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Tue, Sep 25, 2007 8:27 EDT
Want business influence? You may already have more than you think!
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Posted by: Chris Potts in Best Practices Topic: IT Organization Management
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According to one of the next-generation CIOs, IT people underestimate the influence they already have, and it can therefore be counter-productive.
The other day I had lunch with Marc O’Brien, CIO of BUPA Hospitals (soon to become Spire Healthcare) in London, England. Marc is one of the next-generation CIOs, not content with being the quasi-supplier of technology services that I’ve written about before. He’s a fount of insights, not least about business culture and behaviors, and this time was no exception.
I’d previously worked with him when he was IT Investment Director at the airports company BAA. We often argued tooth-and-claw about tactics, which sometimes disguised - especially to others - consensus on underlying principles and on the ultimate goal. Given the pace of change in the business environment, arguments about tactics are, as I learned long ago, a feature of a healthy strategy.
This time, we were talking about IT people and influence. He pointed out that many people in IT departments have more influence over business decisions and behaviors than they think. As a result, they don’t craft and exploit this influence, so it’s often counter-productive. Putting it another way, they are unintentionally influencing their colleagues in the wider business to behave in a way that does nobody any good.
It’s a frequent complaint of IT people that they don’t have enough influence. Marc’s assertion, which I would unreservedly endorse from working with him and others, is that we already have more influence than we apparently know how to use.
What’s required is a step back, to explore our current influence model and re-craft it, in some cases quite radically. Then, the better we use the influences we already have, the more we’re likely to be given.
Influence; IT value; IT organization
I agree with you, wholeheartedly. IT influence, or influence in general can be good or bad, depending on the influencer, the influenced and what\how\why is being influenced. I suppose this is one of the hurdles that all leaders face; what to listen to, what not to listen to, and what to act upon.
Shawn Faulkingham
Indeed IT has influence. The issue is that IT managers often do not employ it effectively.
Let’s start by examining the areas in which IT has (potential) influence.
The first and most obvious is in deciding how to implement user requirements – what technologies to utilize, how to configure and implement that technology. Even in this area, IT often fails to influence the decisions based on a sound long term view of technology direction and vision for the enterprise. All too often business users get to pick their favored application without the benefit of clear requirements that support logical evaluation of alternatives, or a technology context for the organization.
Second, IT can influence requirements – adding for example their unique perspective on modifications that can add flexibility and adaptability in the future, to account for unknown or unknowable changes. This can materially add to the useful life of an investment and to its value-added to the enterprise.
And third, IT can – through judicious education of the management team – open peoples’ eyes to the potential value that technology can add to the enterprise’s business. In this way, IT can influence not only investment direction and prioritization of investments within the business, but also the organization’s business strategy.
How to succeed? Speak in plain English, not techno-babble. Be clear about IT’s role – to educate and to implement, not to decide. Elevate the discussion to one of technology vision and direction, not application selection (although that comes later, within the context of a vision).
Based on personal experience, IT can earn a respected position in the corporation – as a contributor and strategic partner rather than simply an implementer.
Bob Kotch
rak@simassoc.biz
www.simassoc.biz
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