CIO Leadership

CIO Driven Realignment

What you do matters. What technology does matters. The recent evolution of positive relationship between IT and business leverages greater possibilities than ever before. That makes alignment between IT and LOB more critical than ever before.

Joe Woodruff

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December 13, 2018

Photo credit:
Connor McSheffrey

A recent report indicates that the average user of modern technology adds over two years to their life in time saved.

What you do matters. What technology does matters. The recent evolution of positive relationship between IT and business leverages greater possibilities than ever before. That makes alignment between IT and LOB more critical than ever before.

How Misalignment Happens

  1. When we confuse people with process.
    Technology moves at a feverish pace. C-Suite Executives and business grows concerned with falling behind. IT and the CIO/CTO grow concerned with keeping up. No other executive work changes as rapidly as the CIO/CTO. Relationship is the first to go when projects overwhelm. The CIO/CTO is responsible for ensuring that IT personnel are being championed as doing their best. Good people still must work within a process whose time to completion is less than desirable. Misalignment happens when fear gives way to blame. The CIO/CTO is tasked with keeping everyone’s perspectives clear.
  2. When we confuse interdependence with dependence.
    Interdependence equals integrated work with positions and responsibilities intact. As the CIO/CTO becomes one person more executives and business leaders depend on, failure awaits those leaders who try to reassert a sense of self-reliance by pushing the CIO/CTO and IT to the fringe of involvement. For this reason alone, the CIO/CTO must report to the CEO. In doing so, business partners become peers, and the alignment of CEO strategy with CIO/CTO perspective allows for greater change at faster pace.
  3. When we confuse being “at the table” with “having arrived.”
    I have long contended for the CIO/CTO to be in a role that is strategic decisive. Now that more CIO/CTO’s have been invited in, the need for soft skills and right perspective has increased exponentially.
    The CIO/CTO must improve in areas of personal interaction, intentional communication and presentation. At the same time, while focused on what matters most in their IT realm, the CIO/CTO must keep before them the CEO priorities of revenue, efficiency and costs.
  4. The CIO/CTO is a master of understanding that on every issue, leaders possess:
    - Different information
    - Different interpretation
    - Different impact

Alignment occurs when information is shared by all, different interpretation of that information is understood and made clear, and the different impacts and threats a conversation presents is revealed so that common purpose and unity is achieved.

How Realignment Happens

  1. Remember that good enough is good enough.
    IT balances maintenance and innovation. If email doesn’t work, no one cares about an idea to change the world. Everyday technology must work and innovation must fly.
    The CIO/CTO avoids technology for technology sake, and ensures that all development is toward solution of a business purpose. IT is no longer after perfect, but they are after highly functional while purpose-driven.
  2. Remind business that the power to purchase does not equal the best use of power.
    More LOB is involved in independent technology purchase. The CIO/CTO must now come alongside as one who persuades and consults, rather than control. If one fails, all fails. The CIO/CTO is tasked with helping everyone with purchasing power to see the value of right purchase over the right to purchase. Then, the CIO/CTO must create efficient and easy venues in which consultation and advice may take place.
  3. Rally IT to the needs of external customers.
    LOB needs IT to produce solutions for external customers, not just internal customers. More effective CIO/CTO’s understand that in order to serve the customer, they must meet with the customer. Align your team to accompany those within the business who are conducting real customer interface.
    IT exists to address pain points, to provide simple solutions and to analyze data toward real, applicable purpose. The only way to do so is to know what people are really experiencing and really needing.

The relay race is not won by arriving at the starting line. It is won by having aligned the steps and hand-offs necessary to bring great effort to a fantastic finish.

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