Ep.85 The 3 P's of an Effective Team with Darrell Tompkins, CIO at the Texas Water Development Board

Joe Toste [00:00:00]:
You're listening to the public sector show by Techtables, a podcast dedicated to sharing human centric stories from CIOs and technology leaders across cities, county, state and federal agencies, joining in the conversation and touching the hearts and minds of leaders across technology today, from mission driven leadership to cloud AI to cybersecurity, workforce challenges, and more. Never miss insights from peers and vendor partners across the public sector. And to make sure you never miss an episode, head over to Techtables.com and drive your email to subscribe. New podcast episodes come out every Tuesday and Thursday, along with weekly behind the Mic newsletter. And one of today's podcast sponsors is Techtables plus, an engaging new community where you can have early access to never before released episodes, early access to live event recordings, early access to weekly three interesting learnings, early access to live event ticket purchases, no episode ads and more, plus three extra special bonuses when you sign up today. Bonus number one, access to the CEO show bonus number two, access to the higher Ed show and bonus number three, access to the digital show. Join Techtables plus today. As always, thank you for supporting the techtables network.

Joe Toste [00:01:12]:
Welcome to Techtables. Super excited to have you on this afternoon.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:01:16]:
Thanks so much, Joe. It is a pleasure to be here. And it's great to see you again, man.

Joe Toste [00:01:20]:
Yeah, it's awesome to see you. You are a champ from coming downtown right after the Austin Marathon, half marathon to come meet up with me because I know the city was all locked down for the race. So thank you for coming out.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:01:34]:
Yeah, and I got to give you a final shout out for that, man. The fact that you knocked that out and you're not like a consistent runner and the pace that you ran that in, not to mention the cause, I can't remember the exact name of the foundation, but ensuring a good, clean water supply for underdeveloped countries is awesome, man. So kudos to you.

Joe Toste [00:01:54]:
Yeah, shout out to World Vision and team world vision for putting that together. Actually, they're hitting me up to run the La marathon or half marathon on. I want to say it's March 20 in a couple of weeks and I don't know how much I have in the tank. I ran 5 miles the other day when I got back and I looked pathetic. That's how tired it was. You're a big basketball fan, and so maybe at some point we'll get into or not, or just the podcast will go in an entirely different direction. But I know you're a big basketball fan, which I know we connected. You're also the CIO for the Texas Development waterboard.

Joe Toste [00:02:27]:
And I know you provide inspirational and effective it leadership for the agency, which is probably why everyone at techables actually came to listen this episode. They're like, joe, we don't want to hear you talk about basketball with Daryl the whole time. Yeah, we'll jump into it. So before we begin, today's episode is sponsored by Nagaro Public sector. Nagarro public sector excels at helping senior technology leaders in digital disruption, from cloud to AI to big data and digital product engineering to system integration work across platforms. To learn more about Nagaro, check out nagaro.com. Okay, so, Darryl, let's start with your background. You have pretty background.

