Reactions

I read an article from Big Think earlier today and followed it with another reader’s comments. The article was about the Wikileaks, and the author’s viewpoint basically stated his reasons why those leaking the information should be punished. The first commenter responded with praise for those that are helping leak the information, but supported it with, what I believe to be outlandish statements.

I’m neither an outspoken supporter, nor opponent of our efforts in the war. I do see a need to proactively protect our nation from attacks, but also believe this is costing us a terrible amount of money with no end in sight.

But with this particular topic, I tend to support keeping the information classified and believe those leaking the information do not have the high-level access to the necessary types of information to make a proper decision, and therefore are not in a position, morally, much less legally, to determine on their own if it should be published.

My point is that finding the true resolution to this dilemma is difficult as it is with any highly charged topic. Few people have enough information to more appropriately determine the true risk of leaking these documents, and those who do have it are “on the inside,” and most likely not in a position to be objective. To find a truly objective party to determine the risk of the leaks, means opening the vault of classified information to a third party, and that is something I’ve not seen the government willing to do very often.

To read my response, click here.

“I’m an Android.”

About a decade or so ago, it somehow became “cool” to be anti-Microsoft. And about five or so years ago, Apple had a very successful campaign about that. The entire campaign portrayed Microsoft/Windows as a rigid, inflexible, geeky, bug/error-laden system.

What I’m seeing more recently, though, is the potential for Google to take the same type of campaign, and use it against Apple. With the recent problems about the new iPhone being widely reported, then disputed, then acknowledged by Apple, and more and more programmers complaining about their new app’s being rejected from the i-product marketplace (whatever its technical name is), it seems that Apple is becoming everything they portrayed Microsoft as being.

The difference with that campaign is that Microsoft then, and now, maintains a very large marketshare for its operating systems. For Apple, things are different. All of the new smart phone devices are rapidly taking market share from the iPhone. As the growth in this market continues, Apple will be facing more threats, and Google’s Android-based phones may have an opportunity to take more advantage of this.

I’ve never owned an iPhone, but I did buy an iPod. I did so, however, because I didn’t feel as though I had other, more advantageous options. Unless something significant changes, I don’t foresee me ever buying an iPhone – thus, “I’m and Andriod.”

PS – Thanks to Frank Wilder for discussing this with me last week. It helped inspire the thought for this post.

Is the summer over?

Our department’s transition has continued over the past several weeks, and the details of this project can be overwhelming at times. The summer, while not one of my personally favorite seasons, is a season that challenges your focus. It always seems to be over before you’ve realized it began. So if you’re not aware of your surroundings, and ready to tackle the priorities and challenges facing you, you will fall behind. In our small world of higher education, the fall is the worst season to enter when you are behind.

We are very near the point of announcing a new position opening in our department for the fall term. This position will be central to our ability to expand our outreach and service to current students. We’ve also re-designed two other positions in the department, spent countless hours not only reviewing everything we do within the department to ensure nothing is left out or unassigned, but also to the training needed for individuals taking on new tasks.

In addition to that, we have also been preparing for an additional 125 new adult students enrolling with us over the next three months. This will help us continue to challenge the strength of the new organization – a challenge I expect us to overcome.

Finally, I will add a word about an incredibly important event we are preparing for in October. Last year our department hosted the inaugural Community College Partner Conference. This event was designed to help further the dialogue and partnerships we routinely have with many of our community colleges. These partnerships have always been an essential factor in our students’ abilities to seamlessly transfer into the ADP, and this event is our attempt at furthering those opportunities.
The ADP is an incredibly rigorous program for adult students, and without the preparation our partners have provided so many of our students, we could not celebrate the success we do each year.

This year’s conference is Tuesday, October 19, 2010. I look forward to welcoming many of our friends and colleagues to campus for a day of collaboration and learning. Next to our commencement activities, this is one of the most rewarding days of the year.

One of our greatest assets

As I enter a new year (our fiscal year runs June 1 – May 31), I am already working on an important goal – taking advantage of one of our greatest assets – TIME.  We have a finite amount of it, with what seems to be an infinite amount of tasks to accomplish.  As we look at our achievements each year, I am increasingly astonished at what our staff produces.  More work is completed with no additional staff and increasingly complex obstacles.  So I am taking on a challenge to simplify matters. 

If we continue to hone our focus on fewer goals that all better align the most important needs for our program and students to flourish, we will produce more value, and thus results.  This will allow us the opportunity to spend more time on each goal, increasing the level and impact of our success.

This post will be my first to chronicle my efforts over the coming year.

Do I really need this?

Some time ago, one of our students came to me to question the purpose of the project assigned in the final course of our business administration program. The assignment is a group project that requires the team to create a business plan for a new company. This is a serious project, and the final work submitted is immense. The student was questioning how this project would help her if she knows she will never start her own business; she was simply looking for a promotion into management at her company.

While our conversation happened some time ago, I was reminded of it today as I looked at the emails I have received over the past 24 hours. Here are some examples of questions and needs being presented:

1. One of our partners had questions about a soda vending machine at a classroom site.

2. A new faculty member needed to get some instructor copies of several texts for courses she will soon begin teaching.

3. A colleague needed assistance with a special list of students in our program to provide a count for a report she needed to generate.

