Chad Branum

EDT646

Assignment VII – Rules of Coping with Globalization

cbranum@coppellisd.com

03/23/06

Summary

It was very interesting to read about the various rules that were defined by Thomas Friedman in this particular chapter. Below, I have listed each of the rules in order of the most important to the least important. The most important rule, in my opinion, is “getting regular chest X-rays.” It is very critical to constantly examine yourself as an organization and make improvements as needed. There are so many organizations that do not do any strategic planning and I feel that it ultimately makes them a weaker organization and unable to keep up. The next rule of importance is “reach for a shovel.” The reason I put this one next is the simple fact that school districts have to grow and expand the opportunities that are available to its students. If we do not find unique methods to provide customized learning environments for students, then we risk losing them to other institutions or educational means. The third rule of importance is “the big shall act small.” I feel that the professional development of staff members has a huge impact on student learning. That is why I placed this higher up in the rules list. Without effective leaders in the classroom, we do not have much of an educational environment. The fourth rule of importance is “the small shall act big.” It is important for school districts to think “big” and provide quality solutions to meet the growing needs and challenges that are faced. I placed this one a little lower on the list because I feel that the other rules are simply more important in the grand scheme of things. The fifth rule of importance is “the best companies are the best collaborators.” I see the value of leveraging third party companies to come in and provide integration services based upon specific needs. However, I have placed this one here because I feel the rules stated prior to this one have to be established before anyone can take advantage of specialized services and integration. The sixth rule of importance is “outsourcing isn’t just for Benedict Arnolds.” As stated below, my school district has implemented an after-hours computer lab program to better develop parent awareness and computer skills. While I see great value in this type of program, this particular rule, in my opinion, falls below the other rules already defined. The final rule of importance is “the best companies outsource to win, not shrink.” Unfortunately, this is one area in which it is difficult for many school districts to participate in. Because of this, I have listed this rule last.

Seven Rules

Rule #1: In a flat world, the best companies stay healthy by getting regular chest X-rays and then selling the results to their clients.

Getting a “regular chest X-ray” is a concept that I feel is very important. The way in which my particular school district performs its “chest X-ray” is by performing district strategic planning every 3 years. This type of process allows the various aspects of our school district and community to be exposed and vulnerable to scrutiny. Also, this provides a forum for all of our stakeholders to open up the creative thinking process and dream about what we want long-term for all of our stakeholders. The end result is the development of a strategic document that drives where we put all of the district financial, instructional and technological resources. I feel that it is important for all school districts to undergo this type of process in order to garner support from their own stakeholders and develop a long-term vision for district growth. Without this, I feel that they are wasting their resources and a lot of money.

Rule #2: When the world goes flat – and you are feeling flattened – reach for a shovel and dig inside yourself. Don’t try to build walls.

It was interesting to see how the change in photography and graphic technology has changed how those types of companies compete for business on a daily basis. As I read this particular rule, my mind shifted to consider the various aspects of my school district and how it might apply in my environment. I can tell you that school district’s today are facing some growing challenges. One growing challenge is that parents are demanding a more customized and higher quality education for their children. Some of the questions that I have heard in the past are….Is my child receiving the best education that he/she can in a K-12 public institution? Is my child being developed and prepared enough to meet the growing challenges and expectations? Can public schools provide a customized education and learning environment for my child? I am starting to see a growing trend of parents keeping their children out of public schools and placing them into private schools, providing home schooling or utilizing online resources to receive their education. These events are really troubling me and has certainly raised a few flags within my own school district. What has gone wrong with K-12 education? Why aren’t we providing challenging environments and enough alternatives for our students to obtain a quality education? Several ways in which my school district is trying to combat this growing challenge is by providing online courses through a local university, expanding dual credit opportunities for all high school students, and providing more staff development to teachers. Our district goal is to create an environment and provide opportunities that meet all of needs of our community. If we are successful with implementing each of these areas successfully, then we will be able to provide a more collaborative and customized learning environment for all of our students to grow and learn. At the end of the day…failure is not an option when it comes to our students!!

Rule #3: And the big shall act small…One way that big companies learn to flourish in the flat world is by learning how to act really small by enabling their customers to act really big.

As a district administrator, I can tell you that an annual goal that I have for my staff members is to provide them the opportunity to grow and learn so that they can perform at a higher level at their job. In addition to this, one of our district goals is always to provide all staff members the opportunity to grow professionally efficiently and effectively in hopes that it will have a direct impact on student learning. How has our school district acted “small” in order to enable our staff members to act “big?” I feel that my school district has acted “small” by providing many staff development opportunities for staff members to pick and choose from. By allowing staff members to pick and choose what is important to them professionally, I believe that they are more willing to take personal time to learn and implement that knowledge quicker and more effectively into their classrooms. This ultimately has a positive impact on student learning. I feel that providing many flexible staff development opportunities has and will continue to allow our staff members to be “self-directed consumers” (pg. 351).

