Jim's Pond - Go, Explore, Contribute

"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."

--Napoleon Bonaparte

Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Big Ideas

Today I got back into strategic thinking mode. We met at a local college, gathered as a working group to begin the process of looking for the next important, key ideas at UEN. The strategic planning process is the best part of my job and the aspect that I enjoy the most. I would prefer to spend all my time in this mode, but that's just not practical.

Strategic planning is all about big ideas. The funny thing is that the really good big ideas are usually very simple. So simple that it's easy to look back and wonder why it was such a big deal. In retrospect big ideas often seem to be obvious. But before the fact they can be anything but.

Take one key idea as an example. Four years ago a small group gathered in a room and determined that the UEN should move to Ethernet services. This was a very simple idea. Over the next few months we began exploring this idea with some of our vendors. A couple of key vendors actually laughed at me. What a stupid idea. One expressed it this way, "Jim, you're the craziest SOB I've ever met. Who needs a Gigabit at a school?" It took several months and many meetings to finally find someone who was willing to take us seriously and offer Ethernet services.

Those early conversations are ancient history now. All these years later we are in the middle of a big project to install Ethernet to 145 or so sites. By this fall we will have well over half of our schools served by Ethernet. Looking back it's hard to imagine why this is such a big deal. It seems obvious, right. Ethernet in the schools.

There is power in the big idea. The Ethernet project shows this fact. I talk about Ethernet projects every day. I hardly ever attend a meeting without Ethernet inquiries. Everyone is excited to get Ethernet services. The most common questions are, "when will I get Ethernet?" and "how come it's taking so long?" The time Ethernet occupies and the enthusiasm it has generated is amazing. Ethernet - a simple, powerful idea - has completely changed the way we think at UEN and throughout the state.

We are looking for the next big, simple, powerful idea. The process is fun. Who can say where it will lead?........

3:28:58 PM