tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44358653509000008882024-03-05T01:19:45.664-05:00thinkingcioBeing a university CIO is exciting and challenging. I find I need to create time and space to think and to explore ideas. This blog provides thinking space. I welcome your comments and ideas.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-54013000214390511862015-10-02T08:40:00.000-04:002018-03-05T14:01:32.260-05:00Recognizing and Handling Personal Safety Issues - CIO ViewRecent events remind us that we all can be vulnerable in our schools
and universities. While external people are often the sources of
violence in our environments, violence in the workplace, triggered by
disgruntled and angry employees or former employees, current or former students, is a real issue.
Perhaps we can share insights so we all can better protect ourselves.<br />
<br />
I've
worked with people who were struggling with personal problems and stress. In a few and
rare situations, a couple folks moved beyond the usual anger and
frustration that you can see in tense and stressful working
environments. These are "red flag" cases. I'm not a psychologist or
mental health professional, so I can only speak from personal
observations. Maybe if we all share observations, we can get smarter
about how to handle situations and prevent harm to those around us.<br />
<br />
What I've observed:<br />
<ul>
<li>Some people can get angry and frustrated easily, but generally, this
is an emotional maturity issue that just requires mentoring. When you
talk through a situation with that individual, they hear what you are
saying and they are able to see how their anger hurts themselves. </li>
<li>A few people seem to enter onto a path where they are unable to act
in their own best interest. Their anger or reasoning of situations leads
them to make decisions that are just not beneficial to themselves. An
individual may have angry outbursts in a management meeting or in office hours, and when
you approach that person to discuss the situation, the individual
justifies the angry outburst and does not reflect on the situation. And
the individual may continue to demonstrate the same behavior, even
though you've warned the person about the negative consequences from
their behavior. The individual may over-react to any perceived
criticism. Some people seem to just completely lose the ability to
recognize that their actions and responses are working against them. A defensive and
hostile attitude is demonstrated. The individual is consistently
belligerent when behavior is discussed. </li>
<li>One behavior that commonly emerges is ignoring or breaking rules and
policies. It may start small, like not parking in an assigned parking
space or not following department procedures for reporting being out of
the office. For a student, it may be not following basic instructions. Increasingly, the person does not feel the need to comply
with basic rules, and when confronted, is unable to comply with rules in
a way that is in the individual's best interest.</li>
<li>Another typical behavior is isolation. The individual will separate
and not join groups for lunch or campus events. The individual will
not engage or will avoid typical office conversation, even simple stuff
like "Did you watch the football game Sunday?". You may note someone
becoming invisible in the department. </li>
<li>One therapist I spoke with suggested that some people need to build
up anger, almost to build up a head of steam, to make themselves feel
important and to have a real presence. They feel dis-empowered and
invisible. Demonstrating an angry outburst puts them at the center of
all attention. It gives them a sense of power, because they now control
the conversation and the attention.</li>
<li>A behavior labeled as grandiosity, a state of being delusional about
one's importance, may be displayed. The individual may appear overly
boisterous about his job title, role, or decision-making authority.
Another behavior that can be inappropriately displayed is moral
righteousness; the individual believes he or she is are totally right
and others are not following the rules. </li>
</ul>
<div>
When we find these situations on our campuses, we probably
try to act specifically: avoid confrontation, do not question, minimize
the situation, and report it to Human Resources or Dean of Students. You may have a campus
behavioral concerns committee, and that group should also be informed.
My personal experience is that when you see someone not able to act in
their own best interest, and demonstrating outbursts timed to attract
attention and get control of a space, you must confront the behavior
immediately and consistently. You should characterize this as "red
flag" behavior. Lack of confrontation further empowers the individual
and over time, the situation worsens. It does not get better on its
own.<br />
<br />
In summary, the red flag characteristics:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Unexplained, ongoing anger that may appear as a quiet, seething edginess or loud, emotional outbursts.</li>
<li>Inability to recognize and act upon a positive path that is in the individual's own best interest.</li>
<li>Belligerence or silence when behavior is discussed. </li>
<li>Over-reaction to criticism.</li>
<li>Overly defensive or hostile attitude, especially when confronted about unacceptable behavior.</li>
<li>Deflects responsibility for unacceptable behavior to other
rationales, moral righteousness, or actions from other people.
Accusatory behavior with co-workers. </li>
<li>Breaking rules, even just a series of small rules, and an unwillingness to discuss or correct the behavior.</li>
<li>Changing work schedules without approval, disappearing, or working random hours. </li>
<li>Frequently breaking appointments.</li>
<li>Isolation from co-workers and the campus community.</li>
<li>Repetitively appearing anxious or confused. </li>
<li>Behavior displayed as grandiosity.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
If you encounter these behaviors, you must start
keeping a journal noting the dates, times, attendees or witnesses, and a
full description of the disruptive behavior or angry outburst. Pay
attention to the journal for patterns of similar incidents or increasing
anger. Monitor and retain technology messages and note any messages of
concern in the journal. <br />
<br /></div>
<div>
One challenge
is that Human Resources or police (if contacted) will ask you if you or
others have been threatened. For most of us this is harder to answer
than we might think, especially outside of a specific event. I've been in
situations where I definitely <i>felt</i> threatened, even though no
specific threat was articulated. I've tried to use words such as
intimidation and belligerence. Sometimes the behavior might be
described as harassment.<br />
<br />
But it is important to remember
that a threat may be non-verbal. Did the individual stand up? Stand
over you? Invade your sense of personal space? Slam a door? Punch a
wall? These actions can all make you feel threatened, even if no
specific verbal threat was issued. Since we work in technical fields,
be aware of threats that may come to us via technical resources (email,
social media sites, etc.). These may contain veiled references to
violence. Campus public safety or police units should be informed of
any threat, verbal or non-verbal. While your one event may not be significant, policing agencies may have a accumulated file of events that they cannot describe or share with you. Each report matters.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Human Resources often
wants to provide cooling off periods or time to mentor the employee. I
believe it is important to recognize the behaviors quickly, confront
the behavior promptly, and to report it to Human Resources immediately.
We may need to insist on immediate involvement from Human Resources. We
all need to be comfortable communicating the degree that we felt
threatened by the situation, and whether we perceive the behavior as
escalating over time. Use your journal to keep other units informed.
Push for attention to the issue.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Some reading that may be useful:</div>
<div>
FBI Report on Workplace Violence <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/workplace-violence">http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/workplace-violence</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Resources for Preventing Workplace Violence and Bullying <a href="http://workplaceviolencenews.com/">http://workplaceviolencenews.com/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Important legal issues and court cases <a href="http://www.sgrlaw.com/resources/trust_the_leaders/leaders_issues/ttl13/869/">http://www.sgrlaw.com/resources/trust_the_leaders/leaders_issues/ttl13/869/</a></div>
<div>
<br />
Book: The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (Thanks, Craig Blaha, for the recommendation). <a href="http://gavindebecker.com/resources/book/the_gift_of_fear/">http://gavindebecker.com/resources/book/the_gift_of_fear/</a></div>
<div>
<br />
I hope you have tactics and strategies that work at your institution that you can share. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-16375857438779726912014-07-19T10:25:00.001-04:002014-07-19T10:25:09.817-04:00The Value of PerseveranceWe find inspirational connections from many sources. This week, the riding performance of <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewtalansky" target="_blank">Andrew Talansky</a> in the Tour de France 2014 was inspirational. The New York Times covered the story: <a href="http://nyti.ms/1nxK9AL" target="_blank">Refusing to Quit, American Is Surrounded by Cheers After a Lonely Finish</a>.<br />
<br />
Andrew Talansky suffered injuries and setbacks as he and his teammates on Team Garmin-Sharp tried to achieve a podium showing in the Tour de France race. This wasn't to be, as health issues finally forced Talansky to abandon the race, but only after struggling through and finishing the full 115 miles of Stage 11.<br />
<br />
Talansky finished the stage, alone and well behind the peloton. He finished without any hope of glory or reward at the end, and with considerable doubt that he'd be able to race later stages (in fact, he wasn't and abandoned). Finishing did not mean his team would be able to win anything; there was no personal or group reward for entering the "pain cave" of an injured cyclist and finishing the stage. <br />
<br />
Talansky persevered and endured to gain the experience of a successful struggle. He finished even as he realized that there was no way to fix the situation. He finished <a href="http://m.espn.go.com/general/story?storyId=11232200&src=desktop" target="_blank">"just so they know I'm the kind of person who isn't going to give up when something goes wrong." (ESPN)</a> <br />
<br />
Talansky got the best advice that anyone could ever receive when struggling and trying make the decision about quitting. He paused and reviewed his options with Robbie Hunter, the team director. Hunter told him, "This is a choice only you can make, but take a moment to make sure you make the one you're going to be happy with, make it not out of a place of emotion or anger or fear, but make it out of what you can do, what's possible." What great advice, and to Talansky's credit, he could hear the advice.<br />
<br />
I've never experienced any physical challenge in the category of the Tour de France, but I've experience career and project challenges and hurdles that left me worn out and discouraged. I've found myself in situations where I questioned my ability to continue, and questioned why I <i>should </i>continue when there was no reward for finishing. I've considered quitting a project or job because the struggle was wearing me out, emotionally and physically, and I could see no benefit, for me or anyone on the team, on the horizon. I've worked with teams to develop systems that we knew would never be implemented or used. I've worked places where our work was not appreciated.<br />
<br />
The advice to "do what's possible," coming from within yourself, and not act out of emotion or anger, resonated with me. We can focus on what we can learn from the struggle. We can find and appreciate our own individual personal strength. Perhaps the struggle gives us new technical skills or experiences. Perhaps we can learn a different way we can contribute to a team and see our value and contribution in a new light. We certainly can develop resilience that helps buffer us from the whims, decision caprice, and rough spots that we are certain to hit in our IT profession.<br />
<br />
When I work with new college grads, professional perseverance is something they often need to develop. All projects in college were designed to be completely done in 15 weeks; projects are rarely worked on after the end of a class. A student can turn in a project for a C grade, walk away, and never think about that project again. The professor knew the project path and expected solution when the course started, and the students had to discover the path through the course. There is a person to go to and find directions. Students are rarely, if ever, given a partially or even totally completed work from someone else and told to fix it and make it work as fast as possible. <br />
<br />
When these college grads come to work, they need to transition to projects that might last a year or two, instead of 15 weeks. All their work needs to achieve an A grade; we cannot give our clients anything less than what they asked for, with high quality. Work assignments will be given that involve modifying work created by someone else, and the pressure of trying to understand what the other person did, and fitting the current change into something and making it all work without being very pretty in terms of personal creativity standards, is a challenge. We often start projects without a clear understanding of how to get to the high-quality end point. This all creates a pretty frustrating environment, and new grads may experience the emotion, anger, and fear of failure that drives them to quit.<br />
<br />
Learning how to professionally persevere and endure is a valuable skill. Learning how to "do what's possible" for the personal experience of successful struggle is important, if a person is going to find career-long resilience. We cannot quit every time we have to struggle. We have financial pressures and families who count on us. Employers want to hire staff members who will find the strength to persevere. The personal growth and satisfaction from finding inner strength can contribute to career satisfaction over time.<br />
<br />
Talansky continued to race to demonstrate resilience, dedication, and perseverance, to himself and to his team. It wasn't about the race stage, or even this race, but instead about a career of bicycle racing. That inspires us to think about our own personal struggles. It isn't about this project, this year's goals, this particular job - but about our personal ability to respond to life and work challenges over a long career. Doing what's possible today, in this moment, is a great approach to developing the strength and resilience to continue and succeed with whatever life and a career put in our path. <br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-86733241990322014932014-05-08T14:29:00.002-04:002014-05-08T14:29:41.358-04:00Brain Dots: Connections for Acting in Change Leadership RolesOur Educause CIO group had an interesting exchange on change leadership. Khalil Yazdi, CIO in Residence at Internet2 NET+ Services, offered thought-provoking comments. Excerpts of his statements that jumped out to me were:<br /><br />
______________<br />
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="im">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Change management is not something you have to or even can do on your own. </span></div>
<div class="im">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="im">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The problems we face individually are near identical (regardless of size
or type of institution, ineffective and out-of-date legacy
is a mind-numbing, budget busting experience for everyone and actually
more acute the larger you are). </span></div>
