CIO opinion
CIO OPINION
Why can’t the infrastructure and end-user
machines create the incident verses a
human having to do it? To take this a step
further, why can’t an intelligent machine
resolve the incident once it is received? All
without requiring a human to intervene. It didn’t take long for this IT organisation to
start finding ways they could deliver results
that not just align with business priorities but
deliver business results.
The time we get back by automating
everything that simply ‘makes systems work’
affords IT departments the much-needed
room to be agile and deliver business value. As you free up IT’s time to be creative,
innovative and imaginative, there will be no
shortage of good ideas. CIOs know we can’t
be agile at everything that comes our way.
“
IT’S THE CIO’S
JOB TO GIVE
THEIR TEAMS A
SAFETY NET.
Make sure your IT people can talk
the talk
Focus on what’s really important
What’s truly important will be grounded
in tangible business results; what’s not will
waste valuable IT time and kill agility. It is
critical IT recognise the difference.
As IT staff become fluent in the business
language and asks the right questions,
what’s important will become easier to spot.
We also need to consider that there is
a difference between what is important
verses what is urgent. Urgent is putting out
fires, busywork or tasks IT staff tackle first
because they are easier than the project list.
But urgent requests that should only take a
couple of minutes end up taking an hour. At
the end of the day, we’re wondering where
all the time went.
What’s stopping IT agility?
As CIOs, we’re focused on driving business
outcomes and strategies for growth, efficiency
and productivity. As we build agile IT
organisations and focus on delivering business
results, we cannot overlook the legacy internal
structures – down to compensation structures
– that need to change too.
It comes down to fear. Fear is a show stopper
for building an agile IT organisation. CIOs
need to have patience, train their IT teams
and get them past the fear, uncertainty and
doubt (FUD). Bear in mind it’s not just fear
of irrelevance that derails IT agility.
Having the time to innovate and take risks
in IT all in the name of better business
outcomes sounds great, but what happens
when an idea doesn’t work? IT folks need
to know it is OK to fail and that mistakes
will not be a capital crime. It’s the CIO’s
job to give their teams a safety net.
Building an agile IT organisation will not
be easy. It will be uncomfortable at times,
but it will be worth the effort. The agility
we build into our organisations today will
ensure IT does not become the order takers
of tomorrow. n
Most IT organisations struggle with talking in
a language that speaks to business leaders.
If IT sits down with the head of sales about a
project and the question we ask is ‘What do
you need us to do?’ then we’ve become an
order taker. We need to talk to stakeholders in
their business terms and outcomes.
An agile IT organisation needs people who
have half their brain in IT and the other half
in sales, marketing, finance or whichever line
of business is sitting across the table. These
IT people work with the business leaders to
define the outcomes they are after.
They seek to understand why something
needs to change, not just how. This skillset
is what separates leading IT organisations
from the rest.
To help IT to start using the same vocabulary,
one of my CIO peers started requiring all IT
staffers to listen to quarterly earnings calls
with analysts.
That helped IT to understand the strategic
goals of the business and to ask some
poignant questions.
40
INTELLIGENTCIO
www.intelligentcio.com