The Effect Of Goodwill And Integrity On Information Technology

Over the past several years, I have formulated a belief that goodwill and integrity have a very positive effect on information technology. After several years of experience it has become apparent that when you're customers trust you (trust is not have to equal agree with) and hold A belief that you are a person that acts with integrity for the betterment of the institution, the implementing of new technologies and overall day-to-day operations become much smoother.

Goodwill is one of those things that are hard to measure until a crisis happens. About eight years ago we were in a situation where our e-mail servers went down the first day of school. The e-mail servers went down approximately 6:45 AM, we were unable to get them back up until about 10 AM that morning. Part of our standard practice was a post-incident review were we see, we're we could improve on our responses. Looking at the number of phone calls we receive during this critical time we were truly amazed to realize that only 2 people called into the HelpDesk to see what was going on. Later that day as I walked around the campus in my usual Walk and Talk. I began to ask people why they did not call the HelpDesk when they noticed e-mail was down. The answer I got truly amazed me, it generally went like this, we know your team usually gets into the office around 6 AM, we did not see the need to call you to let you know about a problem you were already working on.

Institutional integrity is another one of those hard to measure things, most managers believe this is the road of least resistance. This is a flawed view if I ever heard one. The whole point of institutional integrity is to not let your personal opinion or your biases influence your technology decisions. All technology decisions need to be based on what is truly best for the institution in the long run fiscally, mission-critical, teaching & learning and long-range stability of the institution. Lots of managers fall in to the trap of trying to build institutional alliances with people that they believe are in power, this road is so flawed it would take me forever to explain it to those of you who do this. The point of institutional integrity is not to build alliances but to build collaborations. Collaboration will always take you into the right direction. guide you to the proper decision for your institution every time.

How Does One Build Goodwill And Integrity For Their Information Technology Department.

Never Build Alliances Always Build Collaborations -- (Alliances is one of the words all managers need to strip from ther vocabulary, the whole concept of alliance is that two or more people get together to force their way.. The whole concept of collaboration is everybody gets together to talk about it, and come up with a common understanding of the general direction of the institution.)

Collaboration -- With faculty, students, staff and administrators (to gain a solid understanding of the true needs of all your constituents spoken and unspoken)

Long-Range Strategic Planning -- To begin implementing a long-range information technology plan and collaboration with the people I listed above.

Communication -- To clearly explain your long-range strategic plan to the college or university community. Day after Day, Week after Week, Month after Month and Year after Year.

Tell The Truth -- Never say you can do something that you cannot. (Clearly explain all the pros and cons of any actions on the total infrastructure or day-to-day operation of information technology)

Empower Your Staff To Tell The Truth -- Always support your staff in telling the truth, when they tell a customer that it cannot be done until Friday you need to stand behind the truth at all times.