Do you know your IT staff? Do you regularly communicate with them?

If you do, good for you. If not, you’re missing out on a wonderful opportunity to build morale, inform and just generally build a cohesive, efficient and engaged team.

An Example

As you know, I like stories and storytelling…so here’s a real-world example using two different people / organizations. Both organizations are medium sized businesses. Both people work in the IT Operations teams and have been in their current role for 3+ years.

Terri’s been a systems administrator for her current company for roughly 3.5 years. She’s disappointed with her current job and is looking to jump ship as soon as the job market picks back up.

Amit has worked as a database administrator for his company for 5 years. He’s happy, likes his job and actually enjoys going to work.

On the surface, it may seem as if Terri’s just one of those people who’s never happy and always complains. Perhaps Amit appears to be the opposite…a happy go-lucky person who’s happy with what they have.

While there are folks out there like that, Amit and Terri don’t really fit those molds.

Both Terri and Amit have similar backgrounds and work histories. Both came to their current organization from similar organizations and similar roles. Amit tells me that his previous job ’sucked’ while Terri felt OK about her previous job but didn’t really love it.

I asked Amit if he could pinpoint what the difference was between his previous job that ’sucked’ and this job that he loved.

His answer?

The only real difference that he could point to was a simple one:

The CIO communicated with the IT team on a regular basis.

According to Amit, the CIO made himself available to everyone within the IT group daily. He joined the team for lunches and he would join in on the conversations around the coffee maker. During the time the CIO spent with team members, he’d share information with the team. He talked about the company. He talked about things that were important to him. He shared the good and the bad with his team.

What it boiled down to, according to Amit, was that the CIO was available and was personable. Amit could sense from his interactions with the CIO that his role as database administrator was important. He felt that the CIO knew what he did and what it would mean to the organization if Amit wasn’t there to his job.

After hearing this from Amit, I talked to Terri and asked for her general perceptions of the CIO. Her response?

I’ve never met the CIO.

Wow.

The CIO has a team of 30 people all within one building in Dallas. And he’s never made his way around the team to meet Terri? Unbelievable (and unacceptable – at least to me).

Terri tells me that she’s seen the CIO but never actually met him nor been in any meetings with him. She also tells me that the majority of her coworkers on the IT Operations team report that they’ve not had much interaction with the CIO either.

Another surprising comment from Terri? Every person within that IT team that she has befriended is unhappy. All want to move on to another organization.

Let’s Review

Let’s think about what Terri and Amit have said.

Amit’s CIO know’s Amit by his first name. He also knows his family and has had lunch with him multiple times. More importantly, Amit’s CIO shares information with the team regularly. He tells them they’re doing a great job and also tells them when they screw up. Amit’s CIO shares as much information with his team as possible.

Contrast that with Terri. She’s never met the CIO in 3.5 years of working there. She has no idea what her CIO does, what he’s thinking or what he thinks of her. She also has no idea how her position fits into the organization’s strategy nor does she have a clue about the direction in which the organization is going.

What can we learn from Amit & Terri’s situation? While these are anecdotes and not any type of scientific proof, one thing to take away from Terri & Amit’s situation is that, as CIO or other IT manager, you’ve got to continuously communicate. Communication with your team allows for you and them to better understand each other.

Conclusion

After all that wordiness…the basic take away of this post is a simple one.

Talk to your team. Share your thoughts with them and listen to theirs. Make sure they know their value to the organization.

If you can’t perform the simple act of talking to your team, how can you expect them to carry out your plans when they don’t know what your plans are?

Now…if you’re the CIO of a multi-billion dollar organization, you may not be able to communicate with all the IT staff but your direct reports (and theirs) should be able to.

A few weeks ago I received Leadership Test: Will You Pass? (amazon affiliate link) by Timothy R. Clark, Ph.D. to review

The book is a small one (~99 pages in total) but packed with some interesting content.   Clark uses a business fable to describe leadership and what makes up a good leader.

I’m a HUGE fan of stories and storytelling as a means to convey knowledge and I love these types of books.   Obviously other folks enjoy these types of books as well (think Patrick Lencioni and his wonderful books).

The story in this book is an excellent one. It’s well written and the plot-line is pretty good and keeps you turning the pages. While the story is good, the lessons contained with the book are even better.  After reading the book, I didn’t feel as though I’d read a business book about leadership…I felt like I read an interesting story about someone learning to lead.

