I had the opportunity to attend the ‘Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’ (CASE) District VIII Conference in Seattle. It was an inspiring conference of educators, technologists, communicators, and policy makers all dedicated to the support and advancement of higher education. I attended some wonderful sessions and made great new contacts.

Vital Few Takeaways

• Relevancy is a critical-success-factor; the world has been sped-up; time has compressed; we need to be timely and relevant.
• Importance of quality and being ‘best-in-class’ was continually reinforced.
• Social media efforts are becoming more ingrained in communication strategies and processes. Reach out to your audience and meet them where they are.
• Stay on message. Many attendees were sharing what they were learning on Twitter during the sessions. In today’s world, the moment we make a point or share an idea, it is essentially distributed worldwide.

Communication and Storytelling Takeaways

• Measure your content & stories against your goals.
• Ensure your brand story is being well-articulated.
• Regardless of the platform or medium, it’s essential that you stay on message.
• Repeated use of specific keywords can be powerful in reinforcing your brand message.
• Importance of engaging constituents where they are.
• There is a lot of improvement needed in reporting storytelling effectiveness to organizations.

Leadership and Creativity Takeaways
• There are conflicting demands between being creative and innovative and being seen as reliable, predictable, and consistent.
• Creative leaders are penalized for being perceived as ‘risky’.
• Most of today’s workplaces lack charismatic, creative leaders to inspire and lead employees.
• You can’t ‘fake’ charisma, you either have it or you don’t.
• Lesson from highly innovative companies. When taking a risk, if it’s going to fail, fail fast! Don’t let it drag out.
• Lead the believers | Convert the receptive | Forget the non-believers
• Leaders hang out in trusted-places.

Online Presence Takeaways

• When creating digital content  focus on making it easily ‘shareable’. Allow your followers to be your brand-ambassadors.
• Digital content: What you can track, you can measure | What you can measure, you can improve upon.
• There was a noticeable lack of presence about leveraging mobile-technologies for relevant storytelling.
• Perform a full social-review session once a quarter. What is the world saying about your brand?
• Digital content does NOT mean saving-as-a-PDF. Utilize the technology.
• Strong marketing plan is the key for online distribution.
• The website is still the primary brand expression. Utilize this as your central hub of your online presence.
• Never underestimate the power of stunning imagery – specifically photography.
• The tools for analyzing e-communication efforts are becoming more powerful and able to generate tremendous amounts of data; Lots of room for improvement.
• Make sure content is tagged well when using social channels.

Thoughts on my vision for IT

IT/S exist to support people taking action in the real world.

IT matters if it drives efficiency. It doesn’t always mean lower cost, but should increase productivity and customer service.

Leverage mobile. Make services available across both time & place.

Use data to help drive decision-making process. No more ‘rules of thumb’ – what does the data tell us?

Collaborate! What are the partnership / collaboration opportunities with other business units and outside entities?

Increase customer serivce, productivity, service, data-driven decisions.

IT must be driven by what is technologically possible but also by what is strategically desirable.

IT has no inherent value; it must be unlocked.

Continually ask the question, ‘How can IT ensure the success of the business?’

“It’s just a little change”. Famous last words for a technology project. Unfortunately ’small changes’ have a habit of creating a snowball effect throughout the rest of the project. A project manager needs to take a systems, or holistic, view of any and all change-requests. A simple change on one part of the project can and often does impact other parts in ways that may not be evident right away. All change requests have the potential to impact one of the four constraints of time, cost, scope, and quality of the project.

Websites can be powerful instruments of an organizations marketing, communication, and technology plans. Aligning the information technology systems in general and the web presence specifically, with the business strategy is essential to maintain competitive advantage over other organiful zations. Some questions to ask of your website and web team:

• How can the web site and other web technologies used provide return on investment for the organization?
• How can the web team be aligned with regards to the organization’s business objectives?
• How can Internet technologies be leveraged to provide innovative solutions and approaches to the organization’s business priorities?
• How can analysis of web traffic be used to influence strategic decisions at the management level?
• How can the web site be a business-driven initiative, and not a technology-driven initiative?
• How can the web development team be utilized so that it is regarded as a strategic asset and/or business unit, and not simply a service-unit within the organization?

Many traditional methods of recognition are outdated and ineffective, especially to younger technology workers. Here are some ideas on motivating a technology team.

• One innovative recognition program that an IT Manager can use to keep staff motivated is the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), which is different from classic flextime structure; the boss has no say in scheduling and can judge employees only on tasks successfully completed – even if none of them took place in the office.
• Recognition programs can also lead to greater recruiting successes. Many organizations have geographically separated teams and managers who are located in other cities. The organization’s ability to recruit the most talented personal for a given position is not limited by geographical constraints.
• Technology is another way to facilitate recognition programs and to keep employees connected, even if they do not work in the same office, by virtue of virtual office spaces. Products such as Instant Messaging, Desktop Sharing, Office productivity software and Web conferencing can facilitate effective collaboration.
• A simple pat on the back can also be an effective way to recognize good performance. A simple thank you or other gesture can often help tear down barriers between management and employees.
• Not every employee is satisfied with a pat on the back or thank-you for a job well done. Many employees wish to be compensated with bonuses and/or promotions.
• Employees find great value in being valued. Whether it’s being involved in a department decision or being taken seriously by management on comments and suggestions.
• Employees want to feel appreciated, by their peers and supervisors and organization as a whole. The culture that communicates this appreciation the best is the one that is more likely to achieve greater productivity, increased morale, and lower turnover.
• A manager needs to know his/her employees, know the goal, communicate the plan, recognize individual employee value / contribution to the team, and make them part of the communication chain.

• Social acceptance, esteem, and self-actualization are three inexpensive and easy ways to improve morale.
• Combine the best blend of emphasis on the six basic elements of morale by surveying the employees.
• A simple anonymous survey is the best way for an organization to create a motivation system.
• The key point is to customize your reward system for the current environment.
• IT workers are most engaged when they are creatively solving difficult problems.
• When rewarding employees financially becomes challenging then other ways like training become essential to boosting employee morale.
• Appreciation, self-empower, company mission statement, “family” atmosphere, company pride, interest in individuals, more pleasant and easier life, loyalty, and working environment are areas to research and analyze for ways to Motivate employees and management.
• Alongside every other morale boosting tool, listen to your employees, select the tool, and help your employees do their job. Communication is the hammer of leadership.