Joe Toste [00:02:59]:
You were at the four seasons as a director of IT and risk management. And how did the hospitality industry prepare you as a leader to serve your current team at the Texas Water Development Board?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:03:11]:
Yeah, actually, prior to that, I actually had a hospitality degree. So coming out of high school, it was real interest of mine. Hospitality customer service, got a hospitality degree, and I was fortunate to get on with four seasons. That's a fantastic customer service oriented hospitality company. During my stint with four seasons, I was actually able to move into a technology leadership role, which was perfect because it really helped me to be able to merge two passions of mine, technology and customer service. And that was a great experience for me. It just took my passion for customer service to the next level. To answer your question, I really believe customer service and relationships are critical pillars to success for any operation, and especially in it.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:04:01]:
And that wasn't always the case in the it profession. I remember the Saturday Night Live computer guy skit with Jimmy Fallon. So I'm revealing my age here a little bit. The gist of those skits was that the IT guy was just incredibly condescending to the people he was helping, and he'd just be like, you don't know what you're doing. Move out of the way. And there was a lot of truth to that in the IT profession years ago. There was a lot of you need us, we don't need you mentality. And I think everyone knows that is a recipe for failure today.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:04:35]:
In it, customer service is really important, and I think truly excellent customer service is anticipating what the customer wants and providing it without them ever having to ask for it or maybe even realizing that they wanted it. You are anticipating it to that level and degree, and I think this plays right into the IT profession. Right. As an IT leader, you want to be knowledgeable of business processes and pain points, and you want to be able to recommend technology solutions for them that can make their operation more efficient and productive that maybe they weren't even aware of or before they even asked for it. You want to be presenting it to them as a solution, and that's in an ideal world. And that is getting harder and harder to achieve these days with the pace of change being at the rate that it is and the digital transformation demand increasing like it. But ideally that's where you'd like to operate at. But, yeah, I just think my customer service background and experience has really helped me to succeed in establishing customer service oriented cultures with my teams.

Joe Toste [00:05:49]:
Yeah, let's back up just a second. So you got a hospitality degree, and when you went to get that degree, I imagine it's probably some form of business and maybe actually just general business, and then mixed in with some hospitality. There was no technology class, is that right? Or was there some technology? How did you get the initial. Was that all at Four Seasons?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:06:13]:
That's correct, yeah. So it was a hotel and restaurant management degree at the University of Houston, the Hilton Hotel school there. And, yeah, there was no technology component to that really, at. Initially, my plan was, I'm going to be a general manager of a hotel. That was my initial goal. But just like I said, during my time with four seasons, I started to realize maybe that's not exactly what I want to do. And technology had become a real passion of mine just on the side. And then I had an opportunity there to move into a technology role with the four seasons, and it was perfect.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:06:49]:
And then I realized this is what I really wanted. And like I said, it just blended that to kind of two passions of technology, but then also just providing great customer service because I truly enjoy that. It's not something, and I think to really be good at it, you have to enjoy it. You can provide good customer service and maybe not enjoy it, but it's something that I really enjoy doing. I like seeing the smile on the end user's face when you've fixed a problem for them or you've provided them a technology solution that has just made their lives much easier at work.

Joe Toste [00:07:24]:
Yeah, no, that's great. And what's a specific example of good customer service that you use at the four Seasons and a specific one that you're using at the Texas Water Development board?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:07:38]:
Wow.

Joe Toste [00:07:40]:
I'm taking you back a number of years right now to the four Seasons.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:07:44]:
Yeah. And I guess there's a lot of directions I could go with that question. Right. At the four seasons, I had a lot more direct interaction with guests coming into the hotel. And with TWDB being a state agency, that opportunity doesn't exist as much. Our customers here are really the staff of the agency that are dealing with the external customers. But at four seasons, I was dealing directly with the guests. And it could have been a business executive who had come in from a long trip on the road and had to get ready for a meeting.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:08:20]:
And maybe he was having issues getting his wireless connectivity to work in his room. And so you're running up there in the nick of time to get everything set up for him and really save the day for him, because that's the most important thing for them at that point in time as far as solutions go and implementing solutions there at the hotel. I remember one of the ones that we implemented at the time was, I believe it was called hot sauce. And what it did was it really helped elevate the housekeeping service that we were providing to our customers and making that process more. All of the housekeepers started using ipods at the time to start taking requests and prioritizing which rooms to go to, any sort of special requests that were coming in to guests. And so at the time, back then, that was a real game changer, and it made one their jobs much easier and more efficient. But it also allowed us to provide much better service to the guests in a much more catered and more efficient way. Bring that over to the TWDB side again.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:09:26]:
The customers here are really the other employees of the agencies. I think it's just anytime that we're able to provide a technology solution to them that removes pain points and makes their lives easier. Teams, here we are, right, having this conversation, you and I, right now, virtually. But teams is a more recent one where we've taken a slow and steady approach to rolling out the teams platform and teams workspaces to our agency, because we want to make sure that we're checking all the boxes and doing it the right way. But just what that's going to do for them when it comes to collaboration, whether somebody's working virtually or on site, is going to be, I think, a big win for them and a game changer for us.

