I’ve commented before that part of what makes each ILTA Annual Conference so valuable is the event’s emphasis on providing actionable takeaways – lessons that can make a real difference in how you and your organization operate. So after returning from the conference last year, I put together a list of my own personal takeaways. I then copied the items into an Outlook appointment that repeats quarterly. My six-month ‘appointment’ just popped up, and I thought I’d share my takeaways here. It’s not only useful to remind myself of these lessons, but it’s also interesting to evaluate which I’ve implemented (and which proved more challenging). If you have a list of your own takeaways from #ilta10, please share them in the comments.
User Feedback
1. Jo Haraf – Use post-its labelled with ‘love it’ / ‘hate it’ / ‘fix it’ to get feedback from users.
2. Jo Haraf – Book recommendation, “Innovation Games” by Luke Hohmann, for understanding your customers’ needs.
Change Leadership by JAG
3. Ask, “what impact is this action going to have on the people around me?”
4. When implementing change, communicate early and often the HOW and the WHY.
5. Vest personnel in change: transparency, communication, candor.
6. “The role of leadership is to turn challenges into opportunities.” General Dennis Reimer
7. Keep people informed as you’re about to change their lives.
Client Satisfaction
8. Are you measuring your clients’ satisfaction with your extranets? Only 5% of respondents to ILTA survey said ‘yes.’
Failure
9. Plan to fail: mitigate the consequences; learn; use the failure as a guidepost.
After Action Reviews
10. Be open & honest; review the system not the person.
11. Conduct either by timeline or by theme/topic.
12. Document everything you did right! Not just the areas for improvement.
Friendly Project Management Tools
13. Basecamp = Simple, very usable tool for helping to manage projects, plus integrates with email.
14. LiquidPlanner = Very useful gantt tool; the only software that allows you to input duration ranges (e.g. 2-3 days, 1-2 weeks).
Working with Vendors
15. Make sure you understand how the vendor will meet your success criteria.
16. Working with vendor – Don’t just reward for success, but also penalize for not meeting criteria.
That’s my list – please share yours in the comments. And remember, registration for #ILTA11 opens on March 1.