Rule #4: And the small shall act big…One way small companies flourish in the flat world is by learning to act really big. And the key to being small and acting big is being quick to take advantage of all the new tools for collaboration to reach farther, faster, wider, and deeper.

For this particular rule, I keyed on the following statement from this section:

“I was big locally and small internationally – and I reversed that” (pg. 350).

This is an interesting statement because I feel the same about the type of technology services that we have developed and starting offering over the past couple of years. I feel that my school district has “reversed” “how” and “what” we have started to offer regarding information and web-based services. Back when I first started in Coppell ISD, we were primarily offering access to Internet resources, locally defined district software, email, and network shared drives for all staff and students. The biggest drawback was that these services were only provided locally and not made available remotely to anyone. However, as new technologies have been developed and the needs and challenges have grown within our community, we had to face these challenges and find a way to provide a solution so that all stakeholders could access all critical information and services anytime and anywhere. What has come out of this realization and visioning was the development and implementation of a web-based portal solution. I feel that this implementation has allowed Coppell ISD to transform “how” and “what” we offer to all of our stakeholders. A good example of this is our portal framework that has been implemented within our school district. This particular web-based solution provides the ability for all staff, students and parents to access the information that is important to them. A few examples of information that is accessible is the ability for staff members to access their email and network documents remotely while parents can view their child’s grades and attendance online. Also, students have the ability to access their student email accounts and network documents at anytime. This portal solution is going to grow and expand to provide more web-based services to all of our stakeholders over the next few years. Obviously, what is available in this solution will be driven by our stakeholders and what is important to them. I hope that our small school district can continue to think “big” and provide quality solutions to meet our growing needs and challenges.

Rule #5: The best companies are the best collaborators. In the flat world, more and more business will be done through collaborations within and between companies, for a very simple reason: The next layers of value creation – whether in technology, marketing, biomedicine, or manufacturing – are becoming so complex that no single firm or department is going to be able to master them alone.

“Venture capitalists today want to know from day one that your start-up is going to take advantage of the triple convergence to collaborate with the smartest, most efficient people you can find anywhere in the world” (pg. 356). While a school district is not going to “start-up” their own company, I have seen many districts start to take advantage of vendors that specialize in specific areas to address needs across their district. A good example of utilizing a vendor to integrate product within our district at a specialized level has been the integration of SIF (Schools Interoperability Framework) standards. Obviously, there is not anyone within my Technology Department that has the knowledge and expertise to be able to implement DirXML and SIF standards. Because of this, we outsourced this specific work to a qualified vendor that specialized and coordinated this type of integration effort. If for any reason this particular vendor didn’t have the internal resources to meet our needs at the time of integration, then they would coordinate and contract with other vendors in order to bring them in to get the job done. This is exactly what happened on this project. This company utilized other expert resources to meet our timeline. Overall, I see the value of leveraging third party companies to come in and provide integration services based upon specific needs. I also feel that many school districts are now taking greater advantage of “experts” that is out in the world for many products and services. I certainly plan on continuing to collaborate and leverage “expert” resources to develop and implement quality solutions for my school district.

Rule #6: Outsourcing isn’t just for Benedict Arnolds. It’s also for idealists.

Traditionally, a school district is not going to perform any form of outsourcing. However, when you look at it from a “socially responsible” angle, I can tell you that my school district has implemented a program for our low-income families to take advantage of. One of them that immediately come to mind is an after-hours computer lab program. This program was developed and implemented for parents that do not have computers at home but still desire to have some form of Internet connectivity and also learn how to use basic software packages such as Microsoft Office. This has been a great way to not only educate parents on basic computer skills, but to also encourage them to become more involved with their child’s education. Hopefully, other school districts can implement this type of program to help develop parent awareness and computer skills.

Rule #7: The best companies outsource to win, not to shrink. They outsource to innovate faster and more cheaply in order to grow larger, gain market share, and hire more and different specialists – not to save money by firing more people.

Unfortunately, this is one area in which it is difficult for many school districts to participate in. The primary reason for this is because of funding. Most school districts are constantly strapped for what they can do financially and it makes it extremely difficult at times to try and expand your work force or to take advantage of third party vendors for solutions. I would recommend that all school districts take the time to develop and implement a strategic planning process so that they can create a foundation to better utilize their district resources. This is going to be the best way for them to keep up and provide quality services for all of their stakeholders.