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Just one of the many great slides used during the team presentations. Today each team presented their case studies to the Faculty members (those running and presenting the conference) and to the other attendees. Five teams with five very different approaches to presenting the same material. Each of the teams during the week had perceived different aspects of the material we have had presented to us. And so Carrie's presentation, which went into Rashomon effect , played out in large. The material that resonated with each group, they reflected back through their presentations. So we ended up with five different views of the past five days, through the presentations. All were funny, some were inspired and a couple were wonderful. Prior to lunch and heading home, the summing up included a couple of great end of event exercises. The first provided the opportunity to set goals and have them followed up on. The later one gave every person a chance to express themselves in the cont

Hot damn I finally got a swim. By the end of the day to day my team, team sky, was pretty burnt out so Andrew, Abbey, Yasna and I plus a couple of others did the pools. There are three. We should all probably have been working but we probably aren't ever going to get the chance to talk and swim at the same time again. Three very interesting (for me) and different sessions today Carrie Regenstein of Carnegie Mellon - took us through successful influencing. Marnie Hughes-Warrington of ANU - gave us a tour de-force of what a great presentation can be. Passionate, direct and inspiring. It covered a Deuputy Vice-Chancellor's view of senior managers issues and design principles for a modern university. She also answered some curly questions from the attendees. Judy Stokker provided a building block for all attendees - how to actively manage your career. The Caudit cocktail - thanks to Nimrod / Karina and team green Active and Reflect have been two common themes

A wonderful stow away in my luggage - family support. Something interesting happened to us today, we became productive teams. At the start of the week we were put into (mostly random) groups that by the end of the week are expected to work up and present on a case study. The team I'm part of, team sky, has dipped its toes into the case study prior to today but this morning most of us were reading it after breakfast. Throughout the day it became a pivot, so much so that we ended up working on it for three hours, from the end of formal events until after the bar opened [Doh!]. A lot of what we covered this morning, and our Belbin team roles work yesterday came into play. This morning Liz Gosling had yet another stand out activity which really got everyone in the room, and each of the teams we're members of thinking pretty hard. What was great was that David in our team came up with a left field suggestion, which it turns out has only happened once before in the past 5 ye

Today's focus was on leadership. Dinner Tuesday with the CAUDIT Leadership Institute team We covered leadership for and of change with Nick Tate first off. This was followed by Peter Nikoletatos on the Situational Leadership framework, what being a CIO is about and how to manage challenging staff. Willie Pritchard followed lunch with Interpersonal communication, a look into preferred styles and those of your coworkers. Liz Gosling rounded out the day with a big session on Effective Teams and our own Belbin team traits. Beach cricket and a meal out in Kingscliff finished everyone off. Due to some technical challenges I missed the beach cricket, but that did mean I had time to fill in session feedback surveys and have a brief look at our homework case study. Nick's talk on change management I appreciated as it was done using slides like those I prefer, lots of bold images. Nick has a dry and very wry wit which he used to great effect in his talk by setting the audienc

Team building with team sky. Well day one almost complete, and my head is fit to split. When I got to the venue I had 45 minutes to get myself sorted out prior to kick off so I opened my room ranch sliders and could hear; nail gun, minor birds and children in the pool. I'm not sure what worried me more the thought of minor birds with nail guys or children in a pool with them :-). That was about the last simple thought I've had since lunchtime. Apart from my splitting head when the conversation swung around to Microsoft "surface" and the difficulties of "apple" products again I knew it was time to go to bed. Arriving on Kiwi time I was starving by lunchtime and I hadn't had time to go out to the shops (if there are some, I still haven't got a sim card for my phone). Tip 1 - Beg borrow or steal a Sim card, there were only Vodofone ones available in Brisbane airport at rather steep prices. Lucky for me I'd sorted out getti

VicRoads Intranet mouse mat - from Oyster Design In a couple of days I'll be attending the CAUDIT Leadership Institute. My background is in the intranet or online workspace, and one of the issues that I've seen coming through in the discussions I've had with other intranet and online workplace managers over the past five years or so is the need for professional development. Increasingly there are opportunities for development within the Intranet / Online workplace domain e.g. StepTwo's AsiaPacific Intranets conference Intranet Leadership forum - also by StepTwo Intranet benchmarking forum - in Europe But there are few opportunities that provide for the development of skills essential to effective intranets but not specific to them e.g. Project management Team work and oversight Managing your manager/organisation Career planning and development These are the types of skills the CAUDIT Leadership Institute outline in the programme , during their ye

Happy to put my head, and those of others, into the crocodile's mouth. Most of you reading this blog will know that in the past two and a half years or so I've been working for a University here in Canterbury New Zealand as their Online Services manager. We've had some great wins, particularly with our intranet for those who "don't want to learn anything new" . In the past few months I've received a promotion and, thanks to the willingness of the team I work with to also take on more responsibility, I am now the Applications manager / Online services manager. As part of this move into a managerial role, though I have seen a lot of CSS and javascript lately, It was suggested that I attend the CAUDIT Leadership Institute (previously the CAUDIT-EDUCAUSE Institute). This course is designed as a professional development program for those who manage some aspect of information technology and resources in higher education, whether within their depa