-: We'll now be closed
by our final keynote speaker, Paige Francis.
Paige is a strategic and performance-focused executive
with 15 plus years of innovative,
energetic technology leadership
across a variety of industries.
Paige is and expert in defining
and implementing strategic priorities
for applying technology in any environment,
rallying in consensus, fostering teamwork and collaboration
and creating a consistent learning environment
at the pace of technology.
She's a motivational and nationally-recognized leader,
known for her clearly defining mission and goals,
aligning people and resources
and consistently delivering results
that exceed expectations.
Paige's passion projects include writing for Forbes,
advocating for women in technology,
authoring pocket guides with abandoned
and leaning into lively tech discussions
on Twitter's weekly #CIO chat sessions
and you can follow her at @CIOPaige on Twitter.
Paige, thank you for being here today
and I'll turn it over to you now.
-: Good afternoon, thank you, Bret.
Thank you to everyone for staying with me this afternoon.
What a thought-provoking inspirational day,
I'm honored to be with you all.
When Marcia approached me to entertain the idea
of sharing a keynote for this event,
well first of all, of course I jumped at the chance.
Once I pushed past
the initial imposter syndrome inner voice,
it happens to the best of us,
I recognized any opportunity to participate
in an event folding together, pedagogy, technology
and advancing women in IT, how could I resist?
Second, I immediately began thumbing
through my past years Rolodex for a hook,
what I might talk about, my starting point.
I tried to think of the endless selection of topics,
the articles written in read this past year,
things we learned, the litany of aha moments
and so many examples of heroic service and support.
The great pivot, all the way to
and through today's almost certain machinations preparing
for a return to work and life, dare I say, post-pandemic.
I then recognized the time slot and thought, wow,
my time is the final part in
on a meaningful day already overflowing
with shared experience, knowledge
and a whole load of deep thoughts.
At that moment I switched gears
and I decided, let's make this fun.
A bit of housekeeping right up front.
Yes, we are virtual, y'all have been at this all day long.
It's a weird medium for a keynote
or maybe I just thrive in the personal presentations.
I'd like to ask that throughout this discussion,
we try and make it collaborative and conversational.
Use the chat feature to participate.
You can wait until the end, you can ask mid,
Marcia has assured me that she will watch chat.
Share your thoughts, your shared experiences,
ask any questions, wildly different responses
to the pandemic.
This will not be as fun without you interacting,
so please chime in.
First things first, who am I and why am I here?
For those that don't know me,
I am privileged to serve as the Vice President of IT
in Strategic Initiatives, Chief Information Officer
and I am the newly minted Chief Transformation Officer
for the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
that's right, All three titles.
I keep getting titles and none of them seem to drop off.
Personally and mostly, I'm a wife, I'm a mom,
I'm a beach fanatic, I'm a garbage TV enthusiast,
but my day job is why I'm here with you today.
I've served in the role of chief information officer
and now several institutions.
After about a decade working in the business industry,
I entered the higher education industry in 2007
when I joined the Community College as their Director
of Administrative Computing, Director of ERP.
Within a year I was in my first CIO role
and be it a blessing or a curse,
I never really took the time to obsess
on the uniqueness of the trajectory and accomplishment.
First of all, I was working in higher ed having come
from industry, that wasn't a common thing in 2007.
I also became a CIO fairly quickly
and it was never really a deep goal of mine.
I was a bit of a unicorn, a female CIO, right gasp, 2007.
I'm also a humanities girl, with my undergrad being
in the liberal arts, majoring in communication.
And in many ways terminology, which I sometimes like to use,
I'm proud to be more frosted side than weak side.
I'm less network and infrastructure
and far more applications, web, programming,
design, created user experience.
As a leader, I've remained fairly true to my personal self.
I've had my moments of self doubt,
where I've allowed unimportant thoughts
and unimportant (indistinct) people to impact my stride,
but for the most part, I've embraced self-awareness
as an art form and live by transparency to a fault.
As a leader, I've also accepted that the higher up I go,
the less I get to do hands-on.
And as a former developer and designer,
I have a strong desire to do.
So to feed that hunger, I stay active on social media,
participating in professional events
like the weekly CIO chat, I advocate possibly too loudly
for not only women in STEM,
but also for a more diverse representation
in general within technology, and I write.
I write articles for just about anyone who asks,
and I have a permanent role with Forbes,
writing on two assigned topic streams,
technology in higher education and women in IT.
Now that mouthy presence, is likely why I'm here.
I stay loud, I stay engaged, I keep learning,
now for the good stuff.
As we creep toward the end of today's NU Amplify experience,
before we say goodbye to this year's event,
let's go back in time a bit.
