CDT, Gartner Partner to Bring New CIOs Up to Speed

The California Department of Technology (CDT) is looking to give newer department-level CIOs across the state a leg up through a new executive training partnership with consulting giant Gartner.

The inaugural run of the newly announced CxO program will take 25 new and early-career CIOs from 24 departments through public- and private-sector digital transformation best practices in the hopes of removing many of the stumbling blocks they will face in their demanding roles.

Crystal Holcomb, deputy director of CDT’s Office of Professional Development, said the program was not designed to address the myriad challenges new CIOs will face specific to their departments, as much as it was meant to give them insights into broader state practices and pitfalls.

“We do a really good job in offering training statewide to help develop and get people prepared for these roles. But then once they get in these roles, it’s almost like they are so overwhelmed, busy with everything on their plate, that they oftentimes don’t have time to take further training and development,” Holcomb told Industry Insider — California.

The topics covered in the quarterly invitation-only course include leading through digital transformation, strategic relationship building, leveraging emerging trends and best practices, and expanding on core competencies — think procurement, budget change proposals and the like.

The program was built on input from agency-level CIOs from the State Technology Council, and honed by the Gartner team, who noted that they have seen successes with a similar program for federal agency IT leaders.

“The state of California has been a longtime client of Gartner and a great partner, and certainly we’re here to support them and the development of their leadership, because we know how critical that is to state organizations,” said Gartner Regional Vice President David Kennison.

The first full-day training sessions will take place March 18, followed by three more slated for June, September and December. While officials said they are hopeful the program will become a regular part of the leadership development arsenal, plans to extend it are not set in stone just yet — though Gartner is certainly open to the idea.

“We’ve done this year over year with our federal government clients, and our intention would be to continue to do the same with the state of California,” Kennison said.

The federal program has been helpful to new CIOs in several ways, said Gartner Regional Vice President Team Manager Cindy Berger-Kelly, not the least of which is the development of stronger, more capable leaders with solid connections to their peers in other agencies. That’s the hope for California’s CIOs as well.

Broader scope, the state has been pushing to change not only its hiring practices, but the somewhat stale reputation that came with the legacy process. Holcomb said there’s been an aggressive push to standardize IT classifications and boost public outreach, which has been paying dividends in spite of some of the legacy challenges that come with attracting new talent to government.

Programs like this one add to the value proposition for new and existing state employees looking to build on their government career, Holcomb added.