Anticlue

Kicking HIT Leadership Up a Notch

As I've previously stated, we are in the process of bringing up an IT governance council with the C suite of the Health System. This process of transforming the IT organization needs new skills and thought patterns. As we are currently in discussions with what process to use, and what criteria to prioritize against - the five pillars provided a good straw model for a dialogue with the execs. I can see these criteria beginning to align with the objectives of this year.

1. Bring up the new hospital
2. Make the financial numbers
3. Develop the strategic plan for the next three to five years

Simultaneously, we are working towards changing the attitude and culture of the IS department. Management engineering is hard but very rewarding work. We have developed a PM101 class here. The first class was a good start including the regional PM, and our CSC partners PMs. The team leads and PM's of the organization all agreed to the value of the concepts.

Another item we are starting is a project bulletin board. It basically contains for all projects, the basics - who, what, when, where, how and why. I'll share more on the bulletin board later as it is a good mechanism. Culturally to overcome the resistance, we are having a contest among the teams. The winning team is given chocolate from the losing team. (Managers buy the chocolate) We have increased steadily in the updates periods. (10 % to 33% to 55%) Hopefully this go round, we will have close to 100%.

Additionally we have set up a project governance council, including all the information services leadership including systems, technology, and our CSC vendor partner PMs. We review new processes, projects which have a red or yellow status, and new projects. For the bulletin board, now new projects must have a scope, charter, and schedule with committed resources before becoming active. In order for management to remove resources a scope change must be completed and approved.

For new requests, we have also implemented a work authorization system, with a short and long form. The short firm is a preliminary business case, and the long form has the ROI.

Things are changing, and the change is good. I'm concerned however in that the guiding coalition seems frail. As a team we will have to come together to move the organization forward, and put those petty differences aside.