Q&A with Brian Lancaster, Part 2: “You Can’t Be Terrified of the Unknown.”

One of the most compelling challenges facing CIOs today is in translating the organization’s mission and values in a way that makes sense — and is relevant — to the entire staff. It may not seem that difficult, at least on the surface, until you’ve tried to explain to server managers how they’re helping to transform care. It’s a message that has to be delivered in just the right way, and one that requires a completely different skillset than the traditional CIO role.

Luckily, Brian Lancaster isn’t a traditional CIO “by any stretch of the imagination,” he said in a recent interview. It’s hard to disagree. Having spent far more time on the vendor side (18 years) than in the provider world (5 years), Lancaster offers a fresh perspective on issues like the communication barrier between IT and end users, and what transformation really means.

In this interview, he talks about the six strategic goals that are driving IT initiatives at Nebraska Medicine, what it takes to facilitate collaboration after a reorg, and the mistake leaders make when it comes to coaching.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* “I’m not a traditional CIO by any stretch of the imagination.”

* Value of “soft skills” in leadership

* Leveraging Kanban to prioritize and manage capacity

* Coming to the provider side: “I wanted to understand the last mile.”

* Vendor’s finish line/IT’s starting line

* Rose-colored glasses with previous roles – “You forget all the daily troubles.”

* The “Interesting opportunity” for leaders w/ strategic and technical skills



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Bold Statements

People who grew up working in the data center or writing software may struggle with soft skills, because it gets so nebulous to say, ‘how do we write a strategic plan that’s meaningful to both IT and to the business?’ That’s harder than writing a line of code or managing a server.

It’s frustrating when someone comes to them with a solution and it’s clear they didn’t really do any vetting and didn’t understand what may already be in place. I think they do that because we haven’t always made it easy for them to interact with us.

I always tell people, ‘These aren’t IT decisions. These are business priorities.’ We can lay out priorities and suggestions, but we need a unified decision on why we’re doing this versus that.

Once you make the decision to do something, the clock really starts, and that last mile starts — now you have to deliver and you’re on the hook to create value.

If you look at everything happening with data, analytics, and mobility, healthcare organizations are looking to service providers based on the technology experience they can deliver. That’s a very different place than 20 years ago.

Gamble:  Back in the fall, you gave a presentation at CHIME about how IT drives strategic value. It’s such an important concept. But I’m sure it’s not an easy thing to change how IT is viewed.

Lancaster:  It’s certainly not, and I would be disingenuous if I said it has completely changed. I think people see more value in IT, but they still say inappropriate words when something goes down or they can’t get connected.

I think my background enables that to some extent. I’m not a traditional CIO by any stretch of the imagination. After college, I went to work at a technology company, and spent several years working on product management and strategies from the standpoint of, ‘how do we create technology that can solve a problem for the market.