In higher education, your rank-and-file IT staff members often feel like second-class citizens. In the latest edition of Tech Therapy, Scott Carlson and Warren Arbogast discuss how folks in IT can find their voice and a leadership role at their colleges.
“We find that communication tends to be a real barrier when people are trying to get work done on projects,” Mr. Carlson says. “The irony here is that we’re talking about the college environment — it’s supposed to be collaborative and collegial. But is it?”
“I think that a lot of people like to say that they have collaborative environments,” says Mr. Arbogast. “But the reality is that the vast majority of people are doing things that are counterproductive.”
In higher education, leadership roles aren’t well defined, which leads to problems. Another issue is that academe is full of world-class experts, and many people in the IT department have trouble telling those experts how to run their computers.
