Leadership for a Networked World

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How can we get budget directors and CIOs on the same page?

And once on the same page, how can we get them to share workable priorities?

Over the years, "the budget" is the answer that typically first pops up when asking folks in the IT community what the biggest barrier is in preventing IT from adding the full value it could.

But it's NOT the answer that everyone gives. Is that because those who don't see the budget as a major problem are wrong? Or could it be because they have "solved" the problem in ways that need to be shared so others can also have better success?

We're organizing a project to see if we can develop a shared agenda between budget people and IT people:

What is the budget and IT problem that society SHOULD care about? What's the gap between current status and where we should be on budgeting for IT?
What is the budget and IT problem that budget directors DO care about? Again, what's the gap between current status and where budget directors think things should be?
What is the budget and IT problem that IT people DO care about? Yet again, what's the gap between current status and where IT people think things should be?

Ideas on any or all of the above could help us get this project headed in the right direction.

Also: Who should be reached to help solve these problems? What has been written that provides good advice?

If you would like to be included in an online discussion of these issues over the next several months, please let me know. Any and all ideas welcome.

Government is facing "new normal" pressures unlikely to go away anytime soon. To respond effectively, budget directors and CIOs need to get on the same page. What do we need to do to make that happen?

All the best,

Jerry
Lecturer in Public Policy (retired), Harvard Kennedy School
VP Public Sector Research, Gartner

09:55 AM, 06 Mar 2012 by Jerry Mechling

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Thanks for all the notes on Reg Alcock...

I apologize for not getting back to most of you who sent remembrances and condolences. I hope to catch up in the next week.

It's been a crazy period with nearly 9,000 at Gartner Symposium in Orlando, then the Federal CIO conference in Williamsburg, then a trip to Seattle and back to Lexington for a too-strange snowstorm for Halloween.

If you missed the piece on Reg today in Governing, however, you may be interested here. And for more personal perspectives on a bear of a man and a hell of a public servant, here.

All the best,

Jerry

09:53 PM, 02 Nov 2011 by Jerry Mechling

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Sad news

Hello all --

I just got the word that Reg Alcock has died of a reported heart attack in Manitoba.

Many of you knew Reg and many more knew of him. If you want your government leaders to be intelligent, compassionate, courageous, and enthusiastic, you want them like Reg.

He was formerly President of the Treasury Board of Canada, the agency whose analysis and resource allocation policies exert great influence on how innovation and information technology are managed in Canada. It was a tough job and Reg in my view provided great vision and some traction in a confusing and slippery political world.

When I started the Kennedy School program that evolved into Leadership for a Networked World, I wanted some practitioners to keep us connected to the realities outside academia. We called the group the Harvard Policy Group on Network-Enabled Services and Government. Reg added much of the political background and insight that this group desperately needed over the years.

More than that, he was a wonderful friend, and simply fun to be around.

Our prayers and condolences go to Reg's family and the much larger family of all those he touched (and conspired with).

Here's some of the news. And more.

Take care.

Jerry

jerry_mechling@harvard.edu

03:04 PM, 14 Oct 2011 by Jerry Mechling

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