Reporting from the UC IT Leadership Academy

Thirty-five IT leaders attended the second UC IT Leadership Academy this week at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. The program is a partnership between the UC IT Leadership Council (campus and UC Health CIOs) and Haas. Taught by Haas faculty, the program is designed to develop the capabilities of our IT leaders across the university.

This year’s cohort spent the last 3 days in an interactive classroom setting covering the topics of strategy, leadership, collaboration, and innovation. The program is both lively and intense, and features long days with evening programs hearing from top UC leaders.

Some key take-aways of the last 3 days:

• Path-bending leaders always question the status quo, exhibit confidence without attitude, are always students, and think beyond themselves to the whole organization.
• It is critical for leaders to be intentional about communicating to staff, sharing their strategies, delegating, choosing where to spend their time, and bringing positivity to the environment.
• The value proposition statement is an important tool for driving conversations with stakeholders. To develop one, fill in the blanks: “For the (target customer), who (customer need), the (product/project) is a (category) that (key benefit). Unlike (primary alternative), our product/project (differentiation).”

We did some video interviews of participants about what they’ve learned so far, and will share the videos with you as well.

I think the participants are both (a) glad the three days are over and (b) excited to start using their new knowledge. The cohort will come back together at Berkeley in March for their second module. Stay tuned.