After close to 30 years in the technology industry, I find that our ability to communicate is perhaps almost as important as the latest in technology skills.  On many of the most complex IT projects that I work on, our biggest challenges seem to result from a communication breakdown.  Some back-to-the-basics communication strategies will almost always result in a more successful outcome.

Plan – Any project, large or small, requires a plan:  activities, resources, dependencies, duration, costs, etc.  Specific details about the thought process that goes into building the plan should be documented for reference and could be important to troubleshooting during project execution.  Format and tools for planning and project reporting might be required and should be adhered to as appropriate.  Status reporting is an important part of managing a project, and should be concise yet thorough.  A well-articulated plan is critical to any project or event.

Involvement – Ever been to a meeting that had too many people?  Or the wrong people?  Part of a communication strategy needs to address who needs to be involved – who’s responsible for establishing the communication and who is the intended audience.  The audience must have a vested interest in the information, and must be empowered to act on it.

Vehicles –   Communication vehicles are many and varied, and also vary in effectiveness.  Meetings, newsletters, status reports, websites, notes, text messages, tweets, phone calls, conference calls, social media – the list is endless.  For the intended audience, you need to determine the most effective communication vehicle.  If a response mechanism is required, this may narrow your options.

Cadence – How often do you need to communicate your message?  This will vary, of course, depending on your audience.  Too much communication will diminish the value of the information and cause your audience to ignore.  Not enough communication will result in lack of information and could cause errors or problems in execution.  Establishing the right cadence is a key part of establishing a communication plan.

While there is no question about the need to stay current on skills and technologies pertinent to the work that we do in our industry, communication is a core skill required to be effective … in any role.  Some of the key components mentioned above are common points of failure when they are weak or non-existent, yet sometimes overlooked when we identify critical success factors.  So, when planning a big project, I always ask my team for the communication plan … and ensure that they stick to it.  Even when issues can’t be avoided, a good communication strategy will always help drive a solution!

 .

Donna Satterfield is IBM vice president and global leader account partner on the General Motors account.  She has a B.A. and M.A. in organizational communication, and has been in information technology for nearly 30 years.

As a CIO with a healthcare company,  I believe that in the delivery and administration of healthcare, IT plays a critical role.  With respect to the actual delivery of healthcare, technology is doing wonderful things such as biometric devices that can connect to your home computers to transmit data to your doctors so that they can keep monitoring your health status.  This is extremely  important to “force” us to take care of ourselves and test ourselves regularly for things like blood pressure and diabetes.  The use of robotics in surgery has made it so much less invasive and thus has reduced complications and recovery time.  Automation has also taken the human error factor out of many medical protocols, with something as simple as the digital stethoscope that can detect variances not audible to the human ear.

But when it comes to the administration part of healthcare, we are not yet in the 21^st century!  Most people don’t use their health insurer’s web or mobile apps.  Why is that?

Most doctors’ offices are not equipped with modern technology to enable them to send insurers real-time submission of claims and retrieving current data on deductibles and co-pays so that they can collect from the patient when they are visiting the doctor’s office. Connecting their computers to obtain health monitoring information from patient biometric devices is rare.  The government had to encourage the use of electronic medical records (EMRs) by mandating their use for Medicare and Medicaid and also giving providers a bonus to implement EMRs.  Electronic medical records could really help an ER doctor in a hospital understand your allergies, your current medication and medical history – especially if you were unconscious when arriving at the ER!  Why  is it that non-IT medical professionals need to be pushed to use technology?   Would you like to see doctors  get more engaged into the 21^st century technologies?  Why or why not?

Hardly anyone has “eVisits” with their doctors, especially in a time when gas prices are so high and time management between work, home and health is so difficult to balance.  The technology exists to have a face-to-face online with the doctor, have he or she check your vitals online, write a prescription to your local pharmacy  –  all of this so long as you have a computer with a camera and access to the internet.  Would you use it if the doctor had the devices? Do you think it is the future and, if so, when do you think the future should get here?

 If we develop it, will they come?   Should they?

.