I’d recommend this book to everyone with any interest in leadership….and I’m not just saying that because I was sent this as a review from the author.  It’s a great little book.

Are you innovating or imitating?

Anywhere you go these days, you’ll find someone talking or writing about Innovation.  Most of  the stuff I’ve been reading is great stuff.

In the discussions I’ve had with folks around the world, I’m hearing a lot of talk about innovative ideas and ‘new’ ways of doing things within the IT group to help the organization innovate. When I hear what these new ideas are, I’m told about the latest CIO magazine that was read or the seminar that the CIO went to and heard how XYZ company is doing things.

This makes me ask the following question:  Are you innovating or imitating?

I recently actually asked that question to a local CIO and she responded with something that kind of threw me for a loop.  Lisa’s response?

She said “Does it matter?”

Lisa told me that she could care less about developing a “new idea”…she’s perfectly fine with taking someone’s idea and implementing in her organization.  Sometimes she takes an idea and implements it directly (imitate) and other times she puts her own spin on an idea that is either generated internally or found externally idea (innovate).

I thought about Lisa’s answer and responded back with an equally surprising response (to her) with: ‘yes…it does matter’.

I asked Lisa whether she set out to innovate or imitate.  Her answer?  Innovate when possible, imitate when it makes sense.

You see…Lisa WAS innovating in the areas that she should be. Was she imitating other organizations?  Absolutely.  But the key was that she was innovating as well by taking an idea and twisting it to be something new.  She was also imitating those organizations that were ‘doing it right’ in areas that she felt would fit her organizations.

What Lisa didn’t realize is that innovation isn’t always ‘creating something new from scratch’….innovation can be taking an already existing idea and tweaking it to fit your needs/wants.

Why does it matter whether you’re innovating or imitating?

While doing some research on this topic, I ran across this quote by Cass Pursell in an article titled “Mimicking Innovation” where Cass writes:

Creativity and imitation are opposing concepts. By beginning with a strategy of imitation, I would argue that you are in danger of dooming your innovation program to failure before it ever begins in earnest. My advice – proceed, but proceed wisely

While imitation may work and might deliver results, if you approach your strategic planning process with the goal of imitating others, you’ve lost before you even get started.

In your role as The New CIO, you can imitate what you see working for other organizations, but be sure to keep some of your focus on innovating.  Ask yourself the occasional “are you innovating or imitating” question….if you never answer with ‘innovation’, you may want to rethink your approach to leading IT into the future.

If your strategy is imitation, you can only be as good as the company you plan to imitate. But…if you’re like Lisa and have a strategy to innovate when possible and only imitate when you can you’ll be light years ahead

Five by Chuck Musciano on The Effective CIO

The Splinternet means the end of the Web’s golden age by Josh Bernoff on Groundswell

Run IT Like a Business, Not As a Business by Chris Curran on CIO Dashboard

Why the CIO Loves Agile Development by Isaac Sacolick on Social, Agile, and Transformation

Are you keeping your standard in view? by Tim Walker on What I’ve Learned So Far

Can I get some social strategy with that Big Mac? by John Moore on Random Thoughts of a Boston-based CTO: John Moore’s Weblog

Social In a Corporate (And Agency) World by Lauren Fernandez on Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Is It Time To Say Goodbye To The CIO? by Dr. Jim Anderson on The Accidental Successful CIO

Lessons in Strategic Communications from an Admiral by Charles H. Green on Trust Matters blog

Quality: You Don’t Get What You Don’t Measure by Jurgen Appelo on NOOP.NL: Managing Software Development

How to Encourage Small Innovations by John Baldoni on HarvardBusiness.org

Better User Experience With Storytelling – Part One by Francisco Inchauste on Smashing Magazine

Stop thinking like a CIO by Patrick Flynn on Clear IT Leadership

The Burning Drive to Never Settle: Refuse to Compromise by Louis Gray on louisgray.com

Sunday Morning Reflections: All the great things are simple… by Skip Cohen on Marketing Essentials International

“I hate consultants.”

When I heard those words spill out of my lunch companion’s mouth as soon as we sat down, I knew it would be a long lunch meeting.

Some background

When I was an independent consultant I spent a lot of time in business development mode.  Lots of time going to networking events and meeting new people.  I enjoyed that (and should be doing it now even too)…but some of the people you meet while out and about can be very surprising.

Take “John” (name changed) as an example.

I met John through a friend as a request by me for an introduction.  Upon an introduction during a luncheon, John was pleasant, cordial and professional.  We seemed to have a lot in common and we knew a lot of the same people in town.  After the luncheon, John and I exchanged emails and agreed to meet for lunch the following week.

