Q&A with William Walders, Part 3: “You need to speak to the level of your audience.”

There are few things more daunting than dealing with a natural disaster; especially when you’re new to the organization, and the storm headed your way is a category 5 hurricane. It’s the type of news that would send any leader into a panic — unless the individual in question has quite a bit of experience with disasters. Like, say, being in a submarine during a tsunami. Or providing relief after a devastating earthquake. Or, perhaps most terrifying, having to testify before Congress.

Once you’ve weathered those types of storms — as William Walders has — it’s hard to be rattled. And so when Hurricane Dorian threatened the Florida coast (and ended up veering in another direction), he was ready. And Health First, which impressed him with its high level of disaster preparedness, was ready to focus on building a framework to enable better care, and a better overall experience.

Recently, healthsystemCIO spoke with Walders about his team’s core objectives, why effective communication is the basis for pretty much everything, his approach to professional development, and how his military career prepared him for the CIO role.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* “Trial by fire” leadership

* Key CIO attributes: “Being able to translate IT speak into strategic speak.”

* Professional development – “It’s naïve to think the staff will grow without being provided with tools.”

* Value of cross-training

* Ability to “deliver a succinct message that resonates”

* Servant leadership & walking the walk

* Moving past old IT tendencies

* Learning from his military experience: “It was extremely beneficial from a life skills perspective.”



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Bold Statements

Being a good leader, motivating the staff, and being able to translate IT speak into strategic speak — those are the skill sets a good CIO needs. And, most importantly, being transparent with the resources you’re given, whether it’s time or money. You need to build a plan, stick to it, and if it changes, be able to articulate why.

The goal is for folks to understand two things: first, what the standard is for the role, so that if they want it, they know how to get there. Second is to be able to measure growth.

What I look for, and coach, is someone with the ability to turn that off; to understand the business and speak to the level of the audience, whether it’s physicians or providers. I look for someone who understands what they do, how it works, and won’t just come in and drop IT jargon and walk out of the room.

Being able to work through it is the most important part, and getting past that reactionary phase of, ‘the sky is falling.’ Let’s put the pieces back together. I think that’s invaluable.

Gamble:  When you started with Health First, did you reach out to leaders at other organizations and ask how they approached the CIO role?

Walders:  Honestly, I didn’t. I’ve always been a ‘trial by fire’ type of person. I asked in the beginning and, quite honestly, the answers I was getting were more like: ‘You’re ready. Just go for it.’ So I think it was more of self-confidence thing. I remember hearing at a lot of interviews, ‘This is different. You’re not at the Department of Defense anymore,’ or ‘You were in the military; you had tons of resources.’ Then I’d remind them that the whole time I was at Walter Reed,