Tools
Cultivating Careers: Professional Development for Campus IT
A New EDUCAUSE e-Book
Cultivating Careers: Professional Development for Campus IT provides an overview of current principles and practices for mentoring and developing IT professionals in higher education. Edited by EDUCAUSE Vice President Cynthia Golden and written by top leaders in the industry who have distinguished themselves and their organizations for sharpening others' skills, institutional savvy, and ability to lead, the book's chapters are organized into two sections: the organizational perspective and the individual perspective. In addition, the online site for the book will have exclusive audio interviews with CIOs and other senior IT leaders in higher education who give advice for future leaders and talk about how they overcame challenges and moved ahead in their own careers.
Chapter 1: Perspectives on IT Leadership
by James D. Bruce, MIT, and Brian McDonald, MOR Associates, Inc.
www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB7201d.pdf
The Complete Book
www.educause.edu/cultivatingcareers
Meeting Facilitation
Meeting Facilitation Primer
An excellent and comprehensive how-to guide for effective meeting facilitation
2002-Basic-Facilitation-Primer.pdf (388KB)
Take Charge of Your Next Meeting (and stop wasting your time)
John Baldoni's short take on effective meetings.
www.johnbaldoni.com/directions/practice4.html
Best Meeting Practices "Jogger"
MOR Associates' own one-page cheat sheet for effective meetings.
Meeting_Jogger.pdf (596KB)
Strategic Thinking
The following Word documents are templates you can use to engage in strategic planning for your assigned project–or for any project. You can download these documents individually or get the entire collection.
Strategic Thinking Tools Collection
strat-proj-tools.zip (352KB)
Strategic Thinking Framework
01-st-proj-framewrk.doc (160KB)
Scanning the External World
02-scan-ext-world.doc (44KB)
The Desired Future State
03-desired-future.doc (44KB)
Developing a Mission Statement
04-mission-statement.doc (44KB)
SWOT (Stengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) Analysis
05-swot-analysis.doc (44KB)
SWOT Summary
06-swot-summary.doc (44KB)
Gap Analysis
07-gap-analysis.doc (44KB)
Developing Strategic Goals
08-dev-st-goals.doc (44KB)
Scenario Planning
09-scenario-planning.doc (44KB)
Strategic Team Startup
10-st-team-startup.doc (44KB)
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Book Notes
This document contains notes and quotes regarding Peter Schwartz's Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World.
notes on_Art_of_the_Long_View.pdf (116KB)
SWOT Analysis and Follow Up
The following document describes some follow-up steps you might take if you were conducting a SWOT exercise independent of the more extensive strategic planning process outlined above.
SWOT-Analysis-&-Follow-Up.pdf (148KB)
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Delivering Results
Results
This presentation focuses on the importance of getting results in order to be a successful leader. It discusses the linkages between strategy, people, and results and offers practical suggestions that can be put into practice.
Results-Texas.ppt (116KB)
Measures
This presentation gets at the question of what would be helpful to measure in your university's IT environment and why. It provides a framework based on satisfaction, performance, and cost and introduces the idea of performance dashboards.
Measures-Texas.ppt (284KB)
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Managing Change
Excerpts from The Tipping Point
Tipping-Point-Excerpts.pdf (416KB)
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Leading-Managing-Doing: Capacity Planning
Daily Log for Capacity Planning Audit
Templates in various formats:
Daily-Log.doc (36KB)
Daily-Log.rtf (36KB)
Daily-Log.pdf (128KB) <<< This is a form you can type into.
Productivity Means Working Smarter, Not Harder
In this HBS Working Knowledge piece, Stever Robbins talks about the value of being intentional about how you spend your time.
hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5190&t=srobbins
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Working on Teams
This page from MIT's Organizational and Employee Development team offers a host of useful information and tools related to developing effective teams.
web.mit.edu/hr/oed/learn/teams/index.html
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Coaching
This workbook was created as a teaching tool for a workshop at New York State University and includes useful information about coaching.
NYSED_CFP_Prtcpnt_Wrkbk.pdf (8.3MB)
The After Action Review
The After Action Review is a process devised by the U.S. Army in the 1970s as a structured means to facilitate learning following combat training exercises, and it has broad applicability to any number of efforts. This piece describes the review process and includes a template for engaging in it.
After-Action-Review.pdf (68KB)
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The Perils of PowerPoint
This post from Tomorrow's Professor, a free mailing list sponsored by The Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning, "looks at the many problems one finds with...PowerPoint presentations."
Perils_of_PwrPnt.doc (56KB)
Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs
BusinessWeekly's communication coach Carmine Gallo breaks down Steve Jobs' recent Macworld keynote address into a 10 part framework.
www.businessweek.com/print/smallbiz/content/jan2008/sb20080125_269732.htm
Preparing for Your Project Report
In presenting your project report, there are two components you will want to consider. The first is “WHAT” you present for content and the second is “HOW” you share this information. BOTH are important dimensions whenever you are seeking to communicate as a leader.
Elements-of -a-Project-Report.pdf (52 KB)
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Communications Map Template
A Word template to assist with mapping out how best to communicate a given issue or item.
Communications-Map.doc (32KB)
Communicating with Stories
From bnet.com:
"They're faster than a bulleted list, more powerful than a logical argument, and capable of spanning multiple audiences in a single telling. They're stories. Stories enable us to communicate clearly and concisely about the kinds of issues that have depth and breadth, subtlety and color, time and texture. This paper describes why and how they're used in business, and offers a powerful communications model for business."
From bnet.com:
Communicating with Stories
Comm_with_Stories.pdf (188KB)
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The Immediate versus the Important
An Example of Applied Learning
Robin Anderson, an IT Leaders Program participant, wrote us with the following email. In it she describes her efforts at engaging her staff in looking at their own work through the lens of “the immediate and the important,” and how she used the opportunity to enhance delegation.
Immed-vs-Import-Applied.pdf (80KB)
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Annie Stunden's Reflections on Leadership
Stunden-Reflections-on-Leadership.pdf (56K)
The Toughest IT Challenge
An Educause piece by Annie Stunden
Why are many of the administrative information systems implementations in higher education so dreadful? What is the problem? It’s not the software, and it’s not the hardware.
www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0631.pdf
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What Makes a Leader
By Daniel Goleman
What_Makes_a_Leader.pdf (608 KB)
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Leading From Below
CEOs can't change companies on their own. The secret is to foster a leadership mentality throughout the ranks.
By James Kelly and Scott Nadler
Printable Wall Street Journal version of "Leading From Below"
Google Tech Talks July 23, 2007
Merlin Mann, a well known productivity guru and creator of the popular 43 folders website will talk about Getting Things Done, the importance of getting your inbox to zero, and strategies for dealing with high volume email.
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=973149761529535925
Suggested Reading
FYI: FOR YOUR IMPROVEMENT, A Guide for Development and Coaching
by Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger
To use FYI, simply select the competency that needs improvement and review the chapter where that competency is discussed. Each competency chapter provides:
• An unskilled, skilled, and overuse definition of the competency
• Possible causes for why there is a development need in this area
• A map explaining why the competency is important
• 10 or more tips for building the competency
• Book and audiotape suggestions
• Quotes that may prompt inspiration or reflection
Look for the book about halfway down the order page
https://order.lominger.com/Lominger/OrderForm.jsp
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MOR Associates' Leadership Bibliography
Please follow the links to suggested readings on the following topics:
Presence
Leadership
Results
Leadership Journeys
Strategic Thinking
Developing People
Leading Change
Communications
