My New Job Title: Innovation Manager Learning Technology

Innovation
Innovation by Flickr user theonlyone, cc-by-nc-nd licensed

My employer has gone through a restructuring exercise in the past couple of months. This means that from today onwards I will have a new job in the company.

I used to be Blended Learning Advisor in the global learning design and development team, now I will be Innovation Manager in the IT department of the Human Resources function.

I will be managing the innovation funnel for learning technology. I am very aware that this is a perilous job! As Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (via Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations):

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things…. Whenever his enemies have the ability to attack the innovator, they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly, so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.

I doubt the writing in this blog will change much (I see this change as a continuation of what I was doing before), but do expect some posts on innovation management pretty soon.

11 thoughts on “My New Job Title: Innovation Manager Learning Technology

  1. Hi Hans,

    Congratulations, this sounds really good! I think the value of language is very important and therefore even if the tasks are the same, the feeling and influence can differ. And probably the position within the organization (IT dep vs Learning team) will have some influence on the job.

    Wish you all the best with this ‘new’job in this new year. You will make it the Year of Innovation again (2009 was the official year, 2010 will be the real year of innovation and creativity).

    Enjoy!

    Marcel

  2. Congrats if thats the best phrase, weary of the quote.

    Second, now you will have to update your online profiles everywhere or you could try card/ly?

  3. Hi Hans, congrats on the new job/job title. Innovation Manager eh? Sounds like you’ll be needing to deal with some complexity questions as to not fall victim to what Machiavelli describes. (Have a look at http://cognitive-edge.com/method.php).

    Have you met Andy Boyd? He’s with Shell GS on the KM team. Might be an inspiring conversational partners on things related to innovation, HR and learning. I’ll be happy to introduce you, if you’d like.

    1. Hello Ton,

      Thank you for sharing that excellent Cognitive Edge link. I wasn’t aware of these open source and will certainly investigate further.
      I have met Andy and he is indeed an great conversational partner! 🙂

      Cheers,

      Hans

      1. Hi Hans,

        Have a look at Cognitive Edge’s accreditation training program at http://www.cognitive-edge.com/accreditation.php. Our two-day accreditation courses are always coupled with an optional one-day session on our SenseMakerTM software and project design for large-scale narrative capture. Ton and I met when he attended our last session in Amsterdam and I’m sure he can provide you feedback from an attendee perspective.

        Would be great to see you at one of our upcoming sessions. Drop me a note if you have questions.

        Cheers,
        Michael

  4. This kind of job is a challange, perhaps difficult but exciting for the possibility to change things fot the better!

    Good luck!

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