“The honeymoon is over”

by

glasses-213156_640

I’ve recently asked a few CIOs new to their current businesses how things are going and they’ve all said … “well, you know, the honeymoon is over now.” And it makes me wonder: Why is there a honeymoon? How long does the honeymoon last? Does it have to be over?

These CIOs had all been in their positions for six to twelve months. As with most CIOs, they joined on with a company whose previous CIO had, well, let’s say euphemistically, “left them wanting more”. When they joined the team, there were some very obvious things that needed fixing. Some of those things were prescribed to them as part of the interview process, others were CIO 101 kinds of things. And they bonded with their fellow business executives over these challenges and their plans to fix everything.

I think the honeymoon ends when the CIO moves from “us” to “them”. At some unknown point after their first day, system outages, failed projects and difficult employees become the CIOs responsibility, even if the problems were rooted well before they got there. During the honeymoon, the CIO points out or acknowledges problems and commits to getting them fixed. After the honeymoon is over, the CIO is expected to have them all fixed. With that perspective, I can see why CIOs start feeling that pressure at 6 months, if not sooner.

So now the magic question… how does a CIO continue the honeymoon indefinitely? I suggest the following: Before the honeymoon is over, definitely within that 6-12 month mark, that CIO better be coming to his or her business partners with real ideas on how they can use technology to change their business. That’s something they can bond over. If they aren’t in that position of helping their business stakeholders use technology strategically, they will at a minimum, be totally marginalized, and more likely, be perceived as a failure.

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more