Tag Archives: CIO

ITSM, Leadership, Organizational Change

Nothing will change. Unless you change.

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A few years ago, I was invited to conduct an ITSM assessment for an organization. While the request itself wasn’t unusual, it was unusual in that I had conducted an ITSM assessment for that same organization a few years prior. The  IT leadership of the organization had not changed over that time, apart from a different person leading their ITSM adoption efforts. But I was intrigued by the prospect of revisiting a past client engagement to learn whether my previous recommendations had had the positive impact that I had determined was possible.

After conducting interviews, examining their ITSM policies and procedures,  reviewing their IT strategy, and evaluating their ITSM performance reports, I was disappointed to find that there had been no substantial change in their ITSM journey from when I first visited.

I confronted the CIO with my findings. During our conversation, he acknowledged that there had not been much progress in their ITSM journey. He went on to ask if I would simply just tell them exactly what they needed to do, based on my “deep” knowledge of his organization.

I was taken aback. It had been a few years since that first assessment. Over the course of the two engagements,  I had spent about a total of 30 days interacting with the organization – hardly what I would consider a qualification for having a “deep knowledge” of the organization.

So, I took a deep breath, looked the CIO in the eye, and told him that – that I felt that 30 days of engagement over a few years doesn’t constitute a “deep” knowledge of the organization. Further, it was not an issue of not knowing what needed to be done – what needed to be done was clearly outlined in both assessment reports. The issue was that no one – including the CIO – wanted to change.

And then I said it.

“Nothing will change unless there is change.”

And with that, our meeting ended. I packed up my laptop,  left the building, drove away….and  subsequently was not invited back.

Everybody wants change. No one wants *to* change.

I see it all the time. People within an organization get enthusiastic about making a change, improving what is currently being done, expanding and enhancing their capabilities, thinking in terms of possibilities. Excitement fills the discussions within the conference rooms. People leave meetings eager to get started.

And then the time comes for the work that needs to be done to make the change….and sadly, things often go kaput.

What happened?

The 3 U’s of failed change

I’m no psychologist, but from everything that I have read, experienced, and observed about failed change, it seems to come down to the basic human instinct of fear of change. In my experience, that fear of change presents itself in one or more of the following symptoms that I call the “three U’s of failed change”.

  • Unknown – Change pulls people out of their personal comfort zones, where they feel safe. According to this article, this uncertainty feels like failure to our brains, and our brains automatically work to prevent us from failing.
  • Unprepared – Many people resist change because they feel unprepared. Provided training doesn’t really prepare people for the change, and as a result, there is a feeling of loss of mastery. Communications aren’t two-way, so there is no opportunity for feedback or to get answers to questions.
  • Unwilling – Even though people know that processes and systems aren’t working as well as they could, people have become comfortable in their interactions with those processes and systems. They “know” where the issues are, and how to make things work despite those issues. Changes to those processes and systems are perceived as a threat to the personal value of the people doing that work.

These are powerful reasons why change fails, but they are not insurmountable.

How can anything change…unless *you* change?

Is change working through your organization? Are you personally going through change? The answer to these questions is likely “yes”. Organizations are continually changing and evolving. As individuals, we are continually evolving as well. Think about it – what is different about your organization today when compared to two years ago? Compared to two months ago? What events or learnings over that time – both from a professional perspective and a personal perspective – have had an influence on you?

Change is constant – in our lives and in our careers. Here are some tips that I have found useful when experiencing change.

  • Educate yourself. Much of the angst around change is the fear of the unknown. To combat that fear, learn all that you can about what is changing. This will help restore any feelings of loss of mastery.
  • Ask questions. Fill in gaps in your understanding about what is changing. Listen for the “why” – the compelling reason change is necessary, and what success will look like after the change. This will help with any feelings of being unprepared.
  • Try it on. While it takes courage to push through the unknown, leaning into the change and exploring possibilities provides a sense of control. Being a pioneer within the change helps overcome feelings of loss of value. Trying on the change also provides you with valuable insights that you can use to make data-driven decisions about your next steps.