<div class="im">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="im">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Historically,
that (i.e. "change management initiatives") was an exercise that was
largely bounded within the institution and while we had much we could
learn from one another, at home we were quite on our own.</span></div>
<div class="im">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="im">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Of
necessity, change management is now a communal task, demanding that we
find ways that allows
us to speak with amplified (shared) voice to both internal and external
constituencies because without it, we will simply not be heard. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div class="im">
<u></u><u></u></div>
<div>
<br />_______________<br /></div>
<div>
I had to think about this for a while, as it changed my perspective for how I was considering change management. I had to step back and ask "so what
is keeping me (and my organization) from participating in collective
change management?" One the big obstacles is the cost of participation in those communal efforts.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My thought process started with consideration for places
where I think change management works for our campus. Actually, as I reflected on
that, I think we do that pretty well in our ERP environment with our ERP
community (Banner). Not great, to be sure, but acceptable and
adequate. One reason is that the community has broad campus representation, not just IT representation.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But then my <span class="il">brain</span>-<span class="il">dots</span> flowed to "what is change management?". And the next <span class="il">brain</span>-<span class="il">dot</span> was that there is an internal perspective and there is an external perspective. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Things
happen outside our institution that affect and impact what we do;
the news on 3/7/14, for example, about Google Classroom may require we think about
that option for learning management. Other things, like Heartbleed,
require that we take a set of technical actions. In neither case was there an opportunity for us to change the course of action by having a communal
voice. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In other settings, where we have elected to be part of a
community, we have had greater success in having a communal voice that
leads to a technical direction or implementation. Our relationship in
Apereo is one such avenue for us. We have significant benefits working
with that community providing uPortal, uMobile, and CAS initiatives. Another
positive community is the REN-ISAC, which gives us specific security
directions and to which we can raise our own voice. For the community to be successful in change management, we have to be part of the community in advance of, and in anticipation of, change.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Internally, change management is less about a vendor
or product direction, and more about getting our internal community on
board a change train. I suspect my success as a CIO as evaluated by my
campus constituents is more about measuring my success on the internal
change train. It is about presentation and management skills: delivery,
communication, advocacy, negotiation, listening, reacting. Also, the pace of the action needs to match the pace of change:</div>
<div>
<br clear="all" /></div>
</div>
"<span style="background-color: white; color: #5d5d5d; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 24px;">The </span><a href="http://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/business-improvement/is-constant-change-the-new-normal/" style="-webkit-transform: translateZ(0px); -webkit-transition: color 120ms linear; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #30549a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 120ms linear; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Is constant change the new normal">rate of change</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #5d5d5d; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5d5d5d; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 24px;">is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades –</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5d5d5d; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 24px;"> </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #5d5d5d; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John P. Kotter"</em></div>
<div class="gmail_extra">
<span style="color: #5d5d5d;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="yj6qo ajU">
<div aria-label="Show trimmed content" class="ajR" data-tooltip="Show trimmed content" id=":1p3" role="button" tabindex="0">
So to demonstrate change leadership, each special change diamond needs careful review:</div>
<div aria-label="Show trimmed content" class="ajR" data-tooltip="Show trimmed content" id=":1p3" role="button" tabindex="0">
<ul>
<li>Is there a community to which we belong that can help with an action response? </li>
<li>Which path is more cost effective: communal response or individual response?</li>
<li>Which path matches the pace of response to the pace of change in the most effective manner?</li>
<li>Is this a change initiative that requires broad campus participation or narrow IT participation?</li>
</ul>
<div>
If I reflect on those questions, I may be able to lead through change pathways most effectively. Are there other points to the diamond?</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-10422940123997925172014-04-27T09:11:00.002-04:002014-04-27T12:30:23.958-04:00Connections: Readings this WeekPutting together the articles and news that caught my eye this week:<br />
<br />
Educational news had a couple of interesting stories.<br />
<br />
Harvey Mudd College links MOOC development to the university mission. Great perspective for what we should be doing with new delivery modalities: <i><a href="http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/evolving-mooc#.U1z47Vl-a2Y.blogger">The Evolving MOOC (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu</a></i><br />
<br />
And on the down side, an innovative look at student data collection found too many challenges to continue, despite funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: <i><a href="http://nyti.ms/1k5T6l1" target="_blank">A Student-Data Collector Drops Out (New York Times)</a></i><br />
<br />
The full economic impact of student debt should be getting more national attention. A fix is needed, both for the affected individuals and the economy in general: <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/04/11/301439981/paying-off-student-loans-puts-a-dent-in-wallets-and-the-economy" target="_blank"><i>Paying Off Student Loans Puts a Dent In Wallets, and the Economy (NPR).</i></a><br />
<br />
In the category of openness:<br />
<a href="http://nyti.ms/1jUfaiu" target="_blank"><i>Companies Back Initiative to Support OpenSSL and Other Open-Source Projects (Bits, New York Times). </i></a><br />
Demonstrating strong leadership, the Linux Foundation has organized the Core Infrastructure Initiative to support open-source projects, and gathered financial support ($100,000 a year each) from Amazon, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft,
NetApp, Rackspace, Qualcomm and VMWare. The support of quality, secure open-source technology is fundamental to much of our technology delivery.<br />
<br />
We have to balance the positive and the negative. The news about FCC directions against Net Neutrality is very distressing; I'm trying to imagine the impact on delivery of open educational resources. The open comment period is exploding, as described in the lobbying article in the New York Times: <i><a href="http://nyti.ms/1lLdehQ" target="_blank">Lobbying Efforts Intensify After F.C.C. Tries 3rd Time on Net Neutrality</a></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Still thinking about work space. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let's add to the books-to-read list. I noted the mention of Frederick Taylor, the efficiency expert, and I wondered how that leads to cubed office spaces:<i> The Office Space We Love to Hate</i> <a href="http://nyti.ms/1fv2Mmg" target="_blank">(<u>Cubed A Secret History of the Workplace by Nikil Saval, Doubleday</u>, reviewed in the New York Times)</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Frederick Taylor pops up again in this interesting read about the corporate buzzwords that describe our work. Taylor evidently brought a vocabulary to descriptions used:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"talk about workers in books and boardrooms were accordingly mechanistic, emphasizing <b>accuracy</b>, <b>precision</b>, <b>incentives</b>, and <b>maximized production</b>." The short slide-quiz a few paragraphs into the article is fun. </span></span><i><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/the-origins-of-office-speak/361135/" target="_blank">The Origins of Office-Speak (The Atlantic)</a></i><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
How about furniture as a cultural revolution? This article demonstrates how Herman Miller furniture evoked a time and place in the TV show Mad Men: <i><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/3029186/mad-mens-secret-weapon-herman-miller" target="_blank">The Secret Weapon of Mad Men? Herman Miller</a>.</i><br />
<br />
In the category of "Look at this fun tech stuff," we have fresh stories.<br />
<i> </i><br />
<a href="http://nyti.ms/1lDtKQP" target="_blank"><i>With Farm Robotics, the Cows Decide When It's Milking Time (New York Times).</i> </a><br />
I love how the cows decided that they wanted to be milked more often than the tradition of twice a day.<br />
<br />
How about a an app that comes with an attachment that lets you turn your iPhone into an otoscope? <i><a href="http://nyti.ms/1tLxyka" target="_blank">Health Care Apps Offer Patients an Active Role (New York Times)</a>. </i><br />
<br />
So much to read and think about, so little time! <br />
<br />
<i>Postscript:</i><br />
<i>As usual, I like to walk away and let my thoughts develop. After hiking for a couple hours, I've pulled together a picture. What I see here are how we create environments that lead to creative endeavors. The endeavors lead to innovative projects. Projects that flow with nature succeed. Other projects hit obstacles related to privacy and security. But in the end, we want to share, and we want our sharing to be free and open. </i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-86449456322528332422014-03-07T08:36:00.002-05:002014-03-07T09:43:57.112-05:00Space as a ResourceI started blogging about eight resources that are needed to create an agile organization. One of those resources is space, in this case physical space. Space is a resource to manage, and I wonder how CIOs and other IT leaders learn how to manage space as a resource.<br>
<br>Why do I want to manage space? First, there's the basic space management issue: a workspace for each employee. I remember early in my career, taking a contract analyst position, and the company pulling out the department refrigerator and setting up a table with a computer for my workspace, without even bothering to dust. This was not a positive experience! And the time 5 analysts were crammed into a room designed for two; in order to move, one person had to pull his chair in under the desk so the other person could back his chair away from the desk. These situations do not convey a sense of value to the employee. We need to do better.<br>
<br>
Once we've handled the basics, we need to consider what kind of space contributes the best work environment. We want to manage workspace to emphasize values. Values to consider are privacy, productivity, security, collaboration, and agility. We've tried offices, cubes with tall partitions, cubes with short partitions, and open hotel space. <div><br></div><div>Staff members with highly detailed development tasks want all the quiet and distraction reduction that we can possibly provide. Front line network and telecom trouble-shooters, who are in and out of the office and want to talk about what is happening, are satisfied with the hotelling concept. <br>
<br>
We need more collaborative workspace today than we needed in the past. We are working together on more projects, and having a room that seats 8 to 12 participants, with a large computer projection system and whiteboards, is very popular.<br>
<br>
Some recent articles talk about current ideas in space management. <br>
<br>
First, there's an article in Harvard Business Review: <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/employees-perform-better-when-they-can-control-their-space/" target="_blank">Employees Perform Better When They Can Control Their Space. </a> Higher levels of satisfaction, innovation, and job performance were associated with employees having choices about when, where, and how to work. That seems to be key, even with the cubicle culture. What I would like to do, if I had more space to control, is create a variety of spaces and allow employees to move among those spaces, finding the workspace that best fit the task that the employee was currently working on.<br>
<br>
The New Yorker published material about the downside of open offices: <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/01/the-open-office-trap.html" target="_blank">The Open Office Trap</a>. <br>
Interruptions in open office spaces can be detrimental to productivity (that's not surprising, really). But a surprising finding from a 2005 study shows the impact again of control: "... the ability to control the environment had a significant effect on team cohesion and satisfaction." Another interesting perspective was that with exposure to many inputs and distractive noises at once, senses become overloaded and we have to work harder to achieve results. Could this be a reason why we feel so overworked at times?<br>
<br>
Finally, The Diane Rehm Show on NPR had a program on<a href="http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-01-23/designing-modern-office-space" target="_blank"> designing modern work spaces</a>. This discussion proposed that perhaps our open office spaces are sacrificing focus for free-flow of ideas. <br>
<br><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">While I've focused on office and employee workspaces here, I also need to manage datacenter space, whether on premise or in the cloud. As a leader, I need to identify spaces to house the systems and servers, with adequate space to support quick shifts in direction or new services for the university. These spaces also require strong environmental and security controls, involving another ken ledge base. One resource is bicsi.org, a professional association that encompasses aspects of design. </span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font>
As a CIO, I am left wondering how I can manage space to create the environment that supports an agile organization. How can I successfully work with those responsibility for facilities to create the spaces we need? What is the path for new IT leaders to learn about space management as a resource issue? That is an interesting question to ponder. Successful management of space is critical to creating a successful and agile IT organization. <br>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-50823422918672219762014-01-21T09:39:00.004-05:002014-01-21T09:39:46.632-05:00Building the Nimble Team - Retaining TalentOver the years, we noticed a pattern where really talented, early career hires achieved success in the first 1 to 3 years, and then failed to thrive. It happened probably with less than 10% of hires in that category, but those staff members represented new skills, fresh perspective, and diversity of thinking. It was not what we wanted to see; we want to retain new hires. We have been thinking about this challenge and working to improve.<br />
<br />
We generally notice the issue with the first technical or project transition. The individual will not successfully navigate to the next project or the next technical knowledge base. This is critical, because a technical career will require the ability to change directions many times over the life of the career.
