The CTO Project

So, you have your organizational operating principles and system (OOPS): some cultural system which enables some mysterious blend of strategies, tactics, personal advancement, informal networks, formal hierarchies, self-interest, etc. In higher ed, you probably have at least three OOPSies in place: one each for faculty, students, and staff. For illustrative purposes only, let’s consider what those OOPS are likely to be, in the form of actual operating systems:

• the staff would be Microsoft Windows
• the faculty would be a delicious battle between a) Mac OS X, b) Fedora/Ubuntu/Debian, and c) Windows 95
• the students would be “Huh?” and “FACEBOOK, FACEBOOK, FACEBOOK! plus, oh yeah, MySpace”

Coming up on my 6-month anniversary as the new CTO, so I’m in a reflective mood. Today I want to round up some of the pithy sayings shared here to provide a sort of “wisdom of the elders” foundation for whatever comes next…

guiding principles:

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” - Sun Tzu.

–quoted by both Steele403 and G-lo as responses to blog posts

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast - Ford Motor Company

–quoted by Steele403 in a blog commentary

Assuming the above two quotes are basic operating principles for organizations, we should then understand that culture trumps everything–your strategy, your tactics, your smarts, your l33t skillz, etc. So, how to create the right culture? And, even if you create the right culture locally, within your IT department, does it really matter if the greater organization’s culture seems guided toward doom? Seems, for example, reactionary, all “tactics without strategy,” lacking a clear identity or singular mission?

Thank you all for your comments in answer to my FAQ. I’ve removed the wall of privacy, which really was just a screen door considering that anyone could register. Those of you who want to read the blog with your blog reader of choice should find this easier. However, the blog remains unindexed by search engines and you still need to register to comment. Registration is automatic so shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.

I’ve decided to keep myself as the sole author for now because the original focus was on my learning experiences as a new cto. I wanted (and still want) the blog to chronicle what I’ve learned in my new role and how my past experiences have prepared me for this position.

Here are some stats about the blog. There are 53 registered users, and the 40 whom I know include CIOs at large research universities, CTOs at small liberal arts colleges, IT professionals in higher ed and the commercial sector, instructional technologists, systems administrators, software developers, help desk managers, security czars, open source gods, and my mother, sister, and aunt. I didn’t start tracking stats till the week before it went private, so I can’t really compare how privacy changed the number of visits. The blog averages 460 visits a week.

I’ll get back to topical postings tomorrow. Thanks, again!

The six-month anniversary of this blog approaches and it’s a good time to question its existence and its m.o. Is the content of interest and/or am I just whining? Do I find the opportunity for reflection it provides me worthwhile? Does it really need to be private? Should I make the frequent commentators administrators so they can post and broaden the scope? Should I keep on as I am? Should I declare victory and move on?

Either way, you’re OUTTA here, Jack! Nah, I’m just kidding. Except, well, maybe not. Today I met with an alternative help desk provider. Like alternative medicine. Here’s what they will do: everything the current help desk does, but better and for less money.  During the vendor presentation, one of the slides showed their current customer list. Of the 15 or so current customers, at least half of them had CTOs/CIOs who’d been in place for less than three years. So, maybe this is “low hanging fruit” for some of us?

Kyle, is this where you reply with, “help desk, what help desk?–when I arrived at my school, I had to chop down the sacred tree of knowledge to friggin’ BUILD my help desk!”

Often, I’m a late adopter regarding technology. I really don’t IM because it seems too instrusive and I only Skype occasionally. The only reason I’m not using Pine for my mail client at the moment is due to my job’s exchange environment. I did look at Alpine (the new Pine) and it looks nice. Too bad U of Wash laid off so much of their IT staff. I wonder what this bodes for Alpine’s future?

But sometimes I’m an early adopter, and I’ve led organizations which, though we didn’t realize it at the time, were actually pretty innovative and risk tolerant. Sometimes we deployed beta-ish software for critical services because we could see immediate gains and long term potential.

Here’s my short list of reasons to consider trying a new technology:

1. when staff or customers are excited about its potential
2. when you can explain the potential use or benefit in less than 40 words
3. when you can test it without disrupting current services
4. when the possible benefits outweigh the known risks
5. when you just think it’s cool and you’re not sure what it’s impact might be but it’s not going to cost much to check it out

because I’m on vacation tomorrow!

Take a break!

Graph from monster.com

There are many “how to succeed in your new leadership role” type articles. They are often titled things like “the 1st 90 days” or “the 3-month survival plan” or “hit the ground running.” They all seem to advise you to identify “low hanging fruit” for “quick wins.” And so I wrote this on my to do list and really tried. But this isn’t as easy at sounds. First, you don’t know the culture, and implementing change early can be at the expense of building relationships. Second, if something was really that easy, wouldn’t they have done it already? Most people aren’t that stupid. And who decides what a “win” is, especially when you’ve built no trust yet? I despaired of identifying appropriately low hanging fruit and felt, for a while, like a complete failure. But now I’ve decided that low hanging fruit is really like rotten fruit, or sagging fruit, or something that, if you think about it, just doesn’t sound that attractive. Low hanging fruit is a lie! Soylent green is people!

Today I learned (or re-learned) the fact that sometimes it’s just a lot easier to call someone. We send emails, we schedule meetings, and we trade a lot of electronic info when a 5 minute phone call would resolve everything more easily. Email can be nice for it’s “official record” aspect, but talking can be so much simpler. Even better than a phone call? Walking down the hall, out the door, over to the office, for a quick chat. For this scary impromptu “meeting-like” event to succeed, though, it truly has to be a 5 minute Q/A. Anything longer can be disruptive. How about Skype? that would work too… IM can be, for me, too much like a constant interruption.

In the 6.15 CIO, William Cohen notes 5 things he’s learned from working with Peter Drucker. Three of them resonate with me and are provided below. Then I added two more which I did not steal from William Cohen. Can you guess which are mine?

1. Nothing gets done without leadership. Or, conversely, with leadership, stuff gets done.
2. Good leaders are creative, particularly when resources are scarce.
3. Sometimes, a few of us are smarter than all of us.
4. Everyone is different: manage your staff around their strengths and make their weaknesses irrelevant.
5. Most of the time, fear influences behavior more than desire. People act more to avoid particular outcomes than they do to achieve a particular vision.