One of the things that I often see in new IT folks, whether they're budding managers, whether they're amazing technology individual contributors, is they often spend a lot of time heads down. And they don't look up and look at what other peer institutions are doing. And they don't make those connections outside. And so one of the things that, it's usually one of my first questions that I ask someone when they're grappling with a problem is, well what have other people done? Go out and look at your peers. What is name that institution? What is Stanford doing? What is Harvard doing? What is the University of Arkansas doing? There's amazing innovation everywhere, oftentimes not in your own institution. And so you should be spending time looking at what other folks are doing and meeting people from outside of your own institution. Best way to do that? Join a professional organization, hit up some conferences, join some listservs, be active.
The CIO Minute: Expand Your Network [video]
min read
One of the things that I often see in new IT folks, whether they're budding managers, whether they're amazing technology individual contributors, is they often spend a lot of time heads down. And they don't look up and look at what other peer institutions are doing. And they don't make those connections outside. And so one of the things that, it's usually one of my first questions that I ask someone when they're grappling with a problem is, well what have other people done? Go out and look at your peers. What is name that institution? What is Stanford doing? What is Harvard doing? What is the University of Arkansas doing? There's amazing innovation everywhere, oftentimes not in your own institution. And so you should be spending time looking at what other folks are doing and meeting people from outside of your own institution. Best way to do that? Join a professional organization, hit up some conferences, join some listservs, be active.