Reinvention

I’m not starting over. But I am starting again.

I originally published this post on Medium. I copied it here in May 2024 to keep it alongside my other content.

I’ve been working professionally, full-time, since 1995.

In those nearly 30 years I’ve worked in escalating roles across countless industries: education, manufacturing, nonprofits, construction, defense contracting, public media, healthcare, local government, and IT consulting in all those sectors. Along the way I’ve lived in 8 cities across 5 states, including Alaska.

So I know a bit about starting something new, or starting over.

Looking back

Three years ago (2019) I embarked on my first experience in local government, taking a “turnaround” leadership opportunity repairing and rebuilding an infrastructure team inside a shared IT services agency in Ohio’s largest and most dynamic county. In the last 3 years we’ve grown rapidly — more than doubling in size — and vastly improved our culture and processes. Are we done? Not even close. But we’ve come a long way.

What’s new this year (2022) is that I’m pivoting away from classic enterprise infrastructure toward leading software teams.

Looking forward

Our software teams write some original code, plus we configure and manage some commercial solutions on behalf of our customers (agencies). Where the infrastructure ends, our software teams begin.

For me, this is new territory, and it’s a little terrifying! Until now all my leadership roles were in areas where I’d done all the jobs reporting to me. But software development is not where I spent the last 30 years (unless you count early-90s HyperCard, mid-90s FoxPro, or developing FileMaker Pro apps circa 2010. I now lead teams developing with .NET, React, Power BI, and other tools, not to mention specialists managing application stacks unique to our government customers.

It’s a bit unnerving. In the past, I led with authority and clarity of goals.

Now I must lead with curiosity and clarity of vision.

The good news? Growth only happens with some discomfort.

Place your bets

Over the years I’ve engaged this discomfort of change and taken some big risks. Some of the bets failed (I’ve been laid off once and fired twice). But most of them succeeded, and I learned new skills and got great experiences my peers sidestepped. Overall I feel way ahead.

Now I’m ready to place my next bet. With some confidence. After all, I know a bit about starting something new.

GX: Swinging for the fences

The big swing-for-the-fences goal this time is summed up in two letters: GX. That’s short-hand for Government Experience, similar to Customer Experience (CX) or User Experience (UX). Others use the term GovCX, or Government CX. Whatever the name, this is a big leap because it’s a new area to learn, but it’s still a nascent development across government bodies nationally. So there’s lots to learn, but in learning it out in the open perhaps I can teach others with the breadcrumbs I drop.

But there’s more.

In heading up a group of software nerds, it would be far too easy to focus on the tech and lose sight of the real goal: ensuring our customers — our agency partners or the publics they serve— are getting digital experiences that solve real-world problems efficiently, with a little grace thrown in.

Software isn’t the goal. Solving organizational or citizen problems is the goal. Software is the tool.

GX is the aspirational goal, the organizing principle, the vision.

GX is my Magnetic North. And I’m building a compass.

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Disclaimer: This post does not represent the opinions or policies of my current or former employers nor any organization or person I may assist as a consultant.