The subtitle of this book, "Lessons to Lead and Succeed in a Knowledge-Based World" aptly describes its fourteen chapters. Mr. Waitley describes what we need in order to make ourselves better leaders and followers in today's information age. Each chapter describes what we should do to improve our personal situation (Self-Leadership). The Technology Planning Committee who commits to following his lead will develop an awesome plan!

In the first chapter, Mr. Waitley describes how the business culture of a few years ago and the one of today is different. He lists things such as the change in attitudes about competitors and customers, the changing outlook on long-term versus short-term profits, and educated workers and teams. Mr. Waitley reminds the reader that the world is not the place of business that it was in the 50's or even the 70's! Not only is the way we conduct business changing, but also the workers are very much different. Better educated, more knowledgeable in the processes of industry and much better paid than ever before, the worker of today does not respond to the same type of leadership of earlier industrial societies. The leadership style of a "Henry Ford" would be very much out of place on the manufacturing floor of a 90's facility. Today, it is what you know that can place you in a position of leadership or place you in a back office. Change can be your friend or your nemesis. Don't be defeated by the dinosaur mentality that says if you don't adapt to change, you will be overrun by it. To be a successful leader in this time and place, you must prepare yourself and your committee members for the realities of the information age in which we live. Our technology planning committees must be able to learn and adapt to change as rapidly as any industry.

Mr. Waitley recommends that we benchmark our personal lives. I don't know why we couldn't benchmark our planning committee expertise and efforts. His definition of benchmark is "the search for industry's best practices that lead to superior performance". There is no reason why we shouldn't find examples of good plans and good uses of technology and expand on them for use in our plan. Don't forget to look above and below in your own district and building. Some of the best uses of technology may be right under your own nose.

When manning your technology planning committee, be sure not to just get the techno- teachers to write the plan. This could be the worse thing you could do for your organization. These people are already using technology and are comfortable with it. You may need a different perspective. Gain the support of the teacher who isn't but would like to use technology. You "kill two birds with one stone." These teachers gain valuable knowledge about teaching and using technology, and they will go back and become disciples of the plan they helped write. This way, the plan and technology becomes part of their teaching passion.

There is no reason why a committee cannot be trained in not only the technology of today, but also trained in the process of plan writing. We expect that our teachers and administrators be trained, so there is no reason why a committee shouldn't be properly trained. This way, the committee will be much better prepared to create a superb planning document for their organization.