Where are you coming from, in terms of your last organization and last major project? 

The last project that I ran was for Iowa State University. I led a Workday Student implementation. It was one of the first Workday Student projects at a major institution in the United States, and I was there for about five years. Prior to that, I led a couple of system-wide initiatives in the state of Wisconsin for all the universities there, and also a few Workday-related projects.  

Are you from the Midwest?   

I live in Madison, Wisconsin, and have been here for about 10 years, but I grew up in Los Angeles. We came here years ago to be close to our son’s family and our grandchildren. 

In the organizations where you’ve implemented a big change like this, you’ve probably seen some adapt better than others. What change management mindsets or practices did the more successful organizations adopt? 

I tend to take a very practical approach to change management. The thing that I found is most effective is the most basic thing: You have to be willing to go and meet with people in person and hear about their experiences and reactions, and you have to be willing to make adjustments. For example, for the Iowa State project, after we went live, I spent my whole last year there going out and talking to deans and associate deans and department chairs and departments and end users about their experience with the system, and then patiently writing down everything that they said and then going back and making improvements and changes based on that.  

We’re not going to get it 100% right on the day we turn the system on. So we’ve got to be prepared to continue to make improvements. 

It sounds like listening is a huge component of successful implementation 

Definitely. You have to go to their meetings and listen to people who are sometimes frustrated.  

For the implementations you did at Iowa State and in Wisconsin, were the workforces remote at that point or were you still all in person? 

They were mostly remote. One of the projects I did in Wisconsin was a statewide procurement project. We put in a new procurement system at all thirteen universities and we launched that project in May of 2020 and we went live in May of 2021, so we were in the middle of COVID. I didn’t meet a single person in person until after we went live. For that whole project, we were in shock. Organizational change didn’t even register because there was so much other change going on. 

What are you here at Cornell to do, in your own words? 

I’ve been doing these kind of projects at universities and academic medical centers for 35 years. I’m going to bring all those years of experience, all the lessons learned, the strategies that I’ve seen work, I’m going to try to implement them here. The approaches that haven’t worked, I’m going to make sure we avoid. We’re hopefully going to try to shortcut some of the typical mistakes that organizations make on an initiative like this. 

What are some of the typical mistakes? 

Underestimating the change impact. Being too ambitious out of the gate because you’re underestimating the change and how long it’s going to take for people to adopt the system. It’s really important that the CEMI program be viewed as an ongoing continuous improvement initiative. That approach allows you to narrow your focus for the implementation period, and to focus on something that’s achievable. 

What excites you the most about this opportunity with CEMI and Cornell? 

It’s an opportunity to impact people for decades. The decisions that we make and the systems we put in will impact people far in the future. There are students who haven’t been born yet who will be impacted by the work we do now. 

What is your favorite part about doing this type of implementation work?  

The challenge of these projects is immense. The thing that I enjoy the most, and the coolest part of it for me, is that there are always people who rise to the occasion and grow. The implementation phase of this project is an opportunity for people really to step up and grow. It’s wonderful to see that. 

I attended one of the Workday ERP stakeholders meetings a couple of weeks ago, and everyone was giving kudos to other colleagues who had been doing very good work. It was really nice to hear, because you could tell people were, as you put it, rising to the occasion. 

I think that expressing gratitude is hugely important for our team to grow and be successful. We need to provide space for that. It’s something I always incorporate into my projects. We want to reinforce good behavior, and thanking people is a way to build a high-performing culture. High-performing teams express gratitude.  

What do you think will get better as a result of CEMI? 

The biggest thing initially is that by getting everybody into the same system, the access to information and data will get better and easier for people. Particularly with a Workday implementation, once you get everybody into the same system across HR, finance, budget, and ultimately student, then you’ve got an amazing amount of information all in one place. And there’s a lot of power that comes from accessing that information. 

What does a successful CEMI rollout look like to you? 

It’s one where our initial objectives are about business continuity. We implement the system so that the business can function, and then we rapidly shift into that continuous improvement mode. 

What do you think are the biggest challenges of CEMI for the Cornell community? 

Sequencing the activity appropriately. Refining the scope of what we’re going to deploy initially versus what we’re going to get to over a period of time afterwards. 

Do you have any summer travel planned? 

Not this year. CEMI is going to dominate my agenda this year. But we’ve taken a couple of big trips recently. Last year my wife and I went to Antarctica, and the year before that we went to Africa. 

What do you like to do in your spare time? 

My wife and I compete in ballroom dancing. The one trip we are going to take is to a national competition in Las Vegas at the end of July. 

That sounds fabulous, how long have you been dancing?   

Three years now. We’ve been competing for two. Kind of a funny story – there was a national dance competition in Manhattan at the Marquis Times Square in March. And so I was doing one of my final interviews with Chris Cowen, who I report to, and I was actually down competing in the ballroom at the same time.  I went up for my Zoom call, changed out of my dance clothes, did my interview, and then changed back and went back down and finished. 

The Cornell interview obviously went well, how did you do in the competition? 

Really well. Last year my wife and I were the number three ranked amateur couple in the country. 

What book are you reading right now?  

There are two. One is by a guy named Michael Singer, and it’s called Living Untethered. And the second one is called A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Either of these books will blow your mind.