The Great CIO Organization: Building the Right Team

I passed Tonjua in the hall one day.  She is one of my up-and-coming young leaders and is leading a team planning the administrative activities required to implement our IT reorganization.  It had been a particularly difficult day for her dealing with team issues.  She asked me, “What kind of science project do you have me on?”

I have no doubt that Tonjua and her teammates will meet their goals.  The team is a very diverse team with strong skills in this particular area.  Their shared thinking will yield products that will be better than they would have without their contributions.  This is no doubt a tough gig for Tonjua, and maybe tough for some to watch.  But, these are the right people to create the right product for the organization with the right leadership.

For a CIO, creating the right senior leadership team to create a “great” CIO organization is critical.  Jim Collins implores us to first get the right people on the bus, to build the superior team.   After this is done, a CIO and her team can figure out the path to greatness.

In the book “Senior Leadership Teams” (by Ruth Wageman, et. al.), the authors identify essential conditions that senior leaders should establish for their leadership teams:

(1)   Create a real team, rather than one that is a team in name only,

(2)   Provide the team with a clear and compelling purpose, and

(3)   Ensure that the team consists of members who have the knowledge, skill and experience required for the team’s work.

Perhaps my first lesson in the importance of this was as a young French horn player at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.  My best friend Donna and I were both experienced seniors and very capable horn players.  Our band director wanted us to have the best chance of winning a band competition after coming in second place the year before.  He added two beginner horn players to fill out our section.  Donna and I thought they were awful and since we wanted to win too, we told the two of them to hold their horn but don’t play -- ever.  When we were playing our award winning performance, I heard the most beautiful sounds from the French horn section.  The two newbies decided to practice on their own – honing their skills.  And practice they did.  On performance day, the “four” of us sounded so good, the judges made a special note of the beautiful French horn section – the lovely French horn team.

Ironically, one the songs we played beautifully was “People”:

“People who need people, are the luckiest people, in the world”

Great organizations are built with great people.  And CIOs who know this are indeed the luckiest people in the world.

Linda Y. Cureton

The Changeling: A New CIO Organization

It is ironic that as a discipline, IT arguably “inflicts” more change on an organization and on a society than almost any other discipline.  So, here I am, leading an IT organization through a change and thus, need to give a lot of thought to my difficult task of leading myself, them and us successfully through a successful organizational change. The change affects individuals; it is personal; it is scary; it feels like death. 

The fear of change is clearly expressed in both folklore and fiction.  In folklore, changelings were children who were substituted for parents’ real children.  In superstition, a changeling was suspected when any unexplained or bizarre change occurred in a child or infant. 

Of course, I have to offer a Star Trek example in “The Changeling”.  NOMAD – no, not NASA Operational Messaging and Active Directory Service which offers email, tasking, and calendaring capabilities – but the deadly space probe launched in the late 20^th century by Jackson Roykirk and found over two hundred years later by Captain James T. Kirk. Its original programming, which was to seek out new life forms, was changed by an untimely crash with another space probe.  The programming was changed to “See the universe, meet interesting people, and kill them.”  [See http://echosphere.net/star_trek_insp/star_trek_insp.html for Star Trek Inspirational Poster]

Those of you who have read earlier posts know that I am a proud introvert.  When I was a little girl, the worse thing that my mother could tell me was, “Go outside and play!” A fate worse than death.  But, every now and then, in our close-knit neighborhood in Northeast Washington, DC, a new person would move in.  Surprisingly, this introverted little girl would eagerly go outside and say “Wow, someone new to play with!”  So when I found out that Goddard Space Flight Center was getting a new Center Director, I couldn’t help but revert back to my childhood and think, “Wow, someone new to play with!”  Curiously, when I made some changes in my leadership team, and changed some positions around, an employee came to complain about why she had to cope with a new supervisor.  Compare and contrast my thinking about my new boss and her thinking about her new boss.  Humm, I am leading people who are not like me.  So, I guess I need to change and need a change strategy that takes people like her into account. 

A leader’s challenge is making an organizational change strategy personal.  What’s in it for me?  Do I have someone new to play with?  What do I get? Oh, and what have you done for me (or to me) lately?  John C. Maxwell, in his book “Thinking for a Change” says, people change when they:   

* Hurt enough that they are willing to change.

* Learn enough that they want to change.

* Receive enough that they are able to change.  

I like this definition of “changeling” that comes from dictionary.com:

Philately. A postage stamp that, by accident or intention, has been chemically changed in color.

