Campus IT moved from participation to collaboration in their spring workshop on Wednesday, May 24.

IT professionals from across campus recently came together for a morning of networking, inspiration and reflection on uniting as a campus IT community to innovate and solve problems as one team.

Ro DiBrezzo, vice provost for faculty development and enhancement, started the morning by speaking to the importance of focusing on student success, teaching critical thinking and building positive relationships across campus.

Chris McCoy, chief information officer, followed with a complex team-building exercise designed to emphasize the growing significance of collaboration in IT. The exercise used puzzles mixed up between tables and consisted of three phases, each allowing more and more collaboration with other tables. By the end, the attitude changed from competitive to collaborative, and it became less about who won and more about working together to ensure that everyone excelled at the task.

"This puzzle exercise was very similar to how the community has approached work in the past," McCoy said. "Many could see the problem right away, but some things got in the way of collaborating — strange rules, politics, stubbornness, lack of trust, inability to participate and  conflicting priorities. By working together to bridge these issues, solutions are as simple as a 48-piece child's puzzle. The question we all face isn't whether it's too difficult, but whether we will take the risk and choose to work together for the better of the institution."

Under the initiative, Achieve IT: Excellence in Technology, campus IT is focused on strengthening technological infrastructure to provide an innovative and efficient space for students, faculty and staff to succeed in their education and research. Today, Campus IT works as one team and continues to collaborate to serve the University of Arkansas.

To read more about the Achieve IT initiative, go to campusit.uark.edu.