Reflections on the week

We've got to...

Create an environment of trust and let the strengths of the individual and the team to come out.  We all contribute in different ways to a given project and we have to trust that everyone has a clear grasp of the goal and the vision.

"The best way to be a leader is to first be a follower."

"Find that balance in our personal and private lives to make us a better leader." 

Must be reflective on my strengths... we must:

- Focus on sustainable change

- Value self-awareness, self-esteem, self-efficacy

- Strive for clarity, vision and integrity....

Keep Calm and Be Leaderful

Developing a presentation to institutional leaders

When developing a presentation for college administration 

- Know your audience!

- Have good time management

- Be sure make your selling points in the beginning and the summary at the end

- Should have a chart that clearly outlines budget expenditures

- Use a quick and compelling graph to get your idea across

"Develop a pilot program that uses existing resources and based on gathered data request additional funds."

. 

Top Ten Personal Takeaways from Learning Technology Leadership Day 3

Image from Flickr user iabusa, http://www.flickr.com/people/47619880@N04/

Another day, another leadership marathon.

Here are some of my takeaways.

1) This is a comprehensive and solid leadership program. I recommend this to anyone in IT who is interested in IT leadership in higher ed. It is specifically tailored toward higher ed IT leadership, and it picks up on the unique nuances of operating in this environment. 

2) Gather the data and be proactive. It is very clear to me that I must be gathering whatever data I can on a regular basis and do some quarterly reporting and visualizations. This will help me in understanding my resource usage, and also bring up new opportunities and questions that will help me in budgeting and efficiency. 

3) Build relationships. In any job, but especially in higher ed, this will be your greatest challenge and asset. Put the time in and get to know some great people who you have been wanting to spend some time with. Find ways to work with them and help them with their goals. 

4) Tell your story. I've been working on some pretty innovative projects with my student management, developing my data center, digital badge exploration, BYOD for mobile field data collection, etc. I need to do a better job of communicating these stories to people, and sharing with others across the country. What does this mean? More time on the blog. Make it a priority. 

5) Suggest to some faculty and deans the idea of a reading group. There are many great texts about the state of technology in education today.  

6) Budgeting. Always be ready with your budget numbers and gain a sense of what things cost in case you are quickly asked for a proposal and need to produce. Maintain a prioritized list of projects ready to go. 

7) Be ready for accidents. Be prepared for whatever opportunity might come your way. 

8) Seek out mentors. Spend time with people you admire, and help them improve in whatever way you can.

9) Read. Read. Read. There are some great texts out there. Continue individual reading and book club. 

10) Finish the PhD. This may have to be a priority this year.

Well, that's the list.

One final takeaway that struck me. This article, by Barr and Tagg, really captured the shift that is happening in today's classroom. I tweeted a link to the article here:

Barr and Tagg: From Teaching to Learning - A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education http://t.co/0EDmqX4FjZ #ltl13
— Alex Chaucer (@geoparadigm) June 26, 2013

I especially like the "Comparing Educational Paradigms" chart at the end.

Getting Leader "FULL"

Visual depiction of "Leaderful" practice

Day 2 was a marathon of leadership concepts, leaving all attendees exhausted and full of insight into the unique skills and concepts that are required for being "leaderful."

Rather than focus on the content, here are my main takeaways from the day.

First, I enjoyed the distinction highlighted visually in the image above. It really speaks to the greater challenges of leading across units rather than just leading a single team. In higher education and IT it is becoming very clear to me that any project worth pursuing is going to include more than just one team. This visually depicts this, and is a great reminder when trying to take on any project, task, or initiative. There was a book that was suggested in relation to this concept, as well. I shared the title of this book on Twitter for future reference.

Recommended reading, "The Innovative University" by Clayton M. Christensen #ltl13
— Alex Chaucer (@geoparadigm) June 25, 2013

Malcolm Brown shared his insights in a riveting presentation on...presentations.  I was introduced to some new concepts around presenting that I had not heard prior, and it was clear that Malcolm had thought through some of these things, and has found ways to put these ideas into practice.

One of the most valuable lessons I took away from Day 2 was from the individual coaching session with Cole Camplese.