Janet P. MacQueen is vice president and chief information officer for Blue Care Network of Michigan, the affiliated HMO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. She is a frequent speaker at various professional meetings on topics such as leadership and IT management, and is also on the board of directors of the Michigan Women in Technology Foundation and the Managed Care Executive Forum.  

One of the greatest gifts life offers us, especially in the world of information technology, is the opportunity to continuously learn and share lessons.  I have been in business for 35-plus years, covering multiple industries. I’ve built, directed and led technology solutions and driven transformational change.  I was a developer, business analyst, industrial engineer, reengineering leader, project manager, big 4 consulting partner, CIO and divisional president of GM.   In this time, technology continues to evolve. Think  mainframes, mid frames, minis, desktops, laptops, smart phones, iphones, ipads, virtualization, SaaS, cloud computing, and on and on.

With all this change comes one constant that continues to elude technology organizations.  It’s the single factor separating great IT organizations from good ones, and elevates IT to the big seat in board-of-director and executive-level meetings.

Results count.

And by this I mean business, people, process and technology results are what matter, with business results being the key measure of success.  Great technology organizations embrace measuring the impact they have on business results through the technology they deliver.  The outstanding ones link their performance to business performance and favor progressive measures of value versus the old standard measures such as on-time, on-budget, up-time, response time and performance.  These later measures are expected and serve as the price of entry into acceptance.  I view them as being akin to the car starting every time you put the key in the ignition…it is expected, but not rewarded.

So the trend of the progressive IT organization is about results…being an owner not just for technology results, but for business, people and process results.  It is about the impact technology has on the business, value return and the accountability to own performance.

. 

John Lieblang is an experienced C-level corporate and consulting executive that helps companies achieve breakthrough business results and sustainable improved performance through measurement-based management approaches.  He is CEO of Measured Value LLC, which provides consulting services for transformational, turnaround or start-up businesses.  He has presented at the Midwest Technology Leadership forum on “Accountability for Results” and isa member of the Detroit Chapter of SIM. 

There is a saying that “Communication is irreversible.”   In today’s world it should be expanded to say “and once online, it’s there for all time.” Like many of you, I too am a driven digital professional who struggles to find the proverbial “work-life balance.”  After a long day in the office, we commute to our most valuable “second job” – our home.

With so many plates in the air, we can’t let our commitments prevent us from helping to guide our loved ones in developing and maintaining a responsible social presence.  It’s so easy in our busy lives to be involved in our kid’s lives and when they go out, we ask all the important questions like the “who, what, when, where, hows” but are we monitoring their online behavior habits?  Are we paying attention to their posts, duration on the computer for social activities, or who their online friends are?  Or, do you even know that they have a Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Pinterest account(s)?  If the answer is “no”, you may be surprised to learn that they may have one if not multiple social profiles out there.

Having a social presence is an important component in today’s digital society.  But maintaining a responsible social space in the social sphere is just as equally important as a personal reputation. Here are some tips that I have shared with my kids:

.
DO…

• Google yourself – see what’s out there.
• Think before you post.
• Un-tag yourself from questionable photos.
• Resist getting caught up in social dialogue drama.
• Remember that employers/colleges/recruiters do preview your profiles before extending an offer.
• Utilize group/privacy functionality options for your profile settings.
• Only accept invites from people you know and trust – any questionable people – delete!

 .

DON’T …

• Utilize social media channels as your day-to-day personal soapbox or diary
• Forget that all comments/posts/photos are never truly deleted.  People can screen grab or share your post/picture and then repost on various sites like:  epic facebook fails or YouTube.
• Don’t share your personal contact information with people you don’t know.

 .

Marina Reyna-Bourke is a member of the  MCWT communications’ committee and has been a member for almost four years.  She is a digital senior contributor at Organic and mother of two teenagers.

There are lots of interesting things happening today in the K-12 Education space.  Read this if you are a parent of a school-age child or interested in the technology trends impacting children and our future workforce.

The Horizon 2011 Report on K-12 states:

1. The education delivery system will change more in the next five years than it has in the last 30 years!

2. The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is forcing educators to revisit their roles and become more about sense-making, coaching, and credentialing.

3. Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate and succeed.

4. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to.

Technology in the education space is quickly moving from automate to transform.  I think we will all see a very different “classroom” by the time my 6^th grader graduates high school. The below seven trends are top of mind for our educational systems today:

• Bring your own device, and 1-1 computing initiatives surging in schools.
• Use of e-textbooks and digital content expanding to become the primary learning resource.
• Rise of “flipped classrooms” where students listen to lecture at home  and  spend class time working with teachers and peers on projects, and participating in discussions and collaborative learning.
• Distance and online courses expanding reach and complementing traditional classroom instruction.
• Social networking and content sharing supporting student collaboration and teacher interaction.
• Awareness that video enriches learning and that creating media-rich, blended learning environments helps scale beyond the walls of the traditional classroom.
• Access to and effective use of data supports teaching, learning and leadership.

.

Jill Maiorano is the Regional Manager for Cisco’s Public Sector market in Michigan and Ohio. She also is an MCWT advisory board member.

Next week, our annual member meeting will occur, featuring guest speaker Maryann Goebel, whom I had the pleasure of working with at both General Motors and OnStar.  As she moved on to assume roles of CIO at DHL Express and now CIO at Fiserv, she has provided me invaluable advice whenever I have reached out.  She is an incredible role model and has been an amazing mentor.   Whenever I am asked for advice from young women as it relates to their career, I will always advise them to grow their network and take advantage of mentoring.

I have been blessed in working with, and for, some incredible IT professionals.  In all cases, I have learned from them and for the most part keep in touch.  As my career has progressed, I continually leverage my network to ask questions, get references for openings I may have on my team and for mentoring.   Regardless of where you are in your career, I believe you will always benefit from reaching out and leveraging your network.

Taking advantage of some of the MCWT events is a great way to continue to grow your network.  I love to meet new people and learn about where they work and what problems they may be working through.  I usually learn something new and discover many things we share in common.

For those members who haven’t attended one of our events recently, I hope to see you at the annual member meeting. And please introduce yourself so we can both expand our networks!  For those of you who aren’t members yet, please join now so you can attend the meeting and we can meet.

.

Kathy Kay is the senior vice president of Business Technology Services at Comerica Bank where she has responsibility for application development, application support, business relationship management, resource management and capabilities management.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+. Many times when we hear about these websites we think of a new fad, a way to follow celebrities, or another website to post about what we do on a day-to-day basis. When I hear this type of feedback from people I think it begs the question: “Are we missing the whole point here? Do we truly grasp the concept?”

In this day in age, it is easier than ever for people to connect with each other to share experiences, trends, articles, ideas, pictures… the opportunities are endless, and it all boils down to one thing: collaboration. As a society of consumers, we are becoming more educated and informed by the second, which in a great deal is attributed to the social media sites that get new information out quickly and efficiently – almost in ‘real-time’ and often faster than the news itself. In fact, according to Sysomos, the news about Bin Laden’s death hit twitter a record 15 minutes before television and other advertising mediums could report it. Quite impressive.

You may be asking yourself what all of this has to do with you, and even more so, the IT world in general. Here are some very practical examples of how we can leverage social media in our careers:

• Become better informed: researching a new type of technology or best practice. Find out what people are saying about it (candidly), how it’s being used, reference accounts that you may be able to reach out to.
• Meeting or connecting with people you never thought possible: thought leaders, c-level executives, politicians, companies themselves.
• Finding groups, events, conferences in your area.
• Having the ability to access and ask questions to anyone or anything on similar social platforms.
• Hear about new jobs, volunteer opportunities, launching a business, promoting.

Want more examples? http://nawsheenh.blogspot.com/2012/01/web-20-tools-some-practical-examples.html

Technology is obviously continuously changing. The more we adapt, embrace and use these technologies for what they were intended for, the better of a concept, and more effective they become. So tweet, share, post, or blog your heart out and be a part of the next industry trend to push technology forward and assist in the evolution of what’s next.