I noticed <a href="http://newsle.com/article/0/116604724/" target="_blank">this blog presenting more of the perspective of the person who didn't succeed.</a> There are perspectives specific to the Microsoft situation, but there are some general pieces I'd like to note. <br />
<br />
The author, Ellen Chisa, is very frank about her experience. She describes that she "put a lot of pressure" on herself to do well. She wanted to be excellent. The problem I see, from my very ancient perspective, is that this excellence demand totally existed in her own head. She didn't take in any information from other people about what excellent was, or even if excellence was something that management wanted to bestow on other people. A big red flag statement to me: "It's strange to feel like you're failing even when you're promoted." So the organization values you, gives you a promotion, but you cannot take in and absorb that success.<br />
<br />
Note that she describes a "plummet" that starts when "it was time to move on to something else." She had to learn new things but "For some reason, that didn't happen." This is the situation we've encountered as managers in our own organization. As leaders, we need to learn to recognize it early and help people make transitions.<br />
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There are actions we should recognize. A person who expresses fear that they are not succeeding, and does so periodically, even though the supervisor feels that the person is successful and the team respects the person's contributions. A person who becomes emotionally undone at their first failure should be a red-flag.
A person who has been successful in their job, but with a change - a technology upgrade, a new project - is suddenly having problems.
A person who has trouble starting on a new task. There are different types of initiative. You may see someone who can demonstrate initiative and self-start with something that they are familiar with, but become totally frozen when it is something new.<br />
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If you observe those changes, there are definite things we can do. For one, we can emphasize values along with success and recognize those values in failure. For example, one value is learning. We can celebrate what we learned from failed projects. Thomas Edison once said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." If we want to encourage staff members to experiment and learn, leaders need to identify what we learned. Discovering what path not to take is very important to long term success. When an employee starts expressing concerns about failing, start emphasizing conversations about what has been learned so far in the effort and how the organization will benefit from that learning.<br />
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When an employee expresses the "feeling of failing" even when the employee is meeting all standards of success, we have more personal discussions. I've found it useful to discuss the unique contributions the individual made to the organization, and how those contributions link to bigger goals and initiatives. This isn't one conversation, in my experience, but a way of working with that individual over time. It helps to thank the employee for his or her contribution in very specific messages.<br />
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The book Leading Geeks has other suggestions. Author Paul Glen describes characteristics of information technology work. He suggests that failure is normal, ambiguity rules, and figuring out what to do can be harder than doing it. Those early in their career can struggle with these ideas. After spending time in the classroom, I have some sense of why. In class, students are often given a defined project to complete in 15 weeks. If they follow the defined path, they will complete the project successfully, some with more success than others. Then they come to work and we cannot tell them where to start or what done looks like on many projects. We have to discover the path and conclusion in a way that we do not in a classroom setting. There has to be some comfort in just diving in, and finding out two weeks later that there was a better starting point. If we find a staff member showing signs of inability to start, it helps to pull up a chair and dive in together.<br />
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Leaders building nimble organizations need to identify people having these difficulties as early as possible so everything can be done to help and retain that employee. I think important responses are to talk about all values, including learning and contribution, not just the value of completion success. Also, monitor inexperienced employees as they go through their first transition, whether it is a new technology, a major upgrade, a new project, or a new team assignment. Talk about their responses to change. When an employee is demonstrating what looks like a lack of initiative, pull up a chair and question details while getting hands on the keyboard or some similar engaged activity. Have sincere conversations about contributions and values. I've found these actions to help. Please share any ideas you have. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-48256460242580258842014-01-15T11:12:00.000-05:002015-01-23T15:41:50.852-05:00Anchor or Wings?Is your strategic plan an anchor or a set of wings? This is a very important question for CIOs to consider if they are trying to be nimble, agile, and responsive to organizational change. <br />
<br />
An anchor drags you down, locks you in place, and keeps you from drifting away. This may be a good thing if your IT team feels overrun by requests, coming from all directions. After all, our organizations cannot be all things to all people at a moment's notice. A strategic plan that has broad organizational support can sift out the high priority projects. A strategic plan provides focus.<br />
<br />
But strategic plans are often another dot on a trend line of known items. If you created a five year IT strategic plan in 2009 and are just finishing that plan, your original plan probably did not address the impact of:<br />
<ul>
<li>iPads, introduced in April, 2010</li>
<li>Server virtualization (major players introduced products in 2009-2010)</li>
<li>Educational model changes like flipped classrooms and MOOCs</li>
</ul>
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That kind of long term planning had its place in the past, but it does not work in today's high speed change environment. Our educational environments, and specifically our supporting IT organizations, are not in a position to reject game-changers like iPads or flipped classrooms. Instead, we need to embrace change. </div>
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Black swan events, those unpredictable events that change our world, happen. If you hold firm to the multi-year strategic plan in order to control demands on your organization and provide resource alignment, you can become out of touch with technology directions, and miss opportunities to be nimble. <br />
</div>
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In his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Swan-Improbable-Fragility-ebook/dp/B00139XTG4" target="_blank">The Black Swan</a>, Nassim Taleb describes black swan events as having three principal characteristics: <br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The events are truly unpredictable.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Massive impact occurs from these events.</span></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In hindsight, we use trends, narratives, and history to make the randomness of events appear more predictable.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Taleb describes the "triplet of opacity" (p. 8):</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"the illusion of understanding, or how everyone thinks he knows what is going on in a world that is more complicated (or random) than they realize;</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">the retrospective distortion, or how we can assess matters only after the fact....;</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">the overvaluation of factual information and the handicap of authoritative and learned people..."</span></li>
</ul>
We may get pulled into thinking that if we truly follow and better track the trends, and we plan more effectively, our IT organizations can feel less yanked around, less like a flag blowing in a strong wind. We can become enamored and protective of the plan, and closed to the idea of making changes along the way.<br />
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But perhaps instead, we should embrace that strong change wind and stop seeking an anchor. Sailors constantly adjust their sails to changing wind directions and conditions. Or let's think about the balance of forces needed for flight: drag, gravity, thrust, and lift. We just cannot be nimble if we only think about drag and gravity with our strategic plans. We need to build in the balancing forces of thrust and lift. We need to make sure that using a strategic plan as a project gate-keeper does not stop us from embracing exciting change. In a recent NYT article <u><i><a href="http://nyti.ms/1f4alFi" target="_blank">Management Be Nimble</a></i></u>, Adam Bryant identified six organizational drivers that are commonly described in cultures emphasizing innovation. The first item was to create a "simple plan": "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 23px;">One of a leader’s most important roles is to boil down an organization’s many priorities and strategies into a simple plan, so that employees can remember it, internalize it and act on it. With clear goals and metrics, everyone can pull in the same direction, knowing how their work contributes to those goals." </span><br />
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Perhaps, then, it is our ability to lead through synthesizing ideas and breaking down complex plans. Those actions give us the thrust and lift needed to be nimble. We need to be willing to change plans and directions, and do so quickly. On our campus, we are experimenting with an evergreen three-year technology plan. We will always be in year one of a three year plan; we will have the flexibility each year to visit our issues. We see this working more like <a href="http://www.nmc.org/horizon-project" target="_blank">New Media Consortium's Horizon Report</a>. We will have to work to build ongoing technology connectedness, making sure projects come to completion, but we need to make sure we balance with action and lift - those things that provide a quick change in direction. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-77534989242457846392014-01-07T15:27:00.000-05:002014-01-07T15:27:50.322-05:00Sensitivity as an Organizational ResourceWhen reviewing articles about organizational nimbleness and agility, two factors that consistently emerge as positive response mechanisms are:<br />
<ul>
<li>quick response to strategic opportunities, and </li>
<li>integrating the customer voice. </li>
</ul>
That means as CIO leaders, we need to develop staff members who recognize, inform on, and utilize strategic opportunities. We need to identify and encourage staff members who discover and listen to the customer voice. The most valuable team members are those who can see opportunities, hear what our constituents want, and <i>connect the dots</i> to build organizations that are ready to contribute to achieving university goals. I call this ability "professional sensitivity."<br />
<br />
The definition of sensitivity includes things like <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sensitivity" target="_blank">"an awareness and understanding of the feelings of other people"</a> and <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sensitivity" target="_blank">"the capacity of an organ or organism to respond to stimulation."</a> Another reference suggest a definition of <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sensitive" target="_blank">"readily or excessively affected by external agencies or influences."</a> These attributes can be a positive resource in an organization. Teams that are sensitive to the feelings of people using technology are often more service oriented; we know, for example, that an important skill for service desk staff is empathy for the caller. IT staff members that recognize new external trends early and quickly, like the impact of iPad introduction in educational environments, are more successful contributors. If we combine the concepts of professional empathy, responding to stimulation, and readily affected by external agencies, we can see that this professional sensitivity is a positive asset in an IT organization. An IT organization that is going to be agile in supporting the university must demonstrate professional sensitivity.<br />
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I'm sorry to use the phrase, but have you worked with someone with a reputation for being a workplace zombie? Someone who just goes through the day and doesn't seem to know what is going on around them? They may be able to contribute technically, but they are so unaware of what is going on around them that you have to constantly connect dots and describe rationale. What they produce might work technically, but you find yourself asking "why in the world did you do it that way?" because the solution doesn't connect. They make suggestions that seem out of touch with current workplace reality. <br />
<br />
To make sure we develop staff that demonstrate professional sensitivity, we can focus on three areas of skill development: analytics, awareness, and negotiation.<br />
<br />
Educause describes analytics as the tools, techniques, and solutions "used in a higher education environment to analyze various
collected data points to gain insight and make informed decisions about
complex issues." Educause presents a lot of material to support organizational development of an <a href="http://www.educause.edu/library/analytics" target="_blank">analytics culture</a>. For IT organizations, we can look at meaningful data collection within our organizations. Also, participation in national surveys such the <a href="http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/research/core-data-service" target="_blank">Educause Core Data Service</a> survey and <a href="http://www.campuscomputing.net/" target="_blank">The Campus Computing Project</a> survey, is important. Encouraging staff members to analyze and comparing results of those surveys to their own environment is important. Time is needed to develop skills that recognize data patterns and trends, and such analysis is often improved by group review and discussion. IT organizations that are fully analyzing and utilizing trends are better prepared to jump on new IT projects in effective and positive ways.<br />
