S7 E6: How to Transform Your Business Through Observational Learning and Design Thinking

My guest this week is Neil Goodrich, Director of IT at M. Holland Company. With a background in accounting, project management, and investigation, Neil's IT work has recently been focused on building technology teams around cultures of creativity. 

At my CIO Innovation Insider events, I constantly talk to CIOs about innovation and transformation. I recently asked the group this thought-provoking question:

"How do you get your IT team to engage with the business at a higher level?"

Neil has created some amazing ways to do it through storytelling and developing empathy within the business. I also love his practical approach to finding pain points of the end user by doing ride alongs with the sales team members.

I think you will enjoy some practical ideas that Neil and I discuss in this interview. As you develop your own vision of innovation and transformation within your organization, this could be one of the puzzle pieces that you will find very useful!

What You Will Learn:

• Neil's story on gamifying a launch of SharePoint @ 0:35min
• Learn practical ways to turn your IT teams into service providers
• Storytelling – marry quantitative analysis with storytelling
• What is your role in your organization? What is your perceived role?
• Human relationships trump everything – train you team to build relationships in your company.
• Train your technical team by doing ride alongs and go yourself on ride alongs
• Build products (design and projects) with empathy and respect user experience
• Ground level design
• Leverage the natural problem solving skills of your team by building confidence working with the business
• Develop a culture of having fun.

About Neil Goodrich

As the technology leader at the M. Holland Company, Neil is responsible for establishing information technology strategies, digital organization change, and outstanding user experiences. His multi-disciplinary background includes previous lives in accounting, project management, and investigation while his recent work has focused on building technology teams around cultures of creativity. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Master of Business Administration in Operations Management from the UIC Liautaud Graduate School of Business. He continues to have strong ties to the UIC campus, where he mentors a cohort of high performing students as part of the Business Scholars program.

Read full transcript here.

How to get in touch with Neil Goodrich

• LinkedIn

Key Resources:

• Sync Magazine Article about Neil Goodrich, How Creativity Drives Technology at M. Holland Company
• Toggle Magazine Article, IT Problems Solved Early  - How Neil Goodrich drives transformation at M.Holland by anticipating the problem and finding an innovative way to remedy it
• MHolland website - visit the website for more information about the company.

This episode is sponsored by the CIO Innovation Insider Council, dedicated to Business Digital Leaders who want to be a part of 20% of the planet and help their businesses win with innovation and transformation.

Credits:
* Outro music provided by Ben’s Sound

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About Bill Murphy
Bill Murphy is a world renowned IT Security Expert dedicated to your success as an IT business leader. Follow Bill on LinkedIn and Twitter.