We'll step into our time machine and remember,
where we all were roughly one year ago.
I know where I was.
On March 1st, 2020, I was on a flight
from New York's LaGuardia Airport, home to Tulsa.
My 10-year old daughter and I had flown
to The Big Apple for a girl's weekend
with her cousin, her aunt and her grandmother.
It was a Christmas gift from her grandmother,
and we'd had a high old time.
What I remember, I remember pre-trip,
reading up a bit on COVID 19, this coronavirus.
Should we take the trip?
Should be fine.
I remember changing planes
and seeing a gentleman wearing a mask, March 1st, 2020.
I vividly remember after seeing that man in the mask,
I embarked on this likely, super boring story
about Michael Jackson and how he wore masks.
Basically at that moment, it was still super peculiar
for individuals to be wearing masks in public.
I mean, can you even imagine?
I remember us having possibly
the best time ever in New York City,
ice skating, afternoon tea, wicked, Dylan's Candy Bar,
bodegas, a neighborhood bagel shop, FAO Schwarz.
I remember while Joe's Pizza on Carmine was packed,
that Joe's Shanghai and Chinatown was eerily near empty.
On the flight home,
I still don't recall seeing a single mask.
10 days later the University of Tulsa,
a deeply traditional, private, liberal arts institution,
moved to all remote classes,
and the flurry of needful things started
and it feels like it never really stopped.
Do we have the systems?
Do we have the processes?
How can we communicate on this scale?
Can we do this?
Then a moment of reality, the big reality moment.
My God, our faculty don't know what they don't know,
and how do we get them where they need to be
to deliver their level of teaching?
And then how do we get our students
to receive that teaching and then learn, deep breaths.
I doubt anything I'm saying is surprising
or anything, but (indistinct) familiar.
I've not been able to accurately quantify
the jarring nature of what happened a year ago.
The pivot, the response, the capabilities,
the resilience, the rock stars, the grace, the pace,
the determination, the never ending search for balance,
the teeter-tottering of highs and lows,
wins and losses, hits and misses,
but the persistence and really, how we coped.
About a month in, I finally (indistinct)
and switched out my collapsible TV tray
for a real desk at my house.
I dragged my husband up to the university office
and I got my desk chair and my backside with relief
when I moved the old dining room chair back
to its appropriate place in the house.
I already needed a break, one month in.
As I started to find my way to detaching
from 24/7 work, how do I do this?
I like so many found that release
and bingeing so much TV, so many TV series
like I felt all the way in to bingeing TV.
Seeing as how within one pandemic week,
1.46 billion minutes of Schitt's Creek was watched,
I was absolutely not alone.
Inspiration appears in the most unexpected forms.
Even in my brief introduction,
and thank you for allowing me to be here (indistinct) today,
I mentioned folding together, pedagogy,
technology and advancing women in IT.
Folding together brought me to folding in
and I smiled on the inside.
For those that joined me
in my binge frenzy during the pandemic,
you too will likely never not think of Schitt's Creek
when you hear fold used as a verb.
The scene with David and Moira folding in the cheese, epic.
I've now watched the entire series twice,
ready to make it thrice, those who know, know.
I started with Schitt's Creek then ran
through everything else you're seeing on the screen.
I had only previously watched a Marvel or two
as I would only watch Marvel movies
that starred Robert Downey, Jr.
I'd refused all the others despite my kid's begging.
Pandemic Paige, I watched all the Marvels.
In order and preparation for WandaVision,
followed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,
I'm now primed and ready for Low Key, and then Black Widow.
I've been forever changed, we are all forever changed.
But nothing entertainmentwise impacted me more
than Hamilton the Musical.
That face, mine, not the precious face
of King George's the III, was my face one month
into our new abnormal one year ago.
I'd lost count of Zoom meetings that day
and a colleague took a screenshot of my face.
And doesn't that face just tell a whole story?
We were all there, virtual work-life blending
into home life, our office a handful of beat from our beds,
an overwhelming amount of work,
seemingly impeding our ability to disconnect.
Vacation, days off canceled,
oftentimes our teams felt like we had to be the ducks,
serenely gliding across the calm water
while our duck feet paddled furiously,
just beneath the surface.
That face of mine, I was spent,
and then life brought me King George the III,
with all his pumps, (indistinct) and circumstance.
When Disney Plus released Hamilton on July 3rd, 2020,
everything changed for me.
People in my life had been raving
about Hamilton the Musical.
My best friends playing the soundtrack in their minivans,
showboating on how their whole family knew
the show tunes backwards and forwards,
I couldn't relate, I didn't even wanna relate.
In early July me, my husband, my kids,
we all sat down and watched Hamilton for the first time.
And I kinda felt like I never stopped.
