Class 1 - Class Overview (Govt and Tech)

Our first of 10 classes was tonight. We set the table for the class by asking ourselves "why are we here" and "what do we want from the class". Our class is quite diverse with most being working professionals in the public sector. I counted representation by at least 4 cities. Our class is not designed to be a technical class but designed to meet the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) standards to understand 1) ways in which policy making and analysis substantially related to or are affected by information technology, 2) strategic management of knowledge and information in organizations and associated systems, and 3) oversight and supervision of information management and managers. Tonight we covered the Leavitt Diamond, a framework for understanding organizational behavior under change with technology. The four interlinked elements of the Leavitt Diamond are technology, people skills, organizational structure, and department/business function. A change in any one of these areas impacts the others. We took the Personal Strengths Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) to learn about building productive working relationships. As public sector professionals, the SDI can help us learn more about "what makes us tick" and "what makes others tick". We will use the SDI in later classes to understand the skill of "borrowing" to communicate in a way that resonates with how others prefer to receive information and how to manage conflict. Till next time....Thomas