Well, well, well … the IT Revolution is here.  Who knew?  Well, CIOs did, of course.  It really feels that way anyway. 

I was the accidental recipient of an email this week.  It was about me, but not intended for me.  Basically, the writer of the email said, “Can you believe it; she is trying to take over our meeting?”  Well, excuse the heck out of me for trying to help by offering my conference room.  It’s no surprise that a CareerBliss.Com survey reveals that this job is rated the worst. 

 But, it’s no time to whine about how hard the gig is.  It’s really time for CIOs to perhaps take on the same role as our founding fathers did during the infancy of our government.  It wasn’t easy back then, and it’s not easy now for CIOs to lead in times of change, stay focused on mission, and implement the right changes in their IT Governance to establish perfect unions. 

After the American Revolution, our government was basically in a big mess.  There was no money and threats were all around us – the unknowns of a western frontier, pirates threatening marine commerce, and an unhappy motherland back across the pond.  Furthermore, the citizens in the nascent country still wanted to feel the benefit of their new independence and the resources available were meager. 

Citizens back then, were concerned about having a government that was focused on its citizens and ensured that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” would maintain its strategic importance.  Having just recovered from the centralized rule of a monarchy, the notion of a federation that would “provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty” was now an absolute right. 

In the IT Revolution, we see the same things happening.  The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) craze, gives us IT citizens who want the freedom of accessing data with any device they want, anywhere they want, and any time they want it.  Furthermore, the cyber threats are increasing beyond anyone’s individual ability to provide a credible defense.  

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is asking its Federal CIOs to be the founding mothers and fathers of this IT Revolution in supporting a Digital Government Strategy, a cross-cutting Cybersecurity Strategy, and framing cost-saving strategies that leverage cloud computing and smart consolidation.  

Yes, the IT Revolution is here.  It calls for a new IT Governance that is of the end-users, by the end-users, and for the end-users.  It requires CIOs to lead with courage, emotional intellect, and political resolve to give the people they serve what they really want and need. 

Linda Cureton CIO, NASA