I laughed, I cried, I felt the journey.
I saw a level of talent, I'm not sure I've ever seen before.
And I started surreptitiously aligning daily events
with Hamilton lyrics.
When things got rough, I popped in the soundtrack.
When I couldn't disconnect from work,
I forcibly pushed myself on the treadmill
and ran to Yorktown, living and breathing
the words of Hercules Mulligan.
When I felt defeated, I took a hot bath
and let myself cry to Dear Theodosia.
Quite honestly, Hamilton the Musical gave me life,
continuously refreshed my inspiration
throughout the past year, plus.
At this juncture, I can align just about every facet
of IT work, leadership and strategy to the soundtrack.
Is that a plus?
Unsure, probably not, but I sure enjoyed getting here.
So let's take a stroll through the musical part
of Hamilton the Musical.
♪ Room where it happened ♪
♪ No one really knows how the game is played ♪
♪ The art of the trade ♪
♪ How the sausage gets made ♪
♪ We just assume that it happens ♪
♪ But no one else is in the room where it happens ♪
(instrumental music)
First things first.
I wanna be in the room where it happens.
Ehrenberg so desperately wanted to be in the room,
crafting the future making plans.
This is an easy one, let's settle in.
For years, decades even, technology teams,
academic technologists, course designers,
chief information officers,
we've all known the capabilities
and the power that technology brings to the table.
Sure there was a period of time,
around the time the phrase, change agent appeared,
when change for the sake of change actually happened,
maybe even a lot.
Now we've grown, we've refined how we do things,
we've recognized the power of prioritization
and the critical nature of respecting the puzzle
that is technology (indistinct).
There are deliberate steps and intentional order
of how we conceptualize, develop implement,
a method to our madness, I might say.
And we've refined our roadmap alongside the speed of light
or rather the pace of technology change.
We've always known what could be if we just could.
If we could make that upgrade,
if we could increase that adoption,
if we could focus that use,
if we could consolidate those systems,
if we could automate those processes,
if we could only improve the experience.
As leadership, we've always known
that technology serves as the underpinning,
the veritable foundation of all of our business and work.
And in a way much more pervasive
than simply the traditional facilities as physicality
of the data center and campus wiring,
we've always shared that it's the less visible technologies
that service the globe.
Wifi, glorious wifi,
at TU we became an Aruba shop during the pandemic.
A push for a collaboration system like Microsoft Teams,
a push for integrations between all of our systems,
a push for access layer security for everything,
seemingly silly pushes for mobile apps for dining orders.
Everything our campus does, students,
faculty, staff, relies on technology.
And then, hello pandemic.
The rapid pivot to remote work
and virtual teaching and learning,
somehow even more than everything now relies on technology.
And for those of us that have been living
and breathing the technology industry,
we've become pretty adept at managing, driving
and even thriving and change.
We can flip a switch and be entirely focused on a new issue
while concurrently running and rocking 500 other efforts,
because that's what we do.
All of the historical discussions on technology being more
than just a toilet flush operational service
and the need for the CIO to have a seat at the table,
by my anecdotal count, if not already there,
roughly 80% of us were at that table
the millisecond a pivot was discussed.
And furthermore, about 30% were immediately elevated
to lead the institutional way
and build the room where it all happened.
The pandemic shined a light on all of the work that we do,
our skills, our ability to respond effectively
under immense pressure.
One year later, this CIO is now leading
the implementation of our updated strategic plan
per request of the board of trustees.
Is that standard, not traditionally.
But our value as leaders, drivers, facilitators,
collaborators, we were unmasked.
And now many of us as you well know,
are leading more elevated, higher and broader,
impacting whole universities and university systems,
so we're in the room.
Time will tell if we stay here, but just like that
the trajectory for technology career paths,
just got a little more interesting, next step.
♪ He'd have you all unravel at the sound of screams ♪
♪ But the revolution is coming ♪
♪ They have-nots are gonna win this ♪
♪ It's hard to listen to you with a straight face ♪
♪ Chaos and bloodshed already haunt us ♪
♪ Honestly you shouldn't even talk ♪
♪ And what about Boston ♪
♪ Look at the cost and all that we've lost ♪
Oh, the fear of change.
My first thought, the fear of change.
Farmer Refuted is introduced by an anti-change loyalist,
a traditionalist very much against a revolution for change.
Remember those days, those days predating
the distant distant, oh, I don't know.
14 months ago, as someone that has built, supported
and led strong effective IT teams for the past decade plus,
I can tell you that had you asked me
in the earliest of 2020,
what would be the chance that IT could do anything
that my dramatically and positively result in 100%
of faculty deeply using our learning management system,
meaning in a way beyond simply uploading a syllabus.
