Last Christmas, I found out just how smart a toddler can be. My nephew Soren, who was two and a half at the time, had his eye on a large plate of homemade sugar cookies. But rather than ask his parents, who would only allow him to have a cookie after finishing his dinner (or at least eating some of it), he went over their heads. He approached me with those beautiful blue eyes and asked for a cookie, and I gave him one. I figured, what’s the harm in one cookie? (That’s the difference between being an aunt verses being a mother.)
It wasn’t just one cookie.
Soren pulled the same trick with my husband, his grandparents, and his uncles. By the time dessert was served, he had easily downed a half-dozen cookies. He was bouncing off the walls, and he couldn’t be happier. I was impressed with his strategy; if you can’t get what you want from the ones in charge, you might have to do some side-stepping.
His parents, on the other hand, weren’t so thrilled. They knew there was no way he would eat anything healthy once his stomach was filled with cookies. All they could do was wait for him to come crashing down from his sugar high.
Without meaning to, we had undermined their parenting.
When I read the first part of Anthony Guerra’s recent interview with Lee Carmen, CIO at University of Iowa Health Care, there was a particular section that reminded me of Cookie-Gate. Carmen talked about the frustration he and other senior leaders feel when purchases are made without their knowledge. Because while a one-off departmental buy may not seem like a big deal, when it’s a medical or imaging device that has to sit on the network, the CIO needs to be kept in the loop, he said.
In some of these cases, the department head or even the sales person might not realize that IT needs to be involved, and they may not intentionally be leaving key people out of the discussion.
But what happens when a vendor deliberately circumvents the CIO and approaches department heads directly, even if he or she knows better?
When Carmen and his team realized this was happening at UI Health Care, they began holding meetings with their primary vendors — including both the local sales people and the senior executives — to make sure things stay on course.
“We make it clear to the regional sales staff that if they’re going to be engaging some of our physicians or other staff in the dialogue about technology, they have to let us know about it, and they understand that there are negative consequences for them if they don’t follow those rules,” he said.
If after this discussion there are further incidents, Carmen and his team “get a little more aggressive.” But by that point, it would seem that the vendor-health system relationship has been damaged beyond the repair.
The well has been poisoned.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that sales people are under immense pressure to meet their numbers. And that means having to be very persistent, and sometimes, getting a little creative to lock down a sale. However, it doesn’t justify going behind the CIO’s back.
CIOs need to be able to trust their vendors and know that they won’t undermine them. And if that trust is broken, particularly after a vendor has been warned, there should be consequences. It’s the only way to break a potentially harmful pattern.
After all, we’re not just talking about one cookie.
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