LYC 2010 Favorites – NASA CIO Blog

Leadership of the Owl

As autumn nights started to approach, the air conditioning was turned off and the windows were opened. The smell of the fresh fall air filled the room with a wonderful fragrance. But, as I laid in darkness in another extended bout of insomnia, I couldn’t figure out what strange animal sound kept grabbing my attention nightly. Finally, as I looked out the window later that week, I saw a strange bird flying around with an impressive wingspan. It was an Owl.

In mythology, literature, and many belief systems, the qualities and characteristics of animals are often personified. The traits of the Owl are behaviors that are associated with successful leaders — vision, insight, and wisdom.

Vision

In organizations, leaders see and provide the vision that inspires people to make the impossible possible and drives people to work together as a team to accomplish what no one could do as individuals. That vision becomes substance and results through faith, work, and resilience.

Insight

Insight is defined as an instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, especially through intuitive understanding. Author John C. Maxwell in The 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader describes this in the qualities of discernment and problem solving. Harlan Cleveland said that leaders are problem solvers by choice, talent and temperament. They don’t know all of the answers, but they know how to seek answers to the right questions and stay focused long enough to obtain the desired results.

Wisdom

Wikipedia.org defines wisdom as “a deep understanding and realizing of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to choose or act to consistently to produce the optimum results with a minimum of time and energy.” A wise person has self-knowledge, is sincere and direct with others, is asked for advice by others, and has actions that are consistent with their ethical beliefs. Maxwell talks about this in his discussion on self-reliance, relationship, problem solving, and character.

Andy Andrews in his book Mastering the Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success asserts that wisdom is “an intuitive element, an insight gained from personal experience that serves us as we make choices in our lives.” Wisdom should not be mistaken for education. It’s the aggregation of discrete bits of incomplete knowledge that the wise man transforms into a deep understanding.

The insight, vision, and wisdom of the Owl leader come in the darkness of the night, during a time when many of us slumber. I think I will give up my losing battle with insomnia and listen to the soothing hoot of the Owl as I drift away dreaming a little dream of leadership.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

Getting Over Your Jitters @ Twitter

With the sustained explosive growth in the use of Twitter, it seems we can’t just view it as a fad that will pass soon. According to a study by Edison Research:

· Awareness of Twitter has exploded from 5% of Americans 12+ in 2008 to 87% in 2010 (by comparison, Facebook’s awareness is 88%)

· 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks

It’s going to be difficult if not impossible to develop a credible and effective organizational strategy that uses Twitter until we can, as individual leaders get over our jitters about Twitter.

I just had a conversation with someone about the importance and difficulty in exemplifying the principles of Open Government but, I have to admit, I just blocked my first person on Twitter. This made me question the sincerity of my own advice. But, the paradox just shows the leadership challenges that surround the usage of social media in organizations.

Charlene Li, in her book Open Leadership describes the difficulty:

“It isn’t enough to be a good communicator. You must be comfortable sharing personal perspectives and feelings to develop closer relationships. Negative online comments can’t be avoided or ignored. Instead, you must come to embrace each openness-enabled encounter as an opportunity to learn.”

I drew the line with comfortable information sharing and developing closer relationships when someone (who I blocked) crossed my invisible line by wanting to become a fritter (a friend on Twitter). While I do believe that sharing personal information can help develop relationships, I feel that true personal friendships require more than 140 characters per interaction. Furthermore, communications in this media are only an @ away from sharing information from 2,243 of my closest friends.

Nevertheless, Twitter provides a powerful way of adding richness to conversations and interactions. This Washington Post article by Susan Kinzie discusses usage of Twitter in higher education. Professors are using Twitter to extend the academic conversation beyond the classroom. Furthermore, students can be more engaged and benefit from ongoing Socratic dialog.

Gartner analyst, Michael Maoz suggests an increase in the effective usage of Twitter in customer service. There are many ideas developing which will spawn new tools for early adopters that will be valuable for customer service. So, get over your jitters and watch the early adopters, there’s a strong potential for significant benefit.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

Information Technology Trenz

At the NASA IT Summit, Gartner Analyst David Cearley announced that it is 1981 again and the PC era is over! What an amazing declaration. Well, I loved David’s statement. In 1981, I was on my first short tour at NASA. I also met my beloved friend Stephanie and a beloved piece of technology – the IBM mainframe.

