< Previous| tribalnetonline.com10MANAGEMENT | DECISION MAKINGBYANDREW TRAWICK, CEO, TRUVIAN GROUPAndrew Trawick has more than 25 years of international business leadership and development experience in over 30 countries. Currently he is with The Truvian Group which helps organizations create high performance cultures in which people desire to work.ABOUT THE AUTHOREvery day we make decisions. Some are small: “Do I order chicken or beef?” And some big: “Do I buy the house or rent?” But when you are a leader, your decisions not only affect you, they ripple through your organization and its people.I was in Washington D.C. with the task of critiquing the management style of one of the executive leaders in a government agency. Since he was an executive, you would expect this individual to be comfortable making decisions, but the opposite was playing out before me. There were a little over 3,000 people under his authority, and this leader was so aware of this that he avoided making any decision. He would keep asking his direct reports for their input, explored the possible effects, mused over the theoretical worst case, and in the end abdicated his own personal responsibility by saying a decision would not be made unless there was an 80% agreement in the team. Now, if we were talking about how to respond to an international crisis I would have been impressed. But, we weren’t. The team was being tapped to decide on what color to paint a room.Your decision-making process should enable you to make an intelligent decision within a reasonable amount of time. There is a simple tool that can help you determine how much effort to put into deciding. I call it the “R&R decision tool.” This is how it works: when you are faced with a decision, you ask one simple question — is it Revocable or Irrevocable? REVOCABLEA revocable decision is one that can be easily changed or has low impact. Let’s take the decision about paint color in the story above. Our director asks, “Is the color we paint the room revocable or irrevocable?” You might note that the color of a room could have a high impact in that it can affect mood and efficiency. However, at this level in the organization, and the budget over which the Director resides, pulling a team together to discuss it actually costs more than repainting the room several times. So, the answer is that this decision is revocable. Even though the decision might have an impact, it can be changed and changed again without much cost in time or resources.Let’s look at the “Do I order chicken or beef?” decision. Some may say, “Isn’t this irrevocable? The restaurant won’t let you send your food back over and over.” Even though that is true, the decision is still revocable because it has a very low impact. If you order the chicken and hate it so much you don’t even eat it, dinner is just a few hours away, and what you had or didn’t have for lunch won’t matter.THAT REVOCABLE RHYTHMOnce you get used to identifying which decisions are revocable you will find your rhythm. This means you create a time frame for the decision-making. It looks like this: you start an internal timer and ask, “Is ordering chicken or beef a revocable or irrevocable decision?” Answer: “revocable.” Two to three seconds have now passed. The timer continues while you gauge your mood and taste preferences and then you decide, “I’ll have the chicken.” Your internal clock will have now logged anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds. There isn’t a right or wrong time frame because it is dependent on the person and how they analyze mood and taste. But you should start developing a voice that pipes in after your time frame elapses, reminding you, “It’s revocable, pick something, it’s OK if you’re wrong.”Giving yourself permission to be wrong is highly effective in keeping things moving along. This means most revocable decisions can be made within minutes. There are A Little R&R Can Help You DecideTry this simple tool the next time you are facing a decisiontribalnetonline.com |11TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018certain revocable corporate decisions that may need to involve some discussion and debate, but most should be solved within a day. One example of a high-impact but very changeable revocable decision is when Starbucks decides to change the price of a drink. There is debate over volume, profit margin and supply, but because Starbucks uses digital signage, the price can easily be altered to quickly stop any adverse impact. Again, revocable decisions are those that can be easily changed or have low impact. IRREVOCABLEIrrevocable decisions are those that are costly to change or have high impact. The decision to buy a house would be categorized as irrevocable because, for all but the wealthiest buyers, it is both costly to change and has a high impact. Some irrevocable decisions require a great deal of research, discussion and debate in order to make a good decision.Certain decisions have such a high cost and impact that it is prudent to spend time and money to debate scenarios that may never happen. For example, the Pentagon has contingency-planning teams, which continuously generate “if-then” scenarios for every conceivable attack, disaster and crisis. If these irrevocable decisions were not debated prior to an actual crisis, there simply would not be enough time to make a good decision when the time came. So, time and money are spent in hope that these contingency plans are never needed. Most of us, however, don’t