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Awareness is observing what is happening around you; it seems so obvious. But are all your IT staff reading a variety of news sources? Are they participating in communities? I remember having a staff member who was really struggling in producing quality work. The work was done, but it didn't meet requirements. I finally asked the staff member to write a self-evaluation describing each step he had taken; I was stunned when I read it. The entire self-analysis was "I thought about this, then I did that, then I tested this." In the entire self-analysis, there wasn't a single point when the employee had involved anything or anyone else outside himself. There was no source of diversity of thought, including no involvement of the diverse backgrounds of fellow team members. Strong awareness skills develop when staff members can take those external sources and recognize patterns. A good example of awareness that I've written about before is <a href="http://thinkingcio.blogspot.com/2013/01/benchmarking-and-trending.html" target="_blank">Bill Cunningham and his On the Street series in the New York Times</a>. Intense observation adds greater perspective to analytics and trend analysis; observation and awareness can be current and forward-looking, while anaytics, with its data focus, can be looking backward and using a trend line. A trend line would not have told us about the iPad impact, but observation and awareness does inform us.<br />
<br />
Finally, professional sensitivity requires strong negotiation skills. Negotiation skills involve empathy and a strong appreciation for another person's position. We need to navigate decision processes by finding paths that allow everyone to win. By being empathic, and finding win-win scenarios, we avoid wasting time on unimportant details and disagreements over direction. This allows us to be nimble, moving in positive directions with speed. Negotiation requires that we are successful in persuading others to appreciate our position as well. An interesting recent article talks about how we need to think about our persuasion skills, for example, "When trying to persuade, a study says, stop at three claims." <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/fashion/Three-Persuasion-The-Power-of-Three.html?smid=pl-share">(The Power of Three)</a><br />
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Developing professional sensitivity as an organizational resource, something that we bring forward and utilize in projects, is an action a CIO or IT leader can do. By investing in developing this resource, the result is that the IT organization improves its ability to be agile and nimble in change-disruptive environments. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-47954441389515836342014-01-02T12:02:00.000-05:002014-01-02T12:02:07.427-05:00Adaptability and Initiative Capacity as ResourcesEarlier I suggested a model for leaders to use to assess agility and nimbleness in their IT organizations. To create the IT organizations that contribute to our higher education organizations in a time of significant change, we need to be fast to react, implement, and change in our technical environments. As a CIO, I cannot just say "think faster" and "respond quicker" and "change faster." I need to identify and build the resources to enable that sort of nimbleness. I suggested these resources needed to be identified and enhanced: time, human capital, funding, space, knowledge, sensitivity, initiative capacity, and adaptability. Some resources are easier to understand, like funding and human capital. Other resources, like adaptability and initiative capacity, are harder to assess and develop. <br />
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As an IT leader, have you ever encountered that staff member who was enamored and protective of an IT system that had outlived its usefulness? I have encountered this several times in my career. The first was a highly talented employee who believed that all MVS terminals should be under his control, even when the automotive employer wanted to distribute controls to speed growth. Then there were the developers who believed in continuing with full system development, even after the university decided that unmodified package implementation was the preferred direction. There were other developers later who insisted that only mainframe technologies were worthwhile and client-server had no future. There were talented staff members who simply could not adapt to changing technology frontiers.<br />
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Also, there have been moments when I've approached a team about what should have been an exciting new project, only to be greeted by silence and heavy sighs. Fortunately, this has been rare, but it is very difficult when a high functioning, highly talented team lacks enthusiasm for a new project. It seems to happen most when the normal cycles of project start, peak, fade are lost in a swamp of never-ending work. When teams are stuck in the Star Wars scene where the characters are just trying to get on top of the trash pile, another exciting new project is just one more thing on a pile of stuff that is over-whelming.<br />
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As the CIO, I need to make sure that I take actions to develop adaptability and initiative capacity in the organization. How do I do that?<br />
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Encourage staff members to develop personally, so that their identity is not wrapped up in one system or project. Don't allow staff members to become so personally identified with a system or project that they cannot let it go without suffering abandonment and personal identity issues. Encourage staff members to develop a full career, with a variety of tasks and projects. We cannot just assume they understand that a project on which they spent hundreds of hours and achieved personal accolades will fade and die some day. We need to help our staff members see that trajectory, and reaffirm their career value and contribution even when a system is eventually discontinued. <br />
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Reward change acceptance, even if it is just acknowledgement during reviews or public presentations. Provide greater acknowledgement to those who lead change efforts. And reward staff members who close down older systems and environments. Recognition cannot just go to the start-up of something new, but it also needs to go to those who take on the important work of closing down and letting go of the old.<br />
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Assess the capacity for a team to engage in a project. They may not have the energy or enthusiasm for a really needed project. Can you rework teams to provide fresh energy? I find adding student employees, for whom a project is new, can reinvigorate a team that is growing weary. Timing a project can be key; capacity for a new project may not be there in December, but the same group may welcome it in May if there's a slow down in day-to-day tasks. Perhaps some effort needs to be put into clearing the deck and finishing some projects, then allowing for a bit of a gap to breathe and think, to create mental and energy capacity to engage in some new critical endeavor. We build in a day to pause at the end of December, as an organization, and I'm looking for ways to bring pauses into the year.<br />
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As a CIO, it is important to recognize that you may have the people, the time, the money, and the knowledge to engage in a project, but still not have adaptable staff with the initiative capacity to take on the work. We need to make sure we assess and develop those resources as well.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-87288113973592133802013-12-19T11:05:00.002-05:002013-12-19T11:07:17.625-05:00Building Agile Organizations: Common Good Services and AdaptibilityThe economic downturn in the business world generated business commentary that can be useful for today's changing higher education market. "The agile organization puts its 'non-negotiables'... in the center, while empowering the local units... to be more responsive and adaptive to local markets, customers, and trends." (<a href="http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-journal-2009-agile-organization.aspx" target="_blank">Outlook 2009 Accenture</a>). Let's take that statement and consider how it might work on a campus, with centralized and decentralized information technology operations.<br />
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What are our "non-negotiables" that we believe must be part of central IT? <br />
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How can we encourage local support to be responsive and adaptive to department needs?<br />
<br />
Let's look at each of these questions. Non-negotiables are those IT solutions and services that benefit the campus community. The higher education IT organizations appear to favor the term "Common Good Services," originally attributed to the <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/bernard/common-good-services" target="_blank">University of Minnesota</a>.<br />
<br />
Purdue University provides a nice example of how they use the idea of central services to make organizational decisions in their document <a href="http://www.purdue.edu/cio/docs/CommonGood_April2012.pdf" target="_blank">Common Good Services Philosophy</a>. In that document, they speak about the recognition of core services:<br />
""Common Good Services" refers to that set of basic, non-specialized computing resources that is<br />
beneficial for nearly all members of the Purdue community. Common Good Services are those<br />
basic information technology services that most community members would agree are critical to<br />
conducting business (academic, business, student, and research) at a modern research university."<br />
These services are always on and not customized to a specific department. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.utexas.edu/its/services/commongood.php" target="_blank">The University of Texas at Austin</a> uses the Common Good list to identify services that are funded and available through a core data and network charge, so there's an established funding link. <br />
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I like how these organizations have identified those core services and clearly linked them to their specific applicable funding models and to their decision processes. Also, using the philosophy to explain why something is centrally funded versus funded by a local department is very useful. </div>
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How can we use this to enhance an adaptive IT organization? By clearly establishing the solutions and services that are core and part of the common good, we are transparent in priority setting and funding models. We can use this to explain how we spend our budget funds, as so much of what we maintain for the common good can lack transparency to senior leadership. </div>
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Common good services provide a consistent service level, in a practical way. Faculty members and students, walking from one academic building to the next, can expect a consistent level of network services, for example. Redundant processes and duplicative costs are removed, freeing resources to work on other priorities.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
The common good services can provide a reliable, consistent, and stable foundation on which to build more responsive and adaptive solutions at the edge. If we provide a consistent core, and then encourage local units to build responsive and locally customized solutions on that foundation, we can promote organizational adaptability and responsiveness. The Outlook 2009 Accenture article on agile organizations suggests:</div>
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"The bureaucracy that results from an overly centralized model can stifle innovation and result in delayed market responsiveness. On the other hand, an overly decentralized model can result in inconsistencies in response, slower product development, organizational redundancies and excessive costs." </div>
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On my campus, while we've clearly identified our core services to our community, we haven't done as well as Purdue in documenting the philosophy. I can see where doing so would help our community understand what is centrally funded and what is at the edge. It would also help our IT managers understand how certain decisions are made and how they can help work with that model. This will be a step in our process of building a more agile IT organization.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-432325281486221172013-11-25T09:37:00.003-05:002013-11-25T09:37:20.317-05:00Resources for Agility: Knowledge as a ResourceI suggested that we need to track resources beyond the typical project management trio of resources of time, people, and budget. If we are truly building agile and nimble IT organizations, just tracking those three items (time, people, budget) will not create the environment needed for success. The consumerization of IT is making it easier for the departments we serve to simply bypass the university IT organization. Policy that forbids bypassing central IT will only work so far and so long before our communities determine that IT simply is an obstacle to their own success. We need to offer our constituents options that compare favorably to externally provided resources, or when that isn't possible, we need to offer valued-added services in the selection and management of externally provided resources. Simply comparing time, people, and money resources on projects will not yield a full description of any service.<div>
<br /></div>
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Another resource we need to track is knowledge, as represented in the skills and talents held by our IT staff members. For example, we may have the right number of people for a project. We may have managed the project portfolio so there is time to execute the project. There may be adequate funding for the project. But with the device and software proliferation we are seeing in the industry, there may not be adequate knowledge to execute the project. In prior times, we likely would have embarked on a technology training program to bring our IT staff members' skills current to the technology direction. But if we do that today, how well will we compare to a service-provider who can start the project today because they already have the skills? Can our communities wait for us to retool? So knowledge is another resource we have to track. </div>