Now, I’m not a highly regarded expert on technology trends; nor am I a world-renowned expert on information technology – I’m just a poor strugglin’ CIO just trying to get a few little procurements done and somehow get information technology to help NASA satisfy its mission better. So, maybe I won’t talk about technology trends or maybe I shouldn’t. But, I’m sure no one would object to a discussion about something else – maybe technology trenz!

The 3270 is back! When personal computers entered the environment, 3270’s were viewed as a thing of the past. Pictured here is an IBM 3279. From www.wikipedia.org and IBM 3279 terminal I thought I was cute because I used one. I had special needs because I was working on graphics software. But, now, with web-delivered application capability, we return to the old days when girls were girls, men were men, and clients were thin. From Wikipedia:

Applications development has in many ways returned to the 3270 approach. In the 3270 era, all application functionality was provided centrally. With the advent of the PC, the idea was to invoke central systems only when absolutely unavoidable, and to do all application processing with local software on the personal computer. Now in the Web era (and with Wikis in particular), the application again is strongly centrally controlled, with only technical functionality distributed to the PC.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard the comment that there is no requirement for iPADs or similar tablet devices in the workplace, I’d …well … I’d have my own iPAD. Well, people knew better and the market is exploding. And even now, as I gaze at my ODIN-delivered iPAD, I don’t know what I need it for, but I’m absolutely sure that I need it! CIO Update says this is the “…year of the tablet”. But, I like to think of these things as really, really small thin 3270s.

The Data Center is back! Now hold on. People who used to live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Now, with cloud computing, the Data Center isn’t limited by raised floors and glass houses. Today’s Data Center can be accessed through web technologies in the cloud or rolled up in a trailer and moved to where it’s needed. The new trailer park data center even brings its own environmental needs with it. Now, floor tile pullers are replaced with trailer hitches. In the press release Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010 we hear:

“Newly-built data centers often opened with huge areas of white floor space, fully powered and backed by a uninterruptible power supply (UPS), water-and air-cooled and mostly empty. However, costs are actually lower if enterprises adopt a pod-based approach to data center construction and expansion. If 9,000 square feet is expected to be needed during the life of a data center, then design the site to support it, but only build what’s needed for five to seven years. Cutting operating expenses, which are a nontrivial part of the overall IT spend for most clients, frees up money to apply to other projects or investments either in IT or in the business itself.”

People are back and never left! As a young mathematician at NASA, I discovered the value of one friend named Stephanie who helped me realize my capabilities as a freshly minted programmer. Now, with social media, technology allows us to harness the power of “friends” in ways that extend our capabilities beyond physical limitations. Tom Soderstrom, CTO for IT at NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab gave a captivating presentation at the NASA IT Summit on technology trends. He presented a collage of predictions from experts across the space. What trend they all had in common was about – people. Tom told us that:

“The mega trend that drives the other… trends is the need for people to be able to work with anyone from anywhere with any data using any device. … In the near future, IT will be redefined from “Information Technology” to “Innovating Together”, where the traditional IT organization provides the technology and the IT consumers (e.g. Missions) decide how it will be used most effectively. “

Thanks to Jonathan Pettus, CIO of NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center whose interest in information technology and history uncovered the fact that it may even be 1961 again. He uncovered this tidbit from Wernher von Braun Weekly Notes” about the Burroughs 205 with advanced hardware and software:

“A review of the computing services performed by the decentralized digital computing centers strongly suggest that these facilities could be improved. New products and developments in the computer field suggest also that this could be done with considerable economy to MSFC. “

Whether it’s 2011, 1981 or 1961, I think the trend that remains the same is probably people. At least one expert believes that people and our human brains are finite and limited. I’m glad I’m not an expert, because I believe that we the people who use IT can continue to drive these trenz ultimately and infinitely.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

Life in IT Flatland

I’ve come to the conclusion that many of us in the field of Information Technology live in IT Flatland. Flatland is a place, described here in this cute animated short by Dr. Quantum, as a two-dimensional place where:

“…beings have no concepts of “up” and “down,” only “forwards,” ”backwards,” ”left,” and “right.” Creatures that inhabit Flatland have no understanding of cubes, spheres, or any other 3D objects, to which we are accustomed – from their limited point of view, a finger simply looks like an ellipse.”

