Attract, Retain, and Engage the Best: Building an Inclusive IT Culture through Professional Development

Attract, Retain, and Engage the Best: Building an Inclusive IT Culture through Professional Development Samantha Singhal, University of Rochester with Julie Buehler, University of Rochester Jeff Carpenter, University of Rochester ECAR Research Bulletin 11, 2010 4772 Walnut Street, Suite 206 Boulder, Colorado 80301 educause.edu/ecar

Overview Don t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Dr. Howard Thurman In a slow economy, training budgets are the first to suffer. Ironically, this is also the time people most need to develop their skills and collaborate more broadly in order to work around the resource constraints typically imposed in a tight economy. In addition, the higher education landscape today demands that individuals work well together across silos to deliver integrated technology solutions that are competitive in a global market. Increased collaboration means that individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and styles must work effectively as a team. It was these drivers that led the University of Rochester to evolve a transformational information technology (IT) professional development program that has proven successful in spite of a constrained budget. The University of Rochester IT Professional Development Program engages staff across the IT organization in the development and delivery of knowledge sharing and training sessions. This approach not only keeps costs low but has the added advantage of recognizing the unique value that each individual brings to the IT organization. As a result, experts in academic computing discuss the impact that the academic cycle and faculty needs have on technology and computing on campus, while others conduct sessions on leading effective meetings and engaging in crucial conversations. In addition to hosting or attending a session, all staff members are encouraged to provide feedback, contribute ideas, and participate in professional development opportunities that address their interests. The level of staff involvement and enthusiasm about the program has helped foster an organizational culture that encourages collaboration and an appreciation of diversity. Some sessions are open to our IT colleagues in other university departments and have led to interesting discussions with faculty and staff that range from research computing to IT security. According to the 2008 Campus Computing Survey, hiring/retaining IT staff was ranked second as the single most important IT issue confronting my institution over the next two three years. 1 While the 2009 survey suggests that today s institutions are challenged by too many competing priorities, IT staffing still makes the list. 2 These challenges persist in an environment where technology expectations continue to evolve at a very rapid rate. As service providers, we need to rethink how we keep on top of innovations while reaching across the cultural boundaries that are a part of a global market. This ECAR research bulletin explores the process of building an appreciation for diversity into the fabric of an organization through a program that employs an innovative approach to professional development. Developed for the University of Rochester IT staff, the IT Professional Development Program capitalizes on the diverse talents of an IT organization to improve human capital and create transformational collaborations. 2

Highlights Over the past five years, the University of Rochester has seen a lot of change, especially in senior leadership. With a new president and provost, the university has refined its strategic priorities and placed a new emphasis on diversity and inclusion. Aligned with this vision, Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer David E. Lewis led an organizational change initiative built on a foundation of diversity and inclusion. This initiative has focused primarily on University IT, the central IT organization at the University of Rochester. University IT comprises 200+ employees who provide institution-wide IT services. The first step in this initiative was to clarify how IT at the University of Rochester is aligned with the university s vision and strategy. The IT strategic planning framework (see Figure 1) was the model used to reinforce technology s role as a key enabler of the university s missions of research, teaching and learning, health care, performance, and community service. Figure 1. University IT Strategic Planning Context Given this framework, the IT staff was then asked to reflect on and respond to the following question: How do we advance the values of innovation, collaboration, and diversity in our work with one another and our university colleagues as we address the needs of a global University of Rochester? As a result of their feedback, IT leaders made a commitment to foster an inclusive organizational culture through professional development. 3

