February 2011 Archives

When you first meet someone, they form a "first impression" of you. It takes just a quick glance for someone to evaluate you, and form an opinion about you. This can be based on your appearance, your body language, your demeanor, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed.

With every new encounter, you are evaluated and yet another person's impression of you is formed. These first impression can be nearly impossible to reverse or undo, and they set the tone for the relationship that follows.

More importantly, many first impressions are completely wrong.

So it's important to consider your first impression, and present the person you want them to see. Take a moment before attending a meeting, or make a phone call. Build a clear understanding of your message, how to communicate that message. Think about how you are going to present yourself, how you will appear to the other person.

MindTools has nine tips on making a great first impression:

1. Be on time.
2. Be yourself, be at ease.
3. Present yourself appropriately.
4. Express your individuality.
5. Smile.
6. Be open and confident.
7. Use small talk to build a relationship.
8. Be positive.
9. Be courteous and attentive.

While MindTools advises to show up on time, that's not always possible. When I'm short on time to make the next meeting, I always take a few minutes before I step into the room, to collect my thoughts. I believe it's better to be a little late to a meeting and appear confident, than to show up on time but seem lost and unsure. If you are late, don't make an excuse. No one wants to hear your story. Acknowledge that you're late ("Sorry I'm late") then move on.

You can't help but hear about "the Cloud" these days. Everything is moving to "the Cloud". At the University of Minnesota (not just Morris, the entire system) we are leveraging more Cloud services. One example of Cloud is our Google Initiative, moving away from our old "Cougarmail" email system and UMCal calendar to a University-branded Google Gmail and Google Calendar.

"Cloud" is a common term for Software as a Service ("SaaS"). Under this scenario, the application and the infrastructure (servers) are based on a "multi-tenant" application hosted by a large service provider. By leveraging the Cloud, the University takes advantage of economies of scale, which reduces our costs to provide that service. Gmail is much less expensive for the University, for example, than running our own email systems. And since Gmail is also used by so many others ("multi-tenant" application) Google can provide a common set of services that benefits everyone.

IT organizations typically see a reduction in operational expenses associated with using a Cloud service, like Gmail. Using Cloud or SaaS means our staff don't have to support patching, incident management (outages), or application change management. In the case of Gmail, the University only needs to manage the email accounts - Google does everything else for us.

We're always working to provide the best benefits for the campus, while lowering our costs. Cloud and SaaS are one way to help us do that.

Everyone at Morris should be aware of our Google Initiative, migrating away from the old "Cougarmail" email system and UMCal calendar to a University-branded version of Gmail and Google Calendar. We started the project for the Morris campus in Fall 2010. Staff units did their migrations throughout the month of October. Faculty started their migrations in November, and students were activated for Google around Thanksgiving Break.

Every few weeks, OIT sends me a report of how many users have been activated for Google, and how many of these have completed their conversion. I wanted to share this update on the Google Apps adoption at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Here are the numbers, as of the end of January: (click for larger version)

As you can see, we're moving along pretty well. The Division of Education and the Division of Science and Mathematics lead the effort, at about 53% each. Overall, our campus adoption is 34% (including all faculty, staff, and students) and trending upwards.

I've heard from some of the faculty how much they enjoy Google Apps, especially the ability to share and collaborate on documents via Google Docs. Some classes now use Google Docs for assignments and homework, which is great to see. The sharing features in Google Apps make this a great fit for the classroom.

If you haven't yet migrated to Google, I strongly encourage you to do so. The University is migrating to Google across the system, and plans to begin retiring the old Cougarmail and UMCal systems starting in Summer 2011.

We have activated everyone for the migration to Google, but you pick the time to opt into the new service. You can do your e-mail migration at a time that is most convenient for you.

Migrating to Google is simple. Check the Migration Process page for a quick checklist of steps to migrate. If you need help, or if you have questions about how to migrate, call the Help Desk at 6150.

We recently concluded the IT Leaders Program with the University of Minnesota IT Directors. This was my second time through the program. One activity that helped me as a leader was the leadership journey. This is a great exercise to help focus on the experiences we faced in our lives that had a lasting impact. I'd like to share my leadership journey with you.