Here's a brief summary:

• Need to get login information from my computers. Ideally broken down by time of day, major, year, student/staff, hours logged, hours logged doing GIS work.
• Quarterly reports at the end of each semester. Combine them into an annual report each year.
• Infographic based on your quarterly report. Printed out and delivered to stakeholders.
• Student promotions team.
• Strategic collaboration across units, look for opportunities to make others look good.
• Faculty Fellow program. Work closely with 2-3 faculty and put resources toward them, and then promote the project and present it at conference & blog about it.
• Tell your story about managing students.
• Talk about all projects on the blog and connect with people around the country doing similar things.
• Highlight excellent student work on the blog, even if it is just students working in the GIS Center.

So, at the end of the day I was full. Full of ideas, full of great food, and feeling good about my new understanding of being and acting "leaderful."

With that, I leave you with a video that was shared today; the top 10 IT challenges for higher ed in 2013.

Panel discussion

Learning Technology Leadership faculty panel...

Introductions

Take home messages

• Actively seek out mentors
• Accidents happen that can shape your professional/personal life
• Give yourself something to do that's fun... to allow you to decompress (Painting, surfing, etc.)

Questions to the panel

How did you come to be involved in Educause?
Answer:

• Volunteer
• Sue:  "Educause is like Hotel California."
• Volunteer for reviewing proposals if you want to get involved.

How do you address accessibility?
Involve people who have disabilities on initiatives that affect this part of your institution.

How critical is it to get a graduate degree?
Answer:

• "Having more education doesn't hurt."
• "Having a doctorate will make you vary attractive to institutions and companies."
• "There are other ways you can learn."
• "You've got to want the doctorate because you want it."

Do you lose your connection to the "users" when you move to higher positions in the institution.
"The closer you get to Administration of the university... the more you can make a positive effect on users and the staff that serve you."

Share governance models

"Shaping the College Curriculum" Lattuca and Stark (http://www.wiley.com/legacy/email_templates/images/Lattuca_2E_TransitionGuide.pdf)

referenced regarding:

- The nature of change

- Academic Planning

- Faculty and Administrative roles in academic planning

Working with these governance groups, one must:

- Work with decision makers to align their expectations to a shared vision and mission

- Understand the background and context of the initiatives being considered

- Help faculty see change in the context of learning and teaching. Reference to the "Learning Paradigm College" (http://centerforfacultydevelopment.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/john-taggs-the-learning-paradigm-college/)

- Learning Analytics must be a way to engage faculty and the institution

(http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-first-generation-learning-analytics)

Budgets

Perception of IT... "you guys have all the money!"

People are the most important part of an organization but also the most expensive.

Its important to know your institution's business processes.

Always have a wish list... in the event money becomes available.

Take home 

- No project is ever free... even MOOCs

- Always have a report that provide a visual explanation of where the money goes

- You have to understand your context!

- Know how to leverage what you have and look at how it can positively affect the entire institution.

Communication

Communication take aways

- Conversations, not files are what's happening today and it's all happening on a mobile device.

- The rate of change of technology and communication is moving at a phenomenal rate.

- People are sharing, creating and exploring with or without educational institutions.

- Expectation for today's learner is constant and individualized engagement.

- Use technology to extending conversations

- Telling stories with data

Building successful relationships

To build relationships:

- you need trust

- must recognize and respect differences; contributions of everyone

- make transparent decisions

- must give regular and constructive feedback

- willingness to share timely and relevant info

- you must behave as a positive role model

Emotional intelligence

Know thyme self

Developing good presentations

Using Brain rules (http://www.brainrules.net/about-the-author) when developing a presentation 

Blogs are like sharks.  They have to keep moving.

Reasons for Change

We are at a time of change in IT.

IT has a central role in affecting change at our institution.  We must have the ability to work collectively and collaboratively with all groups.  

College (Un)bound Jeffery J. Selingo

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/08/181580716/with-gorgeous-dorms-but-little-cash-colleges-must-adapt

Why we need to change... 

