CRA LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SCHEDULE
(Room locations forthcoming)
May 22nd (4:00 PM–9:00 PM)
4:00-4:10 PM Welcome and Workshop Overview (Carla Brodley and Jim Kurose)
4:10-5:00 PM Why be a leader? (Moderator: Jim Kurose)
This is our “kickoff” session, where we consider some of the “big picture” questions about CS leadership: What types of leadership positions are there in academia, professional societies (conference, editorial, admin), government? How do you get one? In the arc of one’s career, is there a time that is too early, too late, or just right to be thinking about such positions? We’ll run this as a moderated group discussion, with organizers Tracy Camp, Kathleen Fisher, and Alex Wolf, then open the discussion to include everyone.
5:00-6:00 PM Affinity diagram (K-J Method) (Moderator: Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones)
This interactive activity will help you explore your path to and questions about leadership. Using the post-it notes. write as many questions and/or topics that you’d like to see discussed during the workshop’s activities. Participants will then work in groups to cluster the notes, create the underlying themes, and discuss what they are hoping to get out of this workshop.
6:00-7:00 PM Networking with drinks
Participants who have covid concerns will have the option to have dinner in their room during this time.
7:00-9:00 PM Dinner and Fireside Chat
Fireside chat with Juan Gilbert and special guest M. Brian Blake.
May 23rd (8:00 AM–3:00 PM)
8:00-8:30 AM Breakfast and networking
Participants with COVID concerns should have breakfast on their own prior to this event.
8:30-9:15 AM What makes a good leader? (Moderator: Rachel Pottinger)
All of us have had experience both working with leaders and being leaders ourselves. To decide if you want to take up a leadership position, it’s important to understand what characteristics a leader has. In this session, participants will work to identify what characteristics they identify with being a good leader. Participants will then reflect on what characteristics are their own particular strengths and how to shore up areas of relative weakness, either through changes to make to themselves or in characteristics to look for in building their leadership team.
9:15-10:15 AM Search firms: Roles and mechanics, wisdom (Moderator: Jim Kurose; Speakers: speakers from Isaacson, Miller (a well-known search firm in academia, and computer science), an individual who has chaired searches employing a search firm (Kathleen Fisher), and an individual who was selected for a position in a search employing a search firm (Tracy Camp).
The search for CS leaders in academia and non-profits often engage the services of a search firm. In this session we’ll discuss what search firms do, the mechanics/steps a search firm takes in a particular search, confidentiality, referencing, and what search firms (and organizations) look for in leaders.
10:00-10:30 AM Coffee break
10:30 AM-12:00 PM Leading and managing 360 (Moderator: Carla Brodley)
This session will look at the leadership opportunities and challenges of different types of organizations.
- Leading and managing in academia: managing laterally, managing up, managing down, managing faculty and /managing staff (Nigamanth Sridhar (lead), Juan Gilbert , Alex Wolf)
- Leading and managing at DARPA/NSF (Kathleen Fisher, Jim Kurose (lead), Nigamanth Sridhar)
- Leading and managing in volunteer organizations (e.g., Conferences, ACM, CRA). (Tracy Camp, Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones (lead), Alex Wolf)
- Managing your portfolio and yourself (Juan Gilbert, Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones, Rachel Pottinger (lead). Topics include: managing large research efforts/center-scale efforts, managing information and email.
12:00-1:00 PM Lunch and networking
1:00-1:35 PM Flexing your leadership muscles (Moderator: Carla Brodley)
This is a guided activity to practice your leadership skills. We will break up into small groups to determine how to approach each of these opportunities/challenges.
- You are a world leader in computing and realize that the leading professional organization, based in the US, has regional councils in Europe, India, and China but not for Latin America nor Africa. Computing is desperately trying to expand to those regions but is facing a chicken-and-egg situation. Do you increase membership and then provide regional support? Or do you first create a regional organization to encourage more membership? (Lead: Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones)
- You are a new chair and have realized that your CS degree requires students to complete 22 semester-long courses (16 required classes and 6 electives). Average time to degree is 5 years. The president has called for changes across campus to ensure time to degree is closer to 4 years. Faculty are opposed to any changes, particularly when it might impact them getting to teach their favorite (currently required upper-division) class. (Lead: Carla Brodley)
- Your department receives an unrestricted gift of $500k. Your dean would like a plan that can be presented to the donor within a week. This gift would represent the largest single gift your department has received and you, in your role as department head, will have discretion on how to invest in your department. What process will you use to determine how it should be spent? How will you seek and obtain the support and enthusiasm of your faculty colleagues? How will you manage competing requests? (Lead: Nigamanth Sridhar).
1:35-1:40 PM Guided self reflection (Lead: Carla Brodley)
1:45-2:30 PM Next steps for you as an individual (Moderator: Alex Wolf, Panelists: Juan Gilbert, Jim Kurose, and Rachel Pottinger)
Topics include: How do you network for a job? What skills/habits/information should you try to gain? What should you be doing to position yourself for a leadership position? When in your career is the right time? Who should you be talking to? How much planning can you do versus just being in the right place at the right time? What should you be trying to gain from the conversations? As part of this session we will have a group discussion to determine: What are you doing in this area already? Next steps for you.
2:30-3 PM Wrap up and next steps (Carla Brodley and Jim Kurose)
We will be following up with three virtual meetings. This is an opportunity to have participants provide suggestions on future topics of interest.