3 Guiding Principles to Technology Acceptance - ' Evolution of a Management ' (
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How has your management style evolved over the years?
OTTO: I'm not revolutionary. I'm just basically going back to how things were when I was a kid. I wanted things to be easier. We—people—make things more difficult. So now we set the goals for the team first, both short- and long-term. Then have the managers set their goals. Then you look at them every quarter and critique them. We as a team start initially by saying, for instance, Bill might be off track. But after the first quarter, we survive or win as a team. You start working together on your goals, objectives and improvements. And you start working together as a team, not just as stars. If Bill fails, the team fails.
There's always a high demand for talented IT workers. Are there lessons learned at USPS in terms of attracting and retaining IT staff?
OTTO: We like to look at it from the perspective that you didn't come here to work for two to three years—you came here for a career. We make it challenging. Today you could be working on a wireless application, tomorrow you could be working on a PDA device. We're on the leading edge of letting people work on things that help improve our business.
What do you see for the future of IT management? What do aspiring CIOs need to keep in mind as they move up the ranks?
OTTO: I see all my peers continuing to consolidate functions like computer centers and helpdesks. Everybody's going green—focusing on IT power. Eighteen months ago no one was talking about this—now everyone is. I also see my peers focusing on IT lines of business—all programming in a functional line of business; all security in a functional line of business. If they build in lines of business and later you want to outsource, it makes it easier.
How did you become a manager?
OTTO: I was a type-A person and driven to perfection. I was a technician who wanted to be the best at whatever I did. But I also wanted to be in management because I knew I had skills and abilities. I got to a point where one of my mentors said to me, 'You can let this go or you can move on.' I came to realize it was time to let go of some of the things holding me back as a person. When I started to see I could get things done through people and that some had skills that I didn't in certain areas, I started to see the makings of a successful team.
