IT Professionals New Zealand | Te Pou Hangarau Ngaio

Digital Technology Leadership Masterclass

Digital Technology Leadership masterclass

This break-through course equips aspiring or new digital technology leaders with the business skills, knowledge and mindset needed to be effective in delivering business outcomes. The masterclass focuses on business not technical skills to help you move from operational thinking to strategic thinking.

The course is delivered primarily live online over a series of afternoon sessions, with the first and last sessions in-person.

With the full group coming together face-to-face twice and work undertaken in small teams, participants will build on existing experiences and develop a network of colleagues from across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Taught by experienced leaders in digital technology

Delivered by seasoned leaders in their respective fields, this course draws on deep experience and knowledge.

This is also a great course for anyone looking to grow their career and understand what their senior digital technology leaders, management team or Directors are looking for when they make strategic digital technology investment decisions.

Overseen by course coordinator Simon Lloyd-Evans, a CIO with over 30 years' experience, each session will be delivered by an expert in each area.

What you'll learn

More than anything else, this course will help you to think strategically, and equip you with the tools to succeed in your career.

It will provide insight, methods and tactics to help you become an effective communicator, thinker and leader in a senior digital technology role. Delivered in a concise and easily digestible format that is ideal for people moving from operational to strategic roles who do not necessarily have formal management training.

Assessment is pass/fail, based on successful completion of case study exercises, cohort group-based project and final Board presentation. As with the real world, success is determined by successful completion. Doing 50% of something is not a pass.

This course has been adapted from our successful Effective CIO course which was featured in CIO magazine earlier in 2023. 

Format of the Course

The first Orientation session is in-person in Wellington on the 7th July (12pm to 5pm). The last session is also in-person on the 29th September, location TBA. You will need to arrange your own travel for these sessions.

All other sessions are instructor-led live online delivery every second week, Tuesday and Friday Afternoons 2-5pm.

Facilitators

A large number of CIOs and others have provided input to ensure this course is as useful as possible for those making the move from operational to strategic IT. 

The main delivery facilitators include:

	Simon Lloyd-Evans [Course Coordinator] Simon Lloyd-Evans is a consulting CIO with over 20 years' experience assisting organisations with strategic IT. Simon describes himself as a technology enabled business strategist; Recent CIO experience includes the Student Job Search, Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Hutt City Council and more.
	David Spaziani With more than 8 years' experience as Senior Executive Partner for Gartner, David's analytical approach has served him well in various senior strategy and CIO roles for organisations in New Zealand.
	Cherri Holland Cherri Holland is a Fellow at the Institute for Digital Transformation and has successfully coached and mentored hundreds of executives in best practice leadership.
	Ferdinand Hagethorn With a strong focus on a pragmatic and holistic approach to Cyber security, Ferdinand has successfully built the Cybersecurity capability and services offering for Planit Testing globally. Ferdinand has also provided IT and Information Security Services for over 500 projects during a career spanning 23 years, in 7 countries throughout Europe, North America, and Australasia and is the co-founder of one of the Netherlands’ largest hackerspace and computer museum Hack42.
	Murray Wills Murray Wills is owner of Maxsys, a firm providing VirtualCIO and consultancy services to a large number of business, government, and not for profit clients. He has extensive experience as a CIO, board member, consultant and trainer. As the founding chair of the IT Governance Taskforce, Murray is also a recognised leader in the governance of technology. He is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors, Certified Management Consultant and Chartered IT Professional.

