The Consumer Digital Technology Footprint and its impact on enterprise IT

Last week, I attended Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland, where I participated in a panel to discuss this topic. The panel was part of Web Summit's EnterpriseX session, which focused on leaders in more traditional enterprises, rather than start-ups. Earlier in October, I attended Gartner Symposium, where this topic was addressed through many Gartner analyst presentations. At Symposium, Gartner presented their annual CIO Insights, developed from an extensive survey of almost 2500 CIOs across the globe.

According to Gartner's research, CIOs will need to focus on building Bimodal capability, or running a two-speed IT organization. This theme was raised repeatedly at my EnterpriseX panel. Consumer Digital Technology is highly fluid, and is in a constant state of change. For example, one of my fellow panelists was Chris Satchell, the Consumer Technology Officer for Nike. Chris is responsible for all Nike's consumer technology, including things like Nike's apps and Nike+. Chris's team had almost 4000 releases in 2013. This is a much different way of working than most traditional IT organizations. Hence Gartner's bimodal capability concept, or the advent of two-speed IT. The advent of consumer digital technology requires a very agile approach. After all, if there's a problem with Nike's app, the fix has to come fast - waiting months for a future release is simply not an option. On the other hand, ERPs are going to be with us for a long time. We do have to run back office functions, and that's not going to be handled by an app any time soon.

So how can we address the need to work in two different speeds? Gartner's research suggests that CIOs have begun to do so by exploring some Agile methodologies to meet these challenges. My panelists at EnterpriseX had some interesting perspectives on Agile. In some cases, even Agile isn't agile enough! And in other situations, applying Agile methodologies to a more traditional project has simply added an additional layer of management and oversight that hasn't really helped. One of my co-panelists described this as "using Scrum as a weapon". Other ideas included focusing on accuracy rather than precision. Traditionally, IT organizations have focused on the "perfect" solution at the expense of timeliness (and often never getting there). In the new digital world, perhaps we should focus on "good enough" where we can. As an aside, I find this concept of accuracy vs. precision to be highly applicable in the data world also. In traditional data warehousing, having exact data was highly prized and there was a real focus on data preparation, which naturally meant that it took time to provide that data to the enterprise. With big data, the focus is more on "good enough" - we're really looking at large amounts of data for trend purposes, so accuracy, rather than precision, works.

Ultimately, though, the discussion at my panel turned to how we might use things like cloud solutions to more efficiently manage the traditional functions, freeing up resources to invest in the digital technologies, which are fundamentally different. The concept of skunkworks-type teams was floated, teams that can deliver solutions without the weight of governance and change management that is truly necessary for enterprise solutions. Gartner's research suggests that business leaders want more growth and innovation, but IT budgets are not growing; so approaches like this seem like a realistic approach.

During his presentation at Web Summit, Lew Cirne, the CEO of NewRelic suggests using software to impact the top line of the business, and not just the bottom line as we traditionally have. "Use software on offense" was Lew's advice. In considering all these thoughts, it seems to me that we are moving to a two-speed IT, the "bottom line" software speed and the "top line" software speed. Not only are they two different speeds, but they're different approaches, and may require the introduction of new teams in the traditional IT organization.

So what does that mean for CIOs? Most of us are where we are because we've been successful in at the bottom-line speed, with a focus on precision. Now we need to focus on the top-line speed focused on accuracy. In my opinion, most CIOs embrace this challenge. Reading Gartner's research confirms that for me. CIOs recognize the need to renovate the IT core in order to make room for the new disruptive business models. According to Gartner, CIOs have big concerns around the availability of the talent required to execute these innovations, and I would agree that this is the major issue. As Gartner notes, there's no substantial new funding, so we won't be adding staff, and even if we were, these talents are in high demand and are expensive.

I don't have any real answers to these hard questions, I wish I did! But I do know that if CIOs don't find ways to operationalize this bimodal approach, IT will become less and less relevant in our organizations.

Leadership tips from a famous historian

This week I took the time to attend Educause. It’s a lot of time out of the office, so it’s important to get as much as possible out of it. This year, I enjoyed networking with my colleagues, meeting with vendors, hosting a poster session, being engaged with the Women in IT Constituency Group, and, of course, the sessions. But I probably got the most from the keynote by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I’ve seen her speak before. As an historian, she has studied several presidents, including Lincoln, LBJ, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR. She presents leadership tips from these presidents. This year, she came up with 10.

