Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge:

This story takes place in a small country (Uruguay) where the awareness and collaboration of its inhabitants  has been essential (until now) to face the COVID context with encouraging indicators.    As Alumni Manager of an important University in this country, I believe that one of our most valuable  resources is our students and graduates community, therefore one of our greatest challenges is to keep  that community cohesive and aligned with different purposes.  A year ago, and prior to the appearance of COVID, we had planned different actions aimed at strengthening  our students and graduate’s community. One of them included a collaborative purpose and was related to  involving part of this community generating projects and offering solutions to different problems. We offer  a series of challenges, a workshop cycle where we take advantage of the soft and hard skills, experience,  and power of our community to develop projects that offer solutions to different problems.    Selection:     Although the COVID context did not enter our plans at that time, its arrival did not substantially modify the  process, I would say rather that it accelerated it, prompting us to quickly adapt to the new scenario. At that  time (September / 2012) it was necessary to establish a series of stages to test the impact and degree of  commitment to the project by our community. We wanted to have the necessary feedback to plan or not  the different challenges. The learning launch tool therefore allowed us this degree of iteration.    Application:    The first stage of the learning launch tool was to generate a first challenge with a current problem. The  chosen problem was the challenges of immigration as a global phenomenon and solutions that could be  generated at local level for a better insertion of immigrants. For this, a joint work was carried out with  several universities from different parts of the world, discussing views about the repercussions of the same  problem in those different places. Although activity was not successful as we expected, the participants  evaluation, as well as the results, were truly positive.  Our failures had been in the communication process, the awareness and the necessary approach had not  been generated, so the problem did not generate interest as we expected.  By the time we had planned the execution of the second challenge, the COVID context has already installed  in our country. Once we got adapt to the new normal, we were able to resume and adjust the project to  the new scenario.  For our second learning launch experience, we recognize our previous failures, designing a different  communication strategy. Our objective had been slightly broadened. Instead of focusing on a specific topic,  we wanted to generate a challenge where students and graduates from all disciplines (IT, Communication,  Design, Business and Architecture) could exchange ideas, knowledge, skills and professional careers  processes to generate open collaborative projects resulting from the new context (COVID).  The impact was better than in our first experience by far, exceeding the call, as well as the results and  evaluation of the participants, which were good in themselves.  For this, the alliance that we had been working with United Nations was very important. For us, it was  important to align future projects with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), while for them we  represented an important sector where we could put into action the UN75 initiative for global dialogue.      Insight:    As I said before, we needed to fix the mistakes made in the first call, for which we necessarily had to  generate a different approach to the problem. We knew that some University graduates had been leading

collaborative projects to solve different problems, many of which were related to the COVID context, for  that reason we had to identify these projects. Once identified them, we began a strategy of content  development (interviews, notes, stories) and communication through networks, e-mailings and the web,  encouraging our community to join and collaborate of those initiatives. Repercussion was very good since  many graduates and students began to be interested in those projects, asking how they could participate.    Approach:    This story had a concrete and satisfactory result where the learning launch tool has resulted in an iterative  process, enabling the necessary feedback to fix mistakes, and enhancing successes.  However, I consider that future strategy for next editions cannot be developed based on a single tool. I  believe in our case that generation of awareness linked to the storytelling tool generates a high degree of  empathy, which it leads to a greater degree of commitment regarding participation in the activity.


Reflection – Learning Launch Challenge : This story takes place in a small country ( Uruguay ) where the awareness and collaboration of its inhabitants has been essential ( until now ) to face the COVID context with encouraging indicators . As Alumni Manager of an important University in this country , I believe that one of our most valuable resources is our students and graduates community , therefore one of our greatest challenges is to keep that community cohesive and aligned with different purposes . A year ago , and prior to the appearance of COVID , we had planned different actions aimed at strengthening our students and graduate ’s community . One of them included a collaborative purpose and was related to involving part of this community generating projects and offering solutions to different problems . We offer a series of challenges , a workshop cycle where we take advantage of the soft and hard skills , experience , and power of our community to develop projects that offer solutions to different problems . Selection : Although the COVID context did not enter our plans at that time , its arrival did not substantially modify the process , I would say rather that it accelerated it , prompting us to quickly adapt to the new scenario . At that time ( September / 2012 ) it was necessary to establish a series of stages to test the impact and degree of commitment to the project by our community . We wanted to have the necessary feedback to plan or not the different challenges . The learning launch tool therefore allowed us this degree of iteration . Application : The first stage of the learning launch tool was to generate a first challenge with a current problem . The chosen problem was the challenges of immigration as a global phenomenon and solutions that could be generated at local level for a better insertion of immigrants . For this , a joint work was carried out with several universities from different parts of the world , discussing views about the repercussions of the same problem in those different places . Although activity was not successful as we expected , the participants evaluation , as well as the results , were truly positive . Our failures had been in the communication process , the awareness and the necessary approach had not been generated , so the problem did not generate interest as we expected . By the time we had planned the execution of the second challenge , the COVID context has already installed in our country . Once we got adapt to the new normal , we were able to resume and adjust the project to the new scenario . For our second learning launch experience , we recognize our previous failures , designing a different communication strategy . Our objective had been slightly broadened . Instead of focusing on a specific topic , we wanted to generate a challenge where students and graduates from all disciplines ( IT , Communication , Design , Business and Architecture ) could exchange ideas , knowledge , skills and professional careers processes to generate open collaborative projects resulting from the new context ( COVID ) . The impact was better than in our first experience by far , exceeding the call , as well as the results and evaluation of the participants , which were good in themselves . For this , the alliance that we had been working with United Nations was very important . For us , it was important to align future projects with the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG ) , while for them we represented an important sector where we could put into action the UN75 initiative for global dialogue . Insight : As I said before , we needed to fix the mistakes made in the first call , for which we necessarily had to generate a different approach to the problem . We knew that some University graduates had been leading collaborative projects to solve different problems , many of which were related to the COVID context , for that reason we had to identify these projects . Once identified them , we began a strategy of content development ( interviews , notes , stories ) and communication through networks , e - mailings and the web , encouraging our community to join and collaborate of those initiatives . Repercussion was very good since many graduates and students began to be interested in those projects , asking how they could participate . Approach : This story had a concrete and satisfactory result where the learning launch tool has resulted in an iterative process , enabling the necessary feedback to fix mistakes , and enhancing successes . However , I consider that future strategy for next editions can not be developed based on a single tool . I believe in our case that generation of awareness linked to the storytelling tool generates a high degree of empathy , which it leads to a greater degree of commitment regarding participation in the activity .