Pilgrims's Process

Getting through the bureaucratic gauntlet at any institution of higher learning can be challenging. I managed to complete the RPG-style quest to obtain my ID card, a login to the online registration system, and an in information systems (email, web access, blackboard) account.

The process was slightly more difficult than I expected, but manageable. However, the structure of their IT department is wildly out of date.

A couple of examples:

After showing up for a canceled class, I decided I wanted to set up email forwarding. Apparently this is only possible if you use Internet Explorer. That’s right the web-based interface will only show certain functions when one uses IE.

Undaunted, I downloaded IE for my Mac. No dice, it has to be IE 6 (Apple stopped at 5).

Ok, granted, they use Microsoft Outlook Web Access, so it may simply be a compatibility issue. Still, zero usability points.

However, the process one must go through to change an email/info-systems account password gets minus points for usability.

Here is the opener: “You can change your password by opening a Telnet session and logging in to one of the UNIX file servers.”

Excuse me? How about, “To change your password, click here.”

If you want to read the rest of the lucid instructions, check out this pdf.

Perhaps there is an untapped market for a comprehensive university communication solution…

In reading an article today, I saw a quote that described the grace of God as “radical and shocking.” Why not describe the grace of God in a way that those adjectives will be applied by the reader?

It seems we get a lot of this in marketing:

• “An amazing offer”
• “Exceptional service”
• “World-class results”

Wouldn’t it be better if you told your story in such a way that people knew your product or service was compelling and remarkable without you telling them it was?

What joke is improved by it being prefaced with telling someone it’s funny?

Well, an ironic one, I guess, but then I wouldn’t preface that with “I’m going to be ironic, ready?”

Are adjectives a lazy way to communicate?

In writing about my job, I mentioned before that I lead a group of about one hundred contract workers. Well, that’s not quite true. There are about one hundred on the roster, but after holding a mandatory training I’m down to about forty.

The training went well, I believe, and one big part of it was vision casting. Now that the grand vision has been laid out, though, the work begins of getting us from point A to point B. Together.

Because of the constraints imposed by geography and time, getting forty people to the same place at the same time is nearly impossible. I held four separate training sessions this time around, so I’ve yet to see it happen. To bridge this gap, I’m trying out using Ning to get everything centralized. I refer to it as “The Network” and told my team that everything they need would be there.

To kick off using it (in addition to telling them it was mandatory requirement to be eligible to work), I scheduled a retraining for a certain curriculum and put it on The Network using Doodle (I like free stuff). In the email I sent out, it simply pointed them there. How do you get people to use technology? Show them the value by constantly driving them there.

Hopefully this serves to pull us together. Any ideas or suggestions to assist this are more than welcome.

Yesterday, I ran a training session for some of our employees. One of my job responsibilities is to manage (I prefer “lead” ala Seth Godin’s Tribes) a group of about one hundred contract workers. This was my first training that I’ve done in this role and I will do a couple of more next week.

Wanting to make sure we were all on the same page, I thought it would be good to address our vision as a team.

A definition that I like for vision is “the future we hope to see” (I believe someone shared that with me on Twitter). It seems important that the vision be clear in everyone’s mind. If it’s not, how do we know if we’re successful in what we do?

I think sometimes we mistake movement for progress.

“Are we moving forward?” is a common question to ask in evaluating effectiveness. The question that needs to be asked in order to answer, however, is “Where is forward?” If we don’t know where we’re going, it’s going to be difficult to know if we’re getting there.

Assuming that everyone knows the direction we’re supposed to be heading will create an environment similar to a children’s soccer game rather than a running club. The location of the ball controls all of the children. The location of the destination guides the pack.

Getting all of these geographically disparate (all over Southern California) people running the same way and keeping them going will be a difficult task. I have some ideas to accomplish this, but if you have any suggestions, please share.