JUNE 2018CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8IN MY Viewo, you have decided to enter the world of higher education as a senior IT executive? You're a highly successful executive IT professional with progressive levels of responsibility in business or industry. Now, you're taking on a senior IT leadership role in academia. The same practices that made you successful in business and industry should easily translate to the academic world, correct?Much like Dorothy of Alice in Wonderland, you are not in Kansas anymore. Or maybe you are. Business IT leaders often find a the transition into academia cumbersome. Some of my colleagues who have moved from industry received a brisk awakening to the different paces, priorities, and politics of academia. Let us walk through some of the challenges and provide some insight on each.PaceIn business, speed and execution are key success traits. Most business IT leaders come to a campus with the inclination for rapid "decide and execute" tactics.Such an approach does not always work in academia. Higher education is slow to change. The fundamental tenets of higher education have, for the most part, remained unchanged for the last four centuries. Ideas are challenged and debated. Postulates and theories are subjected to intense scrutiny and review by peers. New thoughts, ideas, and methods are birthed. Academia is the painstaking multigravida of ideas and inventions applied in the real world. Another way to gain some prospective on this concept: the acceptance of the theory of relativity versus the development of the first atomic bomb. Academics move slowly and deliberately. Business, on the other hand, moves quickly and agilely. One trait (deliberateness) is not better than the other (agility) because such traits are context- and environment-specific. One way to transition to this more deliberative pace is to embrace it. Use these "hurry up and wait" periods as time to do further research and development. While the deliberation time may be longer, it gives the CIO more time to build stronger alliances and business cases.PoliticsAll work environments with people contain some degree of politics. Higher education is no exception. Unlike most business environments, your boss and your constituents are more loosely defined. Yes, you will have a direct supervisor and direct reports. However, there are other entities on campus that can help, hinder, and evaluate your success. One such group is the faculty. Campuses have a heterogeneous group of highly educated individuals from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds comprising the faculty. Generally, the faculty move at a measured methodical pace due to the relative luxury of time and freedom of thought. Faculty do not agree on most issues, except shared governance and transparency. Most important decisions SLEEBRIAN E. GASKINS, CIO, TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITYHow to Transition from Business/Industry IT into Higher Education in an Awesome Way
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