Six months ago, at the beginning of the New Year, the first Tuesday Reading, I Resolve To …, focused on New Year’s Resolutions. This has been my custom. In that essay, I referenced research reporting that though 57% of the individuals surveyed were confident that they would be successful in achieving their goals, only 12% actually were successful. This, our July 4th holiday last week, as well as an essay
Conference Recap
The theme for the 2017 MOR Associates Leaders Conference was “Reimagining IT, the Journey Continues.” As the conference unfolded, it became clear that the journey is continuing through a thicket of financial and business-model challenges faced by higher education, and equally compelling challenges that face information technology departments in higher education.
Sue Workman, Vice President of University Technology, at Case Western Reserve University, keynote video at the 2017 MOR Leaders Conference.
Anne Margulies, Vice President and University CIO, at Harvard University, keynote video at the 2017 MOR Leaders Conference.
Mark Askren, Vice President for IT and CIO, at the University of Nebraska, keynote video at the 2017 MOR Leaders Conference.
Almost every time I travel from Cambridge to Boston, I cross the Longfellow Bridge. The central piers of the bridge feature four carved, ornamental stone towers, which give rise to another name for the bridge, the “Salt and Pepper Bridge,” which many of us still use. Originally opening in 1906, the bridge replaced previous bridges and ferry services going back to 1630. Since 2013 the bridge has been the subject of a $250 million restoration and rehabilitation effort which is expected to be completed in late 201
We are born problem solvers! From the moment you wake in the morning until you are fast asleep at night, you are at the ready, just waiting for the next problem to arise.
Now, some of the problems are simple and repetitive, like, for example, what do I do when the alarm goes off signaling that it’s time to get up? Or, what route do I take to go to work today? In such simple instances, our brain is ready to serve up a solution: “Let’s do what we did the last time this situation arose.” Sounds a lot like a habit, doesn’t it?
A few years ago, Charles Duhigg, who you likely know through his earlier book The Power of Habit, was interviewing people at exceptionally productive companies for his 2016 book Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business.” As he did this, he often asked for help in solving a family problem: How could he and his wife (who also has a demanding job) and their two sons, now ages five and eight, regularly eat dinner together?
Today’s Tuesday Reading, Slow Down, is an essay by Jason Murray, Network Architect at the Washington University in St. Louis. [He may be reached at jemurray@wustl.edu.]
His essay first appeared as a program reflection earlier this year.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." — Ferris Bueller
I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t had some difficulty successfully meeting some, or even most, of his or her goals. Perhaps it is a large, long project and although you were enthusiastic about the project at the beginning, by the mid-point, it seems dull and boring. Or, perhaps it is a simple task you need to complete, but it’s boring or time consuming and you keep ignoring it.
