Databus Issue: 2007 2 05/29/2007
The CTO as a Visionary Leader
Bob Blackney Director of Technology
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I had just been appointed as a technology leader and one of my first tasks was to upgrade a data base. Technically it was a very simple task and could easily be accomplished in an afternoon, and the upgrade offered so many new features, that I was sure to be a hero. I sat down and made the necessary changes one afternoon, had the system up and running in no time at all and I waited for the cheering throngs that I was sure would come my way. I was about to learn a very basic lesson: managing technology means managing people and it is a whole lot easier to change technology than it is to change people.
In our world technology drives change. Just look at the volumes of data that every district is now managing that did not even exist five years ago! To keep up with the hectic pace of progress, it is essential that the technology leader be a visionary leader. A leader that innately understands the current trends in hardware, software and networking, but that is not enough. Effective visionary leaders must also understand the operations of a school district and instructional needs and be able to apply digital solutions to all parts of the organization to get them beyond what they presently know. After all, at the very simplest levels all technologies are vehicles to provide information and communication. In a business that is all about communicating information we must play a key role.
First, a visionary must be committed to being a lifelong learner, and that does not mean that they spend their time surfing the web! Technical journals, listervs and emails are important, but that is just part of the job. Spend some time getting to know what the issues are in business, operations, educational services and human resources. You should be able to list the top five needs of each department, what are the most important challenges they will face in the next six months, year and two years out. What are the focus areas for the board? What role does technology play in achieving the goal? If a technical solution does not readily appear, many times it is because no one has done the research to determine what part technology might play. The visionary CTO knows their job is take technology and “crash a party” and create a role where no one thought technology might work before.
Daily the temptation is to spend time fighting fires, plugging things in, getting systems to work and meeting those ever shorter timelines. There are always a thousand things to do, but the visionary leader must resist the temptation to make this their primary role. This is the “heads down” work of getting tasks done, systems to work together, and produce needed reports. But visionary leaders must also be “heads up” leaders who hold their heads high to see what is coming next. I know that many of you are reading this thinking, “Yeah right, I wish I could find the time.” Being a visionary technology leader means making the time to be a “heads up” leader because it is just as essential as the endless parade of emergencies. Stephen Covey might say that you have to guard against being in the thick of thin things. Not just in the field of technology, that is a given with the job, leaders need to see what is coming next for each of our clients and for our team before they even have the remotest sense that they will need it. This also means giving clients what they need and not what they want.
Being a leader in technology means leading people and that means communicating, communicating, and communicating. Email may be a time saver and being technical there is a real temptation to over use it. The real problem with email is that it does not communicate the passion that a personal conversation might. Often the chore is to describe some very technical issue to a non-technical person. When this happens, try using pictures, analogies and metaphors that are very powerful for communicating technical issues. I recently described our bandwidth difficulties to my superintendent as drinking a triple thick shake through a coffee stirrer. He got it.
Get on the agenda of every group you can and talk about your plans for technology in the context of the group. The first reaction that anyone will have to new information is WIIFM (what’s in it for me?). Describe what it will mean to them it terms of their work, their time, and productivity; not what technology you are installing. Our three-year tech plan is in the format of building a Greek temple. People may not know what each the five columns we are building this year might be, but everyone remembers that we built the foundation last year and we are building the columns this year. If someone should walk into any office or school in the district, and ask anyone what the technology plan is, they should be able to tell you something about it. There is an old saying that everyone has a vision, but if you cannot write it down, it is not a vision, it is a hallucination.
Bobby Kennedy said, “ Everyone is for progress, but progress means change, and change has its enemies!” The visionary CTO must realize that technology drives change and that change is not about the technology. It is first and foremost a people process. Get to know your clients challenges and find solutions, communicate your direction, plan for technology as a system and manage the change. Sound like a full time job? A challenge? Daunting? Absolutely! It requires a full tool box of skills, a positive, can do attitude, a servants nature, and the ability to communicate complex technical systems in common language. Oh yeah, you should know something about the technical issues too.