100% of our university staff going paperless,
refining their work processes and procedures
to complete their business from not their office
and be able to answer a soft phone,
I hope you're sitting down.
Answer their office line through their computer.
100% of our students submitting all assignments online,
participating in a synchronous and asynchronous lectures,
living on campus while living remotely.
100% of our classrooms,
support a hybrid teaching learning environment.
Had you asked me if we could accomplish all of that,
100% of all of that, in say a week,
even as the fearless forever optimist,
I would've cracked a smile and narrowed my eyes.
What's the punchline?
Y'all, we did that, we all did that.
I mean, in IT we knew technically we could do it,
but we helped our best and brightest to it too.
We worked with our faculty members
to get them where they wanted to be.
We leaned into all of the problems
and turn them into solutions.
We systematically chipped away at every barrier
until the path was cleared
and we implemented shockingly proactive
and long-term post-pandemic solutions.
Now, I'm not gonna tell you,
I didn't see any support staff members,
wrangling massive printers home
in the back of their Buicks,
because in those early days I most certainly did.
But picture this, Farmer Refuted reminds me so much
of the well-meaning fearmongers that wax poetic
about the current state of systems, their perfection,
that if it ain't broke, why fix it (indistinct)?
Almost as if they haven't personally been railing
on the clunkiness of those systems for a decade.
Flash forward to today, we can do anything,
because the majority of our campus is now fearless
about trying new things, improving solutions.
Technology upgrades is the least
of anyone's worries today's.
Here's what's interesting about the pandemic,
it clarified the difference between terrifying
and facilitating and technology is not really terrifying
to most on our campuses anymore, up next.
♪ So what did I miss? ♪
♪ What did I miss? ♪
♪ Virginia my home sweet home, I wanna give you a kiss ♪
Without a doubt, Lafayette/Jefferson,
is my very favorite character in Hamilton.
The What'd I Miss song, can apply to almost my entire life.
Personal life, it's TikTOK to RoadBlocks
with my kids and so much more.
Professionally, it's endless.
I've often thought about those
that work in or around technology,
we all need to or already have really mastered
that poker face.
Walking into a meeting to start a discussion
on the integration of the newly procured software solution
that you've never heard of.
What did I miss?
Walking into a meeting to watch a demo
for a solution that is a competitor
for an already established campus software
that still has four years left on the contract.
What did I miss?
Receiving an urgent request
for an immediate and significant modification
to established customer service protocol
because something catastrophic happened.
What did I miss?
Drill in a bit to the catastrophic experience
to discover one person experienced it.
And they elevated it to the highest level immediately,
rather than informing the help desk
or faculty support or anyone.
What did I miss?
Nothing has made our untenable pace more apparent
over the past year, than when you decided to take a break,
just a quick breather, one hour, one whole day
and you come back to what feels
like a brand new university, nothing seems familiar,
all policies change in the short amount
of time you were gone.
What did I miss, now to catch up.
The best moments over the past year,
were the, what did I miss?
We hit a snag, oh, someone found the solution.
What did I miss?
You log into Teams one morning mid pandemic,
after being stifled
with just six Brady Bunch viewing squares.
Suddenly you see 12, oh my gosh, what did I miss?
We all have days where we feel
like we're a few steps behind,
and need a quick catch-up session.
What did I miss?
Technology changes so fast, issues happen fast,
solutions keep coming faster.
What I've learned over the past year,
is that it simply feels better
to walk in with a more positive, what did I miss?
We provide a lot of good service,
it's okay to remain excited about our jobs.
♪ I am not throwing away my shot ♪
♪ Hey yo, I'm just like my country ♪
♪ I'm young, scrappy and hungry ♪
♪ And I'm not throwing away my shot ♪
I know your video did not freeze,
there was no movement there, that was just a (indistinct).
So now for My Shot.
My Shot is Alexander Hamilton's declaration
that he is determined to take advantage of his opportunity
to rise up and take a shot at success, and here we are.
Let's start at pre-pandemic.
Despite seemingly huge strides having been made
in the number of women in the workforce,
over 46%, imagine, so close to almost half.
Then boom, we talk about tech.
This is pre-pandemic.
The story took a menacing turn in the technology realm.
Recently pre-pandemic, the number of women in technology,
roughly 25% fell beneath
the numbers documented in the 1980s.
It gets worse when you look at the 25% statistic
and realize of that number, only about 10%
of those 25% represent non-white women
in the technology field.
Combine all that with finding
that 2.5 million women left the workforce in the past year.
Add to that, the economy lost 140,000 jobs
since COVID-19 hit,
and 100% of those jobs were held by women.
Here are the few things that I know.
I know IT isn't what most people think it is.