I need a plan, not by accident, but by intention.  I need a masterpiece that changes the color of the organization.  A portrait that paints a picture of change that transforms me, my stakeholders, and the my organization. Time to get out my palette, colors, and canvas and get busy.

A Day in the Life of a CIO

I have a colleague, Kerry, who I see normally about once per year at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo.  He struck me as having a knack of accurately anticipating what new technology trends might become widely adopted.  The last time I saw him, I hadn’t seen or spoken to him for about three years.  So, I was glad to catch up on hearing his insights into the wonderful world of technology.  He encouraged me to blog and introduced me to Twitter.  He may have created a monster.

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows you to write very brief text updates that can be published and seen by anyone or by those you designate.  Several Goddard Space Flight Center missions, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) , Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), Dust Mitigation Vehicle (DMV), Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), use Twitter to communicate the experience of “A Day in the Life of …”.  It took me a while to get this Twitter thing.  But, I now understand some of the capabilities that this technology offers and how a CIO can use this in her leadership toolkit.

My mother, Harriette, often asks me, “Lil’ Girl, what the heck do you do all day? I tell everyone my daughter is a CIO, but I don’t really know what that means”.  I told her I give advice to Goddard’s Center Director on Information Technology.  She asked, “What is Information Technology?”. I told her it was about computers.  She said, “Well, why didn’t you just say that?”  I reflected a bit more on her question and offer an exemplar.

     Leaving home @ 7:45 am 2 make  7:45 mtg w/ my Deputies.  Grab a piece of cheese 4 breakfast; kiss husband; back out of driveway grateful I avoided running over sprinkler head & flower bed. Again.

     Arriving @ 8:00 am 4 7:45 mtg. Run back 2 car 2 retrieve coffee.  Review upcoming activities 4 week.  Negotiate coverage 4 mtgs 4 week. Raise hot operational issues. Sync up on strategic stuff that we’re working.

     Jumping in car & arrive @ 8:30 am Executive Council mtg in nick of time. Pretend like I don’t know how 2 debug Blackberry, Entourage, or Outlook problems.  Pretend like I understand what a Cryogenic Radiometer is while I sneak a peak @ bberry . Catch up w/ colleague 2 discuss some important IT Transformation strategic issues.  I talk while he pretends 2 care.

     Jump in car 2 go 2 staff mtg w/ my direct reports. Encourage them on progress of IT Transformation strategy. Relate high points from exec council mtg. Hear their status on important issues. Pretend like I know more than they do @ debugging Blackberry, Entourage, or Outlook problems.

     Out of mtg running 2 office for noon telecon. Grab a handful of messages from vendors – New Best Friends (NBFs) – who pretend like they have solutions 2 all my problems. No time 4 lunch.

     On telecon called by NASA CIO. Some kind soul brings me lunch – ½ chicken salad wrap & bottle of H2O. I inhale lunch; listen 2 issues @ agency projects, acquisition timelines, OMB direction, standardization, security. Multitasking – catch up on Chris Dorobek & Federal Computer Week headlines; read email; schedule mtgs; respond to questions; approve waivers 4 desktop purchases. I have upset stomach.

     Run 2 ladies room 4 1^st time & have ad hoc discussion on status of my procurement. Look @ watch & pick up pace.

     Jump in car 4 1:00 mtg glad I’m on time. Consider driving over grass to dust person who’s taking last parking place. Let out heavy sigh. My feet hurt.

     Arrive @ 3 hr strategy mtg w/ executive council. Exhaust undergraduate Latin derivation skills trying 2 figure out what “exozodi” means. Send buddy blackberry msg 2 ask. Didn’t have 2 pretend 2 b interested in this discussion. Star stuff and polar ice caps are cool.

     Jump in car 2 catch industry grip & grin downtown. Slow down @ photo traffic enforcement zone on New York Ave; wish I could travel greater than speed of light so I could arrive b4 I left.  Get 2 City Club. Talk my way into full parking lot.

     Grip n grin w/ 100 NBFs. Pretend I remember their names. Dodge ones who called me 2day. Collect biz cards. 4got mine, again. Square cheese and red wine 4 dinner. I’m tired & my feet hurt.

     Driving home. Sneak peak at Deputies’ emails on bberry at red lights. Call husband to talk on 30 minute ride. Listen 2 how his day was. He asks @ mine. Reminds me I’m too smart to call people stupid. I’m humbled.

     Arriving home @ 9:00 pm. Read @ respond to “due COB today” stuff. Respond to Deputies.

