- Challenges and opportunities are two sides
of the same coin, so the opportunities
that I really look for are what's important
to the institution and then how can IT be
a strategic partner to that.
(peppy music)
The first one is know your environment.
You have to know your industry and your institution.
For the industry, it's really important,
and maybe this more than anything else,
to be able to differentiate between fads,
trends and the actual strong undercurrents.
For the institution, what are your core competencies?
What are the differentiators?
What is really important to your
institution's culture?
Ultimately, you have to understand
the lines of business that you serve.
Even in academic technology, I have to be
familiar with everything from the admissions
to the alumni office and everything in between
because it all goes into that student
experience that we're trying to cultivate.
Second, understand your constraints.
Are your constraints fiscal?
Are they physical?
Are they political?
Whatever they are, constraints aren't
necessarily a bad thing, they just
help define the parameters that you're working with.
Just as understanding your strengths
is important, so too is understanding the weaknesses
because this helps you focus in on saying
all right, how do I help the institution
with its core strengths.
But at the same time, if you're familiar
with the weaknesses, are there places
that you can target that will create an exponential
payback in terms of effort invested
if it's in line with the core mission
of the institution?
Number three, aspirations minus current
state equals innovation potential.
Everything you do should have your
aspirational goals as its North Star.
It's really crucial to understand
the gap between where you wanna be
and an honest evaluation of your current state
because that gap is really where
the crucible of innovation lives.
Some people call it the liminal space,
it's the gap between what is and what could be.
Innovation to me is more than just
research and development.
It's really working within or against
a constraint and to try to solve a problem.
That's human nature, so where do you wanna be
and then how do you get there?
Number four, operations first.
You run a living, breathing management
operating system, so you have to understand
first how it works and how you can optimize it.
You start with your enterprise architecture.
Anything that can be automated should be automated,
any repetitive tasks, anything where human
decision making isn't required, you automate that.
That will pay back any effort that you invest
exponentially because it really allows your team
to invest in higher-value tasks.
Make sure that your teams are working
effectively and efficiently and that you
can empower them to step back from just
being firefighters, and that may be
the hardest thing that you ever do.
Number five, know the people and the processes.
Learn who the key decision makers are.
Who are the early adopters and the innovators
outside of technology that the rest
of the institution looks to.
Become deeply familiar with the processes
that are at play in your institution
and the history behind them so first of all,
you can leverage them and again, avoid the landmines.
This to me is really the difference
between riding in a car and understanding
how the engine works so you can supercharge it.
Number six, lead internally.
A recent Educause article talked about managing
change within IT, and IT personnel can
sometimes be resistant to change,
but they're also the most motivated
people that you're gonna meet.
If you build relationships with your team,
build trust with them, you're gonna have
a much better experience.
And the way that you do this is to
make sure they understand not just the what
but the why.
Daniel Pink talks about the motivation triangle:
autonomy, mastery and purpose.
To me, of those, purpose is really the most
important because if you create a vision
that your team buys into, they're gonna work
with you and help you out, and they're
gonna work day and night to make it happen.
Number seven, lead externally.
Leadership is often about people, politics
and influence, and politics here is not
a dirty word.
If done right and used appropriately,
it can be both a very healthy thing
and mutually beneficial.
It's really important for you to understand
both your political style and the tendency
of your peers because as a leader,
your job is to influence people,
to work with people, to find partners
with whom you can collaborate, understanding
their needs and finding ways that as a partner
you can work with them.
Now, even beyond IQ and EQ, there's global intelligence,
GQ, and among other things, that focuses
on alignment, adaptability and collaboration.
Those should really be your watchwords
for how you can help your institution
succeed as a partner.
(upbeat music)