I read a very interesting
blog post on Linked In by Jon Steinberg.
In his post, he acknowledges that while there is value and a time and place
for long term strategic thinking, the real work gets done when we focus on the
details at hand. As he states, “The real
work gets done day in day out operating a little bit better.”
In K-12 technology, many districts spend a lot of time
devote to creating a technology plan, often driven by the necessity of having
one for receiving priority two eRate funds.
These plans can add a lot of value to our organizations, but at the end
of the day they can be meaningless if we cannot get our day to day activities
right. Better yet we should always be
focused on ways to improve what we do, and how our organizations operate. If we can’t master the details of the here
and now, how are we going to achieve the long term goals in our technology
plans?
Too often, I see colleagues, business partners, and other
schools miss little details or worse yet, not even worry about the details. Not
worrying about the details can make you and your organization look inept and
worse yet, can cause projects to miserably fail. All of this cascades and eventually destroys credibility
and ability to execute goals and plans.
In our IT world, with tens of systems being more interdependent
each day and thousands of staff, students, and parents relying on us, the
details are becoming more important than they ever have been. Missing a step, forgetting a small piece or
data, or misunderstanding system interdependencies can all lead to huge
problems, and slow down projects, kill systems, and ultimately put a bad light
on IT.
So there may be good reason why we wake up at 3am sweating
the small stuff; that small remembered detail can mean the difference between
success and failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I welcome productive thoughts, comments, and questions.