     Washing face, brushing teeth, taking sleeping pill.  Twitter, Facebook, Hotmail.  5-star Sudoku and listen 2 news til 11:00 pm.

     Go to bed. Say prayers, hope I’ll sleep. Eureka, just figured out what to do about Enterprise Architecture.

     Awake at 2:00 am remembered something I forgot to do. Pray again, and give thanks for being the CIO of the Goddard Space Flight Center and contributing to our nation’s space program. 

What If The Great Karnak Were a CIO?

One of my favorite people to work with is Mike Hecker, Associate CIO of Architecture, Futurist, and Humorist at NASA.  He joked about the NASA CIO, Jonathan Pettus and the Johnny Carson character “The Great Karnak”.  So, I thought … hum, what if CIOs could predict the answer to the question before it was asked? What if they could shape or manage demand for IT services?

That sounds like the “demand-side” of the CIO versus the “supply-side” of the CIO.  As a CIO, one of the “bad places” to be is solely on the supply-side.  What’s up with this new jargon supply-side and demand-side?  In English, supply-side is the CIO as a service provider and manager of IT services – with apologies to Janet Jackson, “What have you done for me lately?” demand-side is the CIO as a leader and strategist – “What IT investments do we need to deliver mission outcomes competitively?” This is a bar room discussion that we have had often at the Goddard Space Flight Center, regrettably, without benefit of a Cosmopolitan. 

CIO.COM discusses a relevant anecdote in “Federal IT Flunks Out”, May 15, 2006.  At the retirement ceremony of Dan Matthews, former CIO of Department of Transportation and current Lockheed Martin executive, a top-level executive mentioned how Dan always helped out with fixing Blackberry problems (the supply-side of the CIO).  Dan responds:

"Agency executives know that CIOs provide a vital resource to organizations—they just don't know what it is."

I suppose he knew the key to being a successful CIO was to also add noteworthy value through the demand-side – i.e., capturing and prioritizing requirements, assigning resources based on business and mission objectives and doing projects that deliver business and mission benefits.

In the IT Transformation that is going on at Goddard, some have suggested that there is an inherent conflict of interest between the supply-side role of a CIO and the demand-side.  Consider this thought by Ellen Kitzis, “CIOs must lead by setting expectations on the demand side and leading their IT team to deliver on that promise on the supply side.” The right balance of both the demand-side and the supply-side will optimize the mission value of IT in an organization.

So if The Great Karnak was a CIO, he would say “C-I, C-I, O”.  The question would be, “Who does Old MacDonald turns to for advice about how to get more value from his farm using information technology”.   Yep, maybe we should be like Karnak.

Linda Y. Cureton

Update -- But Girls, It Still Works! AND Speaking in Terms the Mission Understands

My last two posts were about my grandfather’s technology woes with his navigation system and communicating in “mission-speak”.  Current events warrant an update. 

This CIO granddaughter got the navigation system to work.  Daddy Carl was a happy user.  The problem was that there was no language selected.  Just selecting English did the trick.  So, to extend customer fulfillment and delight, I went a step further.  I mentioned in earlier post that my grandfather had a British-West Indian accent.  So, I changed the voice to a male with a British accent. 

My grandfather was so happy and he exclaimed, “Now, I can even *understand* what it’s saying!!!”

Mission-Speak in the right accent.  As the Verizon flea would say, “WOW!”

Linda Y. Cureton

The Application of Technology: But Girls, It Still Works!

In 1977, I launched from high school graduating in the first class of Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC – boldly going where no DC Public School had gone before.  That same year, the Voyager Spacecrafts launched.

Today, the magnetometers on Voyager 1, built by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, continue to observe and provide new insight into conditions at the outer edges of our solar system.  Though the Voyagers’ original missions were to Jupiter and Saturn, they could still provide data for astounding discoveries until 2020.  Of course Star Trek fans know that Voyager could still continue far after that!

1968 A New Color Television

In 1968, my grandparents, won their first color television.  This granddaughter was so happy.  Now I could see one my favorite television programs in color.  By the way, one of my favorites was I Dream of Jeannie – which later inspired this dreamy mathematician to want to work for NASA. 

