Tech Plan...or Toilet Paper

In his post Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans, Blogger Michael Schuyler calls the technology plan "a political document." You bet it is. Of course it's been said in other discussions of technology plans, but I like Schuyler's because it discusses one reason for the phenomenon, which is that most of the people reading a technology plan know very little about computer craft. Like those folks in Washington talking to the millions of Americans who know so little of statecraft (in addition to the few who do know a thing or two): you have to pack a real plan in its own mystique to sell it to those who don't get the science.

Technology plans remind me very much of grant-writing, and reading some of the poorer ones call back the days when I was a lowly administrative peon (which is less lowly than my current state of pure unemployment, but still). If you were like me, you may look upon the instructions for the E-rate tech planning with hope, thinking, let's use this huge document as a reason to remake our organization. But then the boss says, oh for heaven's sake just make something up so we can get the funds! And the boss is right--with resistance at the top, that organization is probably doomed to writing fiction to bring in funds. Once the funds are acquired, TP stands for toilet paper.

The best thing the administrative peon can do: Move on. Move up. Build a better organization, or at least start working for one, that embraces opportunities to improve.