John was the CIO of a medium sized manufacturing business in Dallas.  The company had been struggling for years to break even each year with some years seeing a profit while other years found the company loosing money.  During our initial introduction and subsequent emails, I made it clear to John that I was a consultant focused on technology strategy and IT and had helped many organizations like his use technology to meet their strategic goals.   So…he knew I was a consultant but I was also very clear that I wasn’t having lunch with him to try and sell him my services.

I met John at a local restaurant for lunch.   We met at the front door, shook hands and traded banter and waited for our table. While waiting, John told me more about his company, the troubles they’ve had for years and how difficult it was to keep the company afloat.

We were shown to our table and ordered and picked the conversation back up.  I asked John if he’d brought in any consultants to help him understand what changes might be needed to help the business become more profitable.

His answer?

“I hate consultants”.

He continued to describe consultants as a plague (his word!) and cheaters/liars and thief’s.   Strong words.

I asked John why he felt this way and was informed that he had been burnt by consultants in the past and after hearing the backstory, I can understand why he had strong feelings against consultants.

The Spark

The story I heard from John was a familiar one.

A consultant was hired to come in and help with technology selection, implementation and development of custom functionality.  The consultants role was to provide guidance during the selection process and manage the development and implementation after selection.

John tells me that the entire engagement was a debacle.  He hired a consultant that had a great deal of experience implementing this particular type of software but little experience with technology selection.  First mistake.

The consultant comes in and helps work up a technology requirements document and helps the company select and purchase the software platform.  John tells me it just happened to be the software platform that this consultant was most experienced with.   John also tells me that the platform they chose didn’t really fit that well but, because the consultant told them it could be easily customized, it would eventually fit the organizations needs.  Second mistake.

After selection, the implementation phase began with the consultant acting as the implementation manager with a focus on implementation as well as software development for customization.  The development was done by the software vendor and managed solely by the consultant.  Third mistake.

John tells me that the software project took twice as long as originally expected/planned and cost three times more than originally budgeted.  And it didn’t do what he needed it to do. About half-way through the project, John fired the consultant and the developers and brought all development and implementation in-house.

This project was the spark and kindling for John’s hatred of consultants.

Revisiting the Project

After John finished his story, I nodded and told him I’d heard it many times before.  I politely asked if I could revisit the issues and point out some errors that might have contributed to the project failure.

Thankfully, he gladly accepted the offer and listened intently (or at least pretended to!) while I pointed out the three main errors I saw in this technology selection and implementation project.

First, I pointed out the issue of hiring a consultant with zero technology selection experience and tons of implementation experience on one platform.  This is bound to lead to a bias towards a particular platform, especially if the consultant(s) don’t have a wide range of experience on platforms and a strong background in technology selection projects.  

Secondly, I pointed him to the selection of a platform that didn’t really fit the organization’s needs but ‘could be customized to fit’. Everyone knows this is BS and that the approach fails 90% of the time.  If you’re selecting a platform, select the one that fits the best…you may need to customize the software (or change your process) but do your due diligence to pick the platform that is the best fit for you.

Lastly, I pointed out the biggest mistake of letting the consultant choose the out-sourced development partner and manage the development without any involvement by John or his IT staff. This is a huge mistake as it takes the IT organization out of the driver’s seat completely.  Where’s the oversight? Where’s the project governance?   Oversight isn’t something you do for 30 minutes every Tuesday morning during the status meeting.  Have a project manager managing the consultant and/or developers.

When I finished my quick review, John said something that surprised me.

He wanted to bring me on (as a consultant) to help him reorganize and rebuild his IT group.   I accepted of course…but I told him I’d be just as honest and forthcoming while working with him as I’d been during lunch.

A bit of an ego stroke (for me)

Over the next six months, I helped John fix his biggest issues and helped him plan for rebuilding his IT group.  These  plans included building proper project management skills and procedures as well as increasing his team’s ability to efficiently manage IT Operations.

My proudest accomplishment while engaged with John’s organization is actually the easiest work I did with him.  I  introduced John to a young lady who would eventually replace him (after his retirement) as the next CIO of that company.

I’m happy to report that the company is doing well (reportedly because they are leveraging operations and technology for competitive advantage) and are happily using consultants and contractors to fills knowledge & skill gaps.  I like to think this success is in part due to my involvement…at least I’ll keep thinking so

The Moral of this story?

