Four weeks ago, I was approached with an opportunity some only dream of, and many, myself included, never thought was a possibility. I met with a Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a small to medium size city, and in essence, I was asked what I can and want to do. There are many ways one can answer the want question, but I could not come up with an answer: neither four weeks ago nor since. Yesterday that changed.
A little qualification is necessary. The position is not literally anything one can and wants to do. That would be absurd. Part of the job fulfils administrative needs – such as purchasing and invoice processing – with the remaining time acting as a proponent of, as the CIO calls it, “Leveraging Technology to Affect Change.” A strength of professional, post-secondary education programs, and duties I normally look for in job postings, is preparing students for administrative oriented careers. It is foreign, therefore, the proponent of leveraging technology to affect change’s duties are not completely defined.
From the CIO’s perspective, he sees the proponent of leveraging technology to affect change as someone ratable on the geeky scale. Communicators are in short supply in IT operations, but communicators are the ones who bring awareness to what is occurring, what is going to happen next, and why.
The CIO offered suggestions, like replicating Microsoft’s Road Map, designing brochures, recording videos, and utilizing whiteboard presentations or hand drawings that have gained popularity recently. The goal of these efforts would be to “build new and innovative ways to keep folks aware – focused – leveraging [sic]”. Some of these suggestions I can see myself attempting such as replicating Microsoft’s Road Map and designing brochures. I offer below my alternative to whiteboard or hand drawings in audio-visual communications. As not a paper and marker artists, I would struggle to get stick figures to convey desired messages.
I recently listened to a podcast about video games (may I get geek credit for that?) and specifically The Sims series. The thing about The Sims, many other life simulation games, and Massively Multiple Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft is they allows individuals to ask and conceptualize virtually what political scientists Don Kinder (1998) says is a driving force in moral decision making: “what supports my team?” (p. 808). Life simulation games allow users to assume an omnipotent role and create worlds they can then use to learn about reality (social awareness learning can occur when real people assume roles of characters). Traditionally, finding and learning about teams and social reality involves meeting, integrating, and form groups but these can now be accomplished through the digital sphere. Technology has allowed us to replicate tradition with respect to the limitations of what is replaced – a modified lesson I have learned from accounting information systems.
All this is leading to – my grand idea and what I really want to do – Legos. Granted, this is a thought early in the stages of development, and maybe not possible, but I became instantly inspired. I would like nothing more than to play with the Danish interlocking building blocks that defined my childhood. I am a terrible artist, and rather than drawing or coloring to design a message, why not use Legos? Legos provide endless possibilities for creation and recreation (both definitions work perfectly well) and are the original life simulation game. The modern brick design (since 1958) is universal, durable, and just awesome (more geek credit?). An entire animated movie was created regarding the world of Legos. Lego Serious Play – dedicated to the integration of Legos into professions – is a division of the Lego Group and supported by research. Lastly, just like recordings of hand drawings, one can find stop-motion Lego animation videos online.
The moral of my story is, do not be like me. Do not take a month to figure out what you really want to do because you have always let job descriptions and job postings define what you think you want to do. Maybe it is an illogical utopian fantasy to think I can discover something about what I want today from what I wanted as a child. But maybe, I can rekindle a time when I was happier, and truly enjoy my career.
