Thirty-five UC IT leaders reconvened this week at the UCB Haas School of Business for the second module of the UC Leadership Academy for IT. 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 UC’s IT leaders. This week, it covered change leadership, how leadership and culture work together, what IT leaders need to understand about their brand, and the role program participants play in positively impacting the culture across the University.
Participants picked up right where they left off last December – loud, lively, and intense. There’s no doubt that the interpersonal relationships developed over the course of the six-day program are one of the program’s significant benefits.
Key take-aways from the last 3 days:
- How to manage change – from creating a sense of urgency, to forming a strategic vision, to enlisting a volunteer army to support the change
- The power of active listening, and saying to someone, “tell me more”
- A systematic approach to problem solving – defining the problem statement, articulating various approaches and the pros/cons of each, and picking one, including doing nothing
- Better time management – determining what you won’t do vs. the classic “to do list,” and ensuring that meetings are necessary, effective, and as few as possible
- The importance of developing rapport – people will rarely remember what you said or did, but will always will remember how you made them feel
Be on the lookout for video interviews of participants talking about lessons learned.
I want to thank University of California for this opportunity. It was life altering in many ways. We work in a great organization and the possibilities are endless. We just need to be willing.