Think about the mistakes highlighted above….have you made any of them on projects?  Are you making them today?

Don’t blame the consultants for project failure.  Look at your involvement and try to understand what you could have done better to set those consultants up for success.

CIO’s in the past have loved using consultants and contractors because they could have someone to blame if the project went badly.  The New CIO can’t shirk that responsibility any longer….if an IT project fails, it’s on your shoulders.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself this question – Who hired the consultants?  They didn’t come in and work for free…they had some direction from the CIO and IT group….so both parties are equally responsible for project success or failure.

Next time you start to think (or say) something negatively about a consultant or a contractor because they couldn’t get the job done…think again.  Perhaps it’s as much (or more) your fault that they weren’t able to succeed.

Don’t hate the consultant….figure out what mistakes were made and move on.

Short post this week as I’m swamped and haven’t had time to work anything up….but I wanted to take a quick second to ask my readers to give me some CIO topics you’d like to read about in the future (or…if you’d like to write it up and do a guest post…feel free!).

Drop me a comment, @ me on twitter or send me an email with your thoughts.

Like I said…short post this week but I have an extremely important question to ask everyone in IT (and anyone else who wants to answer).  Here goes:

If you could start from scratch, would you build your IT group the same?  Would you build your governance models the same?  How about your project management processes?

If the answer is yes, excellent…you’ve obviously been doing things right.

If the answer is no…well…perhaps you’ve been doing things right…but you aren’t able to get the things done that you want to get done.  Why not make a change?

Isn’t the economy and environment we are in the perfect time to experiment?

What would you do differently?

Think about that…how can we do “IT” differently?  Just because it worked in the past, doesn’t mean it’ll work in the future.

I just finished reading “Managing” by Henry Mintzberg.

Great book.

What’s so great about it?  It provides a good reminder that being a good manager is just as important as being a good leader.

Mintzberg does an excellent job of bringing the importance of managing well to the forefront.

Like I said…good book.  Buy it today at amazon (affiliate link).

CIO as Manager or Leader?

I ran a quick unscientific test on google and searched for “CIO as Leader” and “CIO as Manager”. The results weren’t surprising:

• “CIO as Leader” – 45,900 results
• “CIO as Manager” – 14,800 results

Not surprising to me since most articles I’ve read (and a few that I’ve written” talk about CIO’s and Leadership.  But there aren’t as many discussions about CIO’s and Management.

Mintzberg’s “Managing” book might help bring the art of managing back to the world of IT and the CIO’s office.

So which is it?

The role of IT is changing and the CIO must lead that change while also ensuring that the IT group is performing for the organization.

The CIO must be a both a Leader and a Manager to bridge the gap between strategy and tactics. Lead the strategic initiatives while managing the tactical operations for the organization.

Both sets of skills are necessary for The New CIO.

I realize it’s a few days into the new year and most people have already committed their 2010 resolutions to paper (or screen)…now its my turn.

Rather than use ‘resolutions’ to tell others what I plan to do, I began to use the “three words” method that I read about over on Chris Brogan’s blog. See Chris’s Three Words for 2010.

Before I give you my three words for 2010, let me take a second to look back at 2009.

My three words and their definitions for 2009 were:

• Create – Whether I’m writing for this blog, working on my doctorate, working on entrepreneurial activities, working with clients or spending time with family, I want to be creating 2009.
• Think – I want to think better. I want to think more creatively.   I also want to make other people think….this is what I’ll be working on for the coming year.
• Lead – My goal for the coming year is to lead in everything I do.  This doesn’t mean I want/need to be the ‘best’ at everything I do (although it would be nice)…I want to be seen as a leader in the various aspects of my life.  My writing, my research, my work…I’m going to push to be someone that people look to for information and direction.

I wrote a mid-year review post to reflect upon what had happened in the first 6 months of 2009.

I think I hit my three words head on in 2009.  I created. I thought. And I led. Here’s a few highlights:

• I became a better photographer and started a new photo blog called Photography Minute where I share tips, photos and reviews of gear that I’ve tried.  I’ve enjoyed that blog and look forward to doing much more over on the photo blog.
• I’ve written a lot in 2009.  I have an article coming out this month in Cutter IT Journal and have two other articles submitted to academic journals.
• I’ve reconnected with someone I shouldn’t have lost touch with.  After reconnecting, we wrote the aforementioned Cutter article and are talking about a few other projects going forward.
• I helped the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) roll-out a new website which has received pretty good feedback. Like everything, there are problems that need fixed but when you compare the new with the old, the new is better.
• I hope I’ve written some good stuff on this blog that made people think. My “New CIO” Series is something I’m very proud of and hope to continue the series into 2010.
• Another series that I’m extremely proud of is my “Sunday Links” posts.  In those posts I try to point you to some excellent content around the web. I’ve gotten great feedback on this feature and will continue providing this service as long as you keep reading it.