And we need to share this from the rooftops
or to more targeted fashion with anyone that will listen.
To work on IT, you don't need to code,
and leading IT does not need a pass littered
with running cables and wiring infrastructure.
I know there are numerous sides to IT:
Project management, marketing and communication services,
social media, data analytics and digital design,
user experience, so much more.
You join a workplace as an HR rep within an IT unit,
and you're instantly gonna make at least 10% more
than had you entered alongside your HR counterparts
in the HR department.
There's money in this position diversity within IT.
I know that by increasing the scope of what is IT,
it increases the people attracted to IT,
it increases the chance of a diverse pool
of candidates attracted to IT.
Can it increase our diversity stats in IT?
How can it not?
So many have exited workforce,
so many are recognizing they much prefer work-life balance,
so many are recognizing with all the exits,
they have options.
Bottom line, there is opportunity.
Take your shot, now is the time.
♪ I've been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine ♪
♪ So men say that I'm intense or I'm insane ♪
♪ You want a revolution, I want a revelation ♪
♪ So listen to my declaration ♪
♪ We hold these truths to be self-evident ♪
♪ That all men are created equal ♪
♪ And when I meet Thomas Jefferson (unh!) ♪
♪ I'ma compel him him to include women in the sequel (work!) ♪
Y'all are lucky I'm not best in (indistinct) song,
I'm not gonna do that.
Yes, the stats that we just discussed pack a punch.
At the end of this pandemic,
I fear resulting workforce reports will be dismal at best,
so we'll take our wins where we can.
Statistics show, we've seen an increase of 24%
of women in the C-suites, great stat.
But alas, we're not all interested in being
in the C-suite, and that's okay.
But here's the action item, still go for it.
If you're unsure what you want your next steps to be
but are certain you want upwardly mobile next steps,
find a person you respect,
initiate a conversation with that person.
Something as simple as,
I need help in deciding what my next steps will be.
Chances are, they'll support you.
If you wanna learn more
about what possibilities might exist
in today and tomorrow's IT,
find a person you respect ask the questions.
It might be easier these days
to share what isn't a talent fit for IT,
because the field of IT is so skill-inclusive these days.
So you're a director and not sure
if you're ready to make the leap into the C-suite,
or even the AC-suite, associate or assistant CIO roles.
My gut tells me you are, or at least ready to try.
If you think for one second, there's not a slew
of incompetent less qualified the new folks,
throwing their hats in the ring for those positions,
let me introduce you to my recent candidate pools.
At a minimum you're ready to start applying,
why the heck not?
Within the past five years, I've watched some
of the strongest women I've ever worked with,
move seamlessly from director positions to CIO roles.
Our world of technology needs you in the race.
You wanna talk through your resume, your thoughts,
bounce your ideas off someone, bring it on.
I promise you that you have more of a girl gang ready
for you to fight for you than you think.
We've taken a hit this past year
but we're all here to work together.
♪ One last time-relax, have a drink with me ♪
♪ One last time ♪
♪ Let's take break tonight ♪
♪ And then we'll teach em how to say goodbye ♪
♪ To say goodbye, you and I ♪
Teach them how to say goodbye.
And Hamilton George Washington is desperate
to drive a smooth transition
with an ultimate goal of strengthening the whole,
the republic at the expense of himself,
who's poised to be conflated with the monarchy.
Wow, could America have benefited
from collectively humming this tune
between our most recent presidential election
and the inauguration?
We certainly did not witness,
any George Washington moments there,
and it solely the more beautiful parts of our nation.
In higher ed, it's likely just not that serious,
but for those of us who are interested
in advancing ourselves in our careers,
how we quote-unquote, say goodbye, it matters.
As leaders at all levels we set the stage for next
in line leadership by modeling smooth transitions.
We can be proud of what we've accomplished
while showing grace to those stepping into our shoes
and improving our legacy by moving forward.
Sometimes our next step might be so all-consuming,
that we never have the chance to look back
and check on the health
of the practically perfect environment
that we left behind.
A few fellow CIOs and I presented
at the 2019 Annual Conference for EDUCAUSE
on exactly this, titled The Art and Impact of Moving On.
We were surprised to draw and present
to a crowd standing room only
on the last day of the conference.
How to know when the time is right,
when to start developing successors
to ensure talent coverage for your current institution,
and how to manage the change overall, tough stuff.
And then what?
In higher education, there's a running joke
that whoever leaves takes all the blame
for every issue and misstep that occurs
for at least the following year.
Suddenly, that's you.
Who doesn't look back with regrets from time to time,
thinking of the green, green grass that they left behind?
In times of transition, there's a high road
and it's so much better to take that.