Those of us in IT Flatland deliver systems and capabilities from a limited point of view. We are heads forward implementing products, policies, and solutions. We often don’t think of looking “up” to understand the customer perspective or looking “down” to see how all these things fit together.

In Flatland, if something comes from “above” or “below”, it seems to appear out of nowhere. Cubes look like squares and spheres look like circles. As a Flatlander, we are afraid of what we see when it comes from those strange dimensions. It’s our preference to run and hide or pretend like these are ghosts or figments of someone’s imagination. But all this is because of this limited perspective of a Flatlander.

The same thing occurs in IT Flatland. Problems appear out of nowhere that we didn’t anticipate. We tested things in Flatland, but never considered how things might work or not work if we went “up” or “down”. So, how do we get out of IT Flatland?

Move your head in new directions and look “up” and “down”. This means that we have to walk out of cubicles, listen to harsh criticism, be responsive to feedback, and not be afraid of this strange information from new dimensions. These strange sounds from new dimensions will help us improve what we deliver and our customer satisfaction. Don’t test your products with other Flatlanders, listen to those strange beings from the other dimension.

Allow yourself to be picked “up” and moved around in new dimensions. Don’t be afraid to walk in the shoes of those you serve. Look at things from their perspective. See how things look in Flatland when you are “above”? You can see things you couldn’t see in Flatland. It doesn’t look so good anymore does it? Well, fix it … quick!

Improve the vision from your “IT third eye”. With one eye, we are limited to two-dimensional sight; with two eyes, we are limited to three-dimensional sight; with our “third eye” we can see into the fourth-dimension. In opening up our “IT third eye”, we are able to be more perceptive and attuned to the things we can’t normally see. We are able to understand how our customers feel, what they think, and what they desire. With this information, we can better translate our services and capabilities into dimensions higher than our own.

Now hold on, I am hardly the CIO has risen “above” this Flatland thinking. It’s easy to live in IT Flatland. I’m often asked about what was the biggest mistake of my career. I like to remember it because, like the apostle Paul, it is the proverbial thorn in my side that reminds me that I am still an IT Flatlander just struggling to serve those in other dimensions.

My biggest mistake was establishing the email convention while at Department of Justice. It was firstname.middleinitial.lastname@usdoj.gov. I liked that because it was easy to manage the directory and avoid name collisions. Well that made it very difficult for someone to guess an email address unless you know the receiver’s middle initial. So, it was easy for me to administer, but difficult for people to use. It still exists today – what I established in the late 90s. And every time I send an email to a colleague at the Department of Justice, I am reminded of my IT Flatland thinking.

This thorn in my side reminds me to continue to develop my “IT third eye” and be more watchful of looking “up” to customer experiences and mission outcomes. It also reminds me to look “down” making sure that things integrate together and work end-to-end. This strange dimension should not be feared.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

Yin and Yang Leadership

As I head into the fourth quarter of my first year as NASA CIO, I find myself in somewhat of a struggle between competing forces. I have cried more in one month than I have in one year, but the tears are not bad tears, they are good tears actually.

In a misguided way, we think that this leadership journey is supposed to be easy; that good leaders always have two choices – the right answers or the wrong answers; make the right decisions or make the wrong decisions; and do it with a smile and with courage like we all see in photographs and press releases. But at the point of difficulty maybe right there in the tears and in the midst of the struggle, problems are solved…the impossible is made possible…and dreams become reality. Symbol of Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang describes opposing forces which flow in a natural way and always seek balance. The two opposing forces flow in such a way that they become merely two aspects of a single reality. Yin and Yang talks about extremes such as “dark” and “light”, “male” and “female”, “low” and “high”.

