EDUCAUSE 2007; Seattle, WAPre-conference Seminar 01A

October 23, 2007

Aligning IT Leadership with Institutional Missions:

The Reality of Being a CIO

John Bucher - Chief Technology Officer and Director of the CIT, Oberlin CollegeTom Moberg - Retired CIO; ConsultantRobert Paterson - Chief Information Officer, Salem State College David Todd - Associate Vice President/CIO,

University of Vermont

Copyright John Bucher, Tom Moberg, Robert Paterson, David Todd 2007. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

About the Seminar

• Background• Purpose: Explore strategies IT leaders

can use to align their organizations and themselves with institutional missions

• Intended audience: Experienced, new, or aspiring IT leaders in higher education who want to reflect upon their leadership roles and changing expectations of IT leaders

Agenda for the Seminar

8:30 – 8:45 About the Seminar8:45 – 9:25 CIO Realities 101:

– Aligning With the President and Senior Staff (Moberg)– Aligning IT Committees (Paterson)– Aligning Customer Service (Bucher)– Aligning Organizational Structure (Todd)

9:25 – 10:05Questions and Discussion

10:05 – 10:25 Break

10:25 – 11:05 CIO Realities 102:– Aligning Relationships With Faculty and Staff

(Paterson)– Aligning With Reality: Dealing With Difficult Problems

(Bucher)– Aligning With Institutional Change (Todd)– Aligning Ourselves: Career issues for CIO’s (Moberg)

11:05 – 11:50 Questions and Discussion11:50 – 12:00 Wrap-up

Aligning With the President and Senior

Staff

Tom Moberg

Aligning With the President and Senior Staff

• Presidential and Senior Staff interests in IT range widely Wants <=> Needs Miracles <=> Invisibility Strategic yearnings <=> Odious

micromanagement

• CIO’s must have realistic aspirations Communication opportunities may be very limited Pay careful attention to the President’s goals

• Without Presidential and Senior Staff trust, a CIO’s effectiveness is very limited

Aligning IT Committees

Rob Paterson

Aligning IT Committees

• Develop IT governance to be institutionally inclusive

• Use the committees to build priority consensus

• Empower committees to make decisions (or at least recommendations)

• Train committees to focus on issues, not technologies

• DUET

Aligning Customer Service

John Bucher

Aligning Customer Service

• Bottom line: Customer Service is King!• Know your customers: faculty, staff,

students, administrators, parents, etc.• Managing expectations and perceptions• The not-so-obvious things that customers

want

Aligning Organizational Structure

David Todd

Aligning Organizational Structure

• Organizations shape around staff personalities, technologies

• As staff come and go (including you as new CIO!), structure should reshape

• Realign to leverage staff, serve clients, support new technologies

• Consider alternatives:  dynamic teams or matrix structures vs. hierarchy

Questions?

Comments?

Break

Aligning RelationshipsWith Faculty and Staff

Rob Paterson

Aligning Relationships With Faculty and Staff

• Listen, Listen, Listen – Communication drives relationships

• Involve IT directors/managers in institutional committee decision making roles– Must establish credibility for IT staff

• Have faculty/staff help make decisions– Consensus with colleagues helps insure success

• Carry through and deliver on time

Aligning With Reality: Dealing With Difficult

Problems

John Bucher

Aligning With Reality:Dealing With Difficult Problems

• Finding out about the job: Where are the land mines? What can go wrong?

• Use different approaches and skills for different kinds of problems

• Understand the problem; treat it as an opportunity

• Maintain a professional approach

Aligning With Institutional Change

David Todd

Aligning With Institutional Change

• “Unless you’re the lead dog, the scenery never changes”

• IT’s business is facilitating change• As an IT leader, you are expected to

support and promote change (not change for change’s sake - for effectiveness, efficiency, business)

• Being a change agent has risks and liabilities -- and rewards!

Aligning Ourselves: Career Issues for CIO’s

Tom Moberg

Aligning Ourselves: Career Issues for CIO’s

• Understand how organizations work• Think of your career strategically• Enhance and protect your career by

your: perspective and expectations performance and behavior professional development professional network

Questions?

Comments?

Thanks for your participation.

Have a great conference!

John Bucher John.Bucher@oberlin.edu

Tom Moberg Tom.Moberg@ndsu.edu

Robert Paterson Robert.Paterson@salemstate.edu

David Todd David.Todd@UVM.edu

References

• Childhood’s End; Richard N. Katz, EDUCAUSE Review, March/April, 2003

• Good to Great; Jim Collins• How to be a Star at Work; Robert E. Kelley• Improving Learning and Reducing Costs: New

Models for Online Learning; Carol A. Twigg, EDUCAUSE Review, September/October, 2003

• Intentional Design and The Process of Change – Strategies of Successful Change; Patrick Sanaghan and Ron Napier

• The First 100 Days; Joan Indiana Rigdon, CIO Decisions Vol. 3, No 3, 28-33

References (continued)

• Organizing and Managing Information Resources on Your Campus; Polly Ann McClure, Editor

• Primal Leadership; Goleman, et al.• Slow Change in a Fast Culture”; Morris W.

Beverage, Jr., EDUCAUSE Review, September/October, 2003

• The Executives Guide to Information Technology; John Baschab and Jon Poit

• The Toughest IT Challenge; Annie Stunden, http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0631.pdf

References (continued)

• Presidential leadership for information technology; David Ward & Brian Hawkins, The Presidency; Spring 2003, special supplement, 1-11

• Leading Geeks - How to manage and Lead people who deliver technology; Paul Glen, 2003, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 253 pp.

• Closing the Geek Gap – How to keep tech workers motivated; Minda Zetlin, Profit, The business of technology, Nov 2006, http://www.oracle.com/oramag/profit/06-nov/p46tech.html

• The Ten Habits of a caring Organization: Principles-Based Leadership; Stephen L Reel, ECAR Research Bulletin, Apr 2006, Vol. 2006, Issue 8