When I hear, teach them how to say goodbye
and one last time, I think of the words
from an article I wrote years ago
after one particularly tough exit,
I was so in love with the institution
but I was following my path.
I wrote, newsflash,
when you leave positions, others take your place.
Regardless of how irreplaceable you feel you are,
everyone is replaceable.
You take a pivotal step to advance yourself,
someone's coming in behind you
and they're attending the same meetings you did,
with the same people you did,
discussing the same topics you did.
From that point forward for every negative,
you're the reason it's incomplete,
you're the reason they're behind,
you're the reason it's not off the ground.
Likewise, every accomplishment is thanks to the new guy.
Every great idea is the new guy's idea.
Projects you'd worked on for months
and left wrapped on in an office chair
with a pretty red bow for the new guy,
they're his accomplishments, his sweat and his tears.
In reality, some of us present today,
are about to move up and on.
If not this week, then the plan is
within the next year or two.
It's never too early to start planning for that transition.
It's important to be mindful about what you're leaving
and how you're leaving it, your legacy matters.
And sometimes you have to steal yourself for that step away,
regardless of the dream that's welcoming you with open arms.
♪ What comes next? ♪
♪ You've been freed ♪
♪ Do you know how hard it is to lead? ♪
♪ You are on your own ♪
♪ Awesome, wow! ♪
♪ Do you have a clue what happens now? ♪
So what comes next?
And Hamilton, King George the III
and speaking to the artists formerly known as his people,
wonders if the colonists have any idea,
what comes after exiting British rule.
And for certain future of doubt,
decision-making, accountability?
According to CDC data, as of late last week,
over 180 million Americans were fully vaccinated,
that's over 32% of the US population.
Over 44% of Americans have received at least one shot.
Wasn't it just today that there was approval
for children 12 and over to start their vaccinations?
A friend of mine's son got his shot today, he's 12.
From a selfish perspective, I'm all over it,
that covers 50% of the kids in my home,
this mom sighs with the relief.
But professionally, what comes next
from a technology perspective,
the catastrophist in me insists,
we don't know what comes next.
So it's best to assume it will be an even greater challenge
than anything that we've ever experienced.
Think about where we are today,
think about our learning management system usage steps,
pre-COVID, think about the walls
and barriers each of us hit in trying to simply advocate
for automation, increase adoption rates,
upgrade and update systems and solutions.
Think about, and this is a good one,
think about our binders on disaster recovery
and business continuity plans.
Those plans pre-COVID,
prioritized expected recovery times by system.
In all instances, total recovery,
total recovery was realized within 60 to 90 days.
People got thought,
well, if we're down longer than that,
we may as well just throw in the towel.
Here we are, a year later.
There was no throwing in the towel option that I saw,
we survived the seemingly unsurvivable.
And worse, might be what comes next.
So what comes next for us?
Personally, you might be confronted
with some pretty amazing career opportunities,
as the Schuyler Sisters said, work.
Professionally, let's continue to think
with the solutions-oriented user experience,
obsessed mind that has grown and expanded
over the past year.
I'm of the mindset, we need to be forever ready
to pivot back to hybrid and remote at a moment's notice.
And we now know not only can we do it,
but that shift isn't even the hardest part.
So what comes next?
We don't know, but let's be ready.
So here we are, for curiously close
to the end of a pandemic, now's the time we need
to tie some of the loose ends.
And we do need to tie those loose ends,
not cut them back to how they were over a year ago.
What a shame it would be for us to wipe the slate clean
and not use all the knowledge that we've gained.
Marisol Adams in a 2020 edition of the prospect
or road of Hamilton, amid chaos, loss, pain, confusion
and so much uncertainty.
Hamilton could help us reflect
on what journey we will embark in the future
that now more than ever is changing at a quick pace.
History has its eyes on us, let us not throw away our shot
at this new world that we are building,
it totally aligns with our reality today.
Will I ever see Hamilton the Musical live in person, unsure.
At this juncture, I'm so deeply connected
to the performance that I would fear I would fangirl
to a creating a scene degree.
Of course the entire premise of Hamilton is telling a story
in a beautifully diverse, talented and unique way.
I received that message and also so much more.
In times of stress, personal to worldly,
finding creative outlets help shoulder the storm,
and we've been through one heck
of a storm together, haven't we?
And closing, I thank you for your time today,
I'd like to thank Aruba for sponsoring this closing keynote.
Just when I thought I couldn't love Aruba anymore,
here we are.
Mostly, I'd like to leave you with a few thoughts
and one or two action items.
We'll never be here again.
We'll be somewhere and it'll be a challenge for sure,
but we'll never be exactly here.
Look at what we've survived,
we shot out like a cannon a year ago.
We overworked, we over-delivered,
we held higher education together.