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/top-ten-it-issues-2013-welcome-connected-age

Living in a disruptive environment and working in a dynamic IT environment, we must:

- Think strategically to accomplish a shared vision and 

- during implementation look for success indicators (milestones) that verify the successful alignment of technology, people and processes

Behaviors for Academic Technologist...

Leadership

Thinking about leadership

Theories...

Bolman and Deal (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/framwork.html)

Framework approach to leadership

Leadership Approach (http://www.leaderful.org/leaderful.html)

The practice of involving everyone in leadership,that leadership can be a collective property... leadership is a collective property." - Joseph Raelin

The four C's:

Concurrent

Collective 

Collaborative

Compassionate

Academic technology reporting

Here's snapshots of Academic Technology (ORg Charts) reporting structures at University of Memphis and University of Dayton.  Directors report to both IT and the Provost office.

University of Memphis

University of Dayton 

Day 2 - Group Reflection

Reflections

Strategic planning and connecting it to Institutional Initiatives.

Once the plan is created, we need an individual or group to execute it.

Making the Case...

How to we in IT help our institution improve graduation rates?

What innovation or initiative will address this scenarion?

Deliverable - 

1) Whitepaper (Defines paper)

2) Presentation 30 min max

“We live in very disruptive times.”

“We are right at the cusp of massive change. We are the change agents, and this is a huge opportunity. Are we in the Jet or are we in the Wright flyer? What stage are we in?"

This post includes my takeaways from Day One of the Educause Learning Technology Leadership Institute.

Some key questions posed:

• What will IT transformation do to higher education?
• Is the whole student experience going to change as a result of Instructional Technology? 
• How do we, as colleges, survive the transformation and come out ahead? 

Communication is key, and engagement between IT and academic committees crucial. Have deans involved in IT projects, and IT leaders on academic projects. Having a proper governance structure in place is also very important, as is having the right people who can work well with others. It is also important that you can clearly communicate up and down your initiatives, and question initiatives that don’t directly support your strategic plan.

Reflection: What struck me is how important communication is when dealing with IT Leadership. We have an IT culture which must exist and influence folks in an academic culture. These cultures, historically, are very different, and in some cases, in direct conflict with one another. Navigating cautiously and strategically the intersection between these cultures is crucial for schools who want to exist post transformation. A failure to influence and set up collaborative governance and clear lines for communication will be THE FACTOR that will determine the fates of non-tranforming higher ed institutions. Sitting on the sidelines is a path to FAILURE in today's IT world.

Sean Reynolds stated, on leadership in higher ed,

“You are A leader, not THE leader.” 

Susan Gautsch shared some wisdom.

"A key piece to learning...is unlearning. A lot of things we have learned we need to be able to let go of."

Polley A. McClure et. al. "The Crisis In Information Technology Support" http://t.co/U3hcDBNyhf mentioned by Sean Reynolds at #ltl13
— Alex Chaucer (@geoparadigm) June 24, 2013

Cole Camplese and Susan Gautsch walked us through a Strengthfinders exercise. Overall, a lot of people in this room seem to have strengths in Strategic Thinking and Relationship Building. Two groups were strong at Executing. It seems like diversity in roles at the tables led to diversity in the leadership strengths. Folks strong in "influencing" were lacking in the room. It was interesting to learn that it is hard to find strategic thinkers, and you will pay quite a bit to hire them.


Reflection: I enjoyed the Strengthsfinder exercise, and found it interesting that people's strengths can change over time. It offered a nice overview/snapshot of the strengths of the folks in the room, and it reminded me of some of my DISC training. I shared a link on Twitter highlighting a free DISC assessment if anyone is interested, and I would be happy to talk to you more about DISC if you are curious.

I mentioned DISC assessment when reporting out. If you are curious, here's a free assessment. http://t.co/QehFpYiHMV #disc #ltl13
— Alex Chaucer (@geoparadigm) June 24, 2013

Rounding out the day was a Yammer overview given by Cole and Susan. Yammer is a corporate social network, and will be used for group work and daily reflections. David J. Wright then shared some of the brain research behind understanding teams, and walked us elegantly through a scenario sharing activity modeled on the brain connections.

Overall, it was an excellent and provocative start to our experience.

