BSBSTR501 Establish Innovative Work Environments - Project Portfolio Assignment Help

Assignment Help on Project Activities

In this task, you are required to demonstrate your skills and knowledge by working through a number of activities and completing and submitting a project portfolio.

You will need access to:

a suitable place to complete activities that replicates a business environment including a meeting space and computer and internet access
your learning resources and other information for reference
Project Portfolio template
Simulation Pack (if you need a case study). Ensure that you:
review the advice to students regarding responding to written tasks in the Business Works Student User Guide
comply with the due date for assessment which your assessor will provide
adhere with your RTO’s submission guidelines
answer all questions completely and correctly
submit work which is original and, where necessary, properly referenced
submit a completed cover sheet with your work
avoid sharing your answers with other

Assessment information

Information about how you should complete this assessment can be found in Appendix A of the Business Works Student User Guide. Refer to the appendix for information on:

· where this task should be completed

· how your assessment should be submitted.

Note: You must complete and submit an assessment cover sheet with your work. A template is provided in Appendix B of the Student User Guide. However, if your RTO has provided you with an assessment cover sheet, please ensure that you use that.

Activities

Complete the following activities:

Carefully read the following:

This project is about establishing an innovative work environment. You need to demonstrate that you can implement at least two different procedures and practices that foster innovation within your chosen organisation.

You are required to lead or manage a workplace team, cross-organisation team or a self-formed team of individuals to enable and support innovation across all areas of work practice within the organisation.

You can base this project on the case study provided and work with other students in your classroom or online group, or you may base this assessment on an organisation you work for and a real workplace team. If you are basing this project on a real organisation, make sure that the organisation has overall objectives, and policies and procedures relevant to existing work practices already defined. Speak to your assessor to get approval if you want to base this on a workplace.

You will also need to team up with people who work for, or are involved, in this organisation as you need to collaborate with the stakeholders on more than one occasion. Fellow students can be involved in these meetings and play the roles of stakeholders as relevant.

Establish work practices

Make sure you are familiar with the organisation you are basing this assessment on and have read through the necessary background information, relevant organisational objectives, policies and procedures, and that you are able to identify the stakeholders.

If you are using the case study provided, open the Simulation pack and read through the relevant documents, policies and procedures.

Investigate the current work practices and working conditions of the organisation you are basing your project on.

Use Section 1 of your Project Portfolio, to record the following information:

List at least two stakeholders, by considering those within the organisation who will be impacted by innovation and those who could play a role in conceptualising and supporting
Identify and outline at least two organisational
Use the internet to find and outline industry relevant legislation and codes of practice – this may include legislation relating to work conditions,
List at least three current organisational practices (behaviours and actions).
Describe the current work conditions of the staff (consider space, lighting, access to facilities, flexible work arrangements, ), and how it supports or inhibits innovation.
Research and outline at least three working conditions that support innovative practices in the workplace in
Identify a working condition in your organisation and for which a policy or procedure can be modified in order to foster
Update any existing policy or procedure to ensure the successful implementation of a work practice that fosters innovation. Attach evidence of the updated policy or procedure to Section 1 of your Project Portfolio. Clearly indicate where you made changes (add a separate heading, section or add changes to text in another colour).
Describe any risks involved in changing this policy or procedure to accommodate innovation.

Identify at least two resources available for establishing an innovative environment by considering human resources, financial resources and physical resources.

Build and lead a team

If you are basing this project on a real organisation, select and meet with a team of three colleagues or employees to collaborate with for the duration of the project.

The meeting should last for at least 15 minutes and no more than 30 minutes. Your team members can be your own work team or a diverse group of employees working in different roles across the organisation.

If using the case study in a classroom or online situation, meet with a group of at least three students who will act as your work team throughout the project.

Use the first part of Section 2 in your Project Portfolio to prepare for the meeting. At the end of the meeting, continue completing Section 2 of your Project Portfolio by recording team member feedback and ideas. See Section 2 of your Project Portfolio for more details.

At the meeting, you must lead the team and maximise opportunities for innovation by:

Explaining the importance of innovation in light of the overall organisational objectives
Setting at least three ground rules for how the team should share and evaluate each other’s
Communicating which policy or procedure you changed and using it as an example to explain the concept of innovation within the
Gathering team feedback about the change you made to a policy or procedure
Facilitate a brainstorming session to gather team ideas for further enhancing the work environment, including physical environment and work

During the meeting your assessor will be looking to see that you can use techniques to maximise opportunities for innovation:

Presenting your own ideas for enhancing the work environment and explaining concepts using suitable structure and language
Using active listening and questioning to discuss and clarify information and to confirm your understanding of team member ideas
Facilitate a climate where the team feels comfortable suggesting and discussing improvements and new ideas
Conduct the meeting in a way that builds rapport and foster strong relationships with co-workers and participants are encouraged to be

Create a plan for innovation

Use the internet to explore and analyse the suggestions you have received from team members during the meeting. Research how other organisations have integrated these ideas into their work culture and how it has benefitted the company.

