Yesterday, a CIO said to me: "It's time to increase the IT-smarts of the rest of the business. They are demanding more direct control and they are ready for it."
In case any of us doubted it, our frustrations with IT — and IT's frustrations with the business — are alive and well. We recently posted a slideshow, 8 Things Executives Hate About I.T. based on the core principles in my book.
If you want to know what keeps IT leaders up at night, check out this oh-so-depressing article. Entitled "Why The New Normal Could Kill IT," is a well-written summary of the challenges and risks that IT faces as it tries to navigate the new economic order with complex and difficult-to-change technology, poor technology adoption, and the reality that consumer technology is outpacing enterprise technology.
My previous blog emphasized the importance of increasing the IT-smarts of business leaders in order to fully leverage technologies that are reshaping the competitive landscape.
Consumer electronics. Sensors. Analytics. Web services. The Cloud. The cool technologies that are transforming the competitive landscape and how companies operate are not prototypes in some electronic giant's lab. They're in the marketplace, and affordable. You don't have to overhaul your IT architectures to implement them. If anything, they improve the value of that architecture that you spent gillions putting in place.
Things fall apart. Expect It. Plan for it.
You've got senior level buy-in, authority, and resources for your project. But you're lacking a few critical supporters. A few people in the middle of your organization are making it tough for you to get your job done. Their mouths say, "Yes," but their actions say, "Yes, but..."
There's only one kind of leadership malpractice: wasting the lives of those we lead.
Question: When working with IT, how can you tell the difference between an introvert and an extrovert?
Answer: The extrovert looks at your shoes.
We label people. Everyone does it.
If you are finding your job a little boring, you aren't alone. There are many who feel trapped in their current jobs since the economy has removed a few of the seats in the corporate game of musical chairs. But I challenge you to see that it's actually you, not the job, that's boring
We are selfish creatures. At our best, we reach out to others in their time of need, sometimes at great personal cost to ourselves. At our worst, we spend our time and money on wants, not needs, oblivious to our good fortune relative to others.
It's unfortunate — but true — that it's easier to think shallowly about a big problem than deeply about small ones.
My last post asked you to help resolve the business-IT standoff concerning the approach for a large transformation project. To recap, the business leader wants to use a three-year "big bang" consultant-driven approach while the VP of IT wants to use an iterative, fast-cycle approach. The standoff has become apparent to the powers-that-be and the two leaders have been tasked with developing a joint recommendation. With some additional education, the business leader is ready to adopt the iterative approach but is uncertain how to do so.
My last post asked you to be the judge of whether a business sponsor of a major initiative should take the advice of their consultants to "go big" or the advice of their IT counterparts to "go small."
This is not what you need. Yet again, the IT folks and consultants are at odds and you are stuck in the middle.
My last post raised the question, "Why does management behavior often diverge from "broadly accepted" theory or best practice?" In response, you shared insights as to why best practices aren't always practical or desirable and, instead, what should be done to (in your words) avoid "giving up on differentiation" and use best practices as "the basis for innovative practices."
Why does management behavior often diverge from "broadly accepted" theory or best practice?
Something out of the ordinary arrived on your desk today: an"IT Annual Report" brought to you by your internal IT department.
Resist the temptation to throw it away. Instead, see it for what it is: a cry for help.
My last blog discussed how to promote innovation by dismantling the mistrust that exists between IT and the rest of the business.
A seasoned IT vet responded with a self-described "dumb question" that's far from dumb: "I graduated in 1978 from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a BBA in what is now called Information Systems, which is business applications of computers. This was when both the degree and the university were new. I understood this degree was created to address this issue. Why hasn't it?"
Interested in nurturing technology-enabled innovation? Start by nurturing relationships.