Change is a constant – in our organizations, in our jobs, and in our personal lives. Don’t let change paralyze you – take control. Educating yourself, asking questions, and trying on the change gives the you power and control you need to successfully push through the unknowns associated with change.

 

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Human-Centered Design, ITSM

Can Human-centered Design rescue your ITSM investment?

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Is your organization struggling to realize a return on investment with ITSM?

If you answered “yes”, you’re not alone. Many organizations are not getting the expected return on investment that was expected by adoption ITSM practices. Organizations are facing several challenges to realizing a ROI with ITSM.

  • “IT Operations only” approach. Many ITSM implementations have only focused on ITOM (IT Operations Management) aspects, such as managing user support requests, resolving incidents, or implementing changes. Services are not defined in terms of business outcomes or business value, making it difficult to determine the holistic benefit of ITSM practices.
  • Poorly defined workflows. This survey revealed that 43% of organizations cited excessive manual processing or insufficient automation as their top ITSM challenge. This points toward having poorly defined or undefined workflows that are obstacles for automation and AI-enabled capabilities.
  • Ineffective ITSM practices. According to this survey , 56% of businesses reported a significant impact on revenue due to technology downtime. Does this indicate ineffective incident management, problem management, change management, and continual improvement practices?
  • Total cost of ownership associated with ITSM tools. The cost of implementing ITSM doesn’t stop with the implementation of the tool. Ongoing maintenance costs, both in terms of licensing, support, and daily management of the platform contribute to the cost of ownership. Post-implementation costs, such as user training, organizational change management, and ongoing process improvements also add to the cost of ownership. Many IT organizations also struggle with what they see as conflicting demand between business priorities and operational activities.
  • Lack of specific ITSM success goals and metrics. Many organizations have not defined specific success measures for ITSM adoption. Further compounding the challenge is that organizations have not defined metrics that indicate how ITSM contributes to the organization achieving its mission, vision, and goals.

These are big challenges for many ITSM implementations determining an ROI. But in my opinion, there are two reasons why ITSM isn’t delivering the expected ROI.

  • ITSM has been and continues to be about IT, not about the business. Most ITSM implementations are focused on how to manage the work of IT, not on delivering business results.
  • ITSM practices were not designed with business outcomes and value in mind but instead based upon the requirements of the ITSM tool being implemented.

And even if one of the drivers for ITSM implementation was to manage interactions with end users – an operational aspect of IT management – the end user typically had no voice or input into the design of ITSM practices. And the lack of user involvement with ITSM design shows up in the experience with IT. As an example, the 2023 Global IT Experience Benchmark report from Happy Signals indicates that 49% of survey respondents identified “IT Support Services” as a negative factor regarding their experiences with IT.

Haven’t people always been a core focus of ITSM?

In theory, a core focus of ITSM is the people that interact with technology. “Customers” are the people that have defined the requirements and need for a service. It is the customer that determines the value of the service that IT provides. Customers are also users of those IT services. “Users” are people that rely upon and interact with IT services to get their work done. The use of the technology associated with these IT services is intended to improve productivity and efficiency of users in getting this work done.

But in practice, ITSM adoption has been more about how IT manages its work, and less about how the experience or success people have with technology. In fact, users are rarely – if ever – part of process design or technology implementations associated with ITSM.

Think about it. In practice, most incident management practices are built around routing and closing tickets as quickly as possible. Service desks and their agents are evaluated by how quickly an issue is closed (with “closed” usually being an IT judgement, and not confirmed with the end user), and not in terms of the user experience.

In practice, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) do not discuss business performance measures, but describe how IT measures its work. And many SLAs are defined by IT with no input from the end user or customer – yet the end user is expected to act within the terms of the SLA. In practice, “customer” satisfaction surveys are not engaging the customer, but rather the user. Compounding the situation is that the return rates of those satisfaction surveys are anemic, and actions are rarely (in practice) taken based on the information captured in the few surveys that are returned.

So how can organizations get the focus of ITSM back on people?

It’s about PPT plus HCD!

