Kia ora Koutou ITP members and supporters. I am lucky enough to be sitting in the sunshine in lovely rural Brightwater today. It was fantastic to see Nelson has joined the 21st century and has introduced public transport! You can bus everywhere now on big blue eBuses, as their website says it is a game changer for the region. Lovely to see the fancy new bus network is electric too unlike my home town. 

With the SFIA Roadshow I’ve been able to visit polytechnic campuses around the country catching up with digital technology teaching staff. This time last year as I was getting to know everyone there were some signs of stress, overwork, underpay, post-covid challenge stress. Just a year later my assessment is this stress is at the forefront of their lives. Staff are leaving across the board and those who remain are struggling. Why? There is a long list, the continuous restructuring and budget cutting of Te Pūkenga hangs over them, not to mention the conflict between needing to modernise and update their courses while Te Pūkenga is looking to centralise and unify, students are landing in their classrooms with vastly different capabilities and experiences after their own Covid disrupted high school learning experiences, the overwork underpay conditions still remain.

Polytechnic staff are not the only ones I have spoken with this year struggling with politicians messing with their ability to do the job they are employed for - this is consistent with the experiences at all levels of our education system. Education is always used as a political football, the impact of changes - like winding back ROVE or changing the curriculum - lands squarely on the shoulders of teaching staff who have no power or influence in these political decisions. Politicians need to start listening to the teachers at all levels of the system if they want to ensure our tamariki and rangatahi (children and young people) are given the best possible education a first world country like ours owes them. 

I’ve been waiting for political party announcements on digital technology to come out before continuing with the assessment of what’s in it for tech - because as of today there is nothing much from any of them (nothing new anyway) so I’m holding out some hope this is imminently going to change. 

Peter’s editorial today “Digital services and gambling taxes poor substitutes for global tax reform” talks about new taxes Labour and National have both announced on gambling and offshore digital sales.  

September and October are shaping up to be busy months with events galore lined up. I am really looking forward to the Innovation Expo in Ōtautahi Christchurch next week and the Women in Computing celebrations at Waikato University coming up amongst a long list of digital technology events. Our community is energised and growing, next step is to find ways of connecting the mahi and collaborating rather than competing on many fronts. 

All things AI

Brendan’s cartoon this week is quite brilliant and summarises one of my greatest concerns - everyone is falling over themselves to incorporate AI into everything they do before they fully understand and before we have the ground rules sorted for ethical use. This was one of the key topics discussed with Minister Andersen last week where I expressed my very real concern our government would assign 2 junior policy analysts to the job of writing a national AI strategy. 

His cartoon was inspired by Peter’s post earlier in the week reporting on TUANZ: We need a national AI strategy. TUANZ (the technology users association) is asking the incoming government to develop a holistic national AI strategy, encourage the adoption of ethical AI principles, develop comprehensive privacy and data protection regulations and invest in AI education. That’s something we should all stand behind!

“Prompt engineering: is being an AI ‘whisperer’ the job of the future or a short-lived fad?” - what a cool title. This guest blog explores one of the many new roles generative AI is creating. 

Finally, my AI wrap today is another collection of the more interesting articles I’ve read this week. There is something for everyone - the role of Chief AI officer, the future of automation, the rise of AI fuelled cyber attacks, AI to be incorporated into Call of Duty , AI powered drones and various policy settings we need to address. 

Are you a people manager? Got stories to share? 

I once had a staff member tell me the work I needed her to undertake was “not a priority (for her)”, putting her personal aspirations ahead of the need for our business and customers. This created a massive wedge between us as she really dug in focusing on her relatively new career goals, I had never experienced such obstinate selfish behaviour in years as a people leader. The fallout for us both created scars and while it happened the better part of 10 years ago I still find myself reflecting on what I could have done differently, how I could have navigated towards a different outcome and wondering why this still plagues me.

This is one of the few people management experiences I can’t construct insights or advice for others to use on how to handle such a situation, but I do have plenty of other experiences I can expand on and have been thinking about how to share these in a constructive manner - some kind of resource or guide for people managers grounded in stories and experiences. 

Do you have experiences or stories like this you would be willing to share? Tips for how to address tricky situations as a people manager? Suggestions on how to get the best from your team? Some of the unique challenges we face in the digital technology industry?  

I’ve made a google form, you can leave your name - so that I can add it to a quote, or answer anonymously. If you wanted to get even more involved in developing this resource drop me a line.    

Reminders

We have two surveys out that are short and would be fabulous if you can complete (with the correct links this time):

• What’s happening in your workplace - are you still working from home? Or is there pressure to return to the office? 
• Professional skills we expect new industry entrants to have learned during their digital technology studies? 

Thanks to everyone who has completed these, results next week. 

Listen to Bridging the Gap our podcast focused on showcasing the diversity of our industry on Apple and Spotify

Digital Technology Te Reo Māori terms

Right now I need my charger or pūhihiko and I wish the wifi or ahokore here was better, but my parents rural property doesn’t have fibre internet or Ipurangi

Other Te Reo Māori digital technology terms can be found here. 

Tē tōia, tē haumatia - Nothing can be achieved without a plan, workforce and way of doing things, Vic (my view right now below)