This week we collectively experienced the culmination of years of design, planning, engineering and re-engineering through the arrival of multiple spacecraft around Mars. For me, it was a very personal … Continue reading Learning from Mars: Fail Fast Isn’t an Option
Systemic political Pyrrhic victories won upon extremism, regardless of ideology, are tearing down this nation. With basic civility vaporized, checks-and-balances laid waste, and the fourth estate’s credibility deconstructed, we have … Continue reading American Politics 2020
Loyola New Orleans, freshman year: My first work-study job was as a student office assistant in the English department. In my spare time, I fixed the Apple ][ personal computers … Continue reading What drives me? Mission.
Since the turn of the millennium, drawing conclusions from tried and true experience doesn’t always result something expected. We live in a world of options, change and constant acceleration, so … Continue reading Rigid thinking? Disrupt yourself
About a year or so ago, I stumbled across a blog post by Dan Bieler, Principal Analyst at Forrester, who resurfaced an often missed truth: “innovation requires a culture of … Continue reading Natural Triad: Innovation, Diversity & Inclusion
I tend to take note of pieces that focus on leadership and management style so when I stumbled across a piece in Entrepreneur entitled “Move Away From Shame-Based Management to Inspire … Continue reading On Leadership in the Experience Age
Shouldn’t Yahoo be concerned with volume and adoption of services rather than device growth? “Yahoo’s ‘mobile pause’ prediction is wrong, damaging, and based on a sample size of one.” http://bit.ly/1SFo60a … Continue reading Tidbit: Lesson in a Failing Trajectory
As a consultant/strategist in higher education, I have the opportunity to work with many different kinds of colleges and universities, and observe different technology leadership models. Each institution has its … Continue reading Today’s CIO has an “I” for Innovation
Brainstorming is an essential part of leadership as it is a means for engaging your team. Whether it is coming up with ideas for a physical space to inspire creativity or for … Continue reading 7 Tips for Creative Brainstorming
When it comes to technology in education, some say the tradition of academic computing is all about herding cats. The more I work with institutions, the more I believe leading academic … Continue reading Wrangling Academic Computing & Technology
I’ve been following a thread started by Michael Feldstein on his blog and this last installment, Better Ed Tech Conversations, captures what I’ve observed for years. Whether intentional or not, … Continue reading People First, Educational Technology Second
In “Bring Strategy Back from the Dead,” Walter Kiechel makes the case that in a time of continuous and accelerating change, strategy is vitally important to success and survival of … Continue reading Six Elements of a Strategy that is Less Future, More Action
A sales person who came from the telecom industry once said that to me that “higher education is strange — you share everything.” Yes, this community generates and benefits greatly from connected value.
In the mid-2000s, the idea of cyberinfrastructure was starting to take hold in the sciences and a number of people, myself included, started asking how we might be able to … Continue reading The engine that started Project Bamboo
Something strange happens when one is promoted to a director. No, the planets don’t realign nor do the magnetic poles of the Earth swap, but things are definitely different. Whenever … Continue reading Becoming a director
The true test of one’s staff comes not in the successful solution, but what happens after failure. If apathy sets in, the staff lacks a connection with the project, clients, or … Continue reading Thinking about staff
At first glance, setting the standard may seem like a charter to separate a unit from the rest of the organization and enter into a form of inter-organizational competition. To … Continue reading Setting the standard