Course Schedule

Session 1: Orientation

(Friday 7th July, in-person in Wellington, 12-5pm)

• Meet in-person in Wellington
• Orientation, meet fellow students, course providers
• Overview of what will be covered
• Overview of projects, assign to cohorts

Session 2: Strategy

(Tuesday 18th July, live online 2-5pm)

• Actionable Strategy
• Leadership Challenges
• Business Challenges
• Managing Strategic Risk
• Strategy versus Strategic Plan
• Working with the executive and the board

Session 3: Developing Critical Influencing Skills for Better Outcomes 

(Friday 21st July, live online 2-5pm)

• Influencing skills when responsible for better technology outcomes
• Understand communication styles
• Scenario-based approach to critical influence skills
• Influencing a group meeting
• Getting a team onside and focused on delivery

Session 4: Personal Leadership

(Tuesday 1st August, live online 2-5pm)

• Healthy Organisation
• Leadership Disciplines
• Leadership Styles
• Personal Leadership
• Emotional Intelligence
• Individual Behaviour

Session 5: CIO Panel 

(Friday 4th August, live online 2-5pm)

• Successful CIOs will discuss and share their own insights with Q+A
  (Plus project discussion with course presenters, agreement on project outcomes)

Session 6: Leading Teams

(Tuesday 15th August, live online 2-5pm)

• Team Definition
• Team Dysfunction
• Team Engineering
• Team Feedback
• Plain Language

Session 7: Introduction to Change 

(Friday 18th August, live online 2-5pm)

• Leadership Obstacles
• Leading Change
• Essential Controls
• Engaging Stakeholders
• Communication
• Troubled Projects

Session 8: IT Governance in Practice

(Tuesday 29th August, live online 2-5pm)

• What is Governance and IT/Digital Governance?
• The IT Governance Standard and its 6 Principles
• What the Standard means for Leadership of Digital Technology
• The role of the Information Systems Strategic Plan
• Assessing IT Governance Maturity
• Roles and skills required
• Questions that Boards should ask
• Dealing with ethical challenges

Session 9: Conflict management and Negotiation 

(Friday 1st September, live online 2-5pm)

• Sources of conflict
• Healthy vs unhealthy conflict
• Disagreeing without becoming disagreeable
• Generating alternatives so both parties' needs are met
• Deal making to engage others in a common way forward
• Common negotiation tactics

Session 10: Making the Case for Digital 

(Tuesday 12th September, live online 2-5pm)

• Creating investment ideas
• The role of business cases
• Putting together a compelling story
• Defining value in business terms
• Realising benefits from the investment
• What IT professionals need to know about budgeting and finance

Session 11: Security 

(Friday 15th September, live online 2-5pm)

• Understanding Cyber posture
• Practical Cybersecurity Governance, Risk, and Compliance
• Security processes with direct links to ITIL/ITSM
• Cyber Risk Mapping technique
• Visibility to Observability
• Selling security investments to key stakeholders

Session 12: Project presentations

(Friday 29th September, In-Person location TBA, 1-5pm)

• Meet in person
• Team project presentations to mock Board with all course participants present.
• Course summary

Course Coordinator, Simon Lloyd-Evans

Simon is a business strategist with an outcome focus that offers pragmatic governance with insightful critical and contextual advice, backed by over 30 years of real-world experience.

Simon has experience in a wide range of industries and sectors, including Health, Insurance, Government, Laboratory, Legal, Engineering, Building, Policing, Banking, Real Estate, Culture and Arts, Dispute Resolution, Non-profit and Retail. The last 20 years have seen Simon operating at the "C" level as CIO and Corporate Services Manager.

Simon has an engaging and insightful leadership style and has grown and led many high performing teams who understand their value and the contribution they make to the success of the organisation.

Simon runs a successful consulting business providing on demand independent systems and business advice to organisations on the strategic use of information. He supports organisations to make better business decisions by helping them to use systems that are fit for purpose and value for money.

Registration Details:

You can register for this event via Credit Card online now by using the link below, or alternatively call 0800 252 255 with your Credit Card details.

ITP Corporate Partners and approved organisations can opt to pay by invoice by calling 0800 252 255 or emailing attendee and business details through to [email protected]. Credit criteria and other conditions apply.

This course is available for members and non-members at the cost as per below. Note that the rate for non-members also includes 12 months ITP membership (to enable access to the ITP mentoring programme at the end of the course).

Travel / Accommodation costs for the 2 face-to-face sessions are responsibility of student.