Today in health, it what makes a CIO truly great. My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system. And creator of this week health, a set of channels, dedicated to keeping health it staff current and engaged. We want to thank our show sponsors who are investing in developing the next generation of health leaders, short test artist, site, parlance, and service. Now check them out at this week.

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We believe in the generosity of our community. And we thank you in advance. All right. I went long on Tuesday and Wednesday, and so I'm going to be a little shorter today. And there was a really good article in cio.com. What makes a CIO truly great. Let me get right to it. The blend of leadership skills, techno, how and business savvy required to succeed as CIO makes top-notch it leaders a rare breed.

Here's what separates the excellent from the good. And he said, you know, he asked a group of executives about adjectives for a CIO, and this is why I think it's one of the hardest jobs let's do these adjectives. The response is included in alphabetical order accountable, adaptable, curious, decisive.

Eloquent and phatic financially savvy focused, hardworking, intelligent improvisational, interdisciplinary, mindful, motivational patient practical, principled, strategic thick-skinned, trusted and visionary. And by the way, if you're in healthcare, I would add that you also have to understand the healthcare industry and how it functions and operates. ,

He goes on to talk about some more things. He goes, , if we unpack gain the confidence of their constituents, which is, , , The absolute key. Aspect of being a CIO gain the confidence of their constituents. I think what Plutarch was saying, he mentioned earlier, I just skipped that paragraph was saying was that the first and foremost a leader must be followed double.

Another possible adjective for our list. In other words, if you're going to be a leader, are you. There are different kinds of leaders. Are you follicle? Is somebody looking at you saying that is someone I want to follow? , Anthony Sheldon longtime, chronicler of the leadership strength and weaknesses of British prime ministers.

Concludes that what makes leaders followable is being able to tell a story of where they have come from and where they will lead us. Add communicator then to the list of must haves CIO adjectives. And by the way, new book just came out. You're seeing ed marks talk about it on. The on social media. And I was a part of that book. And my, the part I wrote in that book was about being able to tell a story.

And I talked about two leaders that were able to tell stories. , to really rally people around and stories and the components of those stories. And I think it's really important for us to be able to tell a narrative, a narrative that is engaging a narrative that explains the future. All right. He goes on.

, He talks about credibility also, and he sums it up with you have to walk the walk and talk. The talk to have an impact. And that's absolutely true. Another mandatory adjective associate with CIO's successes knowledgeable. And not just about the current internal it environment, but also about the geopolitical economic.

Contexts internal political cultural dynamics, what the organization is capable, capable of and its appetite for risk and change. In addition to technological possibilities, evolving. And to come as Peter Drucker famously said, management is doing the right things. Leadership is doing. Oh, management is doing things right.

Leadership is doing the right things. C you have to get the quote. Right? Does it make sense? So management doing things, right. Leadership, doing the right things.

Achieving that requires a wide range of knowledge before CIO is the basic building blocks of techno. How. Can't be overlooked, data management, infrastructure and operations, telecommunications, and networks and information security and privacy 20 year. 20 years ago, CEO's had to be knowledgeable. About enterprise system.

Today, it's all about the data. And that's what we talked about yesterday. He closes this article, talking about this as a futurist. I like to think that the true secret sauce of CIO's success lies. And being able to collaboratively craft a narrative describing a better future. I believe CEO's need to have a vision of what can be.

And he talks about a gardener and, , being able to the gardener has to see what the flower beds going to look like in order to be successful. And he says, he believes that the CIO's DC. What the future can be and articulate that narrative. In order to be successful. And I think that is so true. And, you know, the.

Case I gave was David Feinberg. When he was at Geisinger said, we want to eliminate the waiting room and all that it represents. I think about that one phrase and how descriptive that is and how, , I engage. It's it's descriptive, it's engaging and it's activating. Right now the organization knows. Okay.

The end result here is to eliminate the waiting room and all that it represents. And that describes a future, a future that the physicians want, that everyone wants. Quite frankly, they don't want a sick people in waiting rooms. They don't want people waiting for long periods of time. They don't want to order any people there. And I guarantee you, the people in those waiting rooms don't want to be those waiting rooms either.

So eliminating the waiting room and all that, it represents, it doesn't have to be a long narrative. It could be a sentence. In fact, the best and most creative things are a sentence just like that. And when I think about the CIO. And what they are grappling with today. I think we have to describe a future.

We're a technology steps up and starts delivering on his promise. Healthier patients, more streamlined process, easier flow. More access. More empowered clinicians, clinicians who have the information they need when they need it, clinicians that aren't required to serve the technology, but that the technology is serving them. It is pulling out the necessary insights that they need to deliver on their promise to their community, to their promise to these patients.

Technology that is picking up on some of the mundane tasks. The tasks that don't require somebody who has gone to higher education for eight years or even longer. , so that we are taking the mundane away to restore the joy of practicing medicine to the clinicians.

But most importantly, technology is to make the lives of those that interact with better. It is a servant. It is to serve us. It is to serve us and make us healthier as patients and as a community, or even as consumers. It is to help us to make better decisions. It is to help the clinicians to provide better care when we do present.

And it is to help the whole process, reduce the costs and the burden on society. These are the things that technology should be able to do. For us

now I can't tell you what your specific story for your house some or your community is. In order to do that, I'd have to live in your community. I'd have to understand what are the things people are looking for. What are its you don't want to paint a picture. That's so out there. That it's Jetson's ask. Right? We're walking the dog on a treadmill kind of thing, where people go. Yes. So what you want to stay?

Far enough out that they can see this picture and say, that's a good picture, but close enough. That they were going to see steps happening along the way that get them closer to that reality.

And with each step, you gain credibility. You gain trust, you gain. Buy-in. And you're able to move things. , just a little bit further down the road and that's what we want to do.

That's all for today.

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