Last time, I shared observations about the elements of “the right swing,” a baseball analogy that keeps me focused on process before outcome. Good process tends to yield good outcome. Let’s look at these elements in more detail, beginning with “a clear mission for the IT group.”
Many independent school technology programs have evolved rapidly into robust, sophisticated, enterprise-level operations, offering a full range of network, database, professional development, instruction, tech support, web site, telecom, audiovisual and other services. Yet many school IT groups have not revisited their core mission as demands for their services and expectations for 24×7x365 performance exploded.
In such an activity-rich environment, the ability to set priorities is critical. And without a clear mission for the IT group, it can be difficult to prioritize use of people, time, money, space, and other technology resources.
Of course, we are all in business to serve our schools, and so IT and school mission statements must be congruent. But within that context, IT staff must sometimes make difficult decisions about what they can and cannot realistically accomplish well in the course of a day, week, month, or year. Without a clear sense of mission, it is almost impossible to set priorities, define boundaries and chart the right course for success.
Our IT group here at Lab is in the middle of revisiting our mission. We will formally address it during a first-ever off site retreat this summer, but we are already talking informally about how we can adapt our structure and practice to be most effective in the very different work environment we now inhabit. Here are a couple of the thoughts we’ve had as we take a little meeting time here and there to start:
The early days of “doing for” people are gone forever. We can “do with” people, but at this point it is in the Schools’ best interests for our user base to take greater ownership of many technology efforts.
Redundancy of all kinds (human, technical, skill set) has become critical to the Schools’ daily operation. Single points of failure are no longer acceptable.
We used to say we didn’t have time to do good documentation of our activities and practices. Now we find we don’t have time not to. Changing old habits around this issue will be very difficult.
More on “taking the right swing” in the next entry. Your comments are welcome.
Posted on February 13th, 2007 by Curt Lieneck
Filed under: General Interest
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.