1. Motivate yourself in the face of frustration. Lincoln had failed at numerous things before he became President. Learn from failures and don’t give up.

2. Recognize the challenges that exist in the time and circumstance that you’re in and deal with them. Lincoln and FDR had to lead the country through wars. On the other hand, Teddy Roosevelt didn’t have that particular challenge, but he recognized that in his time, industry and conservation were the challenges that needed to be addressed. He recognized that and used his leadership in those areas.

3. Surround yourself with smart people who have different perspectives to yourself. Read Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals” to see how Lincoln filled his cabinet with his rivals.

4. Take criticism with grace. Teddy Roosevelt listened to the criticisms leveled against him by the media of his day. He never took it personally; and still made time for even his harshest critics in the press.

5. Learn from your mistakes, and reflect on them.

6. Learn to laugh at yourself. Lincoln, in particular, had a great sense of humor.

7. Stay connected to the constituencies you represent. Don’t end up in an ivory tower. Make time for everybody, and above all, be accessible.

8. Timing. Know when to hold back and when to act.

9. Know how to relax. During the war, FDR had a cocktail party every night where discussions of the war were strictly prohibited.

10. Speak plainly. Communication is a critical skill for leaders, and communicating in a way that all people can understand and relate to. Storytelling is a great skill for leaders.

So there you have it. Good tips.

Presentation tips

This week, I found myself presenting to Faculty groups four different times. I also saw a lot of other people present, while I was waiting for my turn. We were presenting to groups that had generally been in long meetings - a half-day or a full-day - and were just seeing one presentation after another. So it was pretty easy just to make their eyes glaze over, which I did at least once! Here are some tips I got from this week's marathon presentation sessions.

Don't use Powerpoint!

Seriously, don't. People hate Powerpoint. And Prezi is no better. If you have things to say, just say them. Don't put them on a slide and project them, and then either read or reiterate them. If you want people to have a takeaway, do a handout. There is one exception. If you have images that are relevant to your topic, show them on a screen. For example, our Vice President for Campus Planning showed lots of campus maps and images of buildings that are in the works. So his main content was spoken, but augmented with images that brought it to life. And it was excellent - nobody glazed over during that. So I guess I'll amend my tip to don't use slides with just words on them.

Practice

When people are going to take their time to hear you speak, you should take the time to prepare. Especially if you're going to follow my last piece of advice and use few or no slides. You're essentially giving a speech. So practice. Give your speech over and over again. My family heard my presentations repeatedly during the week. I got all my tripping-over-words out of the way with them. You can also time yourself during practice. If you're given 10 minutes in a day long event, you should honor that. The only way you know if your speech stays within the 10 minutes is by speaking it. On a similar note, when I was interviewing to be CIO, I practiced my presentations repeatedly with my family. As a result, I am pretty sure my 18-year-old daughter can nail any CIO interview question!

Don't hide behind the lectern

In fact, don't stand back there at all. That thing is a barrier between you and the audience. Pick up the mike, if you need it, and come out from back there. If possible, walk around and mingle with the audience. In one of my presentations, people were sitting at round tables of 8 or 10 people. When I got a question from a table, I walked over to it and listened to the question and answered from there. It felt much more interactive and almost like a conversation. And nobody's eyes glazed over.

Be sincere

This is pretty obvious, I guess, but only say things that are true and that you believe in. And say them with conviction. It'll come across.

Think about your appearance

It's important to feel comfortable. So think about wearing something that feels comfortable, but that you also feel is appropriate for the setting. You don't want to be up there worrying about how you look. That might drive you behind the lectern! You also don't want to feel physically uncomfortable, as that will totally distract you. For me, the challenge is footwear. I need to find comfortable shoes that look professional. So give your dress some thought well in advance. Since I had four presentations this week, I actually planned my wardrobe out the weekend before so I didn't have to think about it and could instead focus on my content.

