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A staff member went to a workshop on graphic recording and now after every staff meeting he displays cheerfully an often grim visualization of the meeting discussion. It’s interesting to see a pictorial representation of a dialogue. I shared the picture he generated after our strategic planning / values discussion with the Dreaded Advisory Group. “Is that razor wire?” someone asked. “What’s Stupidville?” asked someone else. See here for more info.
I’m punchy from my Dreaded Advisory Group meeting this morning. It went well because I noted that we had too much money (see post below) and that I was going to increase services and decrease costs and everyone got happy. It’s a big lovefest until they realize that I’m going to do this by Creating Change which will Disrupt the Culture and cause Much Unhappiness. Tra la la!
So my assistant came across some ancient “Office Memorandum” stationery. It’s excellent. It says “Office Memorandum” in Cooper Black font on the top with the school’s name followed by four ellipses, which is … Continue Reading
I showed Adrian’s presentation below to the Dreaded Advisory Group (DAG) today. I noted the mission and goals articulated by the ASU president and how they translated into a clear technology strategy. And I talked about how the vendor partnerships and financial gains (among other gains) ASU has achieved aren’t solely the province of large research universities. And then I noted the rub–the cultural barriers, the wailing and gnashing of teeth, the difficulty higher ed institutions have with wholesale change and commitment to that change. The DAG seemed on board, but we didn’t see all the presentation. So I don’t … Continue Reading
At the most recent incarnation of my dreaded advisory group, I shared our reaccreditation self-study, mostly because (as I mentioned earlier) I was sure no one on the reaccreditation committee would actually read it, and I wanted to make someone read it. In the self-study, I critique our past strategic plan, noting that it wasn’t particularly strategic. Imagine my horror when my dreaded advisers said, “Hey, you’ve got the wrong strategic plan!” Apparently, we had a later plan which none of my staff thought to mention to me. I’m not kidding. I share the self-study … Continue Reading
My advisory group meets tomorrow for the first time. I’ve always hated them. The participants never seem to know enough about technology to be able to advise you on anything and the folks don’t usually have enough power to actually allow you to avoid making other presentations. That is, I have to present to the advisory group, and then to the budget group, and to the Trustees, and to the Cabinet, and to the faculty, etc. The Trustees, the Cabinet, the faculty, and the budget groups all have clear power and I get why my presentations are important to these … Continue Reading