the other person is not. And critical questions are extremely useful. Asking those questions from the start increases the chances that your innovation will ultimately succeed.

5. Get started as soon as possible.

We certainly don’t underestimate the importance of good analysis, but sometimes we can also linger too long thinking before implementing an idea. Action will give you the most motivation to persevere. Moreover, you see results immediately, which in turn provides input for further improvement of your idea. For comparative judgement you can, for example, do a test during a teacher meeting in which you already work together with Comproved. We can help you set this up to take as much work off your hands as possible.

What are you waiting for? Time to get started!