jump to navigation

No Surprises February 2, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
Tags: , ,
3 comments

What’s the worst thing that can happen to any leader?  Bad news? Terrible news? No.  The worst thing that can happen is surprising news.

I can handle problems of all shapes and sizes. Personnel issues, system failures, budget concerns, project setbacks: part and parcel of the job.  With any of these, the easiest way to handle any problem is when it is a small problem, before it becomes a big problem.  Big problems are hard; small problems are easy.

What infuriates me is when an issue builds over time and is then dumped in my lap, full-blown.  At this point, the solution is going to be complicated, expensive, and leave collateral damage.  Had I known earlier, I could have intervened in some more effective way.

Leaders get surprised when their people fail to keep them informed.  There is only so much information we can gather on our own.  Everything else comes to us from people who feel that they can tell us things, especially bad news, without fear of repercussions.  These people are crucial to our success; they form our early-warning system that eliminate surprises.

We must cultivate trust in our team to ensure that we maintain that open channel of communication.  When that trust is missing, people will stop communicating, either passively or actively.

In the passive mode, people just stop telling you things.  They don’t misrepresent things or try to sugarcoat bad news.  You lose a valuable source of information, so you are flying blind with respect to some aspect of your organization.

Far worse is the active mode.  In this mode, people stop bringing you bad news by replacing it with good news.  Projects are said to be on track when they really aren’t.  Systems are said to be stable when they really aren’t.  People are said to be happy when they really aren’t.  At best, these people think they are pleasing you by bringing you good news while frantically trying to fix the underlying problems.  At worst, they are being openly insubordinate and undermining your ability to lead.

You can cure both of these problems.  The passive folks can be won over by regaining their trust.  You must work to keep lines of communication open, as I’ve noted in previous posts.  These people will help you succeed, but only if you work hard to allow them.

Even with open communication, the active group can be difficult to change.  You have to actively solicit bad news and drill into data to make sure it represents the truth.  For those who always want to bring good news, active coaching can help change their behavior.  For those who are being intentionally duplicitous, I suggest providing them an opportunity to find success in a different organization.

Can You Fix This? January 30, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
Tags: , , ,
3 comments

I’m a gadget guy.  I’ve been fascinated by things with blinking lights for a long time.  Before I had access to computers, I built Heathkit radios.  Before that, Erector sets and Legos.  I love to tinker and figure out how things work.  It led me to computing, which has led to great happiness in my career.

I think technical expertise makes me an effective CIO when I deal with other IT people, especially on my own team.  I know enough to hold my own in technical discussion, and bring a lot of experience to the table as we try to design new systems and solve problems.  I think a non-technical CIO can be easily overrun by their people and make bad decisions.

But does all that technical expertise make me an effective CIO among other executives?  My management peers turn to me to solve quick problems with their phones, PDAs, and laptops.  I get asked for advice on televisions and home networking.  I never turn down such requests, if for no other reason than that it would be rude to refuse to help anyone.  But I worry that such help pigeonholes me (and other technical CIOs) as the nerdy A/V guy, forever destined to set up the projector and advance the filmstrip during class.

CIOs have fought hard to get real management visibility and recognition.  But we cannot ignore our technical roots. We have to strike a balance between our business skills and our technical skills.  Done right, we retain our management focus while bringing technical perspective to the discussion at hand.  Done poorly, we forever lose credibility among our peers.

Every CIO should seek to be seen as a good business leader with technology skills, not as a technology provider who happens to know a bit about business.  Sometimes, the only way to reinforce that perception is to let someone else set up the projector.

Never Secure Enough January 28, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership, Technology.
Tags: ,
3 comments

Many are predicting that 2009 will be a big year for The Cloud, wherein many companies will move many of their applications to the cloud, away from premise-based servers and storage.  A lot of the conversation about this revolves around network speeds, processor virtualization, and storage aggregation.  Although all of that is important, I’m more concerned about security.  More specifically, who in the cloud can see my data?

When I host an application internally, I have extremely tight control over access.  Not just who can use the system, but how the administrators can access the system and the underlying data.  We have layers of controlled access with specific checkpoints and audit trails.  Every access must be justified, documented, and audited on a regular basis.

When I shift a system to the cloud, I typically retain the ability to manage end-user access, but have no control over administrative access at the other end.  Of course, the hosting company will swear up and down that every precaution has been taken to keep anyone from ever seeing my data.  In reality, I have no idea what they really do behind the scenes, and I have no way to completely verify their claims.

The recent Twitter hack is a great example of this.  An admin at Twitter used a plain word (“happiness”) as their password. This was hacked by a person using a simple dictionary attack, trying every possible password until they broke in.  Once inside, they had immediate access to the Twitter management tools and proceeded to gain control of a number of high-profile Twitter accounts.  Fortunately, Twitter is a lightweight application with no important data that could be compromised. Still, people were embarrassed and disrupted by the penetration.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  A system is only as secure as its weakest access point.  When you move your systems to the cloud, your data is only as secure as the worst password used by the least experienced administrator.

I believe I’ll wait a bit longer before moving to the cloud.

