Dr. ChangeLove

1. Dr. ChangeLove Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology Roy Tennant California Digital Library

2. The Lay of the Land • Technological change is fast and getting faster • Retirement is no longer the solution • We must learn to cope (“Resistance is futile”)… • …and embrace — and in so doing shape new technologies into the essential tools and services of tomorrow

3. Forms of Technostress • Frustration • Information overload • Underwork and routine jobs • Job insecurity and demotivation • Uncertainty about job role • A basic conflict between our urge to do things quickly and our passion to do them right • Anxiety

4. Anxiety and Resistance • Fear of the unknown • Helplessness (lack of control) • Being faced with unrealistic expectations • Being forced to take interest in things in which you have no interest • Anxiety and resistance can behelpful as well as harmful

5. What the Organization Owes You • A work space and environment that is not harmful • Adequate hardware and software • Good training and documentation • Anticipatory and responsive support • Clear priorities • Support for different learning styles • Excellent communication • Rewards for desired behavior • Formalization of informal roles

6. What You Owe the Organization • Acceptance that change is a constant • As much flexibility as you can muster • Excellent communication • Suggestions for improvement rather than whining • Your best effort (a “can do” attitude)

7. What You Owe Yourself • Job #1: Take care of yourself (put on your own oxygen mask before helping others) • The permission to not do low priority tasks • Acceptance that you can’t “know it all” • Strategic learning

8. Strategic Learning • Categories: • Trash (“don’t go there”) • Monitor (“distant early warning”) • Dabble (“what’s this about?”) • Need to know (“like, yesterday!”) • Strategy: • Slot new technologies using the above categories • Periodically revisit your assessments • Learn just enough to do what you want • If it has staying power, learn it more thoroughly

9. Strategic Learning: My Example • Trash: • SGML, RDF • Monitor: • E-books • Dabble: • Open Archives initiative • Need to Know: • XML

10. What Systems Staff Should Know About Their Colleagues • Other staff are not idiots — their skills simply lie in other areas • They speak English — you should too • “No” should not be the first word out of your mouth • Realize that you probably know next to nothing about user needs • Don’t expect others to know the possibilities technology offers

11. What Non-Systems Staff Should Know About Systems Staff • Systems staff are not better than you, they just tend to act that way • Take responsibility for knowing the basic operations of your own computer and simple troubleshooting • Ask systems staff (nicely) for what you need • Be prepared to describe (in detail) what you need • If you really need it, don’t let the first “no” stop you

12. What Managers Should Do • Build an agile organization • Hire good staff, then stay out of their way • Discover what your employees need to accomplish their jobs, and get it • Tell them what you’re planning and listen to them about what’s going on • Appreciate them for what they do • Work with those who underachieve • Put whiners in charge of what they’re whining about

13. What Staff Should Do • Quit whining and take responsibility • Tell management specifically and constructively what you need to do your job • Speak up when something can be fixed or improved — do not hold back for lack of visible resources • If you feel like you need a better computer — you do

14. What to Expect • The only sure thing is change • You will make mistakes — so what? • You cannot make progress without taking risks • We must foster comfort with uncertainty and delight in change • We cannot stop what we are doing to build the future, so we must…

15. Build the Airplane While Flying It