Assessing The Situation
Google Gemini Prompt
For a troubled information technology organization, provide recommendations to a new CIO that is newly leading the IT organization.
Google Gemini Response
Recommendations for the New CIO:
As a new leader, you have a "honeymoon phase" to reset expectations. Here is your roadmap to rebuilding trust:
1. Go on a "Listening Tour"
Before changing a single server or process, meet with every business unit leader. Don't talk about technology. Ask:
"What are your top three goals for this fiscal year?"
"Where does technology currently get in your way?"
"If you had a magic wand, what one thing would IT do differently tomorrow?"
2. Establish a "Value Realization" Framework
The business doesn't care about "99.9% uptime" if the checkout page is too slow to convert customers. Shift your metrics from SLA (Service Level Agreements) to XLA (Experience Level Agreements).
Stop reporting: Server availability and ticket closure rates.
Start reporting: Reduced transaction time, cost per customer acquired, or time saved through automation.
3. Implement "Lean" Governance
A common complaint is that IT takes too long to deliver. Break down massive, multi-year projects into smaller, iterative "wins."
Quick Wins: Find a low-hanging fruit project that can be delivered in 30 days to prove IT can move fast.
Transparency: Use a visual dashboard or "Front Door" process so business leaders can see exactly where their requests are in the pipeline.
4. Rebrand IT from "Cost Center" to "Revenue Enabler"
Reorganize your team around Product Lines rather than Technical Functions. Instead of a "Database Team," have a "Customer Retention Tech Team." This forces IT staff to understand the business outcomes they are supporting.
5. Clean Up the "Basics"
You cannot talk about digital transformation if the Wi-Fi is spotty or laptops take three weeks to provision. Ensure the foundation is rock solid so you earn the right to discuss high-level strategy.
Summary Checklist for Your First 90 Days
Days 1-30
Empathy & Discovery: A "State of the Union" report based on stakeholder interviews.
Days 31-60
Prioritization: A "Stop/Start/Continue" list for current projects.
Days 61-90
Execution: Delivery of one "Quick Win" and a roadmap for the next 6 months.
Discussion
When you are part of the Osmond family, you either go into a medical field, or you go into a technology field. My daughter and son-in-law are application developers in technology. My wife is a mental health clinician, and my son is an emergency medical technician (EMT) and studying to become a respiratory therapist. I work in tech and volunteer as an EMT.
When I show up on scene as an EMT, I look at the patient, conduct a primary assessment, and in two minutes or less I have to determine whether the patient is in a critical life-threatening situation and respond accordingly. I look at the ABCs (Airway, Breathing, and Circulation) because if any of those three functions are compromised then the patient could die in ten minutes or less. The patient must be able to breath and respirate. The patient must not experience severe blood loss, and the heart must function to enable blood flow. Is the airway patent? Is the chest rising and falling? Is there a pulse? Any signs of uncontrolled bleeding? Is the patient conscious? What we then do on scene is sequenced and prioritized based on what we learn in that primary assessment.
Chapters 1-3 discussed the Model and Methodology, the Problem Statement, and Getting the Right Leader. This chapter starts to describe what happens when that new leader starts working from Day One.
Troubled technology organizations have urgent challenges that need to be addressed immediately and more systemic challenges that can be addressed over time. If there is a legislative, legal or regulatory mandate that must be met, that is immediately a high priority item. If there are projects in flight or compromised operational systems with major financial or service delivery implications, then that would also be a high priority item. The primary organization assessment identifies those critical initiatives that must urgently go right. When I show up on site as the new CIO or Delivery Executive, I lead with my ears, listen carefully to what is said and not said, and collect data on the situation. I might have some ideas and hypothesis and perhaps even some potential interventions, however I need to understand before taking actions that could make the situation worse. We lead and go where the data takes us.
The urgent challenges identified during the primary assessment can vary. At the State of Florida, we urgently needed to address the delivery pipeline from requirements to code deployment. At the Virginia IT Agency, we urgently had to complete a data center move, replatform our messaging tower, and modernize our network. At the US Army, we had to optimize critical interfaces and address application server bottlenecks that were locking out users. At VDOT, we had to heal the relationship between the business and IT, apply enterprise and solution architecture, and address critical missing software and project development capabilities. Even though the technology organization is troubled as a whole and it may seem like “everything” is a problem and on fire, there are always initiatives that are of greater importance and urgency than others. The primary assessment to identify critical needs should ideally be completed within the first two weeks of engagement and definitely completed in the first 30 days.
As Gemini advised, I went on a listening tour to hear and understand the chief complaints among the organization’s stakeholders in the lines of business. I was looking to understand their business and mission model and how they used my technology goods and services. I was trying to understand where the breakdowns were occurring and how my new (to me) organization was missing the mark and holding them back. My goal was that they would see me as a co-partner in their mission and sense that I was as committed to the fulfillment of their mission as they were. That we both had the same goals, played on the same team, and were working together to serve their customers and citizens. It is about building personal trust in me as a new leader. First, they have to trust my intent that my goals are aligned with their goals. Then, through steady and reliable delivery execution, they will trust my capability to build a team and organization that is capable of being a strong partner in the execution of their business to fulfill their mission. Similar conversations are then had with key staff in the organization to hear their internal point of view and the key external vendors to hear their perspectives. Being a strong CIO is about building teams and alliances that come together to solve problems, build solutions, and get stuff done.