Don't be afraid to use a gimmick

Okay, I actually have some reservations about this one. But if you have a very dry topic, it can be hard to hold the audience's attention, especially if you follow something a little splashier. One of my fellow presenters told me that he would have a moment in the presentation that nobody would forget. So I stayed around to watch his presentation. It was a pretty dry topic, about testing and evaluating students. However, he pointed out that in the music department, students might be tested by being asked to sing. He then called on a music faculty member who actually sang a snippet of an aria on the spot! If anyone had glazed over, they snapped out of it. It was a little gimmicky, but it was appropriate for the topic, and it illustrated that not all testing and evaluation is the same. So be a little careful with this! Make sure that it's relevant to the topic, and it can really work.

Taking responsibility, quickly and publicly

This week I had a learning moment that I'd like to reflect on. I'm particularly proud of the way one of my managers handled a problem that I learned from and that I'd like to share.

It all started late on Wednesday afternoon when I received a call from the campus legal counsel. Now usually, when a story starts with a call from legal counsel, that's a bad thing, and this certainly started badly. It appeared that a student had sent a message to all faculty on campus. The content of the message was inappropriate, although not in any sort of salacious way, but enough to generate some excitement. Since our email lists are moderated, we needed to figure out what had happened. Perhaps the student had broken into one of our systems? Impersonated one of our admins? Of course, it turns out to be much more simple than that. The student had followed process and requested that the message be sent to all faculty, a request that should have been denied, and one of my managers inadvertently approved it. Simple human error. Tons of drama.

So what did my manager do? He immediately contacted me and told me what had happened. He took full responsibility. No excuses. Didn't talk about how busy he is, or how bad the user interface is. He just said, I screwed up. He also noted the irony that he trains people on this interface and he routinely stresses to them to be eextremely careful and cautious, and then he didn't follow his own advice. And he told me that he learned that he needs to be careful and cautious too. He took full responsibility and he learned from it.

I was extremely impressed with his professionalism and his honesty and I told him so. You get a lot of credit for being honest, and a lot of respect. So I took his lesson and immediately applied it. I sent an email to the faculty, acknowledging the mistake and apologizing for it, within 24 hours of the initial email. I received several emails back from faculty thanking me for my honesty and leadership. I owned up to a mistake, something that doesn't happened that much, and I earned respect as a result. All in a days work.

Good advice from an old friend

I've been in my new position about 7 weeks now. Last week, I went to a conference where I ran into an old friend, a CIO at another institution, and he gave me three pieces of great advice. So good, that I thought they were worth sharing.

Helen the engager vs. Helen the decisionmaker.
My friend, let's call him John, because that's actually his name, reminded me that in my prior role, when I met with people, I wasn't necessarily expected to give an answer or make a decision on the spot. I could always say "let me check with the CIO". Now when I meet with people, they're expecting a decision. This can sometimes get in the way of engaging with people. So he advises me to think of what role I would like to take during that interaction. If I'm there to engage, think of myself as Helen the Engager, and defer a decision to later when I'm Helen the Decisionmaker (or the Decider, depending on your point of view). So I need to let people know that I'll get back to them later after I've had some time to think about it, rather than make a decision on the spot, just because it's expected. It is important, of course, to actually get back with them with a decision in a timely fashion. I think I've been doing well in this area, usually taking the time to reflect. But his advice reminds me to clarify it for my colleagues who really want to see me make the decision right there.

Own your calendar. When you're new, everyone wants to get some time with you. John reminded me that it's really important to own my own calendar - don't let others, whether it's my team, the Deans, Faculty or some other group - take control of my schedule. It's important to make sure that there's time to focus on the things that are priorities. So be ready to say no to some meetings, or to schedule them further out. This has always been hard for me. I see my role largely to engage the campus community and my staff, so being available to those constituencies is really important. But John is right, I have to have some control over my own schedule or I just won't make progress on the things that are true priorities.

It's lonely at the top! Relationships are important, and peer relationships are especially important. This is a group where you seek advice, bounce ideas around and sometimes just commisserate about the way things are. We learn a lot during conversations with our peers. When you're in the CIO role, you have no peers inside your organization, so you need to look outside to find this group, and that's important. Sometimes it's your peers on campus - other leaders at a similar level to yourself. But it's also really important to reach out to other CIOs. The great thing about our CIO community is we are willing to engage with each other and to support each other. Take advantage of that and make time for peer networking. While still owning your celndar, of course!