We burned out, we treated our anxiety
by fore separation and some kind of new to us vice,
maybe tacos brought us our own personal COVID-19 pounds,
perhaps we binged watched Netflix
and maybe a little Disney Plus,
we put on yoga pants in late March, 2020
and stand here today completely incapable
of working snaps and buttons.
Eventually each of us found our balance,
we found our balance during a pandemic.
Honestly, I hadn't ever truly found,
my professional life balance before the pandemic.
I'm gonna keep that balance
and I hope that you do too.
Moving forward, I ask a few things of each of you,
just things to think about.
Embrace the grace that you've discovered,
make it a part of your DNA moving forward.
I know that for me, one of the best takeaways,
has been my deep commitment to grace,
delivering it, accepting it, living it.
We all make mistakes and we all have responsibilities
that are so much more important than work tasks.
Giving people time, showing patients,
modeling that making mistakes is survivable,
that's developing a strong healthy culture,
not enabling weak performance, never fall for that again.
Look for potential and offer a hand up.
Not everyone has been afforded the same privileges in life,
far too many are born into bias.
In addition on the flip side, it's not uncommon
for some pretty traditionally assumed privileged people
to have inner battles and demons we know nothing of.
So look for potential in all you encounter.
Offer chances, if you have the capacity,
mentor and guide, facilitate visibility
and shine a light on the underrepresented.
And not just an applicants, clear your head
and look at your internal resources with fresh eyes,
you've got talent there.
And mostly, stay with us, your talent, your creativity,
your spark, it's uniquely you
and it's entirely needed within any discipline in higher ed.
Find your Hamilton, find her inspiration
and with that inspiration (indistinct), find your next one.
Never forget whatever this upcoming new normal is,
you get to define yours,
and the world will always be a better place for it.
Strong, powerful, inclusive,
this is our post-pandemic new normal.
And that's all I have.
I am absolutely open to any questions or really discussions.
Does anyone have anything interesting to share?
Did anything resonate or do you have any questions?
-: Yes, we do have lots of comments, lots of suggestions.
If you're looking for more things
to binge-watch in the chat,
but we do have a question that came in from Jody.
And so while we're gathering these, she asks,
could Paige talk a bit more about team building
during remote and hybrid work?
-: Sure, and I'm sure that others on the call have,
equally strong experiences here.
Wow, it was really tough initially, right?
Like we tried really hard
to replicate what worked in the workplace.
Where we ended up landing for team building is that,
we had to develop a cadence.
A cadence of when we could meet, you know?
Initially we came out with just all everything, a fire,
we're gonna meet all IT meetings twice a week,
an hour, leadership every morning a quick 15 minutes.
Sure, seemed to make sense for about two weeks
until we looked around and realized how exhausting that was.
You know, we all wanted to have our cameras on
for every single meeting, guess what?
That doesn't work for everyone,
that absolutely does not work for everyone.
So, what we ended up doing for team building is
that we would try something new and then we would pivot
and try something different when that got boring.
My leadership team, we actually picked up,
we started reading together
the Atomic Habits book by James Clear.
What we recognized was pretty swiftly
that we could be completely overwhelmed
by the tidal wave of everything that hit us a year ago.
And we needed to keep moving forward,
even if it was with small incremental steps.
We did not want to lose any
of the momentum that we had started.
So we started reading a book together
from a team building perspective.
We ended up having, you know,
the individual teams within my division.
They split off and they met and then we would come together
and we would knowledge share.
We really just had to come up with creative ways
to keep people engaged, and we had to keep it fresh,
because the minute it became routine, it became exhausting.
I shouted love that first virtual happy hour,
that I did with my team.
The second one, everyone hated it, right?
Like it's just a constant reminder that we are detached.
That was from a team building perspective
during remote and hybrid work, the flip side of that,
which some of you probably also experienced,
I was able to sit on some phone calls that were
like coffee chats with the president.
It was the students that I was most worried about.
The students that were on our campus that were isolated.
Their beds literally were five feet from their desks,
and that's what they were ping-ponging back
and forth to all day.
And so, pretty rapidly we started trying
to heighten awareness,
what could we do to engage our students
so that they could hang out and meet?
Incoming freshmen met no friends
for their first three or four months, right?
Because they were relegated
to their dorm rooms in complete solitude.
So, it was trying to get them outdoors
and getting them some creative, fresh,
new always changing opportunities to interact.
But, I feel like we've kept in touch,
I feel like we've somehow become stronger
through all of this, but I think that
once we start slowly moving
in a more hybrid, less entirely remote environment,
we'll really see if we won or lost here.
-: All right, thank you.
