IT must earn its right to innovate

by

When I tell people I help CIOs run IT organizations more effectively, I often get a response along the lines of “oh, you have to help OUR company’s IT department!” The issues I hear boil down to two: either the existing systems are unreliable or new projects aren’t meeting needs fast enough.

I also spend a fair amount of time speaking with people who work within IT organizations. When I talk with them about their frustrations, they don’t cite unreliable systems or late projects. They often say that they have great ideas but don’t have the opportunity to lead change within their organizations. They want to use technology to make a difference and have great ideas as to how to do it at their companies.

Clearly, this is a gap in priorities and this is perhaps the fundamental issue around the elusive “alignment” problem we’ve been hearing about for years. The method to solve this problem is very simple, but IT has to take its medicine. IT must earn its right to innovate by first delivering on the basic needs of the business.

Most successful IT turnarounds go through three phases:
1. First, they demonstrate the ability to run reliable systems. This simply qualifies them as a commodity player.
2. Second, they demonstrate their ability to deliver new projects on time and on budget, meeting the ever changing needs of their users. This makes them a valued partner.
3. Finally, they can move into the realm of value where they bring innovation to their companies. This is when they become the true trusted advisor.

For companies who have serious rifts between the IT organization and its business counterparts, it could take years to go through these phases. Small mis-steps along the way can throw them back a phase or two. That said, if everyone within the IT organization is aligned around the intention to step through these phases and get to the vision of being a trusted advisor, success is much more likely.

IT organizations who want to really make a difference within the companies they serve must clearly lay out where they are and work hard to step through each phase. There are no shortcuts.

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more