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Seamanship of the CIO: Fish versus Cut Bait or ... Bail versus Abandon Ship!

Seamanship of the CIO: Fish versus Cut Bait or ... Bail versus Abandon Ship!. J. Reid Christenberry Associate Provost and CIO Georgia State University. The Grand Tour: Plotting This Morning’s Course. Looking at an ill-fated CIO Remember Ahab and the Pequod

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Seamanship of the CIO: Fish versus Cut Bait or ... Bail versus Abandon Ship!

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  1. Seamanship of the CIO: Fish versus Cut Bait or ...Bail versus Abandon Ship! J. Reid Christenberry Associate Provost and CIO Georgia State University

  2. The Grand Tour:Plotting This Morning’s Course • Looking at an ill-fated CIO • Remember Ahab and the Pequod • Come along on some personal voyages • Envisioning a new world: a new CIO role and IT organization • Charting the course: Consensus-driven IT strategic planning • Forming a crew: a customer-centric IT organization • Exploring functionally-led ERP implementations • Discovering a new technology fee territory

  3. The Grand Tour:This Voyage • Advice for the Sailors Who Follow: • Becoming a servant leader in a university • Movements and legacies • Comments and Questions

  4. The Passenger Manifest This presentation is targeted for those aspiring to higher-level IT management positions in a not-for-profit higher education environment.

  5. Consider Captain Ahabas a poor CIO • His ship represents an IT organization • Moby Dick is his elusive and obsessive idea of what he wanted IT to be in his institution • His crew followed him loyally • He lead them to catastrophic consequences

  6. Captain Ahab . . . Had a reputation among his men A CIO’s reputation can be based on respect, or fear Fear drags people along unwillingly Respect motivates people to follow voluntarily

  7. Captain Ahab . . . • Had his “outside” critics • Even outsiders knew he was unusual • His crew had to hear this all the time

  8. Captain Ahab . . . • Was able to rally his crew around him • He used unorthodox methods based on fear and mysticism

  9. Captain Ahab . . . • Had ship owners who wanted his ship to be whaling • Even his crew knew Ahab had a personal agenda that was different

  10. Captain Ahab’sPersonal Agenda . . . • Caused doubt and confusion among his staff • Should they follow their leader, or adhere to their mission?

  11. Captain Ahab . . . • Valued relationships with others as unimportant • He violated generally-accepted standards of courtesy and ethics

  12. Captain Ahab’s Legacy . . . • Not in anyone’s top ten list! • This was not a very good role model

  13. Captain Ahab’s Crew . . . • Failed miserably, even thought they followed their leader all the way • Ahab’s obsession was the downfall of his organization

  14. So Much for Ahab • Now let’s talk about some other, real life voyages

  15. Envisioning a New World: A New CIO Role and IT Organization • The institution has a vision of change • Your job is to understand the vision and its key success factors • The hazards of the sea • New organization & position to be defined • Change needed, but where and how much? • Move from autocratic decision-making • Possible mutinies

  16. Possible Courses: • Listen and echo back for confirmation • Gather information before reorganizing • Dare to respond differently to the campus from the past • “Low hanging fruit” produces acceptance • Don’t be pushed into an untimely response • Be forthright and open, but not confrontational! • Mutiny avoidance: budget and responsibilities • Form alliances with reasonable people

  17. Charting a Course: Consensus-Driven IT Strategic Planning • IT strategic planning is essential • How it’s done varies to match the institutional context • The hazards of the sea • Must be open, participative • Can run aground • Can become hijacked or pirated

  18. Possible Courses • Who’s involved determines success • Broad perspectives, campus-wide respect • Envisioning with top executives • Project the future • Must be driven by and cross-linked to institutional strategic plan • Write it! -- Don’t wait for all things to be closed • Get the “apple pie” down, worry about details afterwards • This is incremental, not revolutionary!

  19. Forming a Crew that is a Customer-Centric IT Organization • Traditional IT organizations revolve around cliques and “caste systems” • Unfortunately, customers often are placed at a lower caste level • The hazards of the sea • You must shift cultures within the organization • Being an advocate for customers “from within” creates a trust gap, but is necessary

  20. Possible Courses • Incremental change from the top down • Start with position papers and statements • Establish what your driving forces are: • “It’s all about relationships, not technology” • Communicate, communicate, communicate • The customers need to know what you’ve said internally • They should be able to quote it back to your staff

  21. Example: Four R’s of IT Customer Service • Responsibility - Each person must assume responsibility and ownership of issues • Relationships - Every customer interaction should improve positive relationships • Reputation - Each person is concerned about the organization’s reputation • Reliability - We consistently make commitments and deliver results as promised

  22. Example: Seven Golden Rules of Customer Service • Never give excuses; focus on resolving the problem.Use this phrase: “What I can do is ....”. • Always be pleasant with customers, even if they are not pleasant to you.Focus on resolving the problem, not on adjusting the customer’s attitude. • Customers are not interruptions of our work, they are the reason for it.Customer relations is an integral part of your job, not an extension of it. Our business is developing relationships through respect and trustworthiness, coupled with appropriate technical expertise. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

  23. Example: Seven Golden Rules of Customer Service • Always Be Responsive to Customers.Return phone calls and e-mail in a timely manner - within one business day. Never have a full voice mailbox. • Honor your service and support commitments.Every customer has the right to expect a commitment to an appointment time for scheduled services. Every customer has the right to expect our rapid response to a crisis disruption of service. If a commitment can’t be met, inform the customer immediately. • Take ownership of problems. If it’s not your problem to resolve, involve the appropriate party, and ensure that ownership of the problem is transferred with the customer’s knowledge. • Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it.Autograph your work with excellence.

