What they say and what they do

The new CIO for the group that I'm in came for a visit this week. Yesterday, he had a meeting with all of the IT folks at Citi. This morning I was part of a round table with him. Both meetings were actually worth their time. Everything he said resounded with me. He was candid and didn't moderate his message to fit his audience. There were a lot of things that he said that I did like and was glad to hear. There were some things that he said that I didn't like, but I appreciated hearing him say them. My two take-aways were that 1) he loves Flexible Work and 2) he believes that management should "delight the stars."

But given a later meeting with my department head and her boss, it is unlikely that anything will change. Neither woman is delighted with the prospect of Flexible Work. And when asked about delighting the stars, they replied that they are doing that already. That all of his talk was the same management philosphy gussied up in pretty language. Some of that I can believe, but the results on the ground don't seem to reflect that.

It's days like today that make me love my job.