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What does it mean to track knowledge as a resource? We need to keep technology skill inventories so we know the list of skills that are present and ready to use. When we hire for a position, we need to identify the organizational skills gap and we need to hire to fill a skills gap. But increasingly, we also need to hire people who demonstrate an ongoing ability to learn, to add on skills, to up-skill their current knowledge, and do so at a pace that matches the environment. </div>
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The hiring process needs to emphasize the selection of an employee who can demonstrate the ability to personally manage many skills. For example, hiring a strong and specialized Oracle database administrator may fit an organizational requirement. Likely our interviews and selection process emphasize Oracle database management skills. But really, to be successful, that DBA also has to be adept at managing modules that are installed on premise and modules operating in the cloud, managing e-mail, managing workload in a ticketing system, processing system downloads, communicating system needs to a VM / storage architect, articulating identity management and login protocols, and reviewing firewall rules with a network security engineer, among other skills.</div>
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Let's review how baseball teams select players for whom they wish to trade. Maybe a team manager starts by picking the position - like first base. Sure, the team wants a .300 hitter and low error rate. But when you read about it, they look for hitters that will have high hitting percentages in the particular home ballpark. Does the candidate bat better against left-handed or right-handed pitching? Management will look at how well that hitter hits in the post-season or at various positions in the batting order. Management may dig even deeper, looking at fielding percentages in different player-on-base scenarios. And so it goes, digging deeper and deeper into the stats to see exactly which player is really the best fit. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I'd like to get to a point where we know all the "specialized skills" and "deep skills" that we need in our IT organization. Also, we should analyze technology directions requiring new or upgraded skills, and have that articulated into our skills inventory. The skills inventory also needs to identify gaps and match gaps to hiring and training processes. Our training programs need to be looking out and building training plans for each employee that builds added skills, not just replacement skills, into the future, filling gaps in our inventory. Employees that can handle this level of adaptability over time and quickly respond with new skill building are going to be the valued team members.</div>
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I wonder if we can use our growing knowledge of analytics to managing knowledge as an IT organizational resource.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-6525659137912904362013-11-20T13:08:00.001-05:002013-11-20T13:08:16.836-05:00Creating the Agile and Nimble OrganizationI have been thinking about the challenges we are facing in our colleges and universities, and how to build the teams and the IT organizations that are ready for future challenges. Martin Ringle, CIO at Reed College, and I have chatted a little, and Marty extended an invitation to present and participate in a strategic discussion at the NorthWest Academic Computing Consortium (NWACC). I accepted with pleasure; I thought the interaction with such a talented group of IT leaders would be inspirational (and it was). <br />
<br />
Knowing that I needed to be ready was the best motivation to pull my ideas together. First, all the talk about MOOCs and cloud computing had pushed the idea that our organizations need to change. There are many articles about higher ed IT being in a period of transformation; for example:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/transformative-period-higher-education-it-having-identity-crisis" target="_blank">"A Transformative Period: Is Higher Education IT Having an Identity Crisis?" </a> Grama, Joanna Lyn. EDUCAUSE Review Online, June 2013. <br />
<br />
If we are indeed in a transformative period, a different organization model, one that is more nimble and agile (not to be confused with formal agile methodology), would be better equipped to be successful. If that's so, what are the characteristics of an agile and nimble organization? How do we know when we have fully addressed those components? I'm going to make that the focus of my blogging efforts for a while.<br />
<br />
I started with a basic review of business literature and found these documents from the business world:<br />
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: .34in; margin-top: 15.0pt; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-align: left; text-indent: -.34in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #929292; font-family: "Zapf Dingbats"; font-size: 60%; mso-special-format: bullet;">❖</span></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Blanchard, Stacy, Cheese, Peter,
Silverstone, </span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Yaarit</span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">, and Smith, David. (2009,
October).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Creating an Agile
Organization". Outlook: The Journal of high-performing business. http://</span><a href="http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-journal-2009-agile-organization.aspx"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">www.accenture.com</span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-journal-2009-agile-organization.aspx</span></a><span style="color: #929292; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats'; font-size: xx-small; text-indent: -0.34in;"> </span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: .34in; margin-top: 15.0pt; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-align: left; text-indent: -.34in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #929292; font-family: "Zapf Dingbats"; font-size: 60%; mso-special-format: bullet;">❖</span></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Project Management Institute.
(2012). "Organizational Agility".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>PMI's Pulse of the Profession. http://</span><a href="http://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/Research/Organizational-Agility-In-Depth-Report.ashx"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">www.pmi.org</span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">/~/media/PDF/Research/Organizational-Agility-In-Depth-</span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Report.ashx</span></a></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: .34in; margin-top: 15.0pt; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-align: left; text-indent: -.34in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #929292; font-family: "Zapf Dingbats"; font-size: 60%; mso-special-format: bullet;">❖</span></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Selingo</span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">, Jeffrey J. "Attitudes on
Innovation: How College Leaders and Faculty See Key Issues Facing Higher
Education," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2013</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: .34in; margin-top: 15.0pt; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-align: left; text-indent: -.34in; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #929292; font-family: "Zapf Dingbats"; font-size: 60%; mso-special-format: bullet;">❖</span></span><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">The McKinsey Quarterly. (2006)
"Building a nimble organization: A McKinsey Global Survey".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The McKinsey Quarterly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><u style="text-underline: single;"><span style="color: #414141; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Palatino; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Pゴシック"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #414141; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"><a href="http://leadway.org/PDF/Building%20A%20Nimble%20Organization.pdf">http://leadway.org/PDF/Building%20A%20Nimble%20Organization.pdf</a></span></u></div>
<br />
The business world experienced this transformative state after the 2008 economic crisis. The literature from that realm suggests the following response mechanisms as key success components:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Quick response to strategic opportunities</li>
<li>Shorter decision cycles</li>
<li>Focus on change and risk management</li>
<li>Integrating the customer voice</li>
<li>Building interdisciplinary project teams</li>
</ul>
<br />
From those readings and analyzing other general news comments, I've built the following list of components that I am calling the "Agility Resource Model":<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPEHyNm53wxhVi4I38_xoDNh-ySDKOPIhB1L-S3j_iJQC3msExcryMOv76CY0HSKUiE8aoy7z1kd30FrCEzPbGy_pnebJkgz6DG5KIuZ_0dSEprgOcXQQ3YSRUaps7nM8HP1Eoxkh410/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-20+at+12.53.33+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPEHyNm53wxhVi4I38_xoDNh-ySDKOPIhB1L-S3j_iJQC3msExcryMOv76CY0HSKUiE8aoy7z1kd30FrCEzPbGy_pnebJkgz6DG5KIuZ_0dSEprgOcXQQ3YSRUaps7nM8HP1Eoxkh410/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-20+at+12.53.33+PM.png" height="238" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
These eight characteristics would represent the resources we need to manage if we are to create agile organizations. The numbers, for now, are placeholders indicating an equal slice. I am working on building a model behind the resource display that would allow an organizational leader to do some assessment and analyze how well leadership is addressing each of the eight resource factors.<br />
<br />
Those who traditionally manage projects will recognize the time / people / money resources that are managed in any project. But if we are creating organizations that need to be resilient and response in changing times, we cannot limit our thinking to those three resources. Transformative periods, characterized by turbulence, instability, and ambiguous, unknown futures, require organizations to be nimble. IT organizations need to present adaptability in addition to speed; they must be quick to adapt. We need to change tactics and direction quickly, and once headed in a direction, we need to maintain a fast pace. We need to demonstrate responsiveness to impacts that will inevitably occur; we need to respond, not panic or succumb to being overwhelmed.<br />
<br />
Over the next few weeks, I'll explore this topic in more depth. As always, I appreciate your comments and feedback.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-45091261814277001992013-05-03T10:54:00.001-04:002013-05-03T10:55:57.046-04:00MOOCs: Campus Conversation<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Another campus discussion is forming on MOOCs and our institution's role. This is the story I am working on for our campus.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Discussion on the Educause CIO list indicates that CIOs have a lot to say about
MOOCs and educational delivery through technology. Many thoughtful ideas were shared as to
whether MOOCs are disruptive technology or another avenue of pedagogical
evolution. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Much discussion occurred about whether this is a technological issue or a pedagogical issue.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I am drawn to recent
comments from retiring NASA CIO Linda Cureton about her experiences learning
about leadership from Gloria Parker, former HUD CIO:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is the technical
component like the enterprise architecture delivery.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is a leadership
component. You have to learn to interface with the executive ranks of the
agency and balancing the demands of OMB with the mission.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is the people
component. You need to develop people skills to persuade, cajole and begs
with folks to accomplish your agenda.
(1)<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">There is a technical
component, a leadership component, and a people component to the MOOC
discussion. Governance processes are
needed with the transition to MOOC delivery, just as with all our campus
technology culture changes. I note the
best and brightest CIO minds shared a terrific amount of information that
should be shared as our campuses look at new directions. I took all of the CIO discussion to date and
tried to turn statements and concerns into questions suitable for our academic
leadership and governance mechanisms. We
have created a strong list of questions that can be used to open discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Our questions: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QjEcIxCymm_0qTHC8aL6ziEqr14MnV46gpHu82mC6LY/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"> CIO Planning Questions for MOOCs</a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">(1)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">GOVLOOP </span><a href="http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/how-do-you-become-a-cio-insights-from-outgoing-nasa-cio-linda-cur?elq=18ff029421aa47baa24a8676846e7190&elqCampaignId=2880"><span style="font-family: Arial;">http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/how-do-you-become-a-cio-insights-from-outgoing-nasa-cio-linda-cur?elq=18ff029421aa47baa24a8676846e7190&elqCampaignId=2880</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-52888629502291993992013-05-02T13:18:00.000-04:002013-05-03T10:25:37.929-04:00Wireless Networking - Planning ShiftI'm working on how I will explain the wireless network expectations shift to my campus. The following story is where I am starting.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<b>Legacy:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Wireless networking was first implemented around 2000
as a service to fill gaps in locations that were underserved by wired networks,
especially in the Residence Halls. In
early 2003, we developed a campus-wide wireless network plan. In 2003-2005, we
completed expansions into Dodge Hall, Kresge Library, Pawley Hall and Elliott
Hall. By 2006, funding for expanding the
wireless network was not available. All
funds were used to refresh or maintain the existing wireless network. A proposal was submitted and approved for a base budget
increase in June 2006.
