Innovation and Change Management

The Innovation and Change Management Group views change as something that provides people with opportunities. Rather than being outside of peoples' control, innovation and change are open to understanding and are processes that can be engaged. This philosophy, of individuals making choices in their own and the communities' best interests, is underpinned by a basic liberalism. However, the researchers of innovation and change management at ILFR also believe that appropriate social research can help people to learn how to gain greater control over the decisions they make. Important in this acquiring of learning skills is the reflexive knowledge practitioner, able to critically assess their own performance, whether researcher, extension agent or land manager.

Finding opportunities for people to innovate and manage complex changes successfully requires social research to be integrated with technological research. For farmers technology is a significant factor in many of the innovations surrounding them and the choices they must make. Researching the social role of technology can assist in its development and adaptation. However not all new technologies will be in the farmers' interest, and understanding the social implications of their introduction is needed. Also of importance is finding ways to adjust technological innovations to better suit the social conditions in which they are used. And not all innovations will be technological. For example, having farms in the future that are environmental sustainable will be as much about a change in social relations between farmers, advisors and governments than any technological fix.

Asking the question why something is not working is often the first step towards being able to manage change. Identifying the limits to reflexivity and what changes people have control over and those they don't is also an important step in any change management process. There are changes that take place in the very short term and others that operate on much longer time scales. The I&CM Group specialises in understanding and designing learning processes that empower communities to identify these different types of change. To do this they have identified extension practitioners and other professionals who engage with external stakeholders as an important group to research change management. Similarly they also work with farmers who are instituting their own change management and learning processes.