To summarize the day, it is internal COMMUNICATION that will be the key factor in determining which schools will survive and grow through this era of IT transformation, and which will remain in the Wright flyer.

How teams work.

How Teams Work: Successful Team-Based Projects

How can we describe a successful team...

Team members should exhibit a strength in one of these four areas

Four domains:

- Executing

- Influencing 

- Relationship Building

- Strategic Thinking 

Successful teams must experience or create meaningful engagement.  Activities should be pleasurable, fun, engaging and found in one of the four domains.

Providing best practices...  What kind of behaviors do we want to see in a team?

Here's the work of the teams.

 

Day 1: Table 3 group

This table group has 93 years of experience in Learning Technology... very impressive.  Good to meet you all

Introductions, Strength Finders and Daily Reflections

Importance of 

- knowing the language of the institution and strengths of a team and context of how you got "here"

- having the ability to unlearn something when it is no longer relevant

State and Trait

Traits - are part of who you are

State - Priorities change depend on your situation

Your Task (Time to talk... and meet people)

The bulk of the table/teams have a need for "Influencing" as their strength.  This is something we need to consider when getting buy-in from administration and groups.

Encouraged to Personal Reflection and Yammer

Knowledge-base - Using Yammer to reflect on the work we are doing in this Program.

Big issues for institutions

Big issues for senior administration for Colleges and Universities

- Standards for diversifying the student body

- Accessibility (Socio-economic)

- Budgets (Private and State)

- Student well-being and stress (How do you advise students to not overdue)

- Aging faculty and lecture (or adjunct faculty) respect

- Global initiatives 

- Assessment and accreditation

- Athletics and costs for facilities and resources

Supporting faculty and their research

Are we at a transformation point at higher education?

Will online education 

Flipping the classroom is a huge priority in education.  

Debates are ongoing regarding Online learning how it will change Education.

ETextBooks - How do you interact with content, mentors and people in the industry.

Communication and collaboration (Q&A)

What's on the minds of compliance related issues?

Context is very important to answering compliance.

How do you communicate with leadership?

About understanding the business needs of the institution or university.  Partnership is important for success.  Expressing ideas and compelling case to Senior Administration.  

Governance Structure for IT?

(@Northwestern University) Educational Technology Advisory - Under the Provost - Committee is lead by Faculty and determine priorities for the institution.  Not the same group for online education.  

If you have a large turn over in IT, how can we continue to be successful?

Effort in communication and hope

Is top down more effective than bottom up?

Both is important and a vision and communication across the institution (up/down and side to side) is needed.  Communication - projects presented must be connected to the overall strategic plan for the institution. 

Online Education and how IT fits into the conversation.

IT can not abdicate responsibility from online education.  Provost office drives the initiatives and IT supports them.

How to keep innovation occurring?

Balancing central vs de-central relationships to hep nurture innovative ideas

- Center is accountable to encourage innovation to occur.

- Other areas to support and develop innovative ideas

Initiatives must be scalable and supportable 

How to you support these pilots and innovative ideas?

Being able to articulate innovative ideas to administration.  How important is it and what are you putting into it?  Departments shift resources to support this idea. Admin and departments must create metrics to measure success.

Introduction

Listening to Introduction to event, Faculty and Staff.

The bulk of participants are in IT

Challenges include:

Spanning IT and academic cultures

Faculty Resistance to technology adoption

Big Picture - Strategic perspective

Managing teams & staff, delegation

IT governance complexity

Communication (individual and unit-level) 

Lack of resource (including time)

New to Job/Developing Leadership Skills

We are at the cusp of radical change in the evolution of Education and IT.

Making the Case Teams

Looks like I'm on Team Six.

Checked in!

Just checked in to the EDUCAUSE Institute and received these items for the week.  The identification carrying case I've decided will hold my IPhone (See "Henry" the penguin).  I'm thinking about streaming some of the events... if appropriate.  Could be fun "attending" from Henry's point of view. More to come.

The beginning...

Although my visit to Chicago and Educause Learning Technology Leadership Program (http://www.educause.edu/educause-institute/learning-technology-leadership-program) are the impetus  to this blog, I hope to find these insights beneficial on your own journey.

Pacem Deus Vobiscum