Goals and objectives of this workshop

What is the future vision for your GIS? How do you define success as a GIS manager?

 

We define our lives by the decisions that we make. Decisions can be trivial or life changing. The ability to envision a future that is different than the present, and then to plan and work to achieve that future is a profound part of a successful career or life.

 

This new GIS Management Academy™ workshop outlines the fundamentals of GIS strategic planning and much more importantly, how to manage a GIS strategic plan once it has been developed. Putting your strategic plan into action can become a vital part of how you manage your GIS for continual improvement.

 

The GIS Strategy Management for Successful GIS Managers workshop is built upon a methodology that creates a clear, concise, and actionable strategic plan that becomes an integral part of how you manage your GIS.

 

This GIS Management Academy™ workshop aligns with the ‘Strategic Planning and Action’ competency cluster included in the US Department of Labor Geospatial Management Competency Model. Specific GMCM competencies covered include:

• Keep abreast of developments that affect your organization.

• Apply sound decision-making processes.

• Lead creative thinking about geospatial technology opportunities.

• Articulate a geospatial technology vision for the organization.

• Develop a strategic plan with measurable goals and specific actions.

• Implement a strategic planning cycle.

• Align geospatial activities to support the organization’s strategic plan.

• Adjust the plan in response to changing environment.

• Ensure continuity of geospatial operations.

• Develop and manage a long-term financial plan.

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Goals and objectives of this workshop

The focus of this workshop is on funding GIS operations for cities, counties, and other entities. Money is what built our GIS in the past, money is what keeps it going today, and money is what we need to sustain and grow it in the future.
If you have all the money your GIS needs, that’s great! But if you do not, or if you worry about sustainable financing for your GIS in the future, this workshop can help you develop effective GIS funding strategies.
Part of the challenge for managers is that GIS competes for a share of the finite budgets that cities and counties have. GIS budgets are rarely more than 0.5% of typical municipal budgets, but other departments want to maximize their share of the budget pie. The labor cost for one GIS staff member could also fund a new police officer, or a permit technician, or a transportation planner. How do we make our case for secure GIS funding?
This workshop will present effective strategies for developing a broad base of support for adequate GIS funding, show ways that GIS funding support can be diversified, and suggest innovative funding options.
Workshop author and instructor Greg Babinski has more than 30 years’ experience addressing the GIS funding issue. 
This GIS Management Academy™ workshop aligns with several of the competencies included in the US Department of Labor Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM) including:

• 8. Relationship Management

• 15. Political Skills 

• 17. Financial Management

This workshop also aligns with these Execution Ability (EA) components in the GIS Capability Maturity Model:

• EA20. GIS Linked to Agency Strategic Goals

• EA21. GIS Budget

• EA22. GIS Funding

• EA22. GIS Financial Plan

Ensuring adequate funding, today and into the future, is a key management responsibility for an effective and sustainable GIS.

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Goals and objectives of this workshop

Show me the money! A geographic information system in any government agency, non-profit, or private company competes for financial resources. GIS managers must be able to articulate the many qualitative and quantitative benefits that GIS provides. But ultimately GIS needs to show the financial benefits that it provides to decision makers. How does a highly competent GIS manager accomplish this?

 

GIS management is a challenging profession. Effective GIS management is a critical success factor for an agency to leverage the potential of its investment in geospatial data and technology and to maximize GIS ROI. Adequate financial support is a key factor for a successful GIS. This is a key GIS management responsibility.

 

This GIS Management Academy™ workshop introduces the use of return on investment (ROI) analysis methods to document the net financial benefits that an agency might achieve from its GIS. In this workshop we will review the types of benefits that GIS provides. We will focus on recent (non-GIS industry) literature that documents the significant ROI from GIS at various social and institutional levels.

 

A major portion of the workshop will demonstrate a simple, objective methodology that has been used to quantify and report GIS performance metrics and ROI. This demonstration will include the use of a custom Excel Spreadsheet template that will be provided to all students who complete the workshop. After the workshop each attendee will have the tools and framework to input data to document their GIS ROI.

 

This GIS Management Academy™ workshop aligns with several of the competency clusters included in the US Department of Labor Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM) including:

• Performance Management

• Communication

• Relationship Management

• Political Skills

• Financial Management

 

Enterprise GIS is expensive to develop, maintain, and operate. Even small-to-medium-sized cities, counties, and regional agencies have invested millions of dollars to develop their GIS capabilities, and they can have large annual operating budgets. Many recent third-party studies have proven that GIS delivers significant financial return on investment (ROI) to organizations that deploy it as an enterprise business-support tool. Register for GIS ROI Fundamentals from the GIS Management Academy™ today.

