CIO Magazine's "Sounding Board" recently gave their collective advice on building technology literacy. We've been discussing "digital literacy" in the IT Working Group, so I thought it would be good to mention here.
Building a partnership between IT and the campus sometimes means helping others to develop a comfort level with technology. But how do you go about doing just that? Here's the advice from the CIO peer council:
1. Understand the effects on the individual
From Wayne Shurts, CIO, Supervalu: "Recently, we gave all our store managers iPads and told them, essentially, to have fun: no usage restrictions. We paired them up with someone in IT to help them get comfortable with the hardware and later to catalog how the technology was being used. Our decision to start with store managers--as opposed to some back-office function--was a deliberate one. How these folks work and interact with our customers is critical to the success of each store. The lessons learned and the value these devices provide have a direct link to the company's bottom line, which creates buy-in for future IT investment. ... Understanding the extent and degree of change for each employee and tailoring our rollout plans accordingly is the whole ball game."
2. Sell information as a problem solver
Twila Day, CIO, SYSCO writes: "In other words, what is the business problem worth solving and what information do we need to solve it? The role of IT in this case is one of analytics evangelist. We hear a lot of analytics success stories from external sources, and we vet these ideas for business impact and technology feasibility."
