COLLOQUIUM

School of Computing and Software Engineering (CSE)

Subject: Successful Strategies for Leading Change

Speaker: Dr. Mary Lynn Manns, University of North Carolina at Asheville

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2007

Time: 4:45-5:45 PM

Place: J 161

REFRESHMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE STARTING ABOUT 4:30 PM.

DESCRIPTION

…there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. Niccolo Machiavelli

The only certainty in Information Technology is change. As a result, professionals in this field are likely to find themselves in a position of leading change. Even though the problems and struggles in initiating “a new order of things” are often difficult and overwhelming, few students are taught the strategies they need to meet these challenges.

Mary Lynn Manns will present some successful strategies for leading change, as reported in her book (with L. Rising), Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas. Their extensive study of numerous people leading change in a variety of sizes and types of organizations throughout the world uncovered recurring techniques (or “patterns”) for leading change in a way that encourages commitment rather than only compliance. Anyone who has struggled with introducing a new idea, process, and/or innovative technology into an organization, or wishes to teach their students how to do this, will find this presentation useful and enlightening.

Biographical Sketch

Mary Lynn Manns is on the Management faculty at UNCA. She holds the following graduate degrees: M.B.A. from Western Carolina University, M.S. in Information Systems from University of Colorado, and Ph.D. in Information Systems from DeMontfort University (UK). She has published extensively in journals and conference proceedings and has made numerous professional presentations throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America. Her current areas of research are introducing new ideas into organization, patterns and “pattern mining”, and project retrospectives. Dr. Manns is Conference Chair for the Agile 2007 conference.

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