This weekend I began an eight month journey towards becoming a Certified Chief Technology Officer through the CTO Mentor Project organized by CETPA, FCMAT, CCSESA, and the CDE. As a sign of good kickoff, the opening sessions completely changed my expectations of the project. During the project, I expected to discuss with the other candidates how educational technology personnel and the IT staff could develop working relationships to successfully integrate technology into the classroom. (And I was please to notice that over half of the candidates have classroom teaching experience in addition to their technical background.)
However, from the opening presentation “So You Want to be a CTO,” it was made clear that a successful CTO is involved at the cabinet level of an organization and works to fulfill the mission of the organization. This means that a CTO must be able to see how technology can assist with an organization’s mission, communicate to all stakeholders how technology can be an asset, and lead a team to successfully implement the technology for all members of the organization. As a result, a large part of the curriculum for the CTO Mentor Project will focus on leadership skills.
A conversation about leadership that is still rolling around in my head resulted from a presentation about “The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back From The Top” as taken from the book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. The ineffective skill that was being discussed was “clinging to the past.” One of the candidates made the generalization that certificated staff tended to cling to the past and not utilize new technologies as they were introduced. Another candidate took issue with the generalization and pointed out that this trait could easily apply to IT staff as well. I thought the example provided was very appropriate, IT staff could be seen as clinging to past if they displayed a tendency to only allow one platform (eg. PC vs Mac) or stick with one software system (eg. Exchange vs Google) in their organization.
A few candidates protested that these examples reflected other issues besides clinging to the past, including the need to understanding new systems in order to be able to manage them effectively or the simple lack of time to learn new system options. In my opinion if these explanations excuse IT staff then they should also apply to certificated staff who also have numerous demands on their time and don’t fully understand all of the options of the technology tools presented to them.
I hope that this discussion demonstrates how this project will continue to provide many points of view for these future CTOs to consider as they work with their teams to fulfill the missions of their current and future organizations.
Image: Leadership courtesy of pedrosimoes7
