March 2008 — Features

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Point Man

by Matt Villano

"Instead of satisfying the needs of a few central office and schoolbased administrators, CIOs now need to recognize a gamut of needs, from technology decision-making to technology management, business operations, and strategic thinking."
-Bill Rust, Gartner

Building Consensus

Naturally, it's important for CIOs to make sure various stakeholders understand what they're trying to accomplish. This demands a two-pronged strategy, revolving around input on specific IT products and a decision-making process that involves other decision-makers in the district.

The first part of this strategy requires aggregating opinions on technology from a range of departments and people, from the superintendent down to the janitorial staff. Bailey Mitchell, chief technology and information officer at Forsyth County Schools (GA), says this aspect of his job takes time, and that it's all about mingling and interpersonal communication.

Mitchell says he spends a good part of every week participating in informal conversation at lunch and stopping by the offices of his colleagues to talk shop. During these visits, Mitchell asks teachers and fellow administrators which specific technology products they think they need in order to get their jobs done. In this sense, he treats them as customers, focusgrouping the constituents to get a sense of what they want.

Mitchell says he uses these casual interactions to litmustest his own ideas about specific IT purchases, to make sure that what he and his department are planning for IT is palatable to everyone.

"Whether you're talking to your superintendent, your principals, the central office, people from the teaching and learning [department], or people from finance and budgeting, it's all about making the time to communicate," he says. "At the end of the day, whether I'm building a new wireless network or investing in PDAs for assessment, it's my job to make them happy."

Once CIOs have collected input from various colleagues, Beverly White, CTO at the Wake County Public School System (NC), says it's important to involve them in whatever purchasing decision is made.

White is one of about a dozen associate superintendents in her district; she regularly presents ideas to her colleagues before formally acting on them. Within her IT department, she has four senior directors, with whom she consults on all decisions.