Building the IT Professional Development Program One of the key takeaways from the feedback session with the staff was that professional development within IT was perceived as a stop-and-start initiative. Offerings were sporadic and often abandoned during tight budgets or busy times of the year. Not surprisingly, these experiences varied across the different units and levels of the organization. To remedy this situation, IT leaders committed to offering an ongoing professional development program with a mix of knowledge-sharing sessions and soft skills training or workshops. Finding Our Way to the Intersection In every arena, whether in the sciences or the humanities, business or politics, there is a growing need to connect and combine concepts from disparate fields. That is how we will find new opportunities, surmount new challenges, and gain new insights. That is the way we will create our future. The future lies at the Intersection, and if you wish to help create it, find your way there. Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect When IT leaders first articulated the goals of the program, it seemed like an overwhelming task to accomplish with a very limited budget and no dedicated resources. The most obvious place to start was with the university s human resources (HR) department, which has a group dedicated to training and development. Unfortunately, with 20,000+ university employees, the HR development resources were stretched to the limit. They were more than willing to collaborate with IT on individual offerings, but they did not have the bandwidth to commit the resources that would be required to plan, coordinate, and staff a program that offers at least one or two professional development opportunities a month for our 200+ IT employees. Although it might be considered unusual for an IT department to seek advice from an academic department, that is exactly what we did. The more we thought about how we might proceed, the more it became clear that the University of Rochester s Warner School of Education had the necessary knowledge and expertise to advise us on curriculum. The faculty was more than willing to help. The partnership between University IT, HR, and the Warner School is an intersection of diverse backgrounds, ideas, and disciplines. The insights gained from this intersection were instrumental in shaping and growing our professional development program. Defined Learning Outcomes Based on benchmarking with professional development programs at peer institutions, we realized that we would need to develop learning outcomes that are relevant and meaningful to the organization. With the assistance of organizational development and education experts at the Warner School, we translated our needs and goals into the following learning outcomes for our IT Professional Development Program (see Figure 2): 4

1. Achieving better results for the university community 2. Being better leaders 3. Broadening and furthering our knowledge of the field of IT 4. Exploring our differences with the goal of taking advantage of the unique skills and talents that each individual brings to the table Figure 2. IT Professional Development Learning Outcomes These learning outcomes and the offerings that are now aligned under each are reviewed and refined periodically based on feedback received from the IT leadership, management, and staff and from our participant satisfaction surveys. Collaborate, Educate, Participate With the learning outcomes as guideposts to help us decide which sessions to offer, we turned our attention to the organizational development goals that we hoped to accomplish. At the University of Rochester, IT resources are constantly balancing multiple priorities from keep it running to new project activities. Under these circumstances, it was important that we offer management and staff a compelling value proposition that encouraged participation in the program. We had to answer the question, What s in it for me? We knew we needed to kick the program off in August 2008 with a session that people would be passionate about and would perceive as valuable. Based on feedback, we chose a session built around the techniques and lessons learned from the book Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni. 3 This was the beginning of a reading series that has remained a component of our program. The series includes books such as Crucial Conversations 4 and The Medici Effect 5 and is intended to develop a common vocabulary, learn new skills and techniques, and make these teachings relevant to the University IT culture. 5

The intent of the program has always been to develop the organizational culture by fostering collaboration, promoting education, and encouraging participation and staff involvement. As the program grew, we measured our success against each of these core goals. Collaborate The University of Rochester has a fairly decentralized IT organization. There are two large IT organizations one that supports the Medical Center and another (University IT) that supports university-wide and campus needs. In addition, several academic and administrative units have their own IT staffs to support their divisional systems and services. One of the goals of IT leadership is to foster greater collaboration across the various IT groups. Through the IT Professional Development Program, sessions that address topics of interest to a broad audience are opened to colleagues in other IT organizations, departments, and academic units. For every session we open up, we have around 6 7 participants external to University IT. As an example, in December 2009, the Center for Research Computing hosted a session on the services that they offer. Not only did several of our distributed-it colleagues sign up, a couple of faculty researchers in the Medical Center attended and participated in the discussion as well. The contacts and relationships established during these sessions will enable collaborative efforts that would not have been possible without this forum. Educate When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people. Chinese proverb Furthering education is at the heart of any professional development program. For University IT, we encouraged our staff to share not just their technical knowledge but also their soft skills with their colleagues. For example, an administrative assistant with a teaching background hosted a session on effective e-mail communications a topic that was requested by program participants. In spite of the time and effort it takes to put together the materials and prepare for a session, the trainers are always willing to do it again. In fact, many of the trainers have indicated they think they have learned as much, if not more, than those attending. Diversity is not just about gender or race. It is about differences in styles, background, experiences, and ways of working. It was therefore important that the program provide opportunities for diverse individuals to come together and share a common intent. At the same time, we also had to recognize that different people have different styles of learning. To accommodate some of these different styles, our sessions are delivered in several different formats, such as formal presentations, discussion groups, panel-style discussions, and workshops. While the intent is to encourage attendance and participation in our sessions for the reasons discussed in this bulletin, we also need to acknowledge that the demands of some IT jobs make it difficult to attend professional development offerings. In order to be 6