Thoughts on Customer Service

Three weeks into my new job and I get my first complaint by a senior person (my boss to be exact) about IT service. Without getting into too many technical details, he is out of town and can't connect into our secure sites. New laptop, VPN not working.  Follow that up with an email issue and he's one unhappy camper.

Now things happen, and everybody knows that. But what it made me think of was customer service and how we respond when a customer reports to us that something went wrong. One of the things that happens in IT service is that we tend to go to "user error" right away. You know, we even have jokes and cartoons about it. You've seen them "PEBKAC" - problem exists between keyboard and chair. And often our first response is to ask the user "did you do this?", which makes them feel like we're thinking "PEBKAC". 

A couple of years ago, my daughter got a summer job at a fast food restaurant. While I wouldn't say they gave her great customer service training, they sent her home with the corporate customer service materials and I have to say they were amazing. I was simply blown away.  I won't name the fast food restaurant (although I will say that Jon Stewart makes fun of them on the Daily Show a lot), nor will I repeat their philosophy, but let me just say that the first two words in it were "believe" and "listen".  Simple. Brilliant. Think about it.  Believe and listen. If we started every customer support conversation with just believing and then listening, we could fundamentally change the tone of the conversation and thus the experience of the user. 

When I was early in my career, I remember having a conversation with a customer where she described something that went wrong in a program I had written. I didn't believe her, I thought it must have been something she was doing wrong, and I told her so. (I said I was young!). She proceeded to run the program and show me what it was doing, and of course she was right. After that, I never said "you're wrong" out loud to a customer, but when I've worked in customer support, I'll admit that I've often begun the conversation thinking just that, it must be something the user is doing wrong. Then instead of listening to find the cause of the problem, I was listening to hear what they were doing wrong. I simply wasn't believing that there was a problem.  Over the years, I've learned to listen to understand, and in fact I'm very proud of my customer service skills. But the fast food company got it right and made it simple by telling their staff just to believe the customer. It's sort of like that old adage "the customer is always right". In fact, we all know, the customer is not always right.  But isn't it better to start thinking they're right and learning they're wrong rather than starting thinking they're wrong only to learn they were right all along, just like I did when I was young?

So give it a try - make a fundamental shift to really believing the customer from the beginning of the conversation. Couple that with really listening, and your customers will love you.

Reflections on a first week

I am just wrapping up the first week at my new position. Over that week, I've made the following observations. None of them are new, just good to refresh myself.

listening matters: It's obvious, and every article and book tells you, but listening is the critical thing at this time. And really listening is important. Make sure to use all your active listening techniques. 40 hours of listening gets pretty exhausting, so you really have to work at staying engaged. Here's a link to an article with some reminders.

make a statement: Even though listening is the most important thing, when you've been hired into a senior role, you were hired for your expertise. So at certain points, it makes sense to make a statement. You'll see it - the point in the meeting where people are looking for your opinion on a thorny topic. Seize that opportunity to make a statement.

use but don't overuse "at my previous institution": When listening to people describe some process in your new organization, it's appropriate to describe how it was done in your old organization. In the first week, you're not saying it to suggest a change, you're saying it to show that you have listened and have understood the process in your new organization enough to compare it to your own experience. Just don't overuse it, and never say it in a way that's intend to "put down" your new organization.

take charge: As early as the first week, it's important to take charge of some things that are yours, whether it's a staff meeting or a project team meeting. Jump right in.

walk around: Get out of your office! Talk to your staff, co-workers and customers at their place. Be visible. Take an interest in people. And listen.

have fun! This is a new and exciting time in your life, so enjoy it. Get to know your new physical surroundings - take some time to smell the flowers (literally if possible). Get to know your new co-workers. People are anxious to get to know the new person and will make time for you. Take advantage of that!

