Enterprise IT in Harmony: Aligning Technology across Campus— January

January 12, 14 and 19, 2027
Online

Event Description

As technology and data decisions become increasingly complex across higher education institutions, technology leaders must create alignment across the enterprise while preserving local agility. This Leadership Series introduces the Architect’s Compass, a practical framework for navigating complexity through principles, shared context, and influence rather than command and control. Across three interactive sessions, participants will explore how to establish guardrails that enable responsible innovation, align teams around common goals, create coherence across enterprise technologies and data ecosystems, and influence decisions beyond their formal authority. Real-world higher education examples, peer discussion, and applied tools will help participants examine their own governance structures, stakeholder relationships, and sources of tension. Participants will leave with practical strategies for fostering collaboration and leading through complexity while maintaining the agility, resilience, and innovation demanded by higher education’s enterprise environment.

Learning Outcomes

• Apply the Architect's Compass framework to an enterprise IT challenge at participants’ institutions.
• Establish appropriate principles and guardrails that enable innovation while maintaining enterprise alignment.
• Create shared context and governance approaches that improve cross-functional collaboration and decision-making.
• Design strategies for improving coherence across data, applications, and organizational boundaries.
• Use influence, storytelling, and stakeholder engagement to drive architectural and organizational outcomes beyond formal authority
• Develop a practical action plan for balancing unit-level autonomy with enterprise-wide goals.

Facilitators