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Goals and objectives of this workshop

The hiring, development, or promotion of your staff members is the most important decision you will ever make as a GIS manager.

Your personal competency and effectiveness as a GIS manager are judged by the team that you assemble and lead, and the goals and objectives your team accomplishes.

 

You will be working with the team that you have assembled for many years. Your career success and the success of your team depends on your leadership and management effectiveness in this critical competency area. The people resources that you assemble and develop are the most valuable asset that your GIS has.

 

This online workshop provides a clear foundation and action-based structure for GIS managers to plan, assemble, motivate, and lead an effective GIS team now and into the future.

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Goals and objectives of this workshop

This four-hour online workshop will serve as an introduction to recent trends and practices related to using GIS for Equity and Social Justice (ESJ).

GIS managers and professionals are bound by the GIS Code of Ethics to consider the impact of their work on society. Obligations to society are paramount for ethical use of GIS. 

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But for hundreds of years mapping has too frequently been a tool for creating and preserving inequity. We will explore how GIS has been used malevolently as a tool of the powerful to the detriment of society as a whole.

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We will also explore a few examples of how pioneering geographers, cartographers, and data scientists used spatial data and maps for social justice. During the past 25 years there have been accelerating uses of GIS for issues related to equity or social justice.

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We will explore critical race theory (CRT) and trends in critical race spatial analysis. We will review recent literature and academic programs around the topic of GIS for ESJ.

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Most importantly we will outline best practices for GIS professionals in doing GIS for ESJ work. This includes creating a data/mapping/application support framework both for their own work and to support the work on non-GIS professionals. Non-GIS professionals will become the largest community doing actual ESJ work with GIS. These non-GIS professionals include those who work for agencies, non-profits, and NGO’s with an ESJ mission, as well as government policy professionals who want to use GIS to support an ESJ lens for developing upstream agency policies.

Workshop co-author and instructor Greg Babinski has more than 37 years’ experience as a GIS manager, including 10 years related to the development of GIS for equity and social justice approaches. Even earlier in his academic career he had minor contributions to geographic projects that explored societal conditions of inequity and injustice.

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He helped organize the first ever GIS for ESJ session at a GIS conference and in 2019 he was awarded an EthicalGEO Fellowship from the American Geographical Society to research and develop GIS for ESJ Best Practices.

This workshop aligns with:

• The GIS Code of Ethics

• The Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (for which the author has written five articles), related to GIS, geography, and cartography and it societal impacts.

The GIS Code of Ethics obligates us to action related to the impact of our profession on society.

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Goals and objectives of this workshop

The focus of this course is on the work that GIS operations perform for specific city and county customers or clients. The extent of this client services work can vary between agencies, depending on the size of the GIS relative to its core enterprise duties, and the demands from departments and key stakeholders within the agency for custom, business-focused services and products.

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A GIS is a system that is more than the sum of its parts. A GIS operation’s primary responsibility will always be the care and optimization of the parts of the GIS: software, hardware, data, enterprise applications, processes, procedures, governance, help-desk functions, and more.

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But just as important are focused data, custom maps, spatial analysis, end-user applications, custom training, and many other services to help GIS deliver ROI – effectiveness and financial benefits. Requests can come from public works, public safety, the mayor or chief executive, or even from citizens.

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Managing the GIS client services process can consume a large portion of time for the GIS team and manager.

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This GIS Management Academy™ workshop introduces a structured management approach to provide your customers with end-user GIS services effectively and efficiently. The result will be that your GIS has a reputation as a service provider that delivers and helps grow the use of GIS, while minimizing the management overhead burden.

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This GIS Management Academy™ workshop aligns with several of the competencies included in the US Department of Labor Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM) including:

• Performance Management

• Team Management

• Relationship Management

• Business Development

• Work Management

• Geospatial Project Management

This workshop also aligns with these Execution Ability Components in the GIS Capability Maturity Model:

• New Client Services Evaluation and Development

• User Support, Help Desk, and End-User Training

• Service Delivery Tracking and Oversight

• Service Quality Assurance

• Project Management Methodology

• Client Satisfaction Monitoring and Assurance

Delivering responsive and cost-effective GIS client services is key for a highly responsive GIS operation to develop and maintain a broad base of end user support.

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Goals and objectives of this workshop

GIS management essentials online in eight hours over two days.

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The GIS Managers Boot Camp™ provides essential insights and best practices within a structured framework that can be used throughout a manager’s career.

GIS and GIS management are part of the knowledge economy – a system driven by knowledge, innovation, information, and experience. Intellectual capital is a GIS manager’s most valuable asset. But our intellectual capital must be nurtured by lifelong learning, professional connections, and shared experiences.

