2012, Volume 15, Paper 94

Learning by Writing: Applying Continuous Improvement and Innovation Principles to Project Management by Formal Documentation and Publication

Richard Clark – Department of Agriculture and Food –Western Australia, Locked Bag 4, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA, 6983. Email: richard.clark@agric.wa.gov.au

Garry Griffith – UNE Business School, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351

Tshilidzi Madzivhandila – FANRPAN, Private Bag X2087, Silverton 0127

Cynthia Mulholland – Pretoria, South Africa; formerly Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies, Armidale, NSW, 2351

Nkhanedzeni Nengovhela – Agricultural Research Council, Private Bag X2, Irene 0062, South Africa

Janice Timms – Department of Agriculture and Food –Western Australia, Locked Bag 4, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA, 6983

Senior authorship is not assigned. These are the personal opinions of the authors, not necessarily those of the Beef CRC or of its partner institutions. The authors have benefitted from the incisive comments and suggestions of John Mullen.

“I have acquired many things by writing them. There are allegedly those who know what they have to say before saying it, but I have never counted myself in their number. Argument seems to me a means of developing rather than merely demonstrating theories, and articulation a means of amassing rather than just disseminating insight. Writing is as much the cause as the result of having something to say.” (Clardy 1977)
“The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)
“The role that language plays in simultaneously deepening individual understanding and allowing that understanding to be shared with others is ‘truly wondrous’”. (John Dewey)
“Wollongong-based Pillar is being transformed from a state-owned corporation into a world of discreet transactions, efficiency ratings and whiteboard scoring systems. Driving the new creed has been the organisation’s commitment to a continuous business improvement program and its adoption of management tool kits. It may sound like meaningless jargon, but try telling that to people whose lives are being turned upside down by the drive for maximum flexibility.” (Anon 2009)

Abstract

In recent years we have been involved in designing, implementing, monitoring and assessing a number of agricultural RD&E projects that have had a specific outcome focus on increasing the profitability of the participating businesses. These projects are based on ongoing research and development of the Sustainable Improvement and Innovation (SI&I) model which has Continuous Improvement and Innovation (CI&I) as its key process. A number of issues and dilemmas have arisen in managing these projects. One solution has been to write down in a formal way, at frequent intervals, what we have designed, what we have done, what we have achieved, and consequently what we need to do better. In this paper we describe several of these recent writing tasks, spread over several years. Apart from attempting to resolve the broad range of issues and dilemmas noted above, we have had two additional objectives: first, to expand interest in the concept of CI&I in the broader RD&E community and to stimulate its adoption in RD&E projects; and second, to use the writing task itself as a CI&I process to stimulate new thinking and action and to improve and innovate in our project management. We conclude by offering some lessons we have learnt from this process.

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