In the early 1960s, Harold Leavitt introduced what eventually became known as the “golden triangle” or “three-legged stool” of People, Process, and Technology (PPT) as guidance for managing change within an organization. The model represents if one component shifts, the other two must also shift to maintain an effective balance as change progresses.[i]  The PPT framework is simple but powerful. And while PPT is a mantra often heard as part of ITSM adoptions, the ‘people’ aspect is often ignored, as the focus is typically on the implementation of the technology associated with ITSM.

How can organizations take impactful, people-focused actions based on the PPT framework? This is where human-centered design (HCD) comes in. HCD is a framework for creative problem-solving that focuses on understanding the needs, wants, and limitations of the people who will most directly benefit from the solution.[ii]  It’s about designing with empathy for the people that will be interacting with the solution. HCD is composed of three elements:  desirability – the product or service meets users’ needs; feasibility – the product or service is technically feasible;  and viability – the product or service is viable as a business model.

There are real benefits when organizations shift to an HCD approach.

  • Technology teams build better, more robust products and services when they have a true understanding of individuals, their needs, and their journeys. [iii]
  • Leveraging human-centered design principles also helps technology teams deliver faster and at lower costs — mostly because they’re hitting closer to the mark on their first delivery. [iv]
  • Gartner’s 2021 Hybrid Work Employee Survey, which found that employers with a human-centric philosophy across the business saw reduced workforce fatigue by up to 44%, increased intent to stay by as much as 45%, and improved performance by up to 28%.[v]
  • A McKinsey study found that over 5 years, companies with strong design practices outperformed their industry counterparts in terms of revenue growth and returns to shareholders. [vi]

It’s a compelling argument for introducing HCD into ITSM practices – and bringing the focus of ITSM back to people.

Shifting the focus of ITSM to people

How can HCD be applied to ITSM? It all starts by asking “what do people really want?” from ITSM. Here are some tips for getting started.

  • Start where you are. Don’t throw away what has been done with ITSM, but human-centered design begins with a mindset shift. Commit to making ITSM more about the business and less about IT by shifting from a “technology-first” mindset to a “human-first” mindset.
  • Truly capture and understand the user perspective. Let’s face it – the way that the user perspective is typically captured today (via post interaction surveys sent from the service desk) isn’t that effective. What are better ways for IT organizations to understand the user experience? First, asking better questions (not rating questions) will yield better answers into the true user perspective. Going to where work is being done and observing user interactions with technology is powerful and informative. Hosting regular, periodic small focus group meetings with users provides opportunities for deeper discussions about the user perspective.
  • Include users in continual improvement actions. Including end users as part of continual improvement actions uncovers underlying needs, improves experience, and helps provides solutions that solve the real issue.

Shifting ITSM practices from a technology-first to a people-first approach will have a major positive impact on users, customers, organizations – and ITSM.

Need help with shifting your ITSM practices from a technology-first mindset to a people-first mindset? It starts with understanding the user’s experience. We can help – contact Tedder Consulting for more information.

[i] forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2024/04/19/20-expert-tips-for-effective-and-secure-enterprise-ai-adoption,  Retrieved April 2024.

[ii] https://www.mural.co/blog/human-centered-design Retrieved April 2024.

[iii] https://www.cio.com/article/413079/cios-find-big-benefits-in-shift-to-human-centered-design Retrieved April 2024

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-design/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design, Retrieved April 2024.

 

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ESM, ITSM

The Curious Case of the Missing IT Strategy

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IT organizations often get stuck in a vicious cycle of never-ending work. IT implements solution after solution, fixes one problem after another, and no matter how many times they do it, those solutions and fixes never seem to stick. IT often finds itself just trying to keep up with what appears to be a constantly changing business. IT is often seen as the anchor slowing business down and has earned a reputation of being the slowest path toward technology implementation.  And when budget times come around, IT never seems to manage to get its fair share. 

These are signs that an IT organization is missing strategy.  This is a massive problem for both IT and the organizations that IT works within. Why are so many IT organizations missing a strategy?  What can be done to establish a viable IT strategy?

