ITLD – Micheal Kubit

This morning I participated in a “Coffee and Questions” session hosted by Micheal Kubit.  These meetings are open to all non-management PSU IT employees.

We met at the NLI, in the Penn State Room, the group comprised about 13 people and Micheal asked two main questions.

  1. What excites you about Penn State, or about coming to work in the morning.  My response to this was that I enjoy the technical challenges that are a part of my job.
  2. Where can IT leadership make a difference at Penn State.  (He may have phrased it differently and I didn’t write it down.)  I asked about Data Visualization tools.  And his answer was a refreshing one.  He said that he’s reluctant to talk about these types of tools when data in general at PSU is “broken”.  He talked about the need for true data governance (Micheal said he recently tapped Lance Kennedy-Phillips to lead this effort) and that the ERP data (LP was not named) was no good.   I was amazed by his candor and insight.  None of this was said in a negative way, it was said matter-of-factly.

Some additional take-aways:

  1. One of his strategies is to:  “amplify the bright spots”, so find things that are being done well and build on them.
  2. As a leader, he is not going to tell his team what to do, he expects them to tell HIM what needs to be done.
  3. He talked about “optimization” vs. “centralization”, not everything can be/will be organized centrally, but we should still be optimizing processes, etc.  He made a point of mentioning that the process is whats important, not the technology used.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, this is exactly where the emphasis should be.
  4. Micheal was asked about the skill assessment that was done last year and he agreed it will be used to identify the gaps.  He talked about some initiatives/strategies he’s interested in and how management needs to become more enlightened as it relates to the work force, esp. the younger talent.  He admitted that PSU cannot compete with private employers from a salary perspective and that the culture must be a way to draw people in.  (This will obviously take a sea change.)
  5. In summary:  I was very impressed by his insight into the existing culture/climate and objective assessment of the good and bad.  I came away with a good feeling about the direction PS-IT is headed.

IT is All About People – Michael Kubit webinar 5/21/2018

Listening to Michael Kubit’s “IT is all about people” webinar.  Some of the important points:

  1. We are services orgainization, we must continue to commit to constant improvement.
  2. Workforce Development –
    1. Change is constant and continuing to happen at a more rapid pace.
    2. There skills are essential moving forward:
      1. (insert
      2. T-Shaped Professional   (soft skills across the top) (Hard skills form the base, or vertical
      3. Cornell IT Skills Survey Reveals a Gap
        1. 4. BI  !!!!
        2. Data Analysis (6, or 7)
      4. Leadership
        1. leader vs. manager!!! yeahhh   Leaders have followers who do the right things.  Peter Drucker
        2. Manager/Leader should develop ppl
        3. Leaders “move” us…
        4. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new”  (I could not see the Source)

PSEL Learning Group – Initial Meeting

We met as a group for the first time and shared some thoughts on the process so far.  Everyone seemed to have started on the journey and we all agreed that the process is a overwhelming at the start.

Our team is working on devising a name, we agreed to present individual ideas at our next meeting.

It was agreed that we need to include food in the learning group meetings, so restaurants will be the new meeting places, as opposed to PSU conference rooms.

Initial thoughts

So as with many things in life, the first step is the most difficult.  I am a private person, I do not participate in social media and the idea of presenting one’s thoughts and feelings for the world to see is very …unappealing.

Having said that, I will use this opportunity as a chance to, hopefully, make a positive impact and a place where I can collect helpful resources for the future.