AIM IT Leadership Academy: Strategic Planning

Friday December 7th was the second session of the AIM IT Leadership Academy on Strategic Planning. The session was the AIM institute downtown building.

The meeting was on the second floor Combine Community Meeting room.

Like the first meeting. I had an assigned seat with the agenda for the day was laid out at the table.

Strategic Planning

The morning started off with a talk about, What is Strategic Planning?

The three things the presenter wanted us to know:

What is Strategic Planning?
Tell how you would do it?
Motivate to develop and Embrace.

Today’s IT Leader is similar to other roles in leadership.

Relationships & communication give you a credibility mindset.

Having a vision of Operational Excellence starts with Strategic Planning.

We teams are:

Visionary + builds operational plan
Communicator + own the numbers

Don’t break what works today?

How do you measure? Which is hard?
Is what you are changing a strategic enabler?

Know the Business
Know your business
Create a plan & effectively communicate that plan
Execute, measure, adjust

Employees want to know how to help the plan?
What do I do with the plan?

IT can help:

Grow Revenue
Reduce Operating Expenses
Manage Risks

Know the business:

Read company newsletters
Read announcements
Read about industry
Face to Face with business
Business Initiatives

Know your business

Products and services
Assets and Resources
Talent Development
Technical Investments

How to communicate a plan?

Obstacles and how to overcome them
Timeline
Measure Success

Why we choose to “not” be strategic?

Not good
To busy
Value in it
Not my job
Nothing to show

Why to embrace Strategic Planning?

Pros

Career Advancement
Work life Balance
Budget Done
Happy

Cons

Limit Career
Up late at night
Budget issues
Not happy

Omaha Companies

The rest of the day involved hearing strategic plans from different CIO’s of Omaha based companies.

Farm Credit Services of America
Werner Enterprises
Nebraska Furniture Mart

The presenter would take time telling the group about their company. Then tells us about that companies strategic plans. The final part of the their presentation was to tell us a strategic problem their company would like each table to attack. The table would then spend 30 minutes to build a 3-minute presentation using what we learned from the first presentation of the day.

The 30 minutes was challenging. The ability to get our table to gather ideas, create a solid talking point, then determine how it would be presented.

After each table gave their presentation to the board which were the three CIO’s. The board would ask questions.

Questions
How do you measure you request?
What’s going to go wrong?
Where did you get a proposal?
What is your contingency plan?

Feedback
Years ago, Information Technology was seen as overhead. The current state of a business is IT is core to the business. How will your language have IT engage in a recommend when presenting a strategy? Are there ever objectives to educate other parts of the business? Are there costs to get up and running? Then be careful in numbers? What is a timeline to the proposal?

Awesome ideas start with words that get to the point.

If you did a good job in presenting your strategy. The response to your proposal should be “What do you need from me?”

Presentation Skills

The last hour of the day was working on Presentations Skills. Members of the Omaha Chapter of Toastmasters International.

Tips for presenting or speaking:

There are no rules
Let things go
Talk about self
Prepare
Transitions
Remove distractions
Audible Level
Eye Contact
Visual Aids
Tell the best story, then keep telling the story.

Takeaways

This class made me get “It” when looking at levels of leadership. I know grasp the roles of different levels of leadership in terms of planning and leading an organization. The acts of planning are the same at any level, but it is the breadth of responsibility of the planning on why people are chosen to lead from a organizational level.

Improving Enterprise Architecture skills for the Omaha area professionals.

I found a Enterprise Architecture group on https://www.meetup.com I have been wanting to improve my skills, but also get a better understanding what others in the community see in terms of Enterprise Architecture.

The meeting was at Mutual Omaha. I have driven by the building for years, but never physically been in the building.

I was given a tour of the area under the doom. There are four restaurants and lots of opening seating.

On the tour there was a area that is marked as collaboration area of the future. It was interesting to see how it was laid out.

We made our way to one of the conference rooms to start the meeting.

The start of the discussion was a eye opener. It was the difference of Enterprise Architecture vs Software Architecture. I cam to the group looking at the approach of Software, but thinking about how the Enterprise ties to the business was more compelling to me.

