New Year’s Resolutions

Nebraska State Capitol

This time of year is normally when we are motivated to make a resolution for positive change.  We make plans to do something that will result in an improvement in our personal lives or our families lives.  I believe universally, change is hard, which is why so many resolutions fail.  We know that change will be positive and yet we still fail.  This also extends to our work.

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A Smooth Transition

COBOL Coding Form

As a sophomore in College I learned to program in both FORTRAN and COBOL utilizing 80-column punch cards. Each spring semester we used to compete to see how high we could make the tallest structure from the used cards in the atrium of the Engineering building.  The winning team always made it more than two stories high. More than 20 years prior (1959) a group of programmers had devised COBOL, a Common Business-Oriented Language, yet we did not consider what we did was becoming extinct

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On Defense

OCIO Now Open

Last month, I focused on Playing Offense emphasizing the strengths of our organization to orchestrate change.  I also discussed resistance to change which can result in defensive behaviors such as a lack of participation in decision-making, either due to exclusion or opting not to participate. On the flip side of the equation, leaders must learn not to put individuals in a defensive position, especially when giving feedback.  When and how a leader provides feedback should be more important to the leader than the feedback itself.

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Playing Offense

Teamwork

I am wired to be an enthusiastic and emotional leader by nature, especially when I want to explain or deliver a compelling vision for change. I openly expect change to occur and projects completed successfully at a rapid pace, but try not to show disappointment when they are not completed at the speed I expect. My colleagues might say that I am always playing an offensive role, in the way I make critical decisions quickly and don’t let analysis paralysis set in. I determine the direction...
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The Elusive "Easy Button"

IT Request Chat

My team knows, I am very cautious about adopting what I call “Hyped Emerging Technology”. I take the approach that taxpayers dollars should not be utilized for adopting the latest technology without first building a solid business case, then researching the technology (which includes a mandatory proof of concept); then, if there is still confidence in the technology, implement on time and on budget.
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Urgency to Fail: Why We Stayed the Course

Map of United States displaying ITIF's test results of State unemployment websites on mobile devices

When the recent health crisis arose and States were being overwhelmed nationwide, technology groups obliged, and in many cases with urgency, to introduce new technology. Each offered something  to address the issues that were commonly impacting the public sector, often the solutions were not sufficiently tested. In some states, the rush to deploy technology without proper testing compromised projects that otherwise might have had successful outcomes. In worse cases, the haste to react inadvertently introduced unnecessary security issues...
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The New Era of Tech Support

Stay Connected

As I review the volume of IT requests created for my team during March 2020, I envision how this pandemic will change our view of technology in the future. A brand new operating stage of tech support has transpired, and I believe it is here to stay. I am referring to this stage as the Pandemic operational stage. Once we get back to “normal” operation, I believe we will always need to be ready on short notice to transform again into a Pandemic stage, and this will be the new normal...
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To My Team, Navigating in Times of Uncertainty

American Flag

I recently had a conversation with Governor Ricketts regarding the actions we would be taking in response to the implications of COVID-19 at the State of Nebraska. From the enterprise Technology perspective, I stand by what I told the Governor last week, we are prepared to support the Agencies who serve the Citizens of Nebraska. Our conversation then turned to a reflective nature, as we both remembered our mutual work experiences during the events surrounding Y2K and 9/11...
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Decisions a CIO Should Not Make

People in a meeting

I am starting to realize how my approach to IT has evolved from my Industrial Engineering roots. At the State of Nebraska we focus on introducing efficiencies, consistency and reliability in everything we do. Those efforts resulted in the State’s centralized IT environment delivering dependable services at a relatively low cost....
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IT with a Customer Focus

IT Services

I frequently blog about our organization’s focus on IT as a service and my expectations of my team to deliver this value. We are all responsible for providing products and services that meet or exceed our customers’ expectations. My expectation is that we put customers at the focus of every interaction, which helps the Agencies achieve their performance goals, which increases their satisfaction with the IT we provide...
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