The templates aren’t universal, but five participants in a discussion of “Unlocking Leadership,” at the 2019 Public Sector CIO Academy in Sacramento, agreed many IT folk are, at heart, either producers or directors — an analogy adapted straight from Hollywood. In public-sector IT as at the studios, “producers” make high-level decisions, flex that vision and frequently pick the “screenplays” or projects their teams will dive into. Then, they hire “directors” to get down into the weeds and finish that work, said moderator Scott Howland, CIO and chief of the information management division for the California Highway Patrol.
“Many times, we end up doing both roles, whether we like it or not,” he told an audience of more than 60 at Tuesday’s event. Asked by an audience member for their perspective, two panelists differed slightly in their viewpoints but said California’s 40th governor has the skills needed to be the state’s highest-profile “producer”:
• David Morris, chairman and CEO of The HiPER Solutions Group, said he thinks Newsom falls somewhere between an “executive producer and a producer,” with the former being somewhat more linked to funding an endeavor and the latter leaning toward orchestration.
“He has broad vision; he has a lot of very clear objectives," Morris said. "And we believe there’s no limit to what he can achieve if he has great directors.”
• Teri Takai, executive director of the Center for Digital Government,* agreed with that assessment and said details of how some roles will interface are, in the “operational sense,” still being worked out.
• Asked by Techwire whether Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, had been more of a director in his former role and is more of a producer now, Takai said she believed the role is much the same, “just on a bigger scale” now.
• Takai told Techwire it’s still to be determined whether the role of California’s CIO will be redefined under Newsom, who included in his proposed budget a new Office of Digital Innovation (ODI). State CIO Amy Tong has said she views ODI as a “complementary office,” one being shaped by the departments of Technology and Finance, and the Government Operations Agency.
“I think that one of the challenges will be how those two roles work together, to make sure that you’re getting lasting change and you’re actually being transformational,” Takai said of the CIO’s office and ODI.
• ODI isn’t a reality yet but has “great potential” because there’s money attached, Takai said.
“I think it’s not just the creation of the office, but it’s the creation of the office with the funding," she said. "And ideas that don’t have funding don’t have legs.”
*The Center for Digital Government is a division of e.Republic, parent company of Techwire.