This enabled a campus wireless network that met the requirements of
coverage and roaming. The wireless
culture moved from a “gap provisioning” to a “coverage provisioning” model. We stilled viewed the wireless network as a
convenience and not the main business network, and security was handled to that
lower standard.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b>Culture
shift:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
Today’s community expects shows a culture shift:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Wireless must meet a standard of preferred
access point, as a primary network, not just a convenience network.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The standard expects a client who is using the
wireless for primary work, and not just for roaming access.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">As a result, the current wireless network
technology provider is no longer meeting service expectations, for us or other
clients.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Density to handle volume is expected, not just
coverage.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">We have an increasing number
of requests, for example, for an entire classroom to access the same resources
on the wireless at the same time.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Students
are carrying more devices that connect, such as a smartphone and a tablet at
the same time.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">This translates into
greater density, which means more wireless access points are needed in a space,
and more capacity for traffic is required on the network backbone.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Those using Internet Native Banner are
increasingly asking for the security to access Banner on the campus wireless
network.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">That capability is not
currently available.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">As departments buy
more tablets and devices that do not have wired connections, we soon expect this
to be a wireless network service requirement.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">There are more requests for guest access,
particularly for events.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">This is
currently in review with legal.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">If we
open the network to the community, that just puts more traffic burden on the
network and increases the need for greater density.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The vision is “stadium density.”</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Imagine 60,000 fans showing up at the Super
Bowl, as happened this year, and all expecting to connect to the wireless
network to access the same resources at approximately the same time.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">While we likely will not have to match this
standard, this is the vision we need to keep in mind.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Action Steps:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
UTS completed a Request for Information from all key
wireless vendors. Based on the vendor
responses, several vendors were invited to temporarily implement their product in the Oakland
Center. The results showed two product
vendors met university requirements. An
RFP will soon be released to obtain pricing from those vendors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Under the current university funding model, we will be able
to annually replace 20 to 25% of the wireless footprint, as it existed in
2006. We expect the new Engineering
Building to be the first building with "stadium dense" wireless, meeting the community's expectation for wireless, and funded with the building fund. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We do not have funding to accelerate the wireless network
technology shift, including changing to a more robust platform and installing additional wireless access points. We do
not have funding for a technology refresh in the Human Health Building in 2017-2018. The result will be a growing gap between the provisioned level of wireless network service and the service level
expectations of students, faculty, and staff using the wireless network. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-2099543390110176232013-01-15T09:15:00.001-05:002013-01-15T16:20:00.659-05:00Benchmarking, Trending, and InspirationHave you ever followed Bill Cunningham in the New York Times? You can read about him here: <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_cunningham/index.html" target="_blank">New York Times - Bill Cunningham On the Street</a><br />
<br />
His life story fascinates me. Cunningham is a photographer. He mostly takes something that might be called fashion photography, but I would call it art photography. He moves through the city of New York looking for fashion trends. I have to say that carefully. He isn't given an assignment like "Take photos of red coats" and then he looks for red coats to photograph. He studies and watches and observes until the trend emerges before his camera. He seeks inspiration from the visual world he sees on the street. There's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYqiLJBXbss" target="_blank">terrific documentary</a> about his work.<br />
<br />
Cunningham started his life's work as a photographer on the street during World War II. He still bicycles around the city and his photos gather attention. You can watch current video clips with him narrating what he is seeing: <br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/01/04/fashion/100000001988080/bill-cunningham-coat-of-arms.html" target="_blank">Coat of Arms</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/01/11/fashion/100000001999964/a-tight-grip-on-the-legs-of-manhattan.html" target="_blank">Legs of Manhattan</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
So much of what we talk about in information technology centers around analytics and data trends. There is much discussion about looking to our data to find trends, and to benchmark where we are compared to our peers. There is certainly a value to using the past and our data in order to understand the road we travel. We need data analytics to inform our decisions.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Bill Cunningham inspires us to look around ourselves, and to be intensely observant. He doesn't gather data about how many red coats are purchased, and then go out to take photographs about red coats. His is not a data-driven endeavor. There certainly is a value for merchandisers to track data that way, but observational trends add value to that discussion, particularly if you want to be creative and forward-thinking.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We need to observe details around us. Trends happen right in front of us, if we pay attention. We can't lose sight of what is around us and in front of us. What paths do our students choose to walk right now? What classes are they taking now? What are they telling us? We can be inspired to find links and connections in what is happening now. This is the creative edge and allowing ourselves the time to observe, synthesize, and connect details is inspirational and motivational, as we try to invent our technology future.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-44483408709155105772012-12-15T16:58:00.000-05:002015-10-02T08:38:38.115-04:00Working with People with IssuesRecent events remind us that we all can be vulnerable in our schools and universities. While external people are often the sources of violence in our environments, violence in the workplace, triggered by disgruntled and angry employees or former employees, is a real issue. Perhaps we can share insights so we all can better protect ourselves.<br />
<br />
I've worked with people who were struggling with problems. In a few and rare situations, a couple folks moved beyond the usual anger and frustration that you can see in tense and stressful working environments. These are "red flag" cases. I'm not a psychologist or mental health professional, so I can only speak from personal observations. Maybe if we all share observations, we can get smarter about how to handle situations and prevent harm to those around us.<br />
<br />
What I've observed:<br />
<ul>
<li>Some people can get angry and frustrated easily, but generally, this is an emotional maturity issue that just requires mentoring. When you talk through a situation with that individual, they hear what you are saying and they are able to see how their anger hurts themselves. </li>
<li>A few people seem to enter onto a path where they are unable to act in their own best interest. Their anger or reasoning of situations leads them to make decisions that are just not beneficial to themselves. An individual may have angry outbursts in a management meeting, and when you approach that person to discuss the situation, the individual justifies the angry outburst and does not reflect on the situation. And the individual may continue to demonstrate the same behavior, even though you've warned the person about the negative consequences from their behavior. The individual may over-react to any perceived criticism. Some people seem to just completely lose the ability to recognize that their actions are working against them. A defensive and hostile attitude is demonstrated. The individual is consistently belligerent when behavior is discussed. </li>
<li>One behavior that commonly emerges is ignoring or breaking rules and policies. It may start small, like not parking in an assigned parking space or not following department procedures for reporting being out of the office. Increasingly, the person does not feel the need to comply with basic rules, and when confronted, is unable to comply with rules in a way that is in the individual's best interest.</li>
<li>Another typical behavior is isolation. The individual will separate and not join groups for lunch or campus events. The individual will not engage or will avoid typical office conversation, even simple stuff like "Did you watch the football game Sunday?". You may note someone becoming invisible in the department. </li>
<li>One therapist I spoke with suggested that some people need to build up anger, almost to build up a head of steam, to make themselves feel important and to have a real presence. They feel dis-empowered and invisible. Demonstrating an angry outburst puts them at the center of all attention. It gives them a sense of power, because they now control the conversation and the attention.</li>
<li>A behavior labeled as grandiosity, a state of being delusional about one's importance, may be displayed. The individual may appear overly boisterous about his job title, role, or decision-making authority. Another behavior that can be inappropriately displayed is moral righteousness; the individual believes he or she is are totally right and others are not following the rules. </li>
</ul>
<div>
When we find these situations on our campuses, we probably try to act specifically: avoid confrontation, do not question, minimize the situation, and report it to Human Resources. You may have a campus behavioral concerns committee, and that group should also be informed. My personal experience is that when you see someone not able to act in their own best interest, and demonstrating outbursts timed to attract attention and get control of a space, you must confront the behavior immediately and consistently. You should characterize this as "red flag" behavior. Lack of confrontation further empowers the individual and over time, the situation worsens. It does not get better on its own.<br />
<br />
In summary, the red flag characteristics:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Unexplained, ongoing anger that may appear as a quiet, seething edginess or loud, emotional outbursts.</li>
<li>Inability to recognize and act upon a positive path that is in the individual's own best interest.</li>
<li>Belligerence or silence when behavior is discussed. </li>
<li>Over-reaction to criticism.</li>
<li>Overly defensive or hostile attitude, especially when confronted about unacceptable behavior.</li>
<li>Deflects responsibility for unacceptable behavior to other rationales, moral righteousness, or actions from other people. Accusatory behavior with co-workers. </li>
<li>Breaking rules, even just a series of small rules, and an unwillingness to discuss or correct the behavior.</li>
<li>Changing work schedules without approval, disappearing, or working random hours. </li>
<li>Isolation from co-workers and the campus community.</li>
<li>Repetitively appearing anxious or confused. </li>
<li>Behavior displayed as grandiosity.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
If you encounter these behaviors, you must start keeping a journal noting the dates, times, attendees or witnesses, and a full description of the disruptive behavior or angry outburst. Pay attention to the journal for patterns of similar incidents or increasing anger. Monitor and retain technology messages and note any messages of concern in the journal. <br />
<br /></div>
<div>
One challenge is that Human Resources or police (if contacted) will ask you if you or others have been threatened. For most of us this is harder to answer than we might think outside of a specific event. I've been in situations where I definitely <i>felt</i> threatened, even though no specific threat was articulated. I've tried to use words such as intimidation and belligerence. Sometimes the behavior might be described as harassment. <br />
<br />
But it is important to remember that a threat may be non-verbal. Did the individual stand up? Stand over you? Invade your sense of personal space? Slam a door? Punch a wall? These actions can all make you feel threatened, even if no specific verbal threat was issued. Since we work in technical fields, be aware of threats that may come to us via technical resources (email, social media sites, etc.). These may contain veiled references to violence. Campus public safety or police units should be informed of any threat.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Human Resources often wants to provide cooling off periods or time to mentor the employee. I believe it is important to recognize the behaviors quickly, confront the behavior promptly, and to report it to Human Resources immediately. We may need to insist on immediate involvement from Human Resources. We all need to be comfortable communicating the degree that we felt threatened by the situation, and whether we perceive the behavior as escalating over time. Use your journal to keep other units informed. Push for attention to the issue.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Some reading that may be useful:</div>
<div>
FBI Report on Workplace Violence <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/workplace-violence">http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/workplace-violence</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Resources for Preventing Workplace Violence and Bullying <a href="http://workplaceviolencenews.com/">http://workplaceviolencenews.com/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Important legal issues and court cases <a href="http://www.sgrlaw.com/resources/trust_the_leaders/leaders_issues/ttl13/869/">http://www.sgrlaw.com/resources/trust_the_leaders/leaders_issues/ttl13/869/</a></div>
<div>
<br />
Book: The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker (Thanks, Craig Blaha, for the recommendation). <a href="http://gavindebecker.com/resources/book/the_gift_of_fear/">http://gavindebecker.com/resources/book/the_gift_of_fear/</a></div>
<div>
<br />
I hope you have tactics and strategies that work at your institution that you can share. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-45508255861309425542012-11-19T08:59:00.002-05:002012-11-19T08:59:19.441-05:00Finding the PathI have two Samoyeds, dogs that are bred to be on the move. As a result, Thomas and I are committed to hiking every weekend. We've been to our selection of local parks and recreation areas enough to know the trails. Trails are clear paths. You know where you are going, you can see where you've been.<br />
<br />
We can see a water slide and park platform around a pond from one of our regular trails. We've never seen people there. We decided last weekend to take a side-spur to see what this platform was all about. Hiking there we found an abandoned camp. We then decided to hike on parallel to our regular trail, figuring we'd eventually find a path back to the trail. Instead we found ourselves in a pasture, with some cows in the not-too-far distance, who were very interested in us. Taking a hard right-angle, we figured we'd get back to the trail, only to find a pasture fence. After hiking around, we found a spot to go through the fence. <br />
<br />
Then we had to hike cross-country through the woods. This involves pushing through the faded rose brambles and stepping over logs. We had to maneuver around a low-lying swampy area. There was no path; nothing was clear. At a higher point we paused to look for signs of the trail and saw nothing.<br />