Different Discussion Points

Enterprise Architecture is about solution at a larger scale. Architect your enterprise to meet the business.

Disciplined Agile 2.0 YouTube video
•Goal Driven
•Disciplined Agile Delivery Framework

Togaf Architect: First time ever hearing of this solution.

Challenge of recreating or how do I get something for Free. Who pays for it? How do you get businesses to build application where technology is talked in terms of business.
•Value of EA gives guidance to let teams provide value.
•How do you engage different technology teams?
•Mutual of Omaha uses three week sprints?
•Following standards vs guidance.
•Complete visibility in the work
•Business team hearing what there systems does.
•Service Catalog

•Talking to Business Owner about the features of what a system does not the application.
◦Business Capability model.
◦Why do we teach people to talk features applications or technology?
◦Capabilities of the system for the business
• Should enterprise architects give solution to software teams.
◦Does this that impedes business from success.
◦Are you meeting business objectives?
◦Support Delivery teams
◦Finding individual success on teams and how can others use it.
◦Be the team people wants to call.
◦Negations of technical dependencies.

2018 Fall UNO College of Business Capstone Cup Finals

The University of Nebraska-Omaha College of Business Capstone Cup finals took place on Friday, November 130th on the first floor of Mammel Hall, located at 6708 Pine Street, Omaha, NE 68182.

This was a second time attending the finals of this event, but this time I was going to be a judge. Since Farm Credit Services is a sponsor of the event there was a reserved table for the networking event portion of the event lasting for about an hour before the finals started. It is a great opportunity to speak with our students and attendees.

Finals

The finals were held in the auditorium. I was glad with the sponsorship money ($500.00) I had a judges seat in the first row.

Our logo with company name was recognized during the finals.

The format of the afternoon was going to be the following:

1:00 PM Welcome by Associate Dean Harland

1:10 PM Presentation 1

1:30 PM Presentation 2

1:50 PM Presentation 3

2:10 PM Presentation 4

2:35 PM Judges Deliberate

2:45 PM Awards Presented

The presentations were treating the judges like a Board of Directors. The groups were pitching how they can transform the YETI company. I took a lot of notes, but I personally did not have many questions. The team that won had recommended a YETI fridge targeting hunters and fishermen: from the field to the fridge. This was the same group that had reached out to me about blockchain.

The sponsorship was for the FALL 2018 and Spring 2019 years. So I look forward to do this again next semester.

2018 Fall UNO Speed Mock Interviews

On Wednesday, November 28, 2018 from 1:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. at the Milo Bail student center on the main campus of the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO). I participated in the Thompson Learning Community Speed Mock Interviews

There was a record 230 students from Thompson Learning Community (TLC) sophomore students that participated in mock interviews. The goal of the interviews is for a student to meet a variety of employers and gain valuable interview experience. A good majority of these students where first generation college students.

I was positioned in the far back area of the of the 2nd floor Center room.

Starting at 1:00 p.m. about 20 some students were brought in the room and staggered at different employers. Each interview was to last for 6 minutes with a two minute feedback.

For each interview I asked 4 questions in some form.

Tell me about how someone describes you?.
Tell me about a project you have worked on?
Tell me about a time where you have mentored someone?
So when have you had a setback? How did you handle it?

For each of the students I provided feedback on why I asked the questions.

I followed up with a email to interviewee. For each of the students I recommend looking student and communities groups. Get a linkedin account. I also recommended starting a personal blog.

I feel these are type of events where I can make a difference.

2018 YPIA – Nebraska and Southwest Iowa Executive Breakfast Forum

This morning I attended the 2018 Young Professionals in Agriculture – Nebraska and Southwest Iowa Executive Breakfast Forum hosted at the Scoular Ballroom in Downtown Omaha!

At the event, I had the opportunity to network and interact with one another over breakfast. They had a fruit, eggs and sausage. My name badge had a number 7 which was the table I was assigned for the event. I sat next to another Farm Credit Services of America Employee. There were actually a good number of Farm Credit Services of America employees there.

The opening discussion was about how technology was reshaping Agriculture. The panel moderated was Dr. Tom Field from the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska. Panelists were Quantified Ag, Tractor Zoom, and myAgData.