Overall, 2009 was a pretty good year. I did leave the independent consulting practice that I’d been building in Feb 2009 and have enjoyed the work at the BSA but I do miss the excitement and changes that come with having different consulting clients and gigs.

What I didn’t do well in 2009 was “Create”.  Most of my accomplishments from this past year were based around “thinking” and “leading”.

So…onto 2010.  What will it bring? I don’t know…but the three words that I’m using to drive me in this new year are:

• Create – While this was one of my words for 2009, it is something I want to continue to focus on for 2010. I want to write more original stuff. I want to create something that I can build on for the future…perfect segue into the next ‘word’.
• Build – I want to build something memorable, lasting and worth the effort.  What does this mean? I really don’t know just yet…but I want to find out.  I want to build my own future rather than let someone else build it or dictate it to me.
  
• Engage – One of the things that I’ve always wanted to do better is engage more.  Engaged with my readers. Engage with other bloggers. Engage on twitter and facebook.  In general, engage with people more online and in real life.

Those are my three words and the driving forces behind my 2010.

What’s yours?

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I’ve been sitting here thinking. Gene De Libero say’s I’m always thinking…not sure if that’s good or bad!

What have I been thinking about?  Lots of things…but as it relates to this post, I’ve been thinking about the one trait that CIO’s can improve upon for 2010. By improving this one simple trait, I believe the ability of the IT group to deliver real value to the organization will increase exponentially.

What’ trait am I talking about?  Listening

In the world of IT, we do a lot of talking.  We talk. And talk. And talk.

We do listen some.  We send business analysts and project managers out to talk to customers.  Did you catch that?  We send people to ‘talk’ to customers.  We don’t send people  to “listen” to customers.

The blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of the CIO and the IT group as a whole. We’ve built our processes and our procedures to be focused on IT issues, not user issues.  We’ve built our requirements gathering methods around what customer’s want and need and then we mediate those wants/needs to ensure that they don’t break any of our guidelines/processes. We’ve built our IT organizations to tell the rest of the company how things will be done.  While focused on talking, we’ve failed to listen.

In many organizations, users are going around IT to get things done.  In many cases (at least in my experience), this is because IT doesn’t hear the real needs of the business users.

I’ve got an example from a previous consulting gig that I’d like to share…I hope it drives the point home:

The IT group heard that the Marketing team needed a Content Management System so a project was started to buy and implement one.  But did we really listen to the need of the marketing team? Did we hear that they want and need to be able to make content changes on a whim?  Did we hear that they need to be able to do A/B testing (or some other testing/optimization techniques) on a regular basis?

I can tell you that the IT group didn’t those things.  All we heard was Content Management System.  We were the System experts right? So…we bought a CMS, implemented it and allowed the Marketing group to have access to it.  And…doing what IT does best, we put a convoluted change process around the CMS.  Lo and behold, within 6 months the team that asked for the CMS stopped using it because they couldn’t do what they needed to do with it.

And we wondered what was wrong with those ‘marketing people’.

Nothing was wrong with them.  It was us! We didn’t listen.  We heard ‘content management system’ and ran out and implemented one. We “knew” what they needed.

BTW – that marketing team got so fed up with us that they went around the IT team. They found a hosted platform that would allow them to do everything they needed.  Now, that organization’s IT team has been changed for the worse…they went from a team of 20 to a team of 5. They do nothing but keep the lights on now because they weren’t able to provide real value to the organization,  and have become irrelevant to that company. The IT team failed to listen and it cost them dearly.

So…do you see why I think ‘listening’ is the one trait CIO’s should focus on in 2010?    The world of IT is changing dramatically. I don’t believe the IT group has the ability to ‘tell’ the organization how things will be done any longer.  Unless you listen to the real business needs, the IT group and CIO might just become irrelevant in the future.

Here’s my plea to all CIO’s and IT managers:

If you only improve one trait in 2010, let it be this one. Listen well. Fail to listen to your organization’s real needs and you might find you’ve become irrelevant and unnecessary.