have the resources to prepare like the Pentagon, yet we are faced with irrevocable decisions — choices like getting married, quitting a job, or funding a major project. Ultimately, most decisions can be revoked, but the cost or impact to do so is high.SLEEP ON ITWhen you determine you are dealing with an irrevocable decision it is important you avoid committing to your decision on the same day the problem was presented. Sometimes that is impossible due to the problem’s urgency but, whenever possible, sleep on the decision before you make it. Your brain goes through an amazing process when you sleep and many times you will gain the clarity you need simply by letting the sleep process play out.GLAD/REGRETIf, however, after a night’s sleep you don’t gain additional clarity, do the following exercise. Imagine you have made your decision — you buy the house, get married or quit the job. Imagine waking the day after you commit to your proposed decision and note how you feel. Are you glad, or do you regret what you’ve done? Now switch the decision, you don’t buy the house, you stay single or you stay at the job. Are you glad, or do you regret it? If you are glad in both, which one makes you more content? If you regret both, which one do you regret more? You’ll be amazed at how many times you know the right answer to irrevocable decisions if you ask yourself the right questions.So, next time you are making another decision, do a little R&R and only spend the time and resources your decision deserves. Go ahead, paint those walls Shoreline White — you can always change to Silver Mist later.FEATURE | TRIBALNETONLINE.COM| tribalnetonline.com12TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018TRIBALNET | FALL 2017TRIBALNET MAGAZINE FALL 2017 | There are exciting things happening at the Indian Health Service (IHS). We have a lot of activities occurring simultaneously within our Health IT systems, including a review of the more than 40 responses we received after our Request for Information for Health IT Modernization closed its response period at the beginning of February. The responses we received are voluminous, packed with information, and unique. It is taking us some time to review them and stratify them against various selection criteria, but the work is underway.The next step will be to engage a subset of respondents whose proposals offer promising responses to the challenges that federal, tribal, and urban health programs face. We hope to then have a better-developed set of criteria and information, which may be used in a subsequent Request for Proposal.IN ADDITION TO OUR HEALTH IT WORK, THE IHS IT STAFF HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN MANY OF THE REIMAGINE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS) EVENTS THAT HAVE OCCURRED DURING THE PAST YEAR. ReImagine HHS is a department-wide effort to transform the way we deliver services to the American people. Our work in ReImagine HHS gives the IHS a great forum to voice ideas and suggestions for improvement. In December, the IHS was honored to participate in the HHS Opioid Summit and Code-A-Thon hosted by the HHS Chief Technology Officer. This was a great event that focused on data that could be used to address a very serious problem, and we are so glad IHS could be involved.THERE ARE A NUMBER OF CHANCES TO ENGAGE WITH IHS IT STAFF AND MANY ARE PLANNED IN THE COMING MONTHS. In addition to our usual activities, the IHS Information Systems Advisory Committee held its semi-annual meeting in March in Phoenix. In April, we will be participating in the 2018 Bemidji Area Partnership for Family Wellness Conference. Perhaps our largest engagement will come this summer at the IHS Partnership Conference. Two years ago, the event drew over 1,000 attendees. We hope this year’s conference is even bigger and better. The dates and location for the Partnership Conference will appear on the IHS.gov website soon, so check there for more information as it becomes available. We hope to see you at an upcoming event soon! Exciting Things Happening!AGENCY UPDATE: IHS There are a number of chances to engage with IHS IT staff and many are planned in the coming months. Please visit us at www.IHS.gov for a complete list of upcoming events.FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: WWW.IHS.GOV INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE (IHS) | AGENCY UPDATEhealth INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE (IHS) | AGENCY UPDATEtribalnetonline.com |13TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018 »CustomizablePlatform »SimplifyIT Support »Generate Grant ReportsRiteTrack is at the heart of innovative service delivery models which emphasize collaboration and have received national att ention. These approaches to managing complex data structures include integrating information management systems to create a cohesive solution that provides reliable results. The available modules can operate as standalone systems or be combined to support a successful integration initative. Visit our website and sign up for our email list to receive notifications about monthly webinars and newslett ers.Call us to schedule a personal demonstration.Tribal Integration Initiatives Powered by Innovationwww.handelit.com 307-742-5555 info@handelit.comGeneral AssistanceTribal CourtTANFProtective ServicesIndian Child WelfareTreatment ServicesEmployment & TrainingEnrollment| tribalnetonline.com14LEADERSHIP | GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT & TEAM BUILDINGBYCHRISTOPHER DECAMPDIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL SERVICES, WIN-RIVER RESORT CASINOChristopher DeCamp has worked in the IT industry since 1996, serving in roles ranging from technical, engineering, management, and executive management. Christopher has been a part of the Win-River Resort Casino team since July of 2006. In his current position Christopher serves as the Director of Technical Services for Win-River Resort Casino, in this role his responsibilities are directing the information technology, facilities, and housekeeping divisions as well as capital project management and construction management.ABOUT THE AUTHORWorking with and being a member of a high-performance team is a truly magical experience. When we get it right and have the right people in the right jobs, motivated for the right reasons, it feels like any project is achievable. With this kind of team, all challenges are surmountable and the workplace is a productive and enjoyable place to spend time.Building and retaining a high-performance IT team in a period of economic growth and low unemployment can present some unique challenges and opportunities. Attracting highly-qualified and professional team members requires more than just tossing a job listing into the general talent pool and hoping that the perfect applicant will materialize. In today’s job market, an organization is lucky to receive a handful of truly qualified, employable applicants in response to an IT-related job posting. High-performance teams can be defined as tight-knit groups of highly motivated, well-trained team members with a sense of purpose and integrity, who are committed to the organization’s mission, vision, and values. There is no guarantee that any applicant, regardless of how qualified they may be, will be able to truly contribute at the level required to maintain a high-performing team. This means that there is an element of risk with any hire. What many of us overlook in the process of building our teams is the potential talent pools hidden within our own organization. If one looks inward at their company’s existing team members, it is likely they will see a lot of them who are already performing admirably in other areas of the organization, and not all of whom are on the career path they envision for themselves in the future. The bottom line is, there is a good chance that there are people working in our organizations that meet all the criteria of a potential high-functioning IT team member — they just lack the technical training and experience to fully fit the bill. This is a time when professional development plans come into play. Many team members have the raw materials we need to create truly awesome teams: they are already invested in the organization, already performing well within their own area of expertise, and they are eager to embrace the future. This energy and enthusiasm is much more valuable than all of the degrees and certifications in the world. These employees are the people who can take teams to the next level. Why? Because they already want to be there. All we have to do is create a path for them that aligns their individual career and life goals with the vision and goals of the organization. To do this, the leaders of an organization need to be truly invested in their team members in a meaningful and tangible way. Leaders should take the time to get to know them and find out what makes them tick both personally and professionally; they should make an effort to learn their strengths and weaknesses, dreams and desires. When we GROWING HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS FROM WITHINHOME GROWNawesome!tribalnetonline.com |15TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018how do we take them to the next level? Professional development plans, performance development assessments and regular individualized coaching are excellent tools to help us take the untrained potential in our organization and mold it into a high-performance team. Professional development plans create a formal training path for team members to follow in order to gain skills and achieve mutually established skill and career goals. A well-designed professional development plan should outline both the expectations of the organization and those of the team member, and should formalize the investment that each party has agreed to make throughout the training period. The plan should include both short and long-term goals in order to provide ample opportunities for constructive coaching and appreciation.While participating in a professional development plan it is important to have a formal evaluation such as a performance development assessment in order to positively coach deficiencies and to reward and appreciate successes. Maintaining a check-in process prevents complacency from creeping in and stifling progress. Checking in regularly in a positive manner further reinforces the feeling that management cares enough to pay attention and support their team’s development. A coaching environment is central to the success of both the team member and the organization. This kind of environment encourages listening, positive reinforcement, recognition and appreciation — tools to help team members achieve their goals. When we invest time in training, development and coaching, we prove to our team that we believe in them and their future — whether it is with the organization long-term or not.Think about it — a team of people who