I had heard the CEO of Quantified Ag talk before. I knew his company was Fitbit for cattle. He talked that feedlots are savvy. They use data and Analytics to have more information to make better business decisions. Tractor Zoom talked about simplicity and user experience. MyAgData talked about standards, cloud computing and changing people’s mindset.

If you were starting a business:

Niche vs salable.
How can you fail cheap?
- How or what is your proof of concept
Is it a solvable problem you are after?
Will there be market acceptance?
Funding
Human Capital
Laws & Regulations

The question was asked if they could reset.

Realize things take longer than you expect.
Have customer validation
- Don’t invest in ideas that customers do not want
Start as a Inc instead of LLC? I need to research the why of that statement.
There are experts in fields. Find those people to help you along the way.
Understand development cycle of a product.
Learn by Failure is not cheap.
Look at Outside Influences who are competing in market.
When marketing to producers do it digitally. “How to Video’s” on YouTube are big customer influences.
Can you produce a future business plan? Is it really a execution plan?
Lead, follow or get out of the way mentality
Legal: How many lawyers do you need? A lot!!!!

On the way out I talked a few minutes with Vishal Singh of Quantified Ag. Then really walking out of the ballroom I talked to Kyle McMahon about the development stack at TractorZoom.

Overall it was a good event. I will have to look into membership with the YPiA.

AIM IT Leadership Academy: Leadership & Teams

Friday November 2nd was my first session in the AIM IT Leadership Academy at CSG International.

When I arrived to the conference room, I had an assigned seat. The Agenda for the day was laid out at my table.

The class started with Introductions. I told everyone my name Anthony Carlson. I work at Farm Credit Services of America. I shared that I am the person who responds to messages at strange hours.

The first exercise we did at our table was designing a leader. The hard part of this activity was determining if the traits we talked about should apply to everyone or just a person we wanted to exist.

After this activity we dived into Emergentics. Emergenetics is a response profile tool that helps you and your team to understand yourself and each other. A folder was handed out that had our group information and personal information.

There are 4 ways of thinking in my profile. If you think like this you will always be like this is a wrong approach to thinking. Learn to separate different ways of thinking out.

In looking at the behaviors the questions were asked. How much energy do you put into things? The words your using to talk to others, are they close to your heart? The willingness to accommodate the thoughts and actions of others.

People will observe behavior before the see the way you are thinking. The social response is to ask what you are thinking and not see your behaviors. When you read a audience you are in conceptual and analytical mindset which happens more in IT related functions.

Intent Impact Model:

Is the intention getting the impact. The common theme is the message you send is interrupted in different ways.

How do you want to be treated over How I treat everyone. If you think only one way you might miss something.

What motivates you to learn? It is not that you cannot do different aspects of your profile. It is exhausting to do things that do not come naturally.

Capstone Project

In the middle of the day we were put in groups of 2 to 3 individuals. I was partnered with a employee of Team Software and Werner Enterprises. Our group is to deliver a 10-minute presentation related to Emotional Intelligence on Agile Teams. A one-page document was given with guidelines to follow. The date of the project delivery will be in April.

Project goals :

Research and data
Proven metrics
Pace and flow of what we think is considered Agile
Try to be visionary: How we think the future of Agile will look.
Include everyone

Ending Thoughts

The first session was well done. We had a great facilitator and the pace was just right. I look forward to sharing all the information from the session with my accountability buddy and my leader at work.

These were my three actions I took from this course.

Find empathetic ways when working with others I don’t understand.
Practical thinkers are predictable that is ok, make connections.
Try to appreciate how different everyone is.

AIM IT Leadership Academy: Orientation session

On Thursday, October 4^th, from 4pm-6pm, at DJ’s Dugout, located at 777 No. 114th Street. I met up with 27 other IT professionals from the metropolitan Omaha community that were selected for the 2018-19 AIM IT Leadership Academy

The purpose of the meeting was to review the AIM IT Leadership program. There were past program graduates there to explain the expectations for each participate. Each participant has a accountability partner to help the candidate through the program.

Team 4OH!4

In 2016 I lead the Intern team. The name of the team was: Team 4OH!4 is on the second Floor.

Through out the next few weeks make sure to say hi.