inclusive and have the program accessible to everyone in the organization, presentation materials are made available after the session. We have also experimented with podcasts and session debriefs that summarize the key highlights or takeaways. To date, we have offered 42 sessions, averaging around two per month. Participate I shall participate, I shall contribute, and in so doing, I will be the gainer. Walter Annenberg It is important to us that the IT Professional Development Program not be a requirement for our employees but rather an enrichment program that directly addresses the needs of the organization. As such, the program is designed to be flexible. While a general plan is outlined for the coming year, sessions are only finalized for a three-month sliding window, allowing offerings to be tailored to changing needs and employee feedback. In addition, everyone in the organization is encouraged to offer feedback through satisfaction surveys or by suggesting ideas for future offerings. We measure the success of this program by the participation we have enjoyed to date. None of the sessions have been mandatory. There is no penalty for signing up for a session and not attending. Over the past 18 months, we have moved all our production systems to a new data center and initiated multiple strategic projects such as identity management and multiple institutional security initiatives. In addition, our keep it running obligations have stayed constant, or increased, depending on the line of business. In spite of these competing demands, 70% of our employees have attended at least one of our offerings. About 34% attended three or more sessions during the first year of the program. Average attendance for each session is about 18. Changing the Culture of an Organization Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors... Organizational change efforts are rumored to fail the vast majority of the time. Usually, this failure is credited to lack of understanding about the strong role of culture and the role it plays in organizations. That s one of the reasons that many strategic planners now place as much emphasis on identifying strategic values as they do mission and vision. 6 To establish a foundation of shared intent for all our employees, everyone in the organization was asked to contribute to the development of our University IT values (see Figure 3). 7

Figure 3. University IT Values These values serve as guideposts for both our internal and external interactions and form the foundation of our IT Professional Development Program. Values such as teamwork and collaboration are reinforced through sessions where leaders from across the university come and talk to the organization about the role technology plays in their functional areas. For example, in January 2010, the Director of the Clinical Trials Coordination Center conducted a session on the role of technology in clinical trials and the impact that FDA regulations have on IT activities. This helped emphasize the different ways in which technology aligns with the university s strategy and mission. Our commitment to open and constructive communication is reinforced by creative approaches. This includes the establishment of a Staff Leadership Group that gives staff 8

the opportunity to interact and communicate directly with IT leaders, allowing them to take a more active role in shaping the organization s decision making and priorities. Leaders also conducted management teambuilding exercises such as the DISC behavioral assessment. The DISC exercise helps to familiarize employees with their own styles and how to interact effectively with the styles of others. Our innovative approach to professional development has helped build transformational intersections and an appreciation of diversity into the core fabric of the organization. Further evidence lies in the feedback we have received from participants, some examples of which are included below: IT needs more of same. I d love to hear more about what your team is working on and if possible tap into some of your services to minimize the duplication of effort that seems to be a consistent university-wide problem. I always enjoy learning, and I have never known what desktop encryption did for the computer or what firewall technologies were useful for. Thank you. What It Means to Higher Education The takeaway for higher education institutions is that in tough economic times, professional development is more important than ever. We can look to the drivers within our institutions (of which diversity is certainly one) to find creative, low-cost solutions that leverage existing strengths and build community. Building stronger relationships with the university community will improve collaborations and help facilitate intra- and interuniversity projects. Committing to Professional Development Ongoing professional development is essential even when budgets are restricted. This commitment can build long-term loyalty for your institutional professionals and pay off in improved staff hiring and retention, increased productivity, and enhanced job satisfaction. When budgets are tight, it is time to get creative. Do you have experts on your staff who can impart a technical or soft skill to their colleagues? Are there opportunities for collaborating with other IT organizations either within your institution or among your peers? Encouraging creative use of resources adds value not just to the organization but also to the individual s professional development. Can you take advantage of the wealth of academic opportunities on campus for your IT staff? Some options might be taking your IT staff to computer science or business classes or even bringing the faculty to them. What about using IT staff to mentor student workers, who will grow up to be your next generation of IT professionals? Can employees pool books to form a virtual resource library for reference material? 9

