I posted this essay on December 31, 1998 but the file was corrupted during the transfer due to a disk error. I am sending it again with this post.

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Essay #3

Great Ideas, Fast Growth, NO PAPER! or learning new skills, working smarter, saving time December 1998 Fast Company Scott Kirsner Pages 58-60

In the December 1998 Fast Company "Report from the Future", we learn how great ideas and fast growth can happen with a minimum of paper. Computer Language Research Inc. (CLR) is a company zealous about the elimination of paper to increase efficiency, help save people time and get products to market more quickly. By using online services rather than hard copy forms and documents, the company has streamlined its operations. Why get rid of paper? "Paper moves too slow, it gets lost and it's never up-to-date", states John Ozols, CLR's manager of network engineering.

What intrigued me most about the article are the opportunities and innovative environment in which the CLR employees work. This initiative to eliminate paper was not an IT driven concept. The company auditor, not an IT staffer, built an application to track the company's Y2K project. A former secretary, who is now a senior systems engineer, developed several applications including one to track purchase requisitions and stays with the company because she "just loves the opportunity to grow". Her replacement took up where she left off--by developing a program that enables CLR emplyees to order business cards online. These employees are inspired by management who believe that "users know their domain best". The company gives instruction to non-IT staff in code-writing skills and encourages them to put the skills into practice. In a very competitive market for technically-trained employees, CLR gives it's employees a good reason to stay--they can learn, grow and advance within the company.

Another feature of this approach to management and development is that CLR continually seeks ways to make interactions with its customer base more user-friendly and efficient. For example, it had shipped CDs to its customers each year with updated or revised tax forms. Not only was this system costly but required the customer to download the new software on their machines. Now, CLR is moving product delivery to the Internet by using an option called RemoteServer, which lets customers interface directly with the software, complete forms via the network and permits customers work on any computer with an Internet connection.

In applying this to my work in higher education, I fear that we lag behind innovative companies in using technology to "work smarter". We don't encourage staff development or staff innovation by rewarding ideas and creativity. We nestle in the security of our jobs staying the same with routine procedures and forms. Change threatens many of the established clerical workers and managers as the technology revolution challenges them to learn or be passed up by younger people who thrive in new, technology-driven environments. We rely too heavily on a Computing Services department to figure technology applications out for everyone on campus. This is ironic for institutions of higher education.

Also, I can envision direct application of some of the concepts in this article to the work I do in distance education. Use of the RemoteServer in a cooperative project between two campuses with distance students would immediately solve the issue of where students can do their homework on "computing and technology". If the software was on a RemoteServer, it wouldn't have to be installed (time-consuming and takes up individual machine memory) or purchased for each individual computer. Most importantly it gives the students in the program the opportunity to work from a computer station (with an Internet connection) of their choice. For those trying to update their skills by going back to school while working, this is a great convenience and relief, enabling them to spend time on quality projects rather than traveling to computer labs and/or downloading software.

I discussed this concept with several of my colleagues and they agreed that we are not as cutting-edge as we could be in higher education in using technology to eliminate paper and needless processes. Some stated that this would be just too threatening for current workers to "step outside the box" and learn new approaches, let alone design new programs and write code. My question, though, is, "what business do we have in higher education, if we don't have workers committed to learning and innovation in our industry?" Even professors whom I spoke with said they were too busy to learn new technologies. If we think creatively we could alleviate this workload crisis by hiring advanced students and retired faculty to take some of the duties away from teaching professors so they could learn new technologies. If we don't begin to approach our work innovatively, we will miss these golden opportunities to learn from business how to encourage education among our own people to work more efficiently and be happier in our work through growth and development.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 1999

Answers

Karen Johnson, This paper was well-written and organized. However, it would appear that technology was not in your favor as there are a number of spelling and grammatical errors. Perhaps it is the human connection where the failure lies. Be careful with your use of the words "it is and it's" Thanks for discussing it with a colleague and reporting on their comments.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 1999