Schedule
Course Content
Participant Selection Process & Criteria

The Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE), inaugurated its new Leadership Institute on June 19, 2007, at Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Institute is designed for individuals who have several years of experience as communicators or information technologists and aspire to, or are new to, mid-level management.  It will provide knowledge and skill building that help participants develop the vision, leadership abilities, and management competencies that are needed to excel as a leader in these professions.

Those selected to participate make a one-year commitment that includes three site-based trainings, a self-directed project, ongoing interactivity and collaboration via distance education technologies, and learning opportunities to be arranged at each participant’s workplace.  The program will teach participants to:

• Grow as communications and information technology professionals, expanding professional contacts and learning to better meet the needs of their institutions
• Plan strategically for communications and information technology initiatives
• Identify issues, trends, opportunities, and challenges that affect the communications and information technology professions
• Communicate more effectively about what communications and information technology units do, including their value to the larger organization
• Increase understanding of the unique characteristics and circumstances of communications and information technology units

SCHEDULE

COURSE CONTENT

Managing Resources (Two-day training session)

• Planning, organizing, and budgeting
• Managing human capital
• Understanding your strengths and weaknesses
• Business planning and entrepreneurship
• Running effective meetings

Planning and Managing Strategically (Three-day training session)

• Strategic communication and technology planning
• Understanding, fostering, and managing innovation
• Supporting plans and recommendations with decision data
• Accurately assessing and articulating the outcomes and value of communication and technology initiatives
• Understanding methods for identifying, defining, and solving problems, and leading others through this process
• Understanding the process and importance of identifying trends and issues, both within and outside the organization

Seeing the “Big Picture” (Two-day training session)

• Recognizing and understanding cultural and ethnic differences
• Aligning your unit's vision and mission with those of the larger organization
• Projecting the impact of decisions upon stakeholders
• Understanding the political environment
• Taking a “systems” perspective—inputs, outputs, rules, impacts, and processes
  
• Understanding culture change in an organization

The Institute offers three experiential learning components:

• An individual, self-selected project that unfolds throughout the course of the program
• Year-long opportunities to participate in administrative meetings at the college and/or university level, along with unit-based mentoring and insights into institutional issues
• A case study to be carried out in small groups during the midyear training session.

The participant’s administrative sponsor plays a key role in the Institute’s leadership program.  This person helps ensure institutional support for the program, facilitates participant involvement in the college and university leadership environment, provides an understanding of the larger organization, and helps identify and guide the participant’s project.  Additional learning opportunities will evolve through the training sessions and ongoing interaction via distance learning technologies.