From an organizational perspective, I see these opposing forces in issues like:

· “being the best IT organization in Government” versus “just delivering service in an acceptable way”

· “being innovative” versus “meeting expectations”

· “delighting the customer” versus “meeting customer expectations”

· “mission obsessed” versus “mission aligned”

In looking at these aspects of NASA’s IT strategy, folks on both sides have valid concerns. Why should we strive to be the best when we can barely deliver email? Why should we think “out of the box” when we don’t have our box in order? How can we delight our customers when we can’t even meet their expectations?

The management technique for bringing together such extremes and arriving at supernatural problem solving is called Force Field Analysis. This management technique was developed by Kurt Lewin, a pioneer in the field of social sciences, for diagnosing situations. The technique used a method of weighing pros and cons of a suggested plan of action. The pros and cons are called the Driving and Restraining forces.

This analysis is characterized by:

• clarifying and strengthening the “driving forces” for solution

• identifying obstacles or “restraining forces” to a solution

• encouraging agreement on relative priority of factors on each side of the balance sheet

Driving forces are those forces affecting a situation that are pushing in a particular direction; they tend to initiate a change and keep it going. Examples of driving forces for implementing a plan include an identified business need, support from the leadership team or the availability of skilled resources. Restraining forces are forces acting in opposition to and restraining the driving forces. Examples of restraining forces against implementing a plan include time pressures, lack of enthusiasm and competing demands. Lewin says that equilibrium is reached when the sum of the driving forces equals the sum of the restraining forces.

Benjamin Hoff in The Tao of Pooh describes how Winnie the Pooh takes similar but unconventional look at finding a solution by looking for the thing he didn’t want to find. Here Pooh and Rabbit are trying to get home and keep ending up at a small sand-pit. Pooh finally suggests:

“Well … we keep looking for Home and not finding it, so I thought that if we looked for this Pit, we’d be sure not to find it, which would be a Good Thing, because then we might find something that we weren’t looking for, which might be just what we were looking for, really.”

Perhaps said in a non-Pooh way, driving forces by themselves don’t always yield a desired outcome. Certainly, restraining forces which move you away from the outcome isn’t the place to be either. It’s the equilibrium of the competing actions – the place where the tears often fall — where the problems get solved, where the impossible becomes possible and you can find your way home.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

No Stupid Ideas

I had a wonderful opportunity to be shadowed by Anthony who was in a leadership development program from another agency. He and I talked a lot about innovation and the whole notion of how to get good ideas. At the end of the conversation he said he got the feeling that I didn’t think any idea was stupid. After I thought about it I agreed. I told him that I think there really are no stupid ideas, just stupid people.

Before I continue too far, I have to say that I hate using the word stupid – it’s judgmental and arrogant. I try to limit myself to only one “stupid” per day. And I find as I get older and learn more, I know less. So, the whole notion of “stupid” is pretty … well… stupid sometimes. Nevertheless, this word seemed appropriate in the context of the world of innovation and creative thinking.

Sometimes ideas that sound stupid turn out to be examples of the kind of out of the box thinking that produces amazing results. I read a pretty interesting article on several ideas that seemed stupid, but ended up making millions of dollars. Examples of this are: doggie goggles, antenna balls, and personalized letters to Santa.

Sometimes ideas that initially seem to be stupid failures end up being learning opportunities that ultimately yield to amazing results. Thomas Edison had many failed ideas before he was able to learn through trial and error what was needed to invent the light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. As George Santayana is often quoted, “Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Stupid people are not those who lack education or intellect. Very intelligent people can be stupid. Similarly, people with low intellect or education can come up with ideas that produce great results. But most stupid people have some characteristics in common as it relates to ideas.

They don’t seek diversity. Often stupid people will ask other stupid people if their idea is a good idea. In other words, they seek advice from people who are just like themselves or in their own inner circle. They also only look for opinions that confirm what they want to hear.

They don’t care about results. Whether it’s from being delusional, experiencing cognitive dissonance, or being overly righteous or arrogant, stupid people just want to defend their original ideas without listening to advise that could produce desired results.

