Pre-conference workshop and Richland College tour

Today was the pre-conference workshop and the topic I chose to go to was “Leading Teams”. We spent a lot of time dissecting what makes a team, as opposed to work groups and what the functions and roles of each of these were.

The content was a good reminder of the principles of teams and sparked a number of ideas I would like to explore in more depth once back in Australia. In particular it gave me the ability to stop and review each of my team members and see what their unique strength is within the team and why their contribution as an individual is important. This will hopefully guide me when putting together a project team for the assigned responsibilities I have for 2011/12.

One great piece of information I took away today was a new model of business implemented by Georgia Perimeter College who have reduced their committees by 67%. Their approach sees specific task teams established to deal with problems or issues and given a timeline of just 28 days to resolve it. I made contact with the college representative and he has directed me to the reports based on this model.

I also made contact with the Director of Enrolments, Norah, whom I happened to sit with on a table today and whom I also shared dinner with tonight. They have established a “One Stop” model for enrolments very similar to what we are proposing with the introduction of the new SMS. I will get her contact details tomorrow and be in touch with her as our project rolls out.

Yesterday was a fabulous day. I joined a visit to Richland College with two other Australians, David Bruce and Jenni Hardy from GippsTAFE. Richland had set up a magnificent five hour program for us with specialists from all across their business. We got some great insight into some of their programs as well as some reading material to take away. The biggest difference between our businesses was that they are predominantly involved in preparing students for university (70% of business). I was paired with Donna Walker, who is also involved in enrolments. We had a fascinating conversation about how they use data to drive all their business decisions and specifically how it informs their marketing activities. One thing I was amazed about is that to be an entry level teacher you must have a Masters degree! To reach the top end of the scale you need a PhD!

I had dinner last night with Pam Berger, my Chair Academy facilitator, and also Sonya who is the wife of Academy founder, Gary Filan. Sonya is hopefully going to be able to set me up with some people for a visit to a couple of the Maricopa Colleges once I reach Phoenix next Monday.

I present my paper tomorrow, 1.45pm – 3.15pm local time (5.45am – 7.15am Aussie time!). Not feeling too nervous... There could be 3 people, there could be 30 people – only time will tell!