The Team at the Top

Computerworld - When you look at the IT leadership team at Regions Financial Corp., you see a diverse group of individuals. The vice president of application delivery advanced through the business ranks, as did the CIO, while the other five team members have had solid careers in IT. The vice president of technology risk management is known for his strategic and broad technical knowledge, while the vice president of telecommunications has a more tactical, get-it-done approach. The vice president of production services is a natural communicator who connects well with people throughout the organization. The director of information management and enterprise architecture hails from outside the banking industry and has a strong data management background. The vice president of the project management office has been at Regions for more than 25 years, with management experience in several technical areas.

But the team members also bear some strong similarities. Most would score off the charts on an analytical-thinking test, and all are voracious problem-solvers. They see IT as a department that needs to be run as a business, and there’s no question in their minds that their common job is to support the bank’s strategy.

When you combine all these differences and similarities in a team, the group becomes stronger than the sum of its parts, says John Dick, CIO at the $84.6 billion financial organization in Birmingham, Ala. This can be invaluable when problems arise. For instance, a recent downturn in the performance of the bank’s online banking system prompted the leadership team members to jump in and apply their various approaches and skills rather than leave the problem to the application delivery group.

Dick says many leaders have yet to learn about the strength diversity brings to a team. “You see it all the time — people selecting leaders who are exactly like themselves, whether they’re heavily analytical or very creative,” Dick says. “And while homogenous teams can accomplish a lot in a short amount of time, to take it to the next level, you need a team with diverse experience and backgrounds.”

His team didn’t always perform at such a high level. When the group was formed five years ago, its members were more focused on their individual functions, Dick says. That meant he needed to spend more of his own time bringing the right mix of resources to bear when issues arose. But now, especially as the IT group takes on higher-impact projects that cross many functional areas of the bank, “there’s been a shift,” he says. “Now, everyone knows each other’s skills and capabilities, and everyone gets engaged in problem-solving, decision-making and fact-finding around lots of different topics.”