Due to the way my brain works, research and ideas pretty much dribble out of my brain a short time after I read them. So, I’m working through my favorite parts of Jim Collins’ Good to Great and ran across this section on key points regarding technology:

1. Good-to-great organizations become pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies. Ignore technologies that don’t fit directly with your Hedgehog Concept.
2. Use technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it.
3. You can take great technology, hand it to a not good-to-great organization and they would not be able to produce anywhere near the same results.
4. How a company reacts to technological change is a good indicator of its inner drive for greatness versus mediocrity.

Ok, so let me quickly toss out a few reflections on these 5 points.

1) Pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies. It’s clear that you have to know what you’re about (Hedgehog Concept), and then figure out how technology can make you move faster. If schools are about data-driven decision-making, data collection and analysis, then technology can certainly help out. If certain jobs are about connecting with stakeholders, then selecting the right technology–a blog vs a traditional web site–is a clear winner.

2) Use technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. This is where the idea of technology as a catalyst for change is so powerful for me, but this idea of tech as an accelerator flies in the face of that. In schools, technology becomes a way of maintaining the status quo, not the means to achieve a higher level of engagement, authenticity, and facilitate higher-order thinking. I wonder if technology in schools isn’t like hitting the after-burners on a high speed jet that is aiming, not for the sky, but for the ground.

3) Technology for the Great, but not everyone else. Consider all the great technology at New Tech High Schools around the country. Ask any of those folks, and they’ll probably tell you it wasn’t the technology but the training and curriculum (project-based learning) that made the difference. If we provide the technology in mass quantities–ubiquitous access–to a school who still wants to approach teaching, learning, and leading, aren’t we still going to crash into the ground?

4) Inner Drive for Greatness versus Mediocrity. I love this point that Collins makes because in many schools, there is talk about how committed educators are to doing great things on behalf of children and the community. Yet, a clear indicator that a school is moving at the speed of mediocrity–rather than creativity–is their reaction to technology innovation. If you aren’t innovating with technology, you’re just wasting your time because we have to innovate in creative, collaborative, online learning environments.

So, 4 questions is another way of looking at this:

1. Are you embracing technology for greatness?
2. Is who you are manifest in the technologies you choose to use to achieve greatness?
3. How is technology helping you do what you want faster?
4. What technologies have you embraced that improve your overall function effectiveness?

Thoughts?

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