My grandfather, Daddy Carl, who always liked new technology, decided to build his own color television with a kit – so that he could better understand how it worked and how to use it.  My grandmother, Mama, didn’t want to wait and purchased a raffle ticket.  Daddy Carl always liked to build new things; Mama always liked to use new things.  Many seasons have passed, and they are in their nineties.  My sister and I were cleaning old things out of their home.  We ran across this television set.  As experienced granddaughters, we snuck it out the house to the trash pile.  The next thing we knew, he returns from outside carrying the television with an incredulous look on his face – “But, girls, it still works!” he said with his British-West Indian accent. 

2008 A New Navigation System

Daddy Carl, who was taught to use a car by my grandmother, is facing the possibility of driving to a hospital in Baltimore to tend to Mama.  So, he brought a navigation system. Finally, he was frustrated about the difficulty he had been having in using it, true to form, he said, “I should have built it myself!”  Later, true to form, Mama pulled me close to her and asked, “Baby, has he figured out how to use it yet?” 

Over thirty years after my launch from high school, and through my journey through the solar system of college, life, and now, a CIO, I’m amazed that I have come to a learning moment that is intersected by my grandparents and Voyager.

Linda Y. Cureton

Web 2.0 and Blogging: Getting 2 Know U

I just returned from a leadership retreat with my team.  Our ice breaker activity on the first day was to draw names and write a limerick about our team member.  It was hysterical.  We had fun, we were creative, and we used the art form of poetry to get to know each other.  Certainly poetry is an amazing art form that reaches out and communicates in a special way.

I’ve watched with amusement the discussion of the efficacy and propriety of blogging and other Web 2.0 technologies by government CIOs.  When I started, I wasn’t really sure how it would go; how much time it would take; and if there was any value.  Then, OMG, something unexpected happened.

I’m really clear about my leadership vision as the CIO of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  We are an amazing culture of creativity and innovation that needs to maintain its competitive edge through an IT strategy that:

• manages technological diversity;
• provides a secure infrastructure;
• promotes collaboration and sharing;
• nurtures and evolves a delightful IT workforce; and
• does all of this via an effective IT governance.

Oh, to be a mainframe IBM VM systems programmer again, where my dump-reading and problem determination skills carried the day. With this gig, my leadership effectiveness is essential. 

Warren Blank writes in “The Nine Natural Laws of Leadership”:

“ … [Leaders must] build solid work relationships with others.  The quality of relationships you have with others is central to leadership.  Others are more likely to follow when you step forward to lead if they know you and trust you.”

Getting people to know me is critical for this leadership vision and is more difficult for this extremely introverted CIO than hexadecimal arithmetic.  Then along comes Web 2.0: blogging, and facebook, and twitter … oh, my! I am now the transparent CIO … What am I thinking? What am I like? Can you trust me?  Certainly these are amazing technologies that will help government leaders communicate in a very special way.

So, here’s one of the limericks that one of my leaders wrote about me.

There once was a fearless CIO

Whose vision was worrisome – Oh!

            Her CIO-lettes

            Became her best bets

To spread that view of the whole

Poetry and technology, humm.  Two more colors on the palette of the change leadership artist.

Linda Y. Cureton

Leaving a Legacy Versus Being a Legacy

This week, I was briefing the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Associate Director in preparation for NASA’s Strategic Information Technology (IT) Investment Board Meeting.  We were looking at business cases for some of our IT Investments. When we saw a few referred to as legacy systems, the definition was not clear in this particular context.  I really wanted to tell her it meant “too old to change” – but I didn’t have the heart to say that.  Ironically, this week I also attended a session sponsored by the American Council for Technology called “Building a Public Service Legacy”.  This is a discussion series where senior government and industry IT leaders share their experiences with government professionals who are early in their career.  I was heartened to hear this month’s speaker, Dr. Renny DiPentima, former CIO and Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

I knew of him over the years and was very familiar with his achievements.  What I didn’t know and learned this week, was a bit more about his legacy.   His leadership and insight helped shape the current role of the Federal CIO.  He shared the story of his first day as a civil servant, starting off as a GS-5 Clerk. I imagined him walking into a New York City office without air conditioning on a blistering summer day – hot, wide-eyed, optimistic, and determined to leave a legacy.

I was reminded of some thoughts offered by John C. Maxwell in his “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”.  The Law of Legacy, law number 21, was, as he noted, one of the most important laws of leadership.  However, it is one of the laws that fewest leaders seem to learn.  He goes on to say,

“Achievement comes to someone when he is able to do great things for himself. Success comes when he empowers followers to do great things with him.  But a legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into the position to do great things without him.”

Being a CIO these days is no doubt a tough gig.  But, the lasting value of a CIO will not be in what she achieves, but in what she leaves behind.