4. One of our students needed help determining which courses she needs to complete before graduation.

5. One of our marketing partners needed some information about some billboards we are interested in at one of our locations.

When I saw this list, I remembered why it is so difficult to answer the question I often receive, “so what do you do at Albright?” And this is reminded me of the conversation with that student.

I was not a business major in college. I didn’t study to be a director of a department or to work with adult students. My point is, we don’t know today what we may be asked, or simply need to do, with the positions and careers we embrace tomorrow.

Our business students may never start their own businesses, but they will all need to work with others – whether as part of a team at work, employees of their small business, or outside vendors that support their work. They may or may not need to be able to negotiate a lease for an office space, open a new location outside of their region, hire a team to service a new product or write a proposal to a prospective client. Our business program doesn’t prepare students to be business owners, financial analysts or other random business professions. It prepares students to be business leaders.

Are you ready for change?

Over the past few months, we have been moving toward a new learning management system.  This is the internet-based technology we use to support the learning that takes place in the classroom.  It allows students to have secure access to syllabi, discussion forums with classmates and grades on assignments and tests.

This has been a significant change for both our students and faculty.  It has also forced many changes in our internal processes and procedures for our staff.  Some have felt like it’s turned their world upside-down.  As I reminded one of them, this is exactly how some students feel when they return to college.  Transitioning back into a classroom, like any other major change, can be a daunting task for us because we lose control of what we know and are challenged in a new, and sometimes unexpected way. 

For our staff, this must be a learning experience because over the summer we have more change coming – we will be implementing a new online student support system that helps students register for courses, print final grades and unofficial transcripts as well as pay tuition online.  This will be another enhanced service for our students, but it forces more change for us internally.

As long as we keep into perspective what we ask of students when they enroll in the program, we should be able to accept these new changes and provide another seemless transition.

where to begin

This is one of those posts – in my mind I know what I want to say, but together, we’ll see how I get there.

Yesterday we hosted the Business Leaders Forum. This was a new event for us. It was an idea I conceived, and I pushed my colleauges to help make it happen in an accelerated timeframe. In the final days building to the event, we had accomplished almost all that we had hoped to do.

In the last few days prior to the event, I struggled. With all of the other distractions going on, I found it difficult to find the time I expected of myself to focus on the event. As it turned out, that was okay. The team did a fantastic job with all of the fine details.

Now here is the gist of what I wanted to say: This event may have been the pinnacle of my professional career to date. This wasn’t an event we took over and made better; this was my idea, and my colleagues and I made it happen. We took it from initial concept – to near perfect execution in just over four months. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many attendees not only asking to return next year, but asking for more than an annual event.

Once again we exceeded expectations. In everything we do, one of my primary objectives is simply to exceed expectations. What’s even more exciting is that the attendees now have higher expectations, and we will be challenged to exceed them again next year.

The first way we’ll need to do that is by somehow scouring the earth to find a keynote speaker that can top what Andy Levine did for us yesterday. Once Andy came to mind as a potential speaker, I knew he was the perfect fit for Albright. What I was not as prepared for was the level of impact he would have. Andy’s discussion and presentation was so much more than I could have dreamed of; he was absolutely phenomenal.

If you are interested in success, leadership and have passion for your work, then you need to look up Andy or look up his company, Sixthman (www.sixthman.net). Andy is not a professional speaker, but he could be if he wanted. His story of success, the growth of his company, the forward-thinking focus he embraces, the innovative ideas he and his staff develop and his desire and ability to constantly change for the sake of improvement are inspirational, motivational and at the core of his story. If I can be half the leader tomorrow that he is today, then I know I’ve accomplished a successful feat.

One of the goals Andy and his staff have for their events is to provide an “amazing moment” for each of their guests. What Andy didn’t realize is that he has once again provided one of those moments – but this time it was for Albright’s guests.

I had several aspirant goals for this event – and they were large in scale. They were:

• Develop an academically-focused type of event for alumni so that they begin to see Albright as more than their alma mater; that they see us as a place they can return to for learning opportunities beyond the scope of undergraduate and graduate degrees; that they see us as a place that is committed lifelong learning.
• Bring alumni back to campus and introduce them to other alumni they didn’t know in a true professional networking atmosphere.
• Introduce local community members to Albright, and allow them to see first-hand the strengths of our institution – our ability to provide quality, relevant education and the lengths in which we’ll go to provide personal attention for our students and guests.

In the end, I know we accomplished all of these goals.

Today will be a difficult one in the office. I’m still thinking about the event’s success. I haven’t yet come off of that “high” of seeing the satisfaction from everyone that joined us for the day. I imagine it’s similar to the feeling Andy and his staff feel after returning from one of their events (I won’t go any further – you have to check it out for yourself at www.sixthman.net).

If there’s one lesson I learned most, it is this: collaboration is essential for complete success. This was a great concept, it was planned beautifully, executed to near perfection and all of the pieces of the event folded incredibly well to connect together for a multi-dimensional day of learning for our guests. Had only one person, or a smaller group taken the time to do all of the work for the event it would not, it could not have been as successful. One committed person, or even a couple of very committed people would not have had the complete set of strengths and competencies needed to make this event the success it was. We needed a well-rounded team that had a balanced set of competencies. In the end, our success showed we did that.

So that’s it; I finished what I wanted to say. It’s time now to think about next year. Where to begin…