What to do in your last 30 days

I have recently accepted a new position as Chief Information Officer at Chapman University. Lots of friends and colleagues reached out to me with congratulations, and with links to articles and books on the subject of what to do in your first 30/90/180 days on a new job. But nobody gives you advice on what to do in your last 30 days on the job. Having just left a job, here's my advice.

celebrate, and be gracious about it - lots of people will congratulate you on your new role and will generally laud you for what you've done in your current role. The right response is "thank you" or "I have really enjoyed working here, working with you". Allow yourself to be celebrated, that's important for your colleagues, and good closure for you. 

reflect, but let go - we learn something from every experience we have. Moving on from a job is a good time to look back and reflect on what you've learned.  While much of what we learn is from positive experiences, some of it is from negative experiences. Sometimes we carry anger and resentment around those negative experiences. This is the time to let go of that resentment, and just keep the lesson.

take care of your staff - losing a manager is a traumatic experience for anyone. People have anxiety about having to build a relationship with a new manager, and at the time that you are leaving, they may not even know who that manager is, so they are likely to be fairly stressed.  Tie up all loose ends on personnel issues if possible. Specifically, do evaluations for all your staff.  It's not fair to your staff or their new manager to leave them without a current evaluation on file. In general, use the phrase "I'll leave that for the new person" sparingly when it comes to HR issues. 

if possible, give things up gradually - I gave six weeks' notice at my current job, and I immediately began withdrawing from projects and responsibilities. As a senior manager, I was engaged in lots of projects and operations, so that length of time felt about right. During those six weeks, I shifted my focus and started to think of myself as being in more of a consulting role than a leadership role.  Keep in mind that you will quickly move into a "lame duck" status and taking a consultant approach is a good way to deal with that. Finally, don't stay too long, as a lame duck doesn't get better with age. 

give honest but measured feedback to your boss - in every job I've left, my boss has asked me for feedback on them or advice as to what to do going forward.  This is not the time to tell your boss all his or her faults!  Obviously, there's a little self preservation going on there, after all, that person will be called as a reference for you some day. But on the advice as to what to do going forward, take on that consulting approach. You will have some unique insights that are very valuable to the organization. 

stay connected - make sure that your boss, staff and coworkers have contact information for you. Connect on LinkedIn. A former boss or colleague is a wonderful resource for advice and coaching. Make sure your colleagues know you're available to them. I assure you that you will find any coaching or mentoring you do after you leave to be mutually beneficial. Not to mention that this helps you maintain your network, which is hugely important going forward. 

Leadership Lessons from the Golden State Warriors

I lived in the East Bay for twelve years, and during that time I was a fan of the Golden State Warriors NBA team. Since I've moved, I've become a fan of the Sacramento Kings; but I still have a soft spot for the Warriors, and not being far away, I've been able to follow their progress pretty closely. Three years ago, team owner Joe Lacob took a huge risk in hiring Mark Jackson, a man with no coaching experience, as the team's head coach. To say that the risk paid off is a huge understatement. Under Jackson's leadership, the Warriors have performed better than they have in a quarter century, making it to the playoffs two straight years, and posting their highest number of wins in decades last year. Jackson was enormously popular with his team and the fans, but apparently not with the front office and ownership. Yesterday, in spite of his success, Jackson was handed his walking papers by the team. Here's the story from ESPN.

There are lessons in all of this for us as leaders, both from the perspective of Jackson and Lacob. From Jackson's perspective, for all his success and popularity with the team and the fans, who I think of as stakeholders, he got fired partially because he didn't do a good job of managing up. The ESPN article talks about his "boisterous personality" not meshing well with management, and some clashes with management over how to manage his assistant coaches. There's a lesson in there for all of us. As leaders, our jobs are all about managing relationships, with our staff, our stakeholders, but also with *our* managers. It's important to work on developing a trusting and respectful relationship with your manager. I obviously can't comment on what went wrong between Jackson and Lacob, but I know from my own experience that you have to invest a lot of time in that relationship. It's also important to be honest, and when you disagree with your boss to tell him or her. But it is really important to do that carefully and respectfully. Finally, it's important as a leader that you don't bring drama into the organization.

What about Lacob? This move is a risky move for him, firing a popular and successful coach. To move beyond it, he has to bring in someone who will be at least as successful as Jackson, no matter what it costs. The other thing I'd advise Lacob is to figure out how to integrate a personality like Jackson's into the organization. I noted this sentence in the ESPN article "Jackson's demeanor, which bordered on confidence and cockiness, might have ultimately cost him his job." Really? I'd make the argument that his confidence and cockiness contributed to his success as a coach. In the workplace, sometimes we have high performers who are, for want of a better word, divas. And the diva personality has to be handled carefully. It is true that sometimes it's not worth the effort. I've seen the diva personality on good, but not great, performers. That's not worth the cost. But when you have a great leader with a diva personality, figure out how to make it work.