[tweetmeme source=”EffectiveCIO” alias=”http://j.mp/cio161″ only_single=false]

The CIO Is In January 26, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
Tags: , , , ,
1 comment so far

Like almost every other executive I have ever met, I have an open-door policy.  I look forward to talking to my team and appreciate those that take time to stop by and chat, on matters large and small.  I try to wander about as well, keeping in touch with people whenever possible.  In spite of this policy and my efforts, though, I still don’t get enough contact with my co-workers.  In short, being accessible is easier said than done.

A big part of the problem is that I have a hectic schedule.  I am often out of the office and hard to find.  When I’m in the office, I am often in meetings and unavailable.  Even if people wanted to talk to me, I can be hard to find and pin down.  For those who might be a bit reluctant to stop by, I am essentially unreachable.

To make myself more accessible, I started scheduling “Office Hours.”  Simply put, I promise my people that I will be in my office, otherwise unoccupied, for a set period of time each week.  Anyone who wants to see me can stop by and know that I will be available and ready to listen.  If no one shows up, I’ll certainly find other things to do; when they do, I set aside what I’m doing and focus on them.

When I started office hours, I laid out the rules so that people would know what to expect.  Here are the rules:

  • I will be in my office every Thursday, 1:30-3:30, except when I am on vacation or a serious emergency has occurred
  • Anyone can stop by to talk about anything they want
  • First come, first served.  If I am talking to someone else, put your name on a Post-It and stick it on the door.  I’ll call you back when I am available.
  • Except in rare circumstances, you cannot “book” time during office hours.  Just show up!
  • Except in rare circumstances, you can’t shut the door while we are talking.  I don’t want others to be put off by a closed door.  If you have a sensitive topic, we’ll set up a separate time where we can have some privacy and adequate time to discuss it.
  • Topics should be relatively brief (less than 15 minutes) to give time for others

Office hours have been a big success!   Many times, I am the pacing item on some project, for a signature, approval, or recommendation. People know I will be available for these kind of “quick hit” items during office hours, so they stop by and get things moving forward. Beyond these kind of items, people stop by for almost every imaginable topic: advice, personnel issues, venting, bouncing around ideas, and just saying hello.

Communication is crucial to our success as leaders and to our teams.  Office hours have had a big positive impact on communication within my team. What started as a quick experiment has turned into an important part of my weekly schedule.  I couldn’t imagine removing office hours from my schedule.  Give it a try; I hope you find it as useful as I have.

Change Is Good. You Go First. January 23, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
Tags: , , ,
2 comments

Once again, a seemingly Minor Event in my life causes Great Consternation and, upon reflection, provides a Greater Lesson for us all.  In this case, the Minor Event was the arrival of a new cell phone.

Let’s be clear: I love cell phones, and PDAs, and any sort of handheld device that you carry about.  If it fits in your hand, needs to be charged, has a screen, and can be endlessly configured and customized, it is my kind of device.  In the spirit of clarity, I’ll also share that I am extremely picky about user interfaces and the user experience in general.  I will tinker endlessly to get the screen layout just right, or to optimize the sequence of clicks to perform some action.

Disclosures made, let’s move to the Minor Event. Last week, I upgraded from my wonderful Samsung Blackjack II cellphone to the Samsung Epix.  Both devices run Windows Mobile and sport dedicated keyboards.  The big difference: the Epix has a touchscreen and the Blackjack does not. I was excited to try out a touch interface, along with the Epix’s built-in WiFi.

I was astounded at how difficult it was to switch to the Epix.  I had been using the Blackjack for over a year, and my fingers had long ago learned the key patterns to accomplish everything I needed to do on the phone.  I had tweaked every nuance of the Blackjack, installed a ton of third-party tools, and had that phone perfectly configured.

After one day of the Epix, I was ready to give the it back.  I was absolutely inept with the thing.  The ringtones were wrong, the applications felt clunky, and my constant desire to click on a directional pad was thwarted by the fact the the Epix doesn’t have one.  The WiFi was indeed cool, and the virtual mouse touchpad was clever.  Even so, I felt clumsy and frustrated with every aspect of the phone.

Great Consternation had set in.  I took a deep breath, drew on my deep reserves of inner strength, and vowed to use the phone for another full day.  By then, things had gotten a little better: I found some decent software for the phone, reinstalled touchscreen versions of my favorite tools, and even found better versions of others.  I was acclimating to the phone.

After a week, I have come to really like this phone.  Some things still need some tweaking, but other features are too good to give up and go back.  So my beloved Blackjack II will be placed, gently, into my Drawer of Abandoned Devices, next to my RAZR, Palm LifeDrive, Palm Tx, and Casio Zoomer.  The Epix becomes my device of choice, at least until my contract expires.

Which brings us to the Greater Lesson: If this kind of minor, self-inflicted change is this distracting and painful, imagine how annoying the change that we inflict on others must be.  Those of us in IT like to see ourselves as agents of change, disrupting existing practices with new tools and processes for the greater good of all.  Let’s get real: we drive people nuts, making seemingly arbitrary decisions that turn their world upside down for no apparent reason.

We can’t ever, ever forget how painful change really is for our users.  Minor Events that we fully understand generate Great Consternation out in the real world.  Nonetheless, our job is to find and fix things.  As you go about doing that, don’t lose sight of how hard it is for people to put up with the changes we promote.  And if you do forget how hard that can be, I have an easy solution: go get a new phone.