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GIS management is one of the most demanding and also most rewarding of government careers. Government agencies invest millions to develop GIS and millions more every year to maintain, operate, and utilize their GIS. GIS is expected to deliver an array of benefits, from enhanced services, better citizen engagement, regulatory compliance, and financial return on investment.

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And GIS does not come ready-to-use out of the box. Every GIS is a custom system, built with data, hardware, software, applications, and a team of GIS professionals each with their own competencies. The GIS manager is the glue that holds this system together.

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This workshop is based on a framework of the essentials of a successful GIS operation. First – what are the characteristics of a successful GIS? How do we know a successful GIS when we see one? Second – what are the management outputs that guide, support, and sustain a successful GIS? And finally, what are the essential competencies that a highly effective GIS needs to deploy to ensure the GIS succeeds?

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This workshop presents eight key perspectives for a successful GIS manager: envision the strategic future, engage stakeholders, manage resources, curate data, curate technology, lead your team, lead change, and lead innovation.

Workshop author and instructor Greg Babinski has more than 37 years’ experience as a GIS manager and observing and analyzing what makes managers succeed or fail.

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In addition to a personal perspective, this GIS Management Academy™ workshop aligns with

• The US Department of Labor Geospatial Management Competency Model (which the author helped develop)

• The GIS Capability Maturity Model (which the author helped develop), including key management focused abilities

• The Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (the author has written five articles), related to GIS organization and the knowledge economy.

Lifelong learning and continual professional growth are essential for a successful career in GIS management. The GIS Managers Boot Camp™ provides valuable insights and best practices within a structured framework that can be used throughout a manager’s career.

Goals and objectives of this workshop

An effective governance structure is a key success factor for a GIS organization and for the GIS manager who leads it. But often a GIS operation will take a ‘heads-down and hope nobody bothers us’ attitude and just focus on developing and maintaining data, developing a small set of apps, and responding to the occasional request for some analysis or a set of maps. Just as often the GIS shop will be overwhelmed by requests for new data, apps, and projects. Is this you?

 

A GIS manager with leadership and vision will likely hope to accomplish more than what available resources allow. An effective GIS governance structure with meaningful and supportive participation is an invaluable tool for a GIS manager.

This online workshop provides a clear understanding of what GIS governance is intended for, how to structure GIS governance, and how it can become a highly effective tool for successful GIS managers.

Goals and objectives of this workshop

GIS management is a challenging profession. Effective GIS management is a critical success factor for an agency to leverage the potential of its investment in geospatial data and technology and to maximize GIS ROI.

 

GIS management is often seen as the culmination of a career in GIS – the opportunity to apply geospatial technology to achieve a vision for GIS within an organization, be it a government agency, non-profit, or private company. But any management position, and especially GIS management requires a systematic understanding of the many competencies required to succeed,

This workshop introduces the concept of competency models as a tool to understand the range of individual competencies that an organization needs to succeed in utilizing a specific technology and related business process. We will review a variety of published geospatial competency models.

 

This workshop will focus on the Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM) developed by the URISA GMI Committee chaired by the instructor and adopted by the US Department of Labor Employment Training Administration is 2012. We will discuss the characteristics that distinguish GIS management from IT and other domains within typical government agencies, non-profits, and private industry.

 

The workshop will describe how the GMCM can help GIS managers assess their own professional strengths and identify priority areas for further competency development. The GMCM can also be used to assess an entire GIS management team.

 

Through hands-on exercises, workshop attendees will complete an initial assessment of their own geospatial management competencies against the GMCM. Attendees will receive a report based on their input that will allow them to compare their competencies with peers and to plan their future priority competency development.

 

Enterprise GIS is expensive to develop, maintain, and operate. Even small-to-medium-sized cities, counties, and regional agencies have invested millions of dollars to develop their GIS capabilities, and they can have large annual operating budgets. Many recent third-party studies have proven that GIS delivers significant financial return on investment (ROI) to organizations that deploy it as an enterprise business-support tool.

 

However, like a sports team, symphony orchestra, or gourmet restaurant, no GIS operation can achieve its potential without effective leadership and highly competent management. GIS operational effectiveness, sustainability, and ROI varies depending on the competency of the geospatial manager.

The relationship of the GMCM to the GIS Capability Maturity Model will also be described.

 

Workshop attendees will receive copies of the GMCM. An exercise will be conducted during which attendees will be asked to perform an initial confidential self-assessment of their competency by applying the GMCM. This workshop will be of value to those interested in the development, implementation, and use of GIS management professional standards and best practices.

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