They don’t learn from mistakes. Personal righteousness and arrogance can prevent stupid people from learning and allow them to stumble into this ditch. In addition, very successful people can be stupid because they have so much experience in creating good results from their former good ideas. They don’t get into the disciplined habit of learning from mistakes because they simply have not made a lot of mistakes. They are haunted by the enemy of past successes.

If an idea fails, that doesn’t make it a bad idea. Likewise, if an idea is good idea, it can get botched through thoughtless implementation. So, after giving this more thought Anthony, I still think there is no such thing as a stupid idea.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

Managing Your Online Reputation

Concern about reputation is a barrier for many organizations and individuals preventing them from fully harnessing the power of Web 2.0 technologies. Consider the Oscar Wilde quote that says:

“One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything, except a good reputation.”

So clearly having your personal reputation or your organization’s reputation blemished is a serious matter to be reckoned with. Many organizations are struggling with how to develop policy around rules of conduct for when disgruntled employees inflict damage on their reputation. Because of this, there’s a cottage industry of businesses that have popped up to repair what turned out to be damaged company reputations. Here, I will speak to what you can do an individual to take responsibility to manage your own online reputation.

Perhaps you think this isn’t important to you. Perhaps you are even unaware that this is a problem to be reckoned with. Any Ostrich with his head in the sand executive or leader reading this should get their head out of the sand and wake up to the urgency that demands that we become proactive about our reputation. Furthermore, the carefree youth today may want to take an opportunity to NOT learn the hard way, by losing professional opportunities due to the apathy experienced in early life.

In an August 2009 article, New York Times reported that employers are starting to use Social Networking to check out job applicants. The article reports the results of a June 2009 survey that Harris Interactive did on behalf of CareerBuilder.com:

§ Forty-five percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates

§ Eleven percent plan to use these techniques for screening

§ Industries that specialize in technology and sensitive information are most likely to screen job candidates via social networking sites or online search engines

The survey results also reported that when employers did NOT chose a candidate for a job, the reasons were most likely as follows when the potential employee:

· Posted inappropriate photographs or information – 53%

· Posted content about them drinking or using drugs – 44%

· Bad-mouthed previous employer, co-workers or clients – 35%

· Showed poor communication skills – 29%

· Made discriminatory comments – 26%

· Lied about qualifications – 24%

· Shared confidential info from previous employer – 20%

You still don’t think this blog is about you? Do you? Let me bust some myths.

Myth (1): I don’t even use this social networking junk, that’s for kids. So, I don’t have a problem.

I did a search on the name of one of my 10 favorite NASA CIOs “Chris Kemp” … the first hit? Mug shots! How does one cope with this? Well, there’s a comedy bit out there where a spouse gets caught in a compromising situation face-to-face with their spouse. They simply insist “Baby, that wasn’t me!” Well, you can try that because it may work. Or you can do what Chris does and use his middle initial. There’s lots of good content about “Chris C. Kemp.”

Myth (2): Look, I am a seasoned user of this technology; I have enough sense to know what to say and what not to say?

I have a wonderful tech-savvy geezer colleague who truly understands these things. He hooked up with the wrong “intelligent” application on a popular social networking site. So, I sent him a message that went something like this:

Diva: “Dude? XXX movies??”

Geezer: “Huh?”

Diva:”Can you just take that stuff down?”

Geezer:”Ok I took it down, but that wasn’t me!!”

Myth (3): See, that’s why I have personal and private accounts … I keep it separate!

NY Times reported a case of a police officer who had a little fun talking trash on MySpace. Well, that locker room banter crept into his professional life and affected the outcome of the cases he worked on. The fact that it was a separate private account, didn’t affect his outcome professionally.

So, what’s person to do? Here are three tips:

(1) Defend against any possibility of bad content by overwhelming it with good content.

Use the superpowers of Web 2.0 for good. Even though what’s out there is more or less permanent, overwhelm the bad content with intentional good content. Use professional sites to do networking in your field. If you wondered about the advantages of doing a professional blog, here’s one for sure. You can also comment on other people’s blog. Another possibility is to use micro blogging sites like Twitter to establish a professional reputation. Be careful not to overdo it. Too much content casts doubt about what your professional priorities are.