. 

Nichole Smith is a recent college grad who has spent her professional career in IT consulting for BearingPoint and CSC, and most recently, software sales for BackOffice Associates, with a focus on data quality and data integration. Being a young professional in the IT industry has driven Nichole to utilize social media networks to expand her network, collaborate with other IT professionals, learn about industry trends, and raise awareness of business critical dependencies such as data. She attributes much of the successes she has had thus far in her professional career to the use of social media networks.

The Benefits of Volunteering  

According to the World Volunteer Website, volunteerism has many benefits to the individual in addition to benefiting the organization and constituents:

1.)  Learn to develop a new skill

2.)  Be part of the community (no man/woman is an island)

3.)  Obtain a sense of achievement and motivation

4.)  Meet a diverse range of people

5.)  Boost your career options (employers often value  volunteer experience too)

6.)  Engage in a new life experience

I worked with an MCWT volunteer on the Web Design Contest this past year—a long-term volunteer very committed to MCWT.  While at the event, we began talking about the degree she had just finished and how her job search was going.   I asked her several questions about the degree and career interests, and to send me her resume.   I then shared it with a fellow executive at the company where I work, relaying her strong work ethic based on her recent volunteer work with MCWT.   He showed interested in her skills and experience and I felt good about my recommendation.  He scheduled an interview and she was hired.

This story is just an example of the benefits of volunteering.  At MCWT, it helps our organization and constituents, while also providing volunteers with exposure to senior women IT Executives and new professional opportunities.

.

Charlotte Decker is the Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer for the Auto Club Group.  She has responsibility for strategy, standards, architecture design, engineering, implementation and ITIL operations for the Auto Club Group infrastructure environment.

Whew!

It is time for the Gala and so many MCWT women are in the home stretch of the behind the scenes work to ensure we have a wonderful event tonight at The Henry Hotel to fundraise for our Foundation, meet, mingle and network. We hope to see many of you there and if you cannot be there in person, the keep us in your thoughts.

I would like to take a minute and thank the lead volunteers who have put in, by my estimation, over 1,500 hours on this event. The partner and auction teams have done all of the planning, reserving, counting, cataloguing, and now executing for several months. If you know any of these women, please send them and email and thank them on behalf of MCWT. The leadership of MCWT certainly does.

Event Leads:    Maru Flores, Marcy Klevorn

Partner Team:  Kathy Seifarth, Carey Pachla, Cindy Alexander, Rita Barrios, Sheila Earll, Olivia Jackson, Jackie Knittel, Mimi Miles, Deanna Naugles, Christine Rice, Chris Rydzewski, Beth Vance

Silent Auction:   Bonnie Teegen, Beth Adams, Joyce Arceri, Leslie Charania, Shannon Cirillo, Betty Lieb, Laura Malmstrom, Karen Victor

Volunteer Coordination:   Trish Davis

Marketing:   Rebecca Johnson

Online Registration:    Cheryl Blacher, Carol Caya

In addition to the preplanning work that has gone into this event, there will be many women on site to assist us with greeting, working our silent auction and being the face of MCWT to our partners and guests. We thank these women as well.

Sheryl Armstrong, Mimi Barber, Patrece Cade, Delores Cephus, Hong Dinh, Jaime Foucher, Charanya Girish, Lara Lane, Nicole Mason

Sarah Savaya, Rose Spadafora, Pam Ammiano. Joyce Arceri, Rita Barrios, Cheryl Blacher, Jennifer Bonapace, Lori Brauer, Meena Chakraborty, Leslie Charania, Vashana Francois, Anne Gilmartin, Rennette Gordon, Tosia Henderson, Deepika Hewagama, Laura Malmstrom, Dina McMullin, Linda Mitchell, Lisa Perazza, Rajani Sinha, Mary Sparks, Mary Starling, Mary Stein, Beth Vance, Bridgette Williams

Thanks to everyone listed here and anyone we may have missed. We are so grateful for your efforts in support of MCWT and its Foundation.

See you at the Gala!

Janette Phillips
Executive Director, MCWT/F