Spark facilitates innovation

Spark in Action

With over 250 trained Spark Facilitators across ASU holding hundreds of sessions with tangible impact, The ASU Spark Method has ignited motivation, lifted morale, and continuously helped to build a culture of autonomy where each individual trusts and values the collective understanding that Innovation Starts With Me.

At ASU, Spark has empowered employees to untangle complex problems and find innovative solutions.

Hear from some people who have experienced a Spark Session:

It was fun! It is not often we get the people who do the work together to give them a forum to get their ideas out there.

“The people involved came up with some ideas that we hadn’t thought about before in our department, so it helped move things along.”

“I think we had an excellent session. We had different voices and perspectives in the room, which I think is important when considering the greatest impact that can be made. It opened an opportunity for us to work with different units.”

“This was a great opportunity for colleagues to collaborate on a problem. We discovered we had a lot more commonalities than I think we realized. The facilitation was amazing and helped us find solutions and the next steps. We didn’t get bogged down into details but were able to move forward and generate ideas together.”

Below are some examples of Spark’s flexibility, adaptability, and usefulness.

Category	Topic	Spark Statement	Results
Identify and shift towards future desired state	Pre-Health Advising	Identify the desired future state of the program based on survey results and outline the path forward to accomplish the transition to the new program.	An approach was established to improve communication between academic and pre-health advising as follows: A need for a student app was identified. A need for an internal portal or community of practice was established. Templates were identified for consistent messaging. Understanding of the student population served and how to appropriately track the target population was agreed upon.
Improve experience for employees around extended leave	Ed Plus Success Coaches	How can we improve the experience for Ed Plus employees before, during and after extended leave, with a focus on increasing transparency?	The action plan developed includes: Adding a cover sheet to the form to properly introduce the process to first-time users. Adding links to Coach Hub. Creating a one-pager identifying resources. Reviewing the checklist for clarity and alignment with HR policy.
Strengthen bench and increase employee retention	International Students and Scholars Center	What strategies can be implemented to develop a cohesive and systematic mentoring program for staff that aims to enhance skills, bolster the talent pool and improve retention rates?	Moving forward, the team will create a mentoring program and strategic plan which includes: Creating a staff survey to collect data. Implementing a communication plan. Planning staff activities.
Student experience and process efficiency	Global Outreach and Extended Ed	How to increase student experience and process efficiency for students and the student services team, from admission through first semester.	The action plan created includes: Automating email workflow. Creating clear documentation for internal team. Creating instructional videos and tutorials. Defining internal timelines.
Student Leadership	School of Accountancy Honors Society	Student leaders from the School of Accountancy Honors Society used a Spark session to address two key issues: To develop ways to increase awareness of accountancy as a career for students. To identify gaps in how they engage with and provide resources to students.	During the session, the group determined that while they offer support for high-performing high school students, they do not engage with or provide resources for average or under-performing students. The team also determined that they do not engage with or provide support and resources to students in community colleges, students moving to graduate programs or those pursuing their CPA certification.