genuinely want to be there, who believe in the organization, who know the organization believes in them; a team of people who genuinely want to take the organization forward to a more successful future — that’s the kind of team we all want to be on. By identifying, nurturing and growing the hidden potential that already exists in our organizations, we can truly grow high-performance teams from within.take the time to develop an understanding of our team members, it becomes easier to spot opportunities and positions within the organization that specific individuals may find to be more rewarding, a better fit, or more in line with their personal goals. This understanding is crucial to growing a high-performance team from within. Maintaining this understanding and knowledge of our team members is a labor of love in which we cannot become complacent. I have seen slot technicians become top-notch help desk specialists, and Players Club employees that become amazing programmers, analysts and engineers. I believe that far more jobs are trainable than our egos might let us admit. We may think that since we have worked so hard to achieve success in our career, that our employees should be made to as well in order to reach their goals. This attitude will not serve us or our organization. Instead, we need to work with them to make their path to success as efficient and enjoyable as possible, while aligning their efforts with the mission and vision of the organization. Once we have identified our capable team members and recognized all of their untrained potential, FEATURE | TRIBALNETONLINE.COM| tribalnetonline.com16TECHNOLOGY | BLOCKCHAINBlockchain is perhaps best known as the technology behind the prominent digital currency Bitcoin. However, it has many other purposes that are not as well-known. Blockchain operates a digital ledger to effectively share and track information related to contracts and transactions across a broad network of devices, the records of which are permanent, verifiable and secure.Tribal governments exist to protect and preserve the posterity of their unique cultures, identities, and natural environments. To achieve this, tribal governments must facilitate accountability, responsiveness and maintenance of trusted information about tribal members, tribal assets and activities through time. Blockchain has the potential to improve tribal government operations by enabling the delivery of public services, while simultaneously increasing trust.Blockchain is a distributed computing principle that removes reliance on a single master copy of a digital record by keeping a “distributed ledger” — multiple duplications of all records stored on different devices within a network. This is a fundamental departure from traditional approaches that rely on keeping a single, central master record (i.e. a single source of truth) and protecting it using restricted user permissions and firewalls. Therefore, the value of blockchain technology goes far, far beyond the development of cryptocurrency. Blockchain’s true value is in its universality. It can be applied to almost any situation that calls for keeping a secure record. BYLARRY FRETZEXECUTIVE ADVISOR/GAMING & HOSPITALITY PRACTICE LEAD,INFO-TECH RESEARCH GROUPABOUT THE AUTHORAn entrepreneur, former gaming and hospitality CIO and now consultant, executive advisor, and speaker at industry conferences, Larry Fretz is the Tribal Government, Gaming and Hospitality Practice Lead at Info-Tech Research Group where he leverages his 30+ years of expertise to help IT and Tribal leaders realize the full potential of technology to drive growth and outcomes.Traditionally, the focus of blockchain has been its ability to provide distributed validation by maintaining a distributed ledger that augments dispersed consensus building. Through this methodology, a consensus is built by allowing the sharing of transaction information within a distributed network of computers that run algorithms independently to verify when a transaction has occurred. Once a transaction has been confirmed by the network, a “block” of data is added to the chain. After additional blocks are added, it becomes nearly impossible to change or remove data associated with that transaction because the ledger would have to be adjusted on all devices within that network.Today, there are a number of blockchain tools and technologies available to tribal governments that can help protect critical data and improve the management of records associated with property ownership, land registry, identity management, voting and more. In the long term, as blockchain matures, governments may also use it to enable networked public services. A joint analysis conducted by Deloitte and Tufts University shows that blockchain experiments in the public sector are accelerating globally with more than a dozen governments and agencies running pilots, tests and trials. Whether it’s improving delivery of government services, reducing the cost of services or eliminating mistake-prone processes, there are many opportunities for tribal governments to leverage blockchain technology. Digital identity is both a use case and is the enabler for blockchain applications in tribal government. Identity is a sensitive issue that Capitalizing on Blockchain 2.0 in Tribal Governmenttribalnetonline.com |17TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018plays out at individual, family, and community levels, and it can be complicated by issues related to tribal