Change Management and Organizational Change

This is follow up to Ted Simpson's great post on creativity and innovation.  And our institutional commitment to using technology to improve our business (and enhance the experience of our community).

Meandering from one interaction to another is so much easier in the virtual world (RSS, 24x7...).  As a technologist I sometimes find it hard to look to the real world for inspiration and patterns for how we can improve and create something better.

Ted found something at our workplace today:


For those of you not too familiar with Baltimore, Ted can make an excellent case for how this one item captures and reflects the quirky spirit of the town.  For me, this one object serves as a reminder for what the MICA Connected initiative is all about. 

Think of it from an advertising and communication perspective -- multiple typefaces, a chunky glass bottle, the crooked double stick tape (that you can't see in this photo) -- all speak to MICA's current web and systems environment.  A mis-matched combination of systems that perform some service needs, but sometimes in a cobbled-together and sometimes more-cumbersome-than-necessary-manner.  Something we've all grown to accept, adore and rely on, but something that we have not looked at objectively to determine if it really suits our needs. 

As the technology department of a higher education institution, it is our responsibility to lead and set examples of how technology can help all areas of the college do business better.  And this no longer is just about new hardware and software – it’s now about how we work together.

And sometimes this is about how we don't work together.  We are constantly challenged to determine where the line is drawn regarding tools and policy.  The email policy has changed:  does Technology deliver the message or does Academics?

Our notion of training has changed (with help from our trainer who accepted a two year job with the Peace Corps in Africa --- go Rick!):  do we fill jobs because they are vacant; or stop to determine if the jobs we define meet our needs? 

Do we dare to take the time to discuss whether the needs are legitimate or hold-overs from a different point in time?

In short do the risks we take pay off?  How do we help our community understand that change is a good thing?  And how do we help our technology staff understand that being challenged is one of the most thrilling aspects of

I went for a bike ride on Saturday and it was a particularly windy day in Baltimore -- gusts between 18-22 mph.  The way to ride in the wind is to lean into the gust in order to keep yourself upright (and to keep from getting blow across the road).  Of course you have to be a bit careful -- as soon as the blast lets up continuing to lean (into the calm) may make you swerve into traffic or someone's mailbox.

Until two years ago I was convinced that riding in the wind was superior to riding in the hills.  An epiphany occured after a time trial on the eastern shore of Maryland where the roads are pancake flat but the wind whips all around the course.  I realized that hills have definite beginnings and ends and the wind does not.  It keeps right on whipping your face or sides -- and you never know when it might start up again (or when it might end).  Unlike climbing, there is no way to plan for recovery.

Riding in the wind, much like riding the hills, does make you stronger (just ask Lance Armstrong).  And it was during my windy ride on Saturday -- as I was leaning into a gust on a downhill -- that I realized the resistance of wind is really no different that the resistance I've encountered leading technolgy initiatives at my institution.