Training

June 6th the 4 Application Development and 2 Technology Services (where applicable) interns went through a week long training sessions at FCSA. Thank you to all the individuals who shared their passion about roles and teams here at FCSAmerica.

Here is a high level view of the Learning sessions.

Office Visit

The eight team member visited Red Oak, Iowa to learn more about how are team mates interact with customers. The route we took was through scenic Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

Spent the First hour with Doug Dickinson (Insurance Officer) . Doug gave us a Insurance 101 crash course.

We then met with Chad Jacobs (Financial Officer) . Chad broke down his relationship building with customers.

Best Quote. “We need more Chevy’s then Cadillacs”

Team Picture

Tech Support –

External systems, AgDirect, AgriPoint, board of directors, 1500 internal employees, Gigabar vs Gigablock, laptop refresh, mobile devices service link, tech support document

QA – Tools, Testing strategy

The other two IT Interns Sara and Justin joined us.

Testing strategy, Testing Pyramid provide reliable tests, Service Level testing

Postman

Fitnesse

App Dev Team

We attended another team’s standup to observe how a team does this Agile ritual. (Team Jedi). We then meet Team Furyan

in a conference room to hear about the roles and network with a team. We played a game with the help of ODL. The four app dev interns played four members of a appdev team in Jeopardy. Thank you so much to ODL for facilitating the game.

Systems Infrastructure –

We gave the team a data tour. Learned about the data line connecting the two building. learned about the air conditioning units.

Dropped buzzwords: cloud, data center, Internet of things (security cameras, fridges, room devices) this rack cost millions of dollars. The team Also saw the NON-production in the Main Building.

TDD – JavaScript Unit Tests

Unit Test and TDD in Javascript.

Javascript TDD

Lean Coffee (IT leaders)

The team played Lean Coffee with the IT Leaders. It was a informal way to get to know you. Plus any takeaways are a great way to building connections.

Other Training

The Team has been working on a Angular 2 course to prepare us for our project. Learned other practices such as GIT, Builds,

One assignment was to read “Practices of an Agile Developer”. This personally is one of my favorite programming books.

Training & Learning sessions

June 1st the 4 Appdev and 2 Technology Services interns went through a two day training session of IT at FCSA. Thank you to all the individuals who shared their passion about roles and teams here at FCSAmerica.

Here is a high level view of the Learning sessions.

UX – Sketching
UX Ninja, UX website for bootstrap, usability study, wire framing,

SQL – Tools, understand database, database objects
sql server Studio Management, apex, redgate, C#, www.sqlskills.com

BA – Stories, requirement, analysis, tools
Business owner communication, story work, production support

QA – Tools, Testing strategy
Testing strategy, provide reliable tests

TDD – A overview of the in-house training
Microsoft Technology stack, Unit Test and TDD

Web Admin
presented slide, 1st level support to appdev, 2nd level to tech support

Tech Support –

External systems, AgDirect, AgriPoint, board of directors, 1500 internal employees, Gigabar vs Gigablock, laptop refresh, mobile devices

service link, tech support document

Systems Infrastructure

New building would affect the system infrastructure. Gave data tour. Dropped buzzwords: cloud, data center, this rack cost millions of dollars

Enterprise Content and Applications
CAT Team Third party systems, power point shared lots of insights on third party, auditing logging. Our team will be working with the CAT Team on relationship.

Business Applications

Mainframe

Business Intel and Data Management

App Dev automated a lot of processes, replication of source databases, only 25% of systems, Risk management prioritizes which data is important.

SQL Server, SSIS, ExtractTransportLoad, SSAS, Cubes, Our team will be working with BI Team

Security

Hacking, Data breach, company, how do we protect FCSA? Customer data and financial, The human element (social engineering) 97% of email is spam, Firewall GeoFencing

Mobile Tools – Android & iOS tools, devices,

Xcode- Objective C, Simulator FCSAmerica Mobile, HockeyApp, bots, Jenkins, android studio, sketching, testing, Analytics, Deployments, Rest, Postman

External Training

Plural Sight

For the next two months if a intern wants a monthly pluralsight account for self-learning. The cost will be reimbursed.

http://www.pluralsight.com/