Monday, June 24, 2013

“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."
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.

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.




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