<br />
We were never lost, really. We knew we were in the recreation area, and we even knew what section. We knew which direction we left our car, and we knew where the trail was located, sort of. But the path was not clear. We kept going and found the trail, but we only saw it when we were about 10 feet away.<br />
<br />
We talked about the difference of hiking on the trail versus hiking cross-country. We both felt a very different sense of orientation. Even when we rejoined the trail in a familiar location, we both continued to feel a sense of disorientation. Our perspectives had changed. We've noticed this just walking through our neighborhood, which we do daily. Even walking on the other side of the street, or reversing the direction that we walk along the same street, gives a perspective change.<br />
<br />
I am one to let my mind wander back to work items (probably too much). This experience made me think about my experiences with project management. Early in my career I worked in places where we had very locked project management processes in place. EDS had very strict rules for project management in the 1980s. I also worked in places where KnowledgeWare was used. Another methodology was proprietary to the Arthur Young accounting firm where I worked. The path for managing a project was clear, and we stayed on the path. <br />
<br />
When I first came to Oakland University, I brought those project management paths with me and tried to use them in the university environment. I stuck with it for over 5 years, and felt there were some positives. For example, one positive is that before the project management communications standard, there was a feeling at the university that the central IT organization didn't do or accomplish much. With public project lists and joint priority setting, each silo became aware of the projects completed for other areas of the organization, and as a result, central IT's value became more apparent.<br />
<br />
However, the path locked us out of seeing different perspectives and different ways to solve problems. It was too easy to get locked into a particular way of seeing things, without understanding the value of the locked step. Right now I'm more likely to try to shake things up, to see things from different angles, and to value fresh perspectives. I also want the organization to be more agile. If the shortest path is cross-country, we need to be ready to try it. This is another way to create space in the organization for innovation. Finding steps off the common path help inspire us all.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-72976888449668660082012-11-08T19:23:00.001-05:002012-11-08T19:23:46.284-05:00Capacity for InnovationDiscussions with fellow professionals at the Educause conference are engaging. I so appreciate all the opportunities to speak with fellow CIOs and IT leaders at this conference. I find this a time to pause and think. That ability to pause and think is increasingly rare on our campuses as we try to go faster, move with greater agility, and do more with dust. <br />
<br />
The phrase that caught my attention today was from Lev Gonick of Case Western Reserve University. He spoke about reorganizing to create capacity for innovation. I thought about the characteristics of that innovation. It is time to think in one sense. Innovation needs time to play and time to experiment. It includes access to tools and techniques to facilitate innovation. It needs time to experiment, make mistakes, and find solutions and resolutions to both the mistakes and the paths that led to the mistakes. <br />
<br />
Innovation doesn't happen alone, in my view. To be really effective, we need to create a community, a group with availability to think creatively together. There's a synergy and a flow that gets created when a group has the capacity interact.<br />
<br />
I am giving thought to how I can create capacity for innovation in my organization.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-86160155760795703632012-08-21T09:01:00.002-04:002012-08-21T09:01:12.644-04:00Conference Center Network ServicesAfter spending much of last week scrambling to support creation of open
wireless network "conference" services in the new campus golf clubhouse,
I recognize that traditional campus networking and conference
networking are different animals. I'm learning the conference
stuff; needs to be second nature in planning. A couple folks asked me to comment more, so here's another opportunity to think this through.<br />
<br />
Our campus has a limited access network. All the clients connecting to the campus network are known. We have limited public access in the library, but patrons must provide an identity and register. We have limited public access in the student center, but again, participants have to register for an event hosted in the center. We do not provide open, unauthenticated, public access. This is due to several requirements for identification, such as limiting access to a limited resource to those actually paying for the resource or having some connection with the university (like students). We also have determined how we want to respond to DMCA complaints and other legal documents requiring that we identify who is on the network.<br />
<br />
When I go to our golf center, there are three constituent groups requesting wireless network access:<br />
<ul>
<li>University employees conducting university business activities.</li>
<li>Event guests who are visiting for a defined event hosted under the terms of a contract.</li>
<li>Pass-through guests, those dropping in for a round of golf and staying for a visit to the clubhouse.</li>
</ul>
There are differences in the requirements. The differences may be characterized by roaming, service level agreements, accessed content, access density, and authentication, among other items. <br />
<br />
University employees want to use the wireless network to access university services. Access is protected by authentication and authorized use of services. We try to make that network more secure by make sure that that devices are properly updated with anti-virus services and operating system patches. This is a closed and controlled environment.<br />
<br />
Event guests are represented by an event organizer. The event organizer consolidates requirements into a statement of work associated with an agreement. The agreement will provide for a certain level of guaranteed access with a service level agreement; specifics are provided in the contract. We are hosting a state PGA event, for example, and they have specific requirements for network provisioning. When we hosted the national Republican presidential debate event last fall, the Republican organization planning the debate had very specific requirements. This technical requirements are covered in the event hosting agreement. When we sign agreements, we have to fulfill the services described in those agreements. We may need to segregate a service for an event, with a separate SSID and password (like the Educause conference). There can be a login storm at the start of the event or during schedule breaks. <br />
<br />
Pass-through guests expect network access without authentication. We may just present a basic terms of service splash screen, and limit the network operation to general port 80 traffic. These folks are generally checking communications channels (email and social media). Their access typically does not roam. There's no formal service level agreement. They may congregate in specific areas, so there needs to be higher density of access points in some places (like food service areas). We have determined we do not need to know who is on the network.<br />
<br />
On the main campus, our students, faculty and staff access the network through a centralized authentication service. We need to know who is on the network. Students and faculty tend to login once and roam the campus. The area they roam tends to be larger than those attending an event. There isn't a single event organizer with whom we work to meet requirements. We decide the services in central IT and deliver those services broadly. We do see the same density issues in food service areas, but there's no service level defined in a contract. We try to meet service expectations, not contractual terms.<br />
<br />
That's probably a start of what I've learned, but I would appreciate questions and comments about what I've missed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-37389701424255525212012-07-20T17:13:00.002-04:002012-07-20T17:18:27.336-04:00Policies and ProceduresAs a CIO, I've been writing policies, guidelines, and procedures for a long time. My technical background did not prepare me to write these kinds of documents. I suppose my general education and business background did provide some preparation. I worked in a law firm many years ago and had to write guidelines for staff members that satisfied the partners (who had a high writing standard). I have a Master'<span style="background-color: white;">s in Public Administration and we covered many similar topics in that program. Still, I've never really studied "writing information technology policy." For a while I've been thinking we need a uniform policy and compliance guideline, but I'm not sure who could write it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">Several years ago, Rodney Petersen wrote a useful article for Educause Review: </span><br />
<div class="gE iv gt">
<table cellpadding="0" class="cf gJ"><tbody>
<tr class="acZ xD"><td colspan="3"><span style="background-color: white;"> “A Framework for IT </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white;">Policy</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Development” (</span><a href="http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/framework-it-policy-development" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">http://www.<span class="il">educause</span>.edu/ero/<wbr></wbr>article/framework-it-<span class="il">policy</span>-<wbr></wbr>development</a><span style="background-color: white;">).<br /><br />Another useful piece from the Educause is by M. Peter Adler</span><span style="background-color: white;">: "A Unified Approach to Information Security Compliance" </span><a href="http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/unified-approach-information-security-compliance" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">http://www.<span class="il">educause</span>.edu/ero/<wbr></wbr>article/unified-approach-<wbr></wbr>information-security-<wbr></wbr>compliance</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
<br /></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
This SANS chart is good, but you have to interpret it for policies: <a href="http://www.sans.org/whatworks/applicable_sections.php" target="_blank">http://www.sans.org/whatworks/<wbr></wbr>applicable_sections.php</a>.</div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
<br /></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
This week I attended the Educause Campus IT Policy Workshop, led by Greg Jackson, Educause Vice President, Policy, Jarret Cummings, Educause Policy Specialist, and Kent Wada, Director, Strategic IT Policy and Chief Privacy Officer, UCLA. This was truly a workshop, with strong presentations followed by case studies and discussion. Links and materials to useful references were provided. The event was a positive learning experience, even for someone who has been writing policy for a while.</div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
<br /></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
As a result, I came back and reviewed our university policy template again. Our university policies are posted here: <a href="http://www.oakland.edu/policies">http://www.oakland.edu/policies</a>. Our information technology policies exist within the university framework, but I isolate them on our web site for presentation with other procedures and guidelines: <a href="http://www.oakland.edu/uts/policies">http://www.oakland.edu/uts/policies</a>. </div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
<br /></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
I'm in the process of updating a half dozen policies to incorporate feedback from the external PCI auditor. I am trying to organize my "policy thinking" and I am going to try to bring some consistency to the documentation. <span style="background-color: white;">The PCI auditor had recommended that we separate all PCI elements into one PCI policy, but after the workshop, I am more convinced that the separate policies that are IT-centric still makes more sense, particularly for a university. Too many components for regulatory compliance overlap. It doesn't seem to make sense, for example, to have separate policies for FERPA, HIPAA, and PII data, when it all comes down to information and data security. I also want to create policies that are not obstacles to what the university is trying to accomplish.</span></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
<br />
Once a policy is developed, our review and approval process is described here: <a href="http://www.oakland.edu/uts/policies#governance">http://www.oakland.edu/uts/policies#governance</a> It is quite of bit of work to shepherd a new policy or a policy update through the process, but it is worthwhile. You hear different perspectives and sometimes you realize the policy needs to be worded differently. Shepherding a policy also presents an opportunity to get support for the policy, particularly when the subject matter is difficult.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
To help organize my thinking, I've created a checklist, posted here: <b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CcjmeL4zmULgirtB5ztFonVkLExHZT-BNCpkKno4tU0/edit" target="_blank">Policy Checklist</a></span></b><br />
<b style="background-color: white;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="gE iv gt">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Anybody want to talk Policy? </b></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-19013655132349670992012-05-01T09:38:00.000-04:002012-05-01T09:38:20.182-04:00Changing Software Support ModelThe changing role of the CIO and the central IT organization is certainly a hot topic at the moment. One item I have spoken about is the changing software model. I do believe we are moving away from the traditional IT requirements-based approach that worked (and probably still works) well for software development, to a model based on consumerization. Our constituents fall in love and buy software.<br />
<br />
A few years ago I participated with Educause in writing about reviewing software and <a href="http://www.educause.edu/Resources/PartnershipofFourManagingAlter/177675" target="_blank">managing alternative sourcing</a> at Oakland University. We marveled in that we looked at over 25 pieces of software in a year, and most were not coming through traditional project methods. We had to review our purchasing process. This past year the university community looked at over 325 pieces of software, <i>that we know about. </i>We've done pretty well at making sure we are part of the purchasing process so that we avoid redundant purchases and software installations and support aren't unexpectedly dropped in our laps. Some software applications are installed on campus, and some solutions are hosted. Some are desktop installs, some are server installs, and now we have the App family.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, there is an emerging issue about software support. Obviously, my staff of 33 IT professionals cannot be experts on supporting over 300 pieces of software. The university cannot hire a system administrator or application support specialist for each piece of software. Our traditional support expectations do not scale with that volume of purchases. We can't even be the sole-vendor contact. Yet I had an uncomfortable situation last week where a senior staff member told me that calling a vendor for support was "not a lean process."<br />
<br />
In discussions with my staff, we've identified about a dozen key software systems that we've installed where we only offer hardware and operating system support. There may be a disconnect between the services we offer and the expectations of our community.<br />
<br />
I'm trying to put together tiers of support for software, something like:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Outsourced. Contacts go directly from client to vendor. Central IT gets involved for contract review and assists with resolution in technical disputes.</li>
<li>Campus install in datacenter with full support.</li>
<li>Campus install in datacenter with some support.</li>
<li>Campus install in datacenter with only operating system and hardware support.</li>
<li>Departmental server install.</li>
<li>Local device install.</li>
</ul>
<div>