recognition, membership and enrollment. Nonetheless, identity sets up a particular distinct status, rights and responsibilities of a citizen and may or may not require regular participation in tribal activities or even residence on tribal lands. Additionally, tribes often have differing opinions on how to determine membership and enrollment. A blockchain-enabled birth and death certificate and a secure, self-sovereign identity that stores a collection of required membership data such as kinship, lineal descendancy, biological factors and connections could be used to trace ancestry, protect and prove a person’s identity safely and efficiently. A digital identity could provide explicit control over which identity elements are shared for which purposes while enabling efficient transactions across a wide variety tribal services.Tribes are rightly worried that, despite their best efforts to protect their systems, criminals might gain access to their sacred relic, site and/or cultural resource databases to steal or manipulate records. Today’s encryption methods are never guaranteed to be 100% safe. However, by leveraging blockchain technologies, tribal governments can make these breaches more difficult to achieve. For example, the Nation of Estonia is currently rolling out a blockchain-enabled technology called Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI) to safeguard all public-sector data. KSI creates hash values, which uniquely represent large amounts of data as much smaller numeric values. In the case of tribal systems, the data points might be the sacred and cultural resource, GPS, and image database and associated site inventory and cultural context. The hash values can be used to identify records but cannot be used to reconstruct the information in the file itself, thereby protecting the underlying sensitive information. The hash values would then get stored in a blockchain and distributed across a private network of tribal-owned devices. Whenever an underlying file changes, a new hash value would be appended to the chain, and this information cannot be changed without changing the transaction log across all devices on the network. The history of each record would be fully transparent, and unauthorized tampering from within or outside of the system could be detected and prevented to aide in the protection and digital management of sacred relics, sites and cultural resources.While most tribes have established rules and regulations governing tribal elections in accordance with their Constitution, this critical public function can become one of the most controversial events within tribal sovereign nations. Blockchain-enabled automated election software is one way for tribal governments to ensure that their elections are free, open and conducted fairly. For example, in the 2017 report Embracing Innovation in Government, the OECD cited the 2016 Colombian Peace Plebiscite wherein Democracy Earth launched the digital, blockchain-powered voting platform Plebiscito Digital and worked with several civil society organizations to allow Colombians to cast symbolic votes through the platform. Additionally, Voatz, a startup in Boston, is building a blockchain-powered voting platform, which has been incorporated into multiple voting pilots across multiple jurisdictions and has been used by more than 70,000 voters. In this scenario, blockchain manages and keeps a record of vote tallies in a transparent auditable way so that no votes can be changed or removed, and no illegitimate votes can be added. In this way, blockchain is revolutionizing the voting process by ensuring voting activities are conducted in a legitimate, free, and open way. Around the world, blockchain technologies are already being prototyped and used by governments in a variety of ways that are directly applicable to tribal governments including identity management, asset management and protection, voting and even property title management and Electronic Health Records. By examining and piloting blockchain technologies beyond the headline-grabbing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, tribal governments have the opportunity to address the dual challenges of trust and transparency, and to fill the need for data protection and privacy.The question now is this: What forward-thinking tribal leader will take the lead in applying this new, useful technology to drive positive and progressive tribal outcomes?| tribalnetonline.com18A GROUP TOGETHER IS STRONGER THAN WORKING ALONEtribalnetonline.com |19TRIBALNET MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018tribalnetonline.com |19IT RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE TRIBAL COMMUNITYTransforming The Way Future Technology Decisions Are Made Info-Tech is a trusted source of information for the Choctaw Nation and is used by our organization to support IT decision making. Whether it is job description or a template process, Info-Tech is a great kick starter. Their onsite workshops are also very helpful blending hands on exercises with relevant content.The Info-Tech staff is an extention of our team!Jimmy Williams Sr. Director of Enterprise Information Management & Application Development, Choctaw NationELEVATE YOUR TEAM TO THE NEXT LEVELBring the right resources to the table and make sure that your people have the right capabilities, tools and time to achieve greatness.Erin FontManaging Director NATRC702-888-2729efont@infotech.comLarry FretzPractice LeadNATRC702-574-4575lfretz@infotech.comNext >