Joe Toste [00:10:14]:
Moving down the road, you've got to implement hot sauce at the TWDB. You got to get that hot sauce in there. Also, you had said iPod. I don't know what an iPod is. No, I'm totally messing with you. I don't know. IPod is okay. That is old.

Joe Toste [00:10:30]:
I'll go off on a tangent on an iPod. Okay. So while you're at the four seasons you had picked up, you had told me before off camera about the three P's, people, product profit. Let's talk about the three P's. Start with people.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:10:43]:
Yeah. So it all starts with people, right? That's the three P's. Everything starts with people. I am a firm believer in that. It is a primary focus for me. Significant effort there. Recruit and retain elite talent through recognition, appreciation and accountability. And there's so much that goes into that.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:11:04]:
I'm super passionate about finding the right people for our team here and the culture that we've created. And recruiting and interviewing is a two way process. Right. The IT labor market is so hyper competitive and it has been for a while that those candidates are interviewing you just like you're interviewing them. And when we find somebody that we think is a good fit we're fighting for, we're not just leaving it to chance and hoping that, okay, we're going to give an offer and hope they accept. We're going the extra mile and fighting for these candidates to really try to accept our offer and bring them on board with us. And then once, if we're fortunate to land that candidate, you move into onboarding and that first impression, that first experience is so important. We want them to feel welcome and comfortable and have good structure in place for those first few weeks when they're joining the agency.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:12:01]:
And I could go on a long time about the people side of it, but just genuine, sincere recognition and appreciation and then accountability. Like I said, I've actually heard this mentioned on some of your other podcasts about the importance of accountability, and I agree 100%, but it has to come from a place of mutual respect and kindness, that accountability has to be done in the right way, but it's critically important. So, yeah, people. And then the philosophy is that if you've got good people and you're taking good care of them, they're going to produce a good product. And then the rest of it's real simple, right? If you've got good people creating a good product, the profit just naturally follows from that. And so that is the three P's. It's a pretty simple concept, but it's one I still am a big believer in. And so, yeah, it's all about the people.

Joe Toste [00:12:54]:
Yeah, I love that. That actually goes really well with my next question, which is around why do you think people and culture is so important within the organization? There was some stuff that you had hinted on as far as retaining elite talent, but just kind of curious to hear more about the people and culture and why it's so important to like.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:13:15]:
It'S what everything is built on. I think you mentioned basketball at the beginning. You and I have talked about this a little bit, and I'm a college basketball fan, and I have two great schools to root for. I went to u of eight go cougs. I'm pulling for the Cougars, but I've lived in Austin most of my life, and so I'm a huge Longhorn fan as well. I'm a big Chris beard fan. We were fortunate to land him as a coach, which I think was an incredible hire. And he just made a comment just within the last few weeks that it's a player's game and your employees are the ones that make everything happen.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:13:48]:
Without a team of rock star employees, your IT organization isn't going to accomplish much. And so as leaders, we just try to create an environment that allows them to succeed, keeps them feeling engaged and happy. And the culture of your shop is the foundation of that, I think. And all the leadership sayings and cliches of people don't follow titles and lead by example. I think they're true. I think the good characteristics or the characteristics of good leaders have stood the test of time. And I think people try to reinvent this sometimes, but it's pretty simple, I think. And so I think those things stand the test of time.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:14:40]:
And you've got to identify and establish what you want your culture to be. And then you better be living and breathing it 110% of the time, right? You can't get lazy. You can't start turning a blind eye to things because it takes a good while to get the culture established that you want, but it doesn't take very long to lose it. And I just was thinking back about the accountability, right. Of just recently, I had a couple of superstar employees, but some things slip through the cracks, and that happens. It happens all the time. And these are great employees. Seriously, I'd cry if we lost these employees.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:15:21]:
But you still have to have that conversation. You don't just turn a blind eye to it. It's a positive, motivational conversation. Right? Like a basketball coach. Like, I know you are, like, on the sideline. That's more of a come on, guys, we're better than this conversation. It's uplifting, but you're still addressing it, but you're doing it in the right way because the attitude is there, the effort is there, but a mistake happened, and you're just like, okay, what do we do to make sure that same mistake doesn't happen again. And that's different from an employee, that maybe the attitude isn't right or the effort isn't there, then that's a different message.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:15:59]:
Right. That's a different message of accountability that you're sending. But, yeah, I think that is just critical to everything that you want your operation to be. That's where it all starts from.

