being a manager

You rarely have a name ready when you start something new. Queen probably weren’t called Queen from day one. The startups at Apple probably didn’t come up with the name before they started working on building their own personal computer. I doubt that ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’ was proposed as a name until someone actually said it having already made the spread. So today, I was glad we didn’t spend too long discussing a name for the first meeting of network technicians from FE and HE organisations in the south of the country.

Meeting up with some colleagues from nearby colleges is something I’ve been keen to happen for some time now and thanks to the efforts of Luke from Tauntons College, we finally met up today. Under the premise of a meeting for those of us maintaining a fleet of mac computers, I think something more significant may have occurred.

Taking the time to chat with some of the technicians present both during and after the event, it’s clear that there is a strong demand for such meetings. What was also evident is that opportunity to attend isn’t always given. In some cases, reference is made to commitments of work – in other words, a large job list (only as obstructive as you allow it to become, in my opinion). Others commented that in order to attend another, some idea of the return value would need to be conveyed in order to gain ‘permission’. Reasonable enough, I suppose, but you have to give these things a chance; let a new movement gain some momentum. New ideas will never emerge without some experimentation first.

Putting us all together in the same room it’s really obvious that so much of what we do, where our ambitions lie, and what challenges we face are so very similar. Too often we spend our time doing this alone – insular in our ideas without enough influence from outside sources, from those with more experience and those with a different perspective.

Time for a change. Time to recognise the value of networking for all roles.

I’m looking forward to another meeting of this small regional group of technical staff. If you are in central southern England, from an educational organisation and would like to get involved in a similar meet up, post a comment below or contact me via @chri5grant.

You only have to take a two trips into London to observe change; it’s happening all the time. New buildings go up, like The Shard, and once familiar areas of the city are redeveloped, like the Olympic site. Populations shift and cultural habits evolve. Not everyone likes it, but there is often little you can do as an individual, or even as a group, to influence change. Scale this down into the public services sector, and change resulting from recession and subsequent funding changes are having a huge impact. Change is staring us in the face – we must now face and come to terms with change.

Reading a digest of an interview last year with Eric Schmidt was the moment I realised that the changes facing the education sector and the rapidly evolving consumer and enterprise technology were on course to converge. Schmidt (wisely, I think) predicts that the previous position of Microsoft as king of the enterprise space was up for grabs. I now believe the same is the case in education.

For the average support service provision in education, change can be a difficult subject, often bringing with it the emotions we are familiar with from the change cycle – shock, anger, denial, resistance. Arguably each phase of the change cycle persists for longer in education than other sectors – at least, that’s my experience. Here we have a problem; education must evolve and do so rapidly in all aspects of our operation. It’s not just our support activities though. Just look at how many online open learning resources are now available from which anyone can learn, either independently, or in support of other studies. External factors must be acknowledged if education organisations are to remain competitive.

New models for collaborative working are beginning to emerge. Organisations are already pursuing new means of delivery with highly adaptive support teams and increasingly flexible processes. Experimenting with – or at least discussing the possibilities of – shared services is becoming common as realisation of the need to find further efficiencies becomes apparent. New modes of working and radical business ideas are finally penetrating the orthodox and time-honoured education sector. Our user populations are shifting and evolving in their expectations and abilities. Of course, we must acknowledge the difference in abilities among across generations, and within a cohort of learners. We must equally continue to challenge those who are arriving in our learning environments with higher expectations driven by their experience in other organisations; learners who are already familiar with mobile devices, digital content and flexible applications. These learners do not expect the same technological welcome we offered ten, five or even two years ago.

So here is an opportunity. It has come about thanks to the changing expectation of users from technology and from the service level. Combine this with far greater level of skill among our learners and also our staff than ever before, we have the opportunity to begin an evolution in our support provision, and also what is being expected of us. The normalisation of what was previously a specialised skill set now offers more potential contributors to the activities of an information technology support team.

References:

Eric Schmidt taking shots

East Sussex CC IT Services with CentraStage