How to Generate a Motivative, Effective, Trusting, Innovative and Creative Work Environment That Fosters the Creation of Innovative Educational Experiences: Smart Center Ideation

Abstract

Nowadays, education institutions seek to innovate their methodologies to enhance their learning processes to be more effective. To achieve this, it is fundamental for the people who create educational experiences to build a high-performance work team. For this, working in atmospheres that foster motivation, effectiveness, creativity, innovation, and trust is vital. Project managers play a central role in setting the work environment that generates a high-performance work team. A high-performance work team is “a group of goal-focused individuals with [...] complementary skills who collaborate, innovate and produce a consistently superior result.” [1]

This paper presents the project management process that SMART CENTER, a student center at Universidad Panamericana, followed to achieve an innovative, effective and highly engaging experience called SMART Room for more than 100 students in a time frame of 5 weeks and a team of only 10 people. This article will cover each step taken for the ideation, organization, planning, and execution of the SMART Room and will explain the basic principles so that anyone can replicate it in their teams and projects.