Joe Toste [00:16:14]:
Yeah. This idea of culture I think about a lot because especially, like, on the basketball team, every season, you get, especially when you're a JV coach, you lose. 99% of your players go up to varsity, you get just like a new batch of kids who come in. And so the culture you're starting basically from square one or even zero or you're in the parking lot, that's how far away you are starting. When I think about it, I think what makes it so important is when you see teams that are highly dysfunctional and they're not together, you intuitively get it where you're like, okay, so I don't want to be like that, or I don't want my team to mimic that or be like that. And so I think figuring out, okay, this is not the culture we want is super important. And the, I think just sitting down and defining, like, when you're the leader, sitting down and defining what's important to you, being able to address, going back to accountability, being able to address stuff. And when you're a coach, you have to address stuff all the times, whether that's turnovers or your players looking at the ref a certain way or they're talking back.

Joe Toste [00:17:34]:
You have to be able to step in and make those adjustments and really figure out, hey, how can we get the team together? And adults are high schoolers and adults, they're different, but they're also the same. Where I would say even high schoolers are probably more emotional. They just have a lot going on. But so do adults. And I think part of the job of a leader, I think part of my job as a coach is I'm like part time therapist because I'm listening to their problems, I'm listening to their life. I'm asking questions. I'm trying to figure out how I can keep them focused while there's all these other distractions out there. How I can keep the focused on this two hour practice or this 90 minutes game or whatever it is for this block of time.

Joe Toste [00:18:19]:
And I know a lot of leaders and a lot of adults have a lot of problems, too. Have leaders. Taking the time to actually make that investment is really powerful, actually. R1 tangible tip that I picked up from my wife, which she would tell, going back to customer service, she would say, I appreciate you. And the pretty soon, I started saying that, oh, yeah, I appreciate you. And I think it's like a little thing or another really great phrase she'll use is she'll say, like, hey, I noticed you did this. And the, I'm like, oh, these are really great. I'm going to use this.

Joe Toste [00:18:52]:
So I start taking notes down. I'm using it on the basketball court. And so I think leaders, too, appreciating, noticing, I think that leads all this leads to retaining really great employees, because you're right. It's a player's game. Players can go where they want, but if you can touch their heart and you can somehow figure out, hey, this is the impact that you're going to make. People just gravitate towards you, and they gravitate towards your organization. They want to be a part of that, which is super fun. There's some thoughts around people and culture, and I think sometimes it gets tossed in as like, oh, this is just a fluffy topic, but it's really not.

Joe Toste [00:19:35]:
And all the technology is there. It's. The hardest part is getting people to buy in. And I was talking about van rides is a great one. And I don't know, I haven't quite figured this out yet for CIOs, getting them in a van with their team, but it's a great idea. We got the tech table sweet talk series, which I'll talk about in a second. That's close to a van ride, but the. I was talking to stephanie Dedman.