Leveraging a Diverse Workforce According to Joe Gerstandt, For more and more organizations in more and more industries, innovation is the new opportunity for competitive advantage... Despite our affection for the myth of the lone genius, innovation does not take place in isolation. It happens at intersections. It happens when different experiences, perspectives, professions, organizations, and cultures rub up against each other. Without an understanding of, and some appreciation for, the value of difference (in opinion, identity, culture, profession, perspective, etc.) organizations will be hard-pressed to drive sustained innovation. 7 We improve our chances of hiring and retaining the best talent when we look at skills and talents from the broadest possible perspective. Celebrating this diversity then allows us to breed creativity and innovation. We need to clear the air about how different personalities and working styles can affect the dynamics of a team. It is time to stop seeing our differences as a roadblock. The very things that make us unique also make us invaluable members of the team. Recognizing and taking advantage of these differences is what can make us both innovative and competitive. Key Questions to Ask How can our institution leverage diversity to create transformational collaborations that break through traditional boundaries and enable innovative solutions? How can we prepare for the globalization of our workforce and the university community? What opportunities does our institution make available to employees, students, and faculty that help them appreciate and understand the diversity within our community and the unique value that each individual brings to the table? What can our institution do to better tap the skills and talents of our community, to provide effective professional development opportunities for our employees and improve retention? What do we need to do to help our project managers staff diverse project teams that are committed to the idea that the sum of the group is greater than the contributions of any one individual? Where to Learn More Johanssen, Frans. Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2006. 10

Merchant, Nilofer. The New How: Building Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy. Sebastopol, CA: O Reilly Media Inc, 2009. Baiz, Hetty, and Susan Danoff. Exploring Diversity and Creating IT Community through Storytelling (Research Bulletin 11, 2009). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2009, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar. Lencioni, Patrick. Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business. San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004. Patterson, Kerry, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. Crucial Conversations. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Endnotes 1. Kenneth C. Green, The 2008 National Survey of Information Technology in U.S. Higher Education (The Campus Computing Project, 2008), http://www.campuscomputing.net. 2. Kenneth C. Green, 2009 Campus Computing Survey (presented at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, November 4 6, 2009). 3. Patrich Lencioni, Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business (San Fransisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004). 4. Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler, Crucial Conversations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002). 5. Frans Johanssen, Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2006). 6. Carter McNamara, Organizational Culture, Free Management Library, adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision, http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm. 7. Joe Gerstandt, Why Diversity Matters Now, ERE.net, November 24, 2009, http://www.ere.net/2009/11/24/why-diversity-matters-now/. About the Authors At the University of Rochester, Samantha Singhal (samantha.singhal@rochester.edu) is Assistant Director, Office of the CIO, Julie Buehler (julie.buehler@rochester.edu) is Deputy Chief Information Officer, and Jeffrey Carpenter (jeffrey.carpenter@rochester.edu) is Senior Quality Analyst. Citation for This Work Singhal, Samantha, with Julie Buehler and Jeffrey Carpenter. Attract, Retain, and Engage the Best: Building an Inclusive IT Culture through Professional Development (Research Bulletin 11, 2010). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2010, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar. Copyright Copyright 2010 EDUCAUSE and Samantha Singhal, Julie Buehler, and Jeffrey Carpenter. All rights reserved. This ECAR research bulletin is proprietary and intended for use only by subscribers. Reproduction, or distribution of ECAR research bulletins to those not formally affiliated with the subscribing organization, is strictly prohibited unless prior permission is granted by EDUCAUSE and the author. 11