Action: Identify the key executive, business, technology organization and vendor stakeholders. Setup meetings (30 - 60 minutes) with each stakeholder to listen and understand how the technology organization can be a better partner and improve service delivery. It is important to only listen and not defend. Interviews with key stakeholders should be completed within the first 21 days.
In addition to meeting stakeholders, I also look at the organizational metrics. What is tracked and measured and what isn’t. Are there operational metrics for network performance, call volume, customer satisfaction, ticket completion, project delivery and execution, future project pipeline, system utilization, and system technical currency? Are there cybersecurity metrics for incident management, threat identification and response, vulnerability remediation, cybersecurity maturity, and security awareness training? Are there governance metrics around policy and standard currency, approval cycle, portfolio management, procurement execution, and exception rate? Are there financial metrics for budget, appropriations, cash flow, collections, disputes, and product line profitability? Are there administrative metrics on legal issues, recruiting, staffing, turnover, morale, culture, and communications? In a high performing technology organization, there are readily available metrics on all of these areas and more. The data and metrics inform the organizational response. In lower performing technology organizations, many metrics are not in place and require projects to assemble the data. The maturity of the organizational metrics, regardless of the metric results, offers valuable insight into areas that need more work.
Action: Have the team compile key technology organizational performance metrics. In a well performing organization, the metrics are readily available. The lack of ready metrics is itself a finding. Compiling the metrics should be completed in the first 14 days.
Once we complete the primary organizational assessment (and initiate corrective actions), then we can move on to the secondary organizational assessment. The secondary assessment is more comprehensive and methodical and looks at areas of the organization in significantly greater detail including a deeper review of the available operational metrics. It includes a 360-degree view of critical relationships among the line of business executive team, technology organizational leaders and staff, and vendor community (including lobbyists). This may include additional stakeholders that were not contacted during the primary assessment. Data gathered will be both quantitative and qualitative. Keep in mind the 80/20 rule. It may be tempting to try and speak to everyone and look at everything, however 80% of the relevant feedback and data will be concentrated among 20% of the potential participants and metrics. Trying to speak to everyone and deep dive on all the metrics will extend the data gathering phase by 5X and not contribute useful additional insight. For example, the Virginia IT Agency provides technology infrastructure, procurement, cybersecurity, and governance goods and services to 65 state agencies. The majority of the goods and services provided are consumed by the top 10 agencies, so we focused our stakeholder data gathering on those top 10. Though we collected performance data on over 200 metrics in our various mission areas, we focused on less than 50 key metrics as most relevant during the assessment phase. The secondary assessment should not take longer than three months and should ideally be completed a lot sooner. You may find that you have enough to get started within that first 30 days and then use the data gathered in the secondary assessment to confirm the initial direction, make course corrections, and build extended relationships. Time is not your friend and the sooner that you can get started and show progress, the better the position.
At the end of the first 30 days, you need to provide a report on the baseline situation to your leadership. They need to know what they are dealing with and why you may need to take the actions that you will need to take. For this briefing, less is more. Focus on the key summarized findings on what you heard along with key organizational metrics and data. Most of what they hear will likely validate what they are already hearing. Describe the delta on what should be the performance target and then describe the immediate initiatives to close the gap in a From - To format. What is the starting point? What has been done? What is the current point? What is the target? At VITA, I presented my first 30-day report to the Secretary of Administration and the Governor’s Chief of Staff which included the need to address a major problem with the network. I was seeking approval for a multi-million dollar investment to transform the state’s network. In the briefing, I was able to demonstrate the problem, the plan of attack, and how it would be funded and financed. The response, “You had me at Hello…let’s get it done.” And we did. The Virginia network modernization was an ambitious project where we expanded the network capacity by 1800%, upgraded over 1,200 state offices, architected and deployed a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) solution, and completed it under budget in less than two years without requiring any additional investment from the Virginia General Assembly.
Action: Produce a baseline situational assessment report (based on the primary assessment), identify critical initiatives, and present to your leadership. Get buyin for the next phase: Stop the Bleeding.
There are many possible areas of improvement to look at specifically. For example:
Assess and rebuild the leadership team. In troubled organizations, there are often many gaps in leadership with the remaining leaders performing multiple jobs to cover. Those positions need to be filled.
Assess and rework project operational processes and cadence. Many projects just “run” are not managed. So they get done when they get done. The project delivery processes need to be reviewed to make sure that teams have the resources that they need, get inhibitors and barriers removed, and progress the plan.
Compress communications and decision making. A delayed decisions can block teams. We need to operate as if we are in a critical situation because we are.
Increase parallel throughput. We often have single threaded work processes that get stuck in bottlenecks. When that happens, we need to build parallel threads to get the work accomplished.
Reuse software assets more. Many organizations don’t have effective means to create patterns of capability that can then be reused. So every effort is treated as a net new solution and a first-of-its-kind (FOIK). Create a library of approved patterns that can drive reuse and accelerate delivery.
Constantly prioritize to ensure that the most important work is being done first.
Groom backlog to know what is coming next and plan accordingly.