3 Interesting Learnings from the City of Goodyear

Let’s jump into this week’s 3 Interesting Learnings from Joe's conversation with Justin Fair, CIO for the City of Goodyear, and Bradley Pristelski, CIO at CommonSpirit (Southwest) from the Phoenix Live Podcast Tour last year.

1. Growing at the Speed of Goodyear

Goodyear is officially on the map. And Goodyear’s CIO Justin Fair isn’t intending to slow down any time soon. Like many cities around the country, Goodyear has grown from its humble roots as the “last place to fill up your car” before crossing into California (and a couple of dollars/gallon price hike), to a city identified by Money as one of the best places to live in the US in 2019:

Goodyear is known as one of the last places you see when you're driving from Phoenix to LA, but it is now one of the top 10 fastest-growing cities in the US. That in and of itself introduces its own challenges with growth. Some of the conversations today have been around speed and the speed of government. When you're one of the top 10 fastest-growing cities, you have to be speedy in what you do. [4:20]

Related: Why You Should Choose Goodyear

Justin credits his decade+ building out healthcare IT in Texas for readying his ability to recognize how to build out a team that can get things done. Whether it was having to roll out telemedicine and accessibility while trying to integrate dozens of different systems that manage patient data for the healthcare side, or on the city side managing dozens of different systems trying to manage resident and citizen data- the integration of systems, from a data or security aspect, proved very similar.

2. From Mom & Pop to Enterprise: How to Reinvent with the Whole in Mind

When growing from a small peripheral town with a population of just over 18,000 in the year 2000 to an enterprise hub city of more than 100,000, Justin is proud of how Goodyear is building out with the “whole” in mind. In other words, making sure the technology and infrastructure are in place to bring the entire community forward together, not just the enterprise side at the expense of residents or vice-versa.

Justin credits the openness across agencies, a common mission combined with a collaborative mindset, that has brought the city of Goodyear as far as it’s come in such a short period of time. Beyond the basic framework and cybersecurity measures implemented, Justin and City Manager Julie Karins are proud to model what can happen when CIOs and City Managers collaborate together:

Having a smart city master plan, which I'm championing, as well as second to that is a performance measurement dashboard, which our city manager's office is championing. And so those allow us to take those and we're not implementing a technology solution, but we're saying here's the strategic objectives, here's the solutions to get there, to accomplish those business goals. [10:41]

3. Creating Buy-In Like a Navy SEAL

One of the most practical ways that Justin builds a highly cohesive team is by creating buy-in by studying the psychology behind building a team culture that doesn’t get bogged down with miscommunication, misconception, or ego. Justin implemented a team reading and discussion of Navy SEAL Jocko Willink’s book, Extreme Ownership, and used it to reframe how teams act across multiple departments to best serve their citizens.

Related: Leading Up the Chain of Command: Take Extreme Ownership of Building a Better Relationship

Be sure to check out the full episode on TechTables+

on a personal note by joe toste:

It's been so fun to be back on the court. In fact, I almost missed the entire season because I was so sad about my mom passing away, but a local news reporter from Noozhawk ran into me at Handlebar Coffee (my favorite coffee shop), and asked why I hadn't shown up to any games this season a few weeks back.

I was shocked. I didn't even know this guy knew who I was!

This Inspired Two Leadership Reminders:

1. Someone's always watching or noticing, even when you don't think they are. :)

2. "Serving" is great for the heart. I put "serving" in quotes because it's so much fun coaching, laughing, and going to IN-N-OUT after games with the team that doesn't feel much like "serving." When life's tough, fight the temptation to curl up in your room or office - go out into the world and give away your gifts. You might find comfort in the most unlikely places.