Aug 25, 2022 | 3 min read

Driving Strategic Change with Patrick Dineen

By: Patrick Emmons

Driving Strategic Change with Patrick Dineen

Seeking professional advice to advance your career? Patrick Dineen, Chief Information Officer at Nielsen, has the answer: solve bigger problems. As a leader in strategic planning and transformational thinking within several major companies over his career, Patrick is perfectly positioned to witness the incredible value of team members who seek out challenges and take advantage of big opportunities to contribute.

In this episode, Patrick reflects on outside-in thinking and a growth mindset in the workplace. He shares insight into the value of building relationships and trust across companies. Patrick discusses his leadership style: influence over authority, a willingness to take the blame, and intentionality in seeking out ways to assist colleagues. Patrick illuminates the complex relationship of being present and planning for the future, and he expounds on the value of operating on a very familiar unit of time: one week.

  • (01:30) – CIO at Nielsen
  • (05:30) – Building relationships across an organization
  • (09:00) – Obsoleting your own role
  • (13:50) – The tyranny of growth
  • (15:15) – Solve bigger problems
  • (19:22) – Thinking weekly
  • (23:40) – Influence, not authority
  • (28:03) – Taking the blame
  • (33:09) – Avoiding “watermelon status”
  • (33:57) – Change management

About Our Guest

Patrick Dineen is the Chief Information Officer at Nielsen. Previously, he served in leadership positions at CSG Systems, Harte Hanks, USADATA, Claritas, and Equifax. Patrick earned an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering at Columbia University.

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About Patrick Emmons

If you can’t appreciate a good sports analogy, movie quote, or military reference, you may not want to work with him, but if you value honesty, integrity, and commitment to improvement, Patrick can certainly help take your business or your career to the next level. “Good enough,” is simply not in his vernacular. Pat’s passion is for relentlessly pushing himself and others to achieve full potential. Patrick Emmons is a graduate of St. Norbert College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Patrick co-founded Adage Technologies in 2001 and in 2015, founded DragonSpears as a spin-off dedicated to developing custom applications that improve speed, compliance and scalability of clients’ internal and customer-facing workflow processes. When he is not learning about new technology, running a better business, or becoming a stronger leader, he can be found coaching his kids’ (FIVE of them) baseball and lacrosse teams and praising his ever-so-patient wife for all her support.

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