Don't Bring a Frying Pan to an Emu War: Why IT Needs Leadership

Back in 1932, Australia declared war. Not against another country… against emus. These six-foot-tall angry chickens had become the farmers’ arch nemesis. It got so bad a request was made to the government to send in the army to get it sorted out.

So send in the army they did. Actual soldiers, with machine guns. Away they marched, boots polished and ready for glory, fully expecting to be back in time for tea.

Unfortunately, emus did not play fair. Running around at thirty miles an hour, they split into smaller groups and darted about all over the place. It was like trying to swat wasps with a frying pan. The soldiers would line up, guns at the ready… and the birds would just turn about and head in the other direction.

At one point the army even mounted the guns on a truck, drove after the emus, bouncing across the fields, firing away — and still couldn’t hit them. Guns jamming, soldiers swearing, and the emus just heading off into the distance.

After a few weeks of this, the army admitted defeat. Packed up their kit and went home. And the emus? They carried on eating the crops. The “Great Emu War” was over - final score: Emus 1, Army 0.

It’s a daft story, but it makes a serious point. Throwing more people, more equipment, or more money at a problem doesn’t guarantee results. Without clear expectations, proper oversight, and a plan that matches reality, you can end up working very hard, looking very busy… and still losing to a flock of angry flightless birds.

That’s often what I see in schools. Leaders know IT is important, providers and in-house teams are working hard, but without clear expectations the effort isn’t aligned. SLT and governors don’t need to be technical experts — but they do need to set the direction, define what “good” looks like, and understand the risks. Otherwise, IT becomes an emu problem: lots of noise, plenty of activity (and expense), but not much progress.

It’s easy to look at IT and assume it’s “someone else’s problem” — whether that’s your provider, your network manager, or the latest bit of kit you’ve bought in. But leadership means stepping up, setting expectations, and making sure the effort is actually solving the right problems. You don’t need to be a technician to do that. What you do need is the confidence to ask the right questions, understand the risks, and own the decisions.

If you have an in-house IT team, this is about building a stronger relationship so you can provide both challenge and support. If you’re working with a managed service provider, it’s about really understanding the SLA — not just what’s written on paper, but what it needs to look like in practice. And if you’re a small school or a small MAT, the challenge is even harder. You’re less likely to have anyone in the team who can naturally take on that strategic role — and it’s rarely cost-effective to recruit someone full-time to do it. In those situations, bringing in a consultant or using a retention service is often the most practical way forward.

In every case, the answer isn’t to push the responsibility elsewhere — it’s to have the confidence to own it. That’s why we created the Digital Confidence expert retention scheme: so schools and trusts can set expectations, understand risks, and hold others to account, without needing to be IT experts themselves.

Now is the time to have a little more digital confidence and tackle the problem head-on — not by chasing emus with a frying pan, but by taking charge of the direction and making IT work for your school.