We have another question, this is from John O'Brien,
in regards to Hamilton's charm,
it was creating a new kind of musical language.
Do you think CIOs need to discover or create a new way
of talking tech to presidents or others?
-: I mean, yes, I mean absolutely.
And I hope that most of us were doing this,
prior to the pandemic.
You know, I just can't help that I am so teaming with charm,
but, you know, I've never been that type of individual
that spoke in the tech speak or the acronyms
or any of that in mixed company.
I do strongly believe that if technology leaders
of any level are speaking with people outside of IT,
you know, arriving with these,
using these words that no one else
around the table understands, it's not impressive.
I think it used to be, but it really tends
to be a little bit disrespectful.
So I think that what we need to always be doing
as technology members and leaders,
is aligning what we're doing
with what their business unit needs
and making that connection there.
You definitely want to be understood each way,
it needs to be reciprocal.
So yes, absolutely.
-: All right, thank you.
This one's from Michael Jolly and it's a bit
the same vein of what you're talking about,
but this looks more at the positive changes.
So how can we ensure that the positive changes
that have been implemented remain
as our institutions move back to this new normal?
-: You know, I've just been remaining,
vigilantly vocal about it.
Everything that you're reading now in, you know,
any of the EDUCAUSE articles, Chronicle,
everything is saying the worst thing
that we could do right now is go back
to how we've always done things.
So, I try to use that sentence, right?
Like that's been sort of a bad word sentence
for the past 10 years doing things
the way that we've always done them.
I am trying to pepper that
in all of the conversations with leadership
because I can already see some of those units,
trying to go back to their safe spaces, right?
Like, well, we should just have everything face-to-face
and not offer anything hybrid.
Well, guess what, right?
Like we're gonna lose students if we do that
because it is okay for a student to want to learn
from their dorm room right across the campus,
rather than to come in if they're not feeling great, right?
Why wouldn't we do this?
We've already got the technology in place
and I'm already seeing this sort of, it's a slippery slope.
Once we start running back to our safe space,
like all of the advancement that we've made,
could just easily trickle away.
So staying vocal, staying vigilant about it.
-: All right, thank you.
And we have a question comment from Jason Buzzell.
He says, just to tap into the inner Hamilton,
when the King mentions:
You'll be back, oceans rise, empires fall,
what role does IT play in sustainability,
climate, financial and yes, the university as a whole
to survive the next normal?
-: You know, I don't think that any of us knows, right?
Like, is this the moment where IT becomes part of
that triad at the top of the university, right?
Where everyone recognizes
that we've got a flair for strategy,
that everything that we do impacts their ability
to do their work and that we can be a value add
across multiple levels.
Or, does everyone wanna just go back
to that weird sense of normalcy and just run back
to where the only people that, you know,
to where the CFO is up here
and the CIO is down here, right?
Like I think time will tell.
And I think that we'll probably see within the next year,
because I do know a large number of individuals
within IT that have been elevated to oversee,
far more portions of the university
than they ever have before.
You know, I've seen not insignificant percentage
of my peers move into these larger institutional roles
while keeping their CIO title.
And I just can't wait to see, and I'm one of them, right?
I just can't wait to see if within the next year,
does that stick or was this just weird
or reactive anomaly to where they, you know,
used IT for our strengths,
but then when they get stronger, do we get weaker?
It'll be interesting to see,
I bet there'll be some articles about that.
-: All right, thank you.
So, I had one final call for questions and comments.
I think everybody's humming Hamilton right now.
I know I've been dancing around
and we're getting a lot of kudos and thank you.
And I would like to say, thank you for like the song
and dance that really fit with what's going on right now.
This has been an aha moment for me
'cause sometimes it feels like you're just down
in the trenches doing the stuff
but then to actually kind of,
I don't know if I wanna say reminisce yet,
I'm not ready for that.
But to kind of think back
about everything we've accomplished this last year,
where we were a year ago and where we are today,
we are positioned well.
And we have great leaders like you,
and so many of the people on this call,
but it's been awesome.
It's been really good and now I think we all have a lot
of other binge-watching shows
that we can tap into after this.
But I want to say, thank you, this has been awesome.
-: Thank you so much, we have so much to celebrate.
I mean, do not ever underestimate the giant leaps
that everyone on this call has made.
It has been a terrifying year
but it's also been a tremendous year, and guess what?
We get to celebrate it, we get to celebrate that.
So I really hope everyone does, and I do recommend
that if you have not seen every single one
of those shows on that slide,
get to it, like yesterday.
-: (laughs) I will be saving the chat.
So everybody will send out all of your suggestions
when we send out the video
and that kind of thing, because I agree.
I have a bunch of new things to go and watch.
So we'll, thank you Paige, we appreciate your time.