As I'm looking at this, there is a developing support matrix. In addition to location and local support resources, we also have to look at server, storage, operating system, web server applications, identity access management, database management applications, code management architectures, security applications, backup services, and the actual software application. Server and storage architectures are a lot more complicated to manage with the virtualized environments we now install.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In some cases our central IT operation provides and supports the entire list. The closest is our ERP implementation, even though we do push using the vendor support options (including mailing lists and online community) before contacting us. In other cases, we split the work with another unit; for example, for Moodle, we provide the server, storage, operating system, identity access management connection, security applications, and backup services. Our E-Learning operations does the rest. We jointly work on tuning.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In other cases, particularly for research, we are hosting hardware and really not doing much else.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The issue we see emerging is when a software package starts locally, in a department, and gains adoption. We then need some sort of escalation and approval process to move the software to a support model. A few years ago we looked at this from a <a href="http://www.oakland.edu/uts/storage#support" target="_blank">server support model</a>, with levels described on our web site. We really need to rethink this for tiers of software support, and the governance model that moves a software solution to a higher tier of support. This needs to be logical and rational. We need to include the staffing needed to provide support in the evaluation. That piece is really missing, as we've been resourced constrained so long. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We can't keep adding solutions to the VM architecture without analyzing the impact on staff resources, and we haven't fully identified the impact on staff. We can respond to a new server request with agility in the VM environment. When we do so, we need to be clear that it doesn't mean we can answer questions about the software internals or how the application really works. As we get a more and more complex virtual environment with expanded storage and complex disaster recovery scenarios, we need systems engineers and storage architects, but these additional staff will still not be able to answer the questions about how the application really works. Then we get a community disconnect; we got additional technical staff, but the client support expectations may still not be met. We aren't there yet, but we seem to see new challenges for communications, particularly communications needed to justify additional resources.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Our path is not yet clear, but we are thinking about it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-67807893045957571562012-04-11T17:34:00.002-04:002012-04-12T11:35:12.276-04:00Who needs the web?<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/technology/instagram-deal-is-billion-dollar-move-toward-cellphone-from-pc.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120411" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/technology/instagram-deal-is-billion-dollar-move-toward-cellphone-from-pc.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120411 </a><br />
<br />
The timing of this article connected to my thinking about future projects on our enterprise systems team and allocating resources from that team to the wide variety of identified projects. I had lunch yesterday with the Director for Enterprise Systems, Lori Tirpak, and two team members who worked on mobility projects for the last year. <br />
<br />
The team has finished a strong set of projects this past year. Projects included improved messaging to students about advising and progress to degree. Also, the team upgraded the portal architecture to the uPortal platform that is mobile-ready. Finally, the group completed and launched the first OU App in the Apple store. We spent time talking about projects for the coming year, and we talked about when we might no longer support the portal and instead totally focus our resources (a team of 8 people) on mobile initiatives. Obviously, something like a transcript isn't going to translate well to a smartphone. But many services will transfer to mobile devices.<br />
<br />
The phrases that caught my eye in this article:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">“For decades, the center of computing has been the desktop, and software was modeled after the experience of using a typewriter,” said Georg Petschnigg, a former Microsoft employee who is one of the creators of Paper, a new sketchbook app for the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/ipad/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #004276; text-decoration: underline;" title="More articles about iPad.">iPad</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">. “But technology is now more intimate and pervasive than that. We have it with us all the time, and we have to reimagine innovative new interfaces and experiences around that.”</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">"Who needs the Web?"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">It reminds me of the era when we kept our old mainframe databases running, due to the cost of transitioning those databases to new platforms. Instead, we dropped the mainframe screen interfaces and replaces the user interfaces with new designs and platforms.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">So we can keep those huge ERP databases or learning management systems behind the scenes.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Then focus on small service bites that are important in the moment and that can be provided by mobile devices. That has to be the priority. Using the points in the article, put your resources into mobile from the start, rather than starting with the web and redesigning for mobile.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Any left over resources - and that isn't much on our team - updates the web experience. That is quite a shift in thinking. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">This really has us thinking about project priority for the next year.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-33597193926762610182012-01-30T08:40:00.000-05:002012-01-30T08:40:05.691-05:00Academic Records and the Changing Education ModelI think, increasingly, what we will be buying from individual college and universities, is the credential, not
the full learning experience that we associate with traditional college. How we store records supporting the credential, and put those records together to indicate evidence of learning, may change in the not too distant future.<br />
<br />
Imagine a space where you, as an
individual, take some courses from MIT or Stanford, online, open and
free. You build your knowledge for knowledge sake. There are two
reasons we pursue knowledge:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>personal growth</li>
<li>obtaining meaningful work that pays a salary that meets our lifestyle expectations</li>
</ul>
<br />
The
open course-ware model works perfectly for personal growth. But how
does an employer know that you've assembled a body of knowledge that
leads to you being a talented individual that is knowledgeable, capable,
and hire-able? Right now, degrees provide that university tattoo of
knowledge.<br />
<br />
Today, each university owns the academic records that make up that
tattoo. The student has to meet the requirements of that university to
obtain the tattoo.<br />
<br />
What if the world was different:<br />
Each student owned their academic records, rather than the educational institution owning the records.<br />
Students might hire a company that is an "academic records repository" or "academic records bank". <br />
Some records in the repository are graded; some are not.<br />
Some records may be combined to present a "Badge" of learning. A Google search on the two words "learning" and "badge" show this growing concept.<br />
Some records, graded and accredited, may be assembled into a traditional degree.<br />
The student assembles a personal tattoo that is not defined by a university, but by the student.<br />
<br />
What
is the role of the university in this environment? The university may
offer some courses for credit and some as open (like Stanford is doing
now). The student may obtain the knowledge in either path. One path,
the credit path, achieves a higher standard of knowledge certification
(i.e., grades). So what the university is really providing is knowledge
certification, not just a diploma that represents completion. <br />
<br />
What if I, as a student, can build
knowledge from several sources, some certified, others open, and record
that with the third-party academic records bank that is independent of
any particular university? The records bank doesn't certify, but
provides the transcript of all the work, instead of the university
transcript. The university credit transcript would feed into the
academic records bank, as well as open course work, technical
certifications and whatever. The employer would request knowledge
verification from the academic records bank, not any one university.<br />
<br />
The "Big Blue Button" idea of medical records could apply to student records. But if institutions could send directly to the academic records bank, what would be the point of the "Big Blue Button"? Perhaps to make a record withdraw to send to a potential employer.<br />
<br />
We are now sending all academic records to the State of Michigan for storage in a state-wide database. Perhaps certifications and other learning mechanisms could feed into that database. So perhaps, down the road, the state will provide the academic records bank.<br />
<br />
What does this do to the academic records we store on campus? Is there any reason to keep years and years of campus history if we can store the records in a single centralized bank?<br />
<br />
There is potential for a shift in where and how we store student academic history.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-11220203750607001502012-01-05T16:15:00.000-05:002012-01-05T16:17:09.168-05:00StorageSteve Glowacki, Director Systems Engineering at OU, and I have had several interesting conversations since the holiday break. Steve ended up doing trouble-shooting and problem resolution (with his team) over the break. I thought I would interview Steve for this blog post. This follows on to my earlier impacts post, as we talk about data and content, and the need to store ever-larger files. Nothing is ever deleted, it seems. What is back-up and disaster planning in this growing data environment? We had a discussion about problems and tactics.<br />
<br />
<i>Steve, can you describe some of the challenges experienced over the break?</i><br />
We noticed that the back-up amounts had basically quadrupled started just before the holiday. We went from approximately 500GB differential per night to usually slightly more than 2TB per night. <br />
<br />
<i>Did you find out the source and stop it?</i><br />
Finding the source wasn't terribly difficult but we couldn't stop it. It was valid stuff to back-up. There were a lot of changes going on. Over the break, we allocated an additional 3 TB of storage to back-ups, which was everything that remained within the architecture, and added 10 additional LT04 tapes, which the system promptly consumed. We placed an emergency order for 20 additional tapes while still on break. <br />
<br />
<i>What next steps did you take when you returned?</i><br />
We started reviewing how to consolidate tape utilization for optimized tape utilization. As tapes are written to, the tape is consumed or full. Then as data ages off, portions of the tape are freed, but the physical tape is still consumed. Out of 130+ tapes, a good portion have low percentage physical utilization.<br />
<br />
What we are looking for now is a process or procedure that will consolidate the data in use, distributed across several tapes, to a single highly utilized tape. <br />
<br />
The other thing we are looking at is migrating to a new complete new architecture for backups, restoration, disaster recovery and data de-duplication.<br />
<br />
<i>What are you looking at?</i><br />
The architecture is based on VMWare / NetApp, so the backup environment needs to work very closely with that architecture. <br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i>So, a minute ago, you said you were trying to review something and said:</i><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
"In some obscure way you log into this thing and control backups, restorations, bare metal restores, or tape archiving.... The tech team is having discussions about how this all works."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<i>Tell me more.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
What I found funny was that it took two university engineers and a vendor sales engineer three days to find the compatibility list for tape libraries. It is complicated.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<i>What makes it complicated?</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Tape is becoming very limited use. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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<i>What should we be doing?</i></div>
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Remote site de-duplicated replication is one option. The remote site may be here or the cloud. Remote site is likely phase two. Phase one is implementing solutions to work with the VMWare / NetApp architecture. Phase two is the remote site capabilities. The reason we are breaking it into two pieces is timing and procurement process. De-duplication and how that is done technically is extremely important to consider. </div>
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<i>So several purchases have been made over the past couple days.</i></div>
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We purchased another shelf of high speed disks. This will allow us to optimize server performance and through-put. Looking at the total input/output per second across the two types of shelves we have, and made a decision to improve performance by going with smaller, faster disks for specific services. For example, we have a virtual server which may have enhanced performance by being located on faster disks while the connected storage may be on slower disks.</div>
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<i>A lot of analysis about what to put where...</i></div>
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It's an ongoing thing. </div>
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<i>And your second purchase?</i></div>
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Several software options driven by recent requests. One request was video streaming, so one of the options is for turning on native shares for CIFS. Another software request was for NFS, to allow for UNIX-based mounts. This has the potential to additionally augment throughput. Another is SnapVault, but it is just for swarming snapshots, and that takes us back to where we started this conversation.</div>
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<i>Is your head spinning?</i></div>
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A bit. It's my job, though. A lot of conversations will be needed with the Network team too. </div>
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<i><br /></i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4435865350900000888.post-85257370329805704172011-12-30T14:38:00.001-05:002011-12-30T14:38:15.632-05:00Favorite News Stories - 2011My favorite tech-related news stories of the year:<br />
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<b>The year of nature web cams</b><br />
This was the year that watching nature via web cam caught my attention. My favorite story was of Violet and Bobby, the red-tail hawks at NYU. Watching Violet continue to sit after all experts said that the egg wasn't viable was heart-touching. And when Pip hatched on Mother's Day, it was a "wow" moment. And there were others: the wonderful Decorah, Iowa eagles next, a hummingbird in Hawaii, and the Roosevelt Arch camera from the Yellowstone Association. I am so amazed that I can go to the computer and watch wildlife, live, up-close and in natural settings.<br />
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<b>Young people and meaningful messages</b><br />
Meaningful personal stories shared by young people using YouTube as the medium really touched me this year. Zach Wahls and Ben Breedlove had a lot to say about life and living it well, with open hearts and open minds.<br />
<b></b><br />
<b>People and gadgets</b><br />
This was the year that iPads really took off, and iPhones and Droid smart phones became pervasive around campus. The willingness to carry a gadget everywhere you go surprises me. The guru of understanding the connection of people and technology, Steve Jobs, passed this year. The story of his life was like a walk down my own tech memory lane.<br />
<b> </b><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15357178465521652083noreply@blogger.com0