To start, a leadership journey should be distilled to just those events that hold the greatest meaning. These moments can be either "negative" or "positive". I find that my leadership journey has the most to say when I focus just on the peaks and valleys:

Let me talk about a few points on the chart, and what I learned about leadership from each event:

You may not know that I started my university career with the military. As a high school student, I was appointed to West Point and the Air Force Academy. But I decided to attend the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Eventually, I realized that VMI wasn't the place for me (I wanted to study physics.) It was a painful choice to leave, but I learned that sometimes, you have to make decisions that are best for yourself, not to make other people happy. I transferred to the University of Wisconsin- River Falls, where I earned my degree in physics.

After graduation, I got my first job at a small company (DataMap) as a Unix systems administrator. One day, I made a huge mistake on one of our servers. Despite the urgency, my boss took a few minutes to do some coaching with me. That helped me to focus, and I was able to undo what I had done. My boss was very supportive, and I learned a lot from him about coaching and mentoring to develop staff.

Unfortunately, not every boss has been like that. For example, I had one boss where I learned what happens when you don't cultivate trust with those around you, and generally how not to manage people.

Later, I moved to the University of Minnesota, on the Web Team. Over time, I stepped up in the organization, eventually becoming the Senior Manager for OIT Operations & Infrastructure. Around this time, I had the opportunity to attend the IT Leaders Program (ITLP). I know I've become a better leader by having participated in ITLP. I've been through several "leadership" and "management" classes, but none stuck with me like ITLP.

That vertical line is interesting - that's when I learned I had obstructive sleep apnea. There's a lot to be said about sleep apnea, but I'll just comment that it was both the worst and best experience of my life. When you are sleep deprived, you take a different view of things. The key is that you sometimes need to rely on the advice of those you trust, rather than make a decision on your own.

Looking at the whole, I learned a lot just through these life experiences: coaching and mentoring, communicating effectively, building trust, relying on trust, making hard decisions, putting new skills into practice.

You can learn a lot about yourself by doing a leadership journey. I encourage you to take some time out, and reflect on the key events that taught you the most about leadership. The experience is wasted if you don't take away something from it. What are the lessons you've learned? How will you use these to further develop yourself?

Last week, I graduated from the IT Leaders Program with other IT Directors from the University of Minnesota. This was my second time through the program, and I enjoyed it as much as my first time several years ago. As a cohort, I believe we built up new skills that will help the IT Directors lead the campus into the future.

After graduation, I reflected on the qualities of the program. Here is a thought I'd like to share with my fellow ITLP graduates, old and new:

Brian McDonald is just like Mister Rogers.

Give me a moment, and you'll agree with me. But first, let me relate a story:

In the mid 1990s, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives looked to reduce federal spending. Among other cuts, they looked at slashing funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides support for the Public Broadcasting System ("PBS").

Such a large budget reduction would have had a severe impact on PBS's ability to operate. PBS launched a national awareness campaign, with ads that showed everyday Americans stating their support for public television.

I remember seeing these ads on TV. One ad in particular has stayed with me over the years. A group of young business women were interviewed on the street. Each gave a quick quote for why PBS was important to them. The last quote was my favorite: "I don't think we'd be who we are today if not for Mister Rogers."

That's the quote that came back to me while I was reflecting on the IT Leaders Program. ITLP has had such a positive impact to me. Throughout the program, we learned new skills and tools to enhance our role in IT leadership. These skills, built up over several sessions, were supported by coaching between sessions. In addition, my cohort challenged each other to put these skills into practice.

The result? When I graduated from ITLP, these new skills had become habits. I no longer had to push myself to use these leadership tools, they had become part of me. And I continue to use them every day.

I know I've become a better leader by having participated in ITLP. I've been through several "leadership" and "management" classes, but none stuck with me like ITLP. I know my fellow ITLP graduates feel the same about themselves.

Brian plays a huge part in the success of ITLP. To some, Brian is the IT Leaders Program.

So I challenge my ITLP peers with this question: Would you be the IT leader you are today if not for Brian?

That's essentially the same statement that woman used in support of Mister Rogers. Turn that around, Brian McDonald is just like Mister Rogers. Except for the zipper sweater.