The CIOs First 30 Days, Part I

Hans Robbers – Said it best; Feb 19, 2009 - "Great article with questions not only applying to a new CIO role but also when you take over as a pm, often due to unfavourable circumstances. The questions make you think and help to define a strategy to bring things back on track thanks for the insight"

The CIOs First 30 Days, Part I

Michael Wood
August 26, 2008

Congratulations, you just accepted a job as CIO, now what? Having survived nine years as a CIO, I can assure you that your success is more dependent on how you are thought of by the CEO and your peers than on what you know. So, let’s explore some possible success strategies.

Over the next few weeks the following strategy shaping areas of being a new CIO will be explored:

• Building Peer Constituencies & Assessing Perceptions
• Assessing the IT Organization - Culture, Talent, Infrastructure & Maturity
• Assessing the Service Levels – Satisfaction, Issues, Complexities

Each installment will present a series of questions, the answers to which will influence the strategies, tactics and actions you pursue as you establish your foundation for success as a CIO. Keep in mind that each question may have multiple answers that apply.

PART I - ASSESSING EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP & PEER GROUP PERCEPTIONS

When starting a new position as a CIO it is critical to assess how top management views the IT organization and specifically the performance of the last person in the job. No matter how good a CIO you think you are, you are never better than how the CEO and the executive management team (your peers) perceive you to be. Within the first 30 days of becoming a CIO you need to do a rapid 360-degree assessment of what peers, IT staff and key vendors think about prior CIO, IT, Management and Users. These views are your inheritance from the prior CIO and the news could be good or bad.

What were the circumstances of the other CIO’s leaving?

Question: Was the prior CIO fired, or did he or she resign under unfavorable circumstances?

Strategy: This most likely means there are hostile feelings toward IT and you will inherit them. Here your strategy is to distance yourself from your predecessor. During your first weeks on the job, it is imperative you visit the CEO and your peers, enlist their counsel, facilitate their frustrations and have them help you to shape priorities as they see them. By expressing interest in their situation, by providing them a cathartic release, you are building credibility and that might be exactly what you need to make a positive impact. Don’t editorialize or make promises. Just listen, feedback to them what your heard and thank them for their guidance. Also, request a time to meet with some of their staff to get their insights and input. Reaching out and engaging your peers and their organizations is IMPERATIVE. It is perhaps the fastest way of differentiating yourself from the prior CIO.

Question: Did the prior CIO retire or resign under favorable conditions?

Strategy: Here your strategy is to “Hope to Measure Up” to your predecessor. Having someone’s shoes to fill is not always easy. When you are replacing a prior CIO who was liked as well as effective, you need to find out what attributes, approaches and behaviors about that CIO successfully worked for them. Here, having time with the prior CIO is very important. If possible, have the prior CIO introduce you to their peers and verbally endorse you as the “Hand Picked” successor. Be humble and express your hopes that you can do justice to the endorsement. If the CIO has already left and is unavailable then spend your first few weeks understanding the IT organization, the project backlogs, the processes that are in place, etc.
During that same period meet with the CEO (one-on-one) to get his or her views and guidance and to learn more about your peers. Armed with this knowledge, meet with your peers and key people from their organizations to learn about their priorities, issues and concerns. Document what you learned and see how it aligns with what you know about the CEO’s expectations and the IT organization’s ability to deliver. Build your next month’s strategy around resolving alignment issues and develop written plans to that end.

Question: Is this a newly-created CIO position?

Strategy: Understanding why the organization has decided to create a CIO position will serve you well. Here your strategy is to demonstrate an open mind and a customer focused, collaborative attitude. Typically, along with new “C” level positions comes an increased expectation as to the quality of services, flexibility and agility that the IT group will provide the company.
Once again, within the first few weeks of taking the reins of CIO, it important to meet with the CEO and your peers to establish a rapport and collegial framework upon which to build. Soliciting their ideas and opinions as to what they are hoping for from a CIO is critical. During this perception and expectation discovery effort you must take on the role of facilitator. Never promise, brag, boast or do anything that would increase expectations or provide a baseline upon which you may later be judged. Instead, be humble and totally focused on their needs and concerns. In other words, listen, take copious notes, verify your understanding of their views through paraphrasing, and other active listening skills.

What is the on-time delivery track record of IT on projects?

Question: Are projects consistently delivered on time and within budget?