(2) Actively monitor content about yourself.

You can set options in various search engines to alert you when there is new content posted with your name. Ignorance can be bliss, but in this environment, it’s not. You need to at a minimum be aware of what is out there.

(3) Private is private, but there is no personal. Everything is public on the information super highway!

Many social networking sites are increasing their functionality to provide more privacy. Leverage these capabilities. It won’t hurt to initially be an observer on the side line before you jump in. You can learn from others.

Now just in case you think this blog isn’t about you, here are some final results of the Harris Interactive survey. Eighteen percent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them to hire the candidate:

· Candidate’s profile provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit – 50%

· Candidate’s profile supported their professional qualifications – 39%

· Candidate was creative – 38%

· Candidate showed solid communication skills – 35%

· Candidate was well-rounded – 33%

· Candidate had a good reputation as indicated by other people who posted good references – 1%

· Candidate received awards and accolades – 15%

Final words

· Be professional at all times and be careful with sarcasm. Think before you publish.

· Contribute and interact on a professional basis.

· Maintain content about yourself and ensure that it is kept up-to-date.

· Respect copyright laws, financial disclosure laws, and any policy that your employer may have.

Warren Buffet is quoted as saying that, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Start now, and build YOUR online reputation.

Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

Reflections of a CIO’s Grandmother

My first blog of the New Year was supposed to be about looking forward. It was supposed to be about plans, hopes, goals, and ambitions. I planned to pen that blog this weekend. However, I got diverted into family obligations related to celebrating my grandmother’s 96^th birthday. I made her favorite Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls and Baptist Pound Cake. It was about Fried Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese. Yes, I would do my blog later. Yesterday was all about Mama. She died today.

The NASA CIO blog is about leadership, technology, and innovation. This one will be easy to write. I will tell you what I learned about leadership, technology and innovation from my grandmother.

Expert communicator. My grandfather was stationed in Germany twice and my grandmother learned to be a great communicator in German. While we were in elementary school, she taught us little niceties to say in German. She was also fluent in sign language. We used to joke that Mama didn’t let the fact that you couldn’t hear her to keep her from talking! She was able to rise above most communication barriers and be a great conversationalist.

Creative. Mama could crochet, knit, sew, and do needlepoint. She could also do ceramics. She taught this lefty how to crochet left-handed and how to knit right-handed; and most of all, how to use a pair of right-handed pinking shears.

Resourceful. She could do dry-wall, plastering, plumbing, shoe repair, masonry, and basic auto mechanics. She could heal any boo-boo and I still believe that she could do minor surgery. My sister Lisa and I were cleaning out her closet and found spike heel patent leather shoes and a battlefield dental repair kit. Somehow that was related, but we couldn’t quite figure out how.

Courageous. She was brave. I saw her go up against a pit bull … and win. I was in the car with her as she got pulled over by MPs speeding in an Alpha Romeo … she won. Pictured here, she was alone as a minority and President of the Officer’s Wives Club – a first. In a foreign country, learning the language, she stepped up to the task. I saw fear in her eyes and I saw her courage. Oh, and she made her dress and gloves. Corona Dash - President of Officer's Wive's Club

She raised a daughter who was a marksman who raised a daughter that was a CIO. I’m sure that’s related too, but I can’t quite figure out how. Technology, fruit trees, things my mother taught me about being a CIO … my grandmother was always there.

My last conversation with her last night was about technology and the Consumer Electronics Show. I told her and my grandfather about how grandparents could stay connected with their grandchildren through text messaging and the new PDAs. Mama liked it. My grandfather seemed unimpressed. She was tired and went to bed. She didn’t wake up.

I started writing this blog thinking about my loss. I finish it thinking about what I gained – my grandmother Corona. Her name means crown. Her DNA is inside of me and I adorn her leadership qualities upon my head. Tears fill my eyes as I honor her by signing my name using her nickname for me.

Linda Cureton (Toot), CIO NASA