Joe Toste [00:20:00]:
She's the CIO for the state of tennessee, and she said, oh, I'm hopping in a van. I was like, oh, really? Okay, well, what van are you hoping in? Oh, I'm doing this Kentucky bourbon run later in the year. Hey, do you want to join my team? I was like, sure, why not? I just don't even know what I committed to, but I just say yes to everything, and you hop in a van.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:20:21]:
You're getting into a lot of runs these days, man. I know.

Joe Toste [00:20:26]:
Actually trying to go to yoga more than I run just because of the pounding building. Like, when I think about culture, a huge piece of it is community. Right. And so how do you build that community? I think, too. Another real tangible thing is just being able to eat with your team. People love to eat. Like most people. I love to eat.

Joe Toste [00:20:46]:
People love to. You get to know people. It's not just, oh, tell me about what sequel package you dropped in today, but more of the meaningful stuff. You start figuring out, oh, Darryl is a huge UT basketball fan. And then you just pick up on the human side and the people come to work more inspired and energetic and they bring more effort because they have more energy. And all of that stuff starts to make the organization gel together. So I love that, man.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:21:14]:
I agree 100% said and great points. And like I said at the beginning, customer service and relationships are, I think, critical keys to success. And yeah, you have to invest in those relationships with your staff. Just like you said, they've got to be relationships of mutual respect and trust. And it can't just be I'm the boss and we're working here together type relationship that doesn't work. You've got to invest in those things. And like you said, just like basketball coach does with the players, that's how you build a winning team. And I agree with you 100%, Joe.

Joe Toste [00:21:49]:
Love it. So as you, Darryl, we talked about it. I'm launching a new series called the Tech Table Sweet Talk series. Small, intimate conversations happening live across the US starting Thursday, April 21 in Phoenix with Arizona State CIO, J. R. Sloan and seven other fabulous CIOs. I used to read all their names, but pretty soon because of the number of events I'm running, it turned out to be like 30 something people. So I'm just going to read one, maybe two.

Joe Toste [00:22:20]:
Tim Roemer, who's the stacy so will be there. It's going to be a blast. There's a page up. If you're a vendor and you're interested in attending, that one's going to be in Phoenix. That'll be the first one. Again on Thursday, April 21. A lot of fabulous folks rented out a presidential suite. It's going to be a blast.

Joe Toste [00:22:36]:
And then also we confirmed audience favorite Mandy Crawford, CIO of the state of Texas, on May 18 here in Austin. I'm actually not in Austin right now, but in Austin, Texas, which I'm really excited about at the Commodore. A lot of people telling me the commodore is really hot. So really excited about that. And I've just seen pictures, but the pictures look great. And then on July 22, I'm going to be heading to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the tech table sweet talk series, grilling and chilling. Jim Weaver, he is also a huge basketball fan, by the way. He's the CIO of the state of North Carolina.

Joe Toste [00:23:10]:
Also competitive on the barbecue front. So if you want to have a competitive barbecue taste off, that's going to be the place to be going to be. Twelve cios there. Live podcast interview. It's going to be a ton of fun. Make sure to check it out. Tables.com. If you're a vendor, you can go there to apply.

Joe Toste [00:23:28]:
If you're a CIO and there's a spot that's open, I want to say Phoenix is full. North Carolina might almost be full for live podcast events. You hit me up at joe@techtables.com and you can catch episode 78 for more details in the tech table sweet talk series where my wife interviews me, which is a ton of fun. So we'll go back to the show, Daryl. Great. Yeah. You gonna come to the one in Austin? You gonna come? Did I win you over?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:23:58]:
You're putting me on the spot, but, yeah, of course.

Joe Toste [00:24:01]:
Oh, there it is. Got him. We got him. Corey. I know Corey listened to every episode. We got him.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:24:05]:
He's going to come, man. If Cory's going to be there, I'll be there.

Joe Toste [00:24:11]:
Yeah, he's coming on the podcast.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:24:13]:
And you said Mandy's going to be there.

