Building a data program isn't all about the tech—it's about getting people to actually work together. Carlos Rivero shares what it was really like starting as Virginia's first Chief Data Officer with no team, no budget, and a lot of skeptical agencies. He talks about how he learned to be more of a "people wrangler" than a data expert, turning critics into allies and figuring out that most of the job was just getting everyone on the same page.

Ever wonder why so many promising tech pilots never make it past the starting line? In this episode, Sid chats with Jonathan Alexander about breaking free from “pilot purgatory” and actually scaling innovation. From cavemen pushing carts with square wheels to global rollouts of cutting-edge solutions, Jonathan brings stories, strategy, and wisdom about how to get things done in a giant enterprise. They dive into building business cases that don’t flop, why change management beats the perfect tech stack, and how to avoid getting stuck with great ideas that go nowhere.

Leading complex IT systems in a major city demands more than technical know-how—it requires a shift from individual success to team achievement. Summer Xiao, Deputy CIO of Houston, shares her journey from "I" to "we," discussing the crucial transition from "doer" to "facilitator," the importance of shared ownership in large projects, and how team performance reflects directly on leadership.

State University Systems are frequently impacted by state legislation- from funding to rules, policies, and everything in between. Universities typically operate with streamlined (slim) budgets, busy staff, and with lots of focus on serving students and research. Legislators are similarly busy and concerned with many things across the state, not just the university system. Proposals and draft legislation impact the universities, but lots of content, lots of drafts, and a short legislative cycle make it very time consuming for the university to find all the legislative content that impacts them, and then decide how to best to collaborate. Ryan Jockers and the NDUS team utilized AI to drastically reduce this burden, cutting the time to insight from weeks to minutes. LegiTrack, their system, is just the start!

You might hear "NDSU" instead of "NDUS" a few times during the episode. Apologies for the slip of the tongue! We're still talking about the North Dakota University System throughout.

North Dakota is well known for energy and food production, but less known is the states roots in technology. Rep. Josh Christy discusses North Dakota's ambitions in AI, what they mean, and how North Dakota is taking a holistic approach to safety and innovation.

Successful AI projects/ideas have many necessary ingredients, one of the most important being the people you identify and choose to be part of the project. How to you decide and how to you build culture? Ron Green is a successful entrepreneur, listen in as he discusses his most current company (almost seven successful years now!) as he walks us through finding the right folks to add to the team, how they build their culture of discovery and delivery at KungFu, and how they deliver projects to their clients.

The first Federal Chief AI Officer, Oki Mek, runs through three key components in building responsible and secure AI programs, something desperately needed in today's organizations.

How do you get all the cowfolk to giddy-up in the same direction? Smart people are notorious for having opinions; combine intelligence with the independent streak in North Dakota folks and it makes for a lot of work in driving change. Kim Weis has some insightful tips in lessons learned in trying change, failing, learning, and trying again.