Strategy: Should you be so lucky to inherit an IT organization with a consistent track record of delivering projects on time and within budget, rejoice! Your strategy here is to first compile the metrics on the last 12 to 18 months of projects as well as the current projects in process and awaiting start. Organize the lists by stakeholders and meet with them to confirm the past accomplishments and to review their expectations for the future. This will indicate that you are engaged in the process and are proactive in your efforts to continue and improve on a positive trend.

Question: Do projects consistently run over budget?

Strategy: Believe it or not, the only people usually concerned with over-budget projects are the CEO and CFO. Delivering on time is usually what really counts on projects. That being said, if you find projects are consistently over budget, it’s a weakness and needs to be improved upon. Meet with your project managers to review the past 12 to 18 months of projects and get their take on what the issues have been and how they plan to correct the budgetary issues. Then, meet with peers who had a stake in the over budget projects, acknowledge the past deficiencies and get their feedback and guidance on the issue. Finally, as part of the “go forward” strategy, include a section on resolving poor project budget performance issues.

Question: Do projects consistently miss their delivery dates?

Strategy: Missing project delivery dates can be deadly. If this is the situation that you have inherited as the new CIO, then you need to remedy it quickly. Again, meet with the PMs to get their input on the issues. Go through each project and document the rationales provided. Most likely scope creep and changing priorities will be identified. If the PMs insist that they are victims of the situation, you may want to consider new PMs in the not too distant future. Also, link project performance to future pay increases and bonuses if that has not already been done. Finally, meet with stakeholder peers, acknowledge and condemn the past poor performance, get their feedback and follow-up with a memo outlining the corrective actions that will be implemented within the next 60 days.

What are the feelings and attitudes of key users towards IT?

Question: Are user attitudes openly negative and dismissive towards IT? Do users appear not to trust promises and commitments made?

Strategy: All too often, new CIOs find that the past CIOs have left a very bad taste in the mouths of management and users. When the negativity reaches dangerous proportions then time is very short for the new CIO to demonstrate that things will be better under the new regime. The biggest mistake here is to make broad and sweeping promises about the future. Instead, the savvy CIO will create an environment where the user community has more hands-on involvement in the prioritizing and managing of projects. By increasing user ownership and accountability in future projects, the CIO can increase overall buy-in. Of course if the negativity is at the service level and system reliability level, the CIO may need to implement sweeping changes. Again, promises will fall empty and only action will count. Consider implementing a formal help desk and incident tracking system. Immediately become very visible to the user community; attend their meetings, do lunch, demonstrate interest in their plight and needs. Finally, look long and hard at the IT organization for defects and flaws in structure, talent and attitudes. If the negativity toward IT is focused on a few individuals, take them out of the spotlight and evaluate their future with the organization.

Question: Do users seem evasive in expressing opinions about IT?

Strategy: Evasiveness usually equals unhappiness. Political concerns usually inhibit candid opinions among users. When this is encountered, turn the dialog away from IT (and people) and toward business processes, applications and capabilities. Zoom in on what users find frustrating. Consider conducting a series of cross-functional facilitation work sessions where users can identify the things that impede their job performance and where they can educate you on how work is performed. Here you will want to develop workflow models interactively with these groups. As you document their issues and their desired resolutions you will demonstrate caring, interest and understanding. They will see you as open and intelligent; all good.

Question: Do users have a positive attitude toward IT staff but not so much about the applications they use?

Strategy: A lucky CIO has a well-liked staff. When the users like the IT staff, they are less likely to complain to management that things are bad. If the applications are frustrating them, then a similar approach to the cross-functional facilitation work sessions is recommended. Here the issues that are brought up should be focused on application deficiencies and what and possible improvements. Each of these improvements should be systematically mapped to workflow models. Be sure to include your application analysts and experts in these sessions. Based on the data collected, have your application experts perform an impact analysis on the improvements identified. Next, parse the improvements into a series of short-throw projects and present them to each group for shaping. Finally, on those projects that have high acceptance, create project proposals and jointly present them to management for approval. Management will be impressed that you have reached out to the user community, build constituencies and a shared consensus for improving operational efficiency.

Question: Are users mixed in terms of their views on IT staff and applications they use?

Strategy: Follow the same strategy as above.

SUMMING IT UP

As you can see, considering the above questions can have quite an influence of how, as a new CIO, the roadmap for success gets constructed. Next issue we will explore how an Assessment of the IT Organization - Culture, Talent, Infrastructure & Maturity can impact your success roadmap.

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