Joe Toste [00:24:14]:
Mandy's going to be there. Yep.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:24:16]:
You've got a winner right there. Yeah, she's going to be awesome.

Joe Toste [00:24:19]:
Yeah, she's a big time winner. On our podcast intro call, you had mentioned this is actually really fascinating now that we're going to dive into a little more of the Texas development water board. But you had mentioned that it really functions like a bank providing low interest loans to counties and municipalities. Can you talk about the type of projects that your team engages in throughout Texas?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:24:39]:
I can at a high age level.

Joe Toste [00:24:42]:
High level is great. Yeah, high level is great. Don't need the tiny details.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:24:45]:
I'm the tech guy, and I know I should be spending a big chunk of my time in business, and I try to, but that's not exactly where I want it to be yet. So I'm working that way, but, yeah. The agency's mission is to lead the state's efforts in ensuring a secure water future for Texas and its citizens. So through state and federal funding programs, we provide low interest loans to local governments and communities for water supply and water quality projects. And more recently, we were tasked with providing funding for flood mitigation projects as well. So that's a newer thing for us, but, yeah, so, like projects, new reservoirs, a new water treatment plant, water towers, water pipelines, et cetera, whatever it might be, the projects span the entire state. The financing is available for communities of all sizes. El Paso to Beaumont, Dallas to Brownsville.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:25:48]:
Example. If the city of Austin was looking to make improvements to its water supply or wastewater system, or if they were going to build a new system, they could come to the Texas Water Development Board for low interest financing the project, whether it's planning, design, acquisition, construction, all of the above. Yeah, that's what we do at a high level. And there's all sorts of different projects that we get involved in. I think I just heard not too long ago, since the agency's inception, we've, I think, done over $32 billion in financial commitments since that time. So, yeah, good things are happening with that money, and they're needed to ensure that our citizens have a good, stable water supply because the population of this state is growing rapidly.

Joe Toste [00:26:41]:
That's right, because people like me from California want to move to Texas or keep moving to Texas.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:26:46]:
We'd love to have you, Joe. We would love to have you, man.

Joe Toste [00:26:49]:
I know. I'm trying to get my affairs in order so I can hightail it out of California. Everyone in California listening is probably going to cry. Right now, I've got three states. Texas, Tennessee, and Florida are the, the on my docket. So I know I have a lot of fans, Texas, who are pushing hard, and friends. So I'm excited. I think I was thinking about, first off, I think it's super fascinating that the Texas Water development board really acts like a bank.

Joe Toste [00:27:14]:
Kind of was reminding me of like, oh, the fast food. You're like, no, it's really a real estate. And there's like a famous Harvard business case study on that. So that's actually what kind of piqued my interest was, like, oh, okay. So I wouldn't have even thought about all of the funding and all of the loans that are going out to the counties and cities and municipalities to engage in that mission across Texas. So I thought that was really fascinating.

Joe Toste [00:27:42]:
You're listening to the public sector show by tech tables, a podcast dedicated to sharing human centric stories from CIOs and technology leaders across cities, counties, state, and federal agencies. Joining in the conversation and touching the hearts and minds of leaders across technology today, from mission driven leadership to cloud AI to cybersecurity, workforce challenges, and more. Never miss insights from peers and vendor partners across the public sector. And to make sure you never miss an episode, head over to techtables.com and drop an email to subscribe. New podcast episodes come out every Tuesday and Thursday, along with weekly behind the Mic newsletter. And one of today's podcast sponsors is Techtables, plus an engaging new community where you can have early access to never before released episodes, early access to live event recordings, early access to weekly three interesting learnings, early access to live event ticket purchases, no episode ads and more, plus three, extra special bonuses when you sign up today. Bonus number one, access to the CEO show bonus number two, access to the higher Ed show and bonus number three, access to the digital show. Join Techtables plus today.

Joe Toste [00:28:44]:
As always, thank you for supporting the Techtables network.