  24. Exploring Functionally-Led ERP Implementations • Functional leadership is critically important • ERP Implementation requires more than functional understanding • The hazards of the sea: • Underestimation of total resources required • Coordination of functional implementation plans and technical infrastructure plans • The implementation team can “go native” • Folding the team back into the mainstream is hard

  25. Possible Courses • State roles and responsibilities before starting • Develop a “sunset plan” for folding the implementation team back into the mainstream • Develop a communication plan along with the implementation plan • Teamwork workshops are needed in advance • Banish territorial thinking

  26. Discovering a New TechnologyFee Territory • We worked for years to get a technology fee • When achieved, a process had to be identified to propose and allocate these funds • The hazards of the sea: • Constituency balkanization • A First: Combined student-faculty deliberation • IT organization was perceived as a controller • Dichotomous CIO role adds ambiguity

  27. Possible Courses • Develop a clear proposal submittal process • Involve deans in suggesting the path • IT organization facilitates, but does not control • Academic mission is placed at the center of considerations: • Must share the resources • Student representatives are heavily involved • CIO maintains “arm’s length” involvement • Let go! It’s their future! You are the facilitator!

  28. Advice for Becoming a Servant Leader in a University • The “Commander of the Ship” model is dead • Today’s CIO must be more of a servant leader • The hazards of the sea: • This is new, and we may not have been exposed to this type of leader in our own career path • Being a servant requires respect for others • Also, it requires the ability to collaborate and even be submissive in nature • Phrases and actions can cause lapses into old paradigms

  29. The Course Taken • Consider your job as a service to others • Develop the concept of peer-to-peer (or client-server) work relationships • We’re all servers or clients in some sense • Roles may switch on any given interaction • No longer a centralized or top-down model • Let go of things when this will achieve the primary imperative • Hold on to things that critically affect your institution

  30. Suggestion:Make Your Organization a Movement • In the not-for-profit world, exceptional organizations can become movements • Characteristics: • The future can be created, not simply experienced • Harmony in relationships • Constructive conflict of ideas • Sense of urgency • High levels of trust • Stories are told about relationships, failures, surprises • Stories expose and, therefore, reduce the temptation to impose

  31. What is Needed to Become a Movement? • Leadership that is: • Spirit-lifting • Enabling • Enriching • Holds the Organization Accountable • In the End, Will Let Go • Competence in Relationships • Poor relationships sabotage even the most technically competent person or organization

  32. What is Needed to Become a Movement? • Clear Commitment to Substance over Bureaucracy • Superficial & trivial leads to priorities and discipline • Movements increase breadth of mind, regardless of the topic • It is Always a Civil Place • People respect each other and work for the common good

  33. What is Needed to Become a Movement? • Disciplined Routines Exist in the Midst of Freedom • Look for Challenge, Rather than Comfort • Respect Individual Gifts, Rather than Job Assignments

  34. When do Movements Suffer? • When leaders lose their sense of dependence on people • When rules dominate decision-making • When leaders are unable or unwilling to hold the group accountable

  35. Leaving a Legacy • There is a difference between being a good planner and leaving a good legacy • What you plan to do differs enormously from what you leave behind • Legacies run deeper in our lives than meeting goals • In the not-for-profit world, legacies may be more important than goals to many people

  36. Elements of a Legacy • To establish a legacy, we must become competent in establishing and maintaining relationships • A true legacy establishes direction • It’s the pursuit of a vision, not following a strategy • Truth is at the core of a successful legacy

  37. Elements of a Legacy • In building a legacy, we choose to be personally accountable • A legacy sets standards • These outlast short-term plans • Not just standards of performance, but of dignity and servanthood, of good manners, good taste and decorum. • Guiding legacies lift the spirit

  38. Elements of a Legacy • Legacies live in the actions of many people • Each of us is capable of being a mentor in one way or the other • A legacy is the most significant way of saying “Thank You” to an organization and its people

  39. What is Your Legacy as an IT Leader in Your Institution? • Everyone leaves a personal legacy • Good or bad • We need to intentionally think about the legacy we want to leave • Your staff will attach to (or detach from) your legacy

  40. Questions for You • Do you understand the critical importance of relationships in higher education information technology? • Will your IT organization be considered a movement or just an organization? • What is the legacy you are leaving that your staff will attach to?

  41. For more on Movements and Legacies Recommended Reading: Leading Without Power By Max De Pree

  42. Credits United Artists and Fox Home Video for scenes from “Moby Dick” David McBride, digital editing, University Educational Technology Services, Georgia State Max De Pree, author of Leading Without Power Disembarking: Questions and Answers

  43. Seamanship of the CIO: Fish versus Cut Bait or ...Bail versus Abandon Ship! J. Reid Christenberry Associate Provost and CIO Georgia State University

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