When trying to understand by articulating the differences between Business and Educational institutions in the United States; they 'know no difference'. They both share in terms of service for their customer and/or product. One deals with unethical behavior and another tries to keep ethics in-you decide who is playing who or playing fairly.
BEST PRACTICES:
Though education in America is slow to adopt the 'best practices' of business for its finance, business strategy, and IT architecture enhancements, which will deliver a cleaner enterprise, it is definitely not too late.
For once, education has a teacher, a mentor, in good business. The educational predecessor that will and can teach education to be more efficient, while growing innovation, by meeting the challenges of limited resources on a total enterprise of an existing school district.
GROW TENTACLES:
Many times, technical people for all their worth and glamour, can stifle growth in the very direction that they themselves are wanting to grow. Why? Plain truth-technical people need to grow tentacles with deep understanding of the business in which they find themselves supporting before they run-off and spend more money purchasing appliances; switches and servers. Those days are coming to a close.
Technical skills are a necessity for integration and trouble-shooting activities-nobody is saying that these skills are not needed, however, when inarticulateness (too much technical) plays into a strategic exercise, this is not the time to defend your turf by being more technical because the overall project will therefore suffer. We need to climb higher first-grab a glimpse of what we are trying to accomplish through visionary collaboration.
CORE VALUES:
In this case, education has developed a 'mission statement' that is a 'strategic vision' presented to the educational hierarchy. It contains the 'core competency' which many a business finds difficult or reluctant to pin-point at their own peril.
Though education calls it by a different name, it is still their 'core competency' statement. The core statement is then rigorously examined for 'core values'. These are three to four subordinate strategic bullets which lay a foundation for the 'core', building depth and breadth to lead a path to a precise focal point, delivered from the Board of Education.
BUILDING THE CHILD:
An unglamorous and important fact is that most school districts within the United States of America, miss-out when they cannot understand. They, the districts, fail to understand what those 'core values' in fact, mean. This is unfortunate for them, because the end-result and product of the 'core values' and 'mission statement' lends complete focus on building the child, period! The child is education, and education is the child. In other words, to 'feel wanted and respected...' sounds more like, what we all cherish and want ourselves.
SECRET WEAPON:
Are all these mission statements, core values, and priorities misplaced AND/OR ignored? I don't think so, at least I still believe that these 'statements' are the beginning of an end-result, which is a wonderful strategic statement at best. It is in part, my secret weapon when building the connection between IT, business divisions and departments. Understand this very point and your picture of how service is to be delivered, actually the tools, becomes much clearer.
ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS:
Whether or not any technician(s), or for that matter, any of the staff, including executives, managers and the office of the superintendent, understand the ethical implications and power of these statements to educate the families children is a lesson of global proportion. Although, in all situations there are those individuals that shine-these I admire!
A TO B = Z
I BELIEVE that when they were young and passionate for their work, they understood. Whether they continue to function within that same realm is an exercise of renewal, when A to B = Z. Nevertheless, I am about to 'see' first hand, if the Las Cruces Public Schools in New Mexico, in reality, is made-up of individuals who still stand-by their ethical principles-standards and higher 'core values' of that school district. I am betting that they do...
This next section is where I am reporting on my trip to the Las Cruces Public Schools. REPORT: They are embroiled in what is a tantamount battle for turf. Their superintendent's doings (threats and resignation) and the bickering have been all over the local newspapers for many a Sunday. The Chief of Technology-the position which I went down there to check-out, is gone also. If it existed before I went to visit, I have no idea. Two top positions gone.
PUBLIC TRUST
I worry about the public trust-what is the public doing? I mentioned to the hiring board if they have considered having electronic (smart devices) badges for their children-so you really know who's in school (criminals, child molesters, etc)...Does innovation sound familiar here?
At least, from what I could 'see'-perhaps data servers and their departments are not protected. Firewalls are not secure 100% anymore, hackers can go around firewalls today-hello! Wireless access points are not really secure, if not stacked with WAP, WEP and 128bit programs, yet they are still vulnerable. Two most vulnerable points for any device is the integration layer and the application layer. These are the areas where the intruder enters.
If this assumption on my part is correct, then this next assumption is equally important where Hackers can hack into the districts computers for children's sensitive records which could expose to the Internet (global) public at large, visibility to home addresses, telephone numbers, and all sensitive records pertaining to that student.
Students need better exposure to real technology so they can compete in a global market. Think Globally, here!
Costs can be cut everywhere! Because most districts at large run inefficiently. Yes, because when a group is used to running an operations without massive change; change management, the group is vulnerable to high critisism. The way you do business is based on the vision: to educate every child, because you're beholding to every dollar that is expensed, guess what? It's a new day-a new way of promoting the district. And the cost/benefits ratio can be equally applied to Operations and Students. To empower the schools supporting mechanisms pertaining to logistics, and services requires maximum exposure to decreasing cost structures of automation.
Technology in operations, in many areas need RFID (radio frequency Identification) tagging for inventory-bus parts, school supplies, food ordering; go ahead you use your own thinking and creative skills here. Automate everything. Start re-engineering the employees. Call for early retirements, re-educating some for other positions.
Order 50,000 pencils because your vendor says so, but not realizing that automating the supply line will and can inject savings directly into inventory by having vendors informed when stocks are low without the district purchasing 50-60-70,000 of anything. Savings (money) then goes to refining the internal processes.
Not really a secure enterprise (school communications) which I'm painting here.
Yes, challenges mount, understanding and discussion should be clarified, if and only if, we understand our own souls. The 'statements', the 'values', the 'strategic vision', all hold a common thread that guides initiatives to their proper end and beginning.
Without understanding-how can one be truly an enterprise architect for education? We are all enterprise architects' for our children. How then can a technician understand the correct integration and implementation of tools which IT will deliver without knowledge, and comprehension of that elusive point which we call business value. IT MUST BE TAUGHT...
He or she can not know unless, simply they are changed emotionally, which rearranges that concept of IT the technical for the betterment of the business whole. It now becomes broader, more deep, and far wider than first exposure. We have then only begun to align the backbone of information to our business existence. If it were not true...How then did wireless communication come about? Was it not for the promise of untethered basic communication and freedom?
Lyle K'ang, MBA/IM
Senior VP of Business IT Communications Consultant
LYVEOASIS
1 comment:
Thanks
Good points
M
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