Write an Innovation Feasibility Report for enhancing the work environment of the organisation you are basing your assessment using the ideas of your team members as well as some of your own ideas. Use the Innovation Feasibility Report included in Section 2 of your Project Portfolio to:

Outline at least three ideas, associated tasks and note down your thoughts about the impact a change to the work environment, will have on the organisation and its staff
Specify the resources needed to implement each idea, including the person/s responsible
Outline any risks involved in the implementation of each idea and how you plan to mitigate the

You will discuss your Innovation Feasibility Report with the stakeholders in the next activity step.

Collaborate with

Meet with the stakeholders to discuss your Innovation Feasibility Report and ask for their feedback to further develop your ideas. If you are using the case study, you will meet with your assessor. The meeting should last for approximately 15 minutes.

At the meeting,

· discuss how the ideas set out in the Innovation Feasibility Report contribute to an innovative work environment and how the existing workspace will support the innovation.

· Highlight the risks associated with each innovation and how you will respond.

Use the feedback you receive from the stakeholders to further develop your ideas, select your resources and update your Innovation Feasibility Report accordingly, indicating where you made changes, by using a different colour or highlighting.

This can either be viewed in person by your assessor or you may like to video record the session for your assessor to watch later. Your assessor can provide you with more details at this step. Make sure you follow the instructions above and

meet the timeframes allocated.

Assist team members

As part of implementing an idea from your Innovation Feasibility Report, develop a procedure that will assist your team members to adapt and perform in their new work environment. This should be an idea which requires you to take a risk.

Attach your procedure to Section 2 of your Project Portfolio. Distribute the procedure to your team by email.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment. Attach evidence of your email to Section 2 of your Project Portfolio.

Encourage an innovative work environment

Assume that you have the approval of the stakeholders to implement your innovations. As part of the implementation of the ideas, you will provide a coaching session to the team on the following topics:

· how to develop a creative mindset

· how to work collaboratively

· how to develop positive workplace relationships

You will also encourage the team to evaluate innovative ideas.

This will be a 10-minute session and you may use slides, visual aids or video clips in your coaching session.

If you are basing this on the case study, everyone in your group will have a turn to be the manager and present their coaching to the rest of the group (a 10-minute session per student). If this is your own workplace, this will be the members of your own team that you are providing coaching for. Make sure your coaching session reinforces the value of the innovation in line with the objectives of the organisation.

You will also take part in a roundtable team discussion of 5-10 minutes, at the end of the coaching session to:

· brainstorm ways of celebrating and encouraging innovation

· Shortlist a few ideas and put it to a vote to select two ways that innovation will be celebrated in the organisation

The assessor will advise you of the date and time of your coaching session so that you can prepare in advance.

Use Section 2 of your Project Portfolio to outline the main points and attach your slides or links to the videos you use.

Make sure you have answered all questions in Section 2.

You are also required to attach certain documents as part of your evidence – review the documents you need to attach as outlined in Section 2 of the Project Portfolio and make sure you attach these upon submission.

Share information with stakeholders

Write a Feedback Report to the stakeholders containing the following:

An introduction containing a summary of two innovative ideas you have implemented

· Outline the practices and procedures you have established in order to implement the ideas

· Include the skills your team applied to establish an innovative work environment

Your report should be no longer than one page. Save your report as a Word document and attach it at the end of Section 3 of your Project Portfolio.

If you are basing the assessment on your own workplace or organisation, email your report to relevant stakeholders and attach your email to Section 3 of your Project Portfolio. If you are using the case study you may address the email to the CEO of the college and attach your email to Section 3 of your Project Portfolio.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment.

Attach your report to the email.

Provide training

Host a workshop to develop the innovation skills of the team. If you are basing this project on a real organisation, your team members can be your own work team or a diverse group of employees working in different roles across the organisation.

If using the case study in a classroom or online situation, meet with the group of students who have been acting as your work team throughout the project.

The workshop should include a free online training session or YouTube video/s to use as formal training and you will take part in a breakout session after the training.

Watch the training as a team and break into pairs for a discussion time. The workshop should run for at least 20 minutes excluding the breakout sessions and no more than 90 minutes in total.

During the breakout sessions, team members will practice their communication skills, by:

· suggesting improvements to recent workplace innovations and Sharing their workplace experiences relating to innovation and how their experience has contributed to the development of their skills

At the end of the breakout sessions, come together as a team and discuss the suggestions for improvements.

Make sure you have answered all questions in Section 3.

You are also required to attach certain documents as part of your evidence – review the documents you need to attach as outlined in Section 3 of the Project Portfolio and make sure you attach these upon submission.

Submit your completed Project Portfolio

Make sure you have completed all sections of your Project Portfolio, answered all questions, provided enough detail as indicated and proofread for spelling and grammar as necessary. Remember to submit all necessary attachments as indicated.

When you need to Submit:

The Assessment Task is due on the date specified by your assessor. Any variations to this arrangement must be approved in writing by your assessor.