One thing that is certain – the strategy can’t just be “do”.

The Missing IT Strategy

Of course, no leader intentionally avoids developing strategy. It’s usually a consequence of a number of factors. However, in the case of the missing IT strategy, the CIO has to establish a business-technology (not technology alone) strategy, talk and share that strategy with other leaders, incorporate and underpin the larger business strategy, and drive the IT organization forward following that strategy. If a CIO spends too much of their time doing or supervising the day-to-day work within an IT organization instead of delegating, she won’t have the time (or energy) to be strategic. If a CIO has to spend more time supervising the daily activities of IT than ensuring business outcomes and value, that’s usually an indicator of a missing IT strategy. 

The second indicator of a missing IT strategy is the lack of true service management. Why? Because if the service management foundation is not strong or well executed, IT can never be strategic. If IT ignores:

  • Defining services in terms of business value and outcomes
  • Creating workflows that are based on services, not technologies or organization charts
  • Publishing performance reports that are relevant to and meaningful for the business 

then IT is setting itself up for failure.  Many organizations look at service management as just something that a service desk does.  But good service management provides the capability of relating technology investments to business outcomes.  This makes good service management a critical part of the foundation of IT. Having a solid foundation is what keeps IT relevant, reliable, and able to scale to meet business needs. WIthout good service management, IT will waste a lot of time just trying to keep up with service requests and putting out fires instead of enabling the realization of business strategy.  

Finally, the third indicator of a missing IT strategy is a “one thing at a time” mentality. To stay on track, IT organizations often choose to focus on just one initiative at a time. This might help your team feel less overwhelmed, but it often comes with the cost of missing a holistic view of the organization. The ability to see the birds eye view of how the organization relies on technology to create better outcomes for end users and customers is one of the most important skills for an IT leader.  Having this big picture view enables the IT leader to be even more strategic.  

Why does IT need a strategy?

IT operating as only a support team is no longer an option for any business. The speed of business has increased significantly over the last decade, due in a large part to the introduction of new technologies, such as automation, mobile computing, cloud-based services and machine learning. IT has to be the driver and enabler of technology. Whether it’s realized or not, technology has become “baked into” every aspect of the organization. 

The question is “has IT become ‘baked in’ as well?”  Without a well-defined IT strategy, the answer to this question is usually “no”.   

Defining, socializing, and executing a strategy strengthens IT’s role within an organization. It’s what separates the IT organizations that are treated as order takers from the IT organizations that are treated as valued partners. 

How to solve the case of the missing IT strategy

Here are three things that IT leaders can do to solve the case of the missing IT strategy.

What is the business strategy?  How can technology enable realization of business strategy? To shift from a “support only” team to a strategic asset, IT first has to understand the goals and objectives of the overall organization – and how technology can be used to enable realization of those goals and objectives. IT’s strategy must be tied to these business goals and objectives. IT leaders have to take a step back from the inner workings, day-to-day activities of IT and look at the bigger picture of the organization. 

Elevate to real service management, not just some arbitrarily selected processes.  Once IT understands the role of technology in achieving business strategy, IT must then elevate its approach to service management.  Service management is more than just fulfilling requests and resolving outages. An effective approach for elevating service management is to identify and map the value streams of an organization, then identifying how technology underpins those value streams.  Value streams help identify the products and services that IT must deliver. This exercise not only lays out what service management must enable and deliver for the organization, it is also a great way to align what IT is doing to the overall needs of the business. 

Report IT performance in business terms. Once you’ve elevated your service management and understand the goals and objectives of the company, then you’ll be able to produce and publish performance reports that reflect how IT contributions enabled achievement of business goals and objectives.  Having this capability is significant for a number of reasons.  First, it demonstrates that IT truly understands what is important to the organization.  Secondly, it provides the ability to evaluate if IT strategy is meeting business needs.  And lastly, it begins to change the perception of IT as just being a “support team” to a strategic asset.

Thinking and working strategically is transformative for an IT organization. After you’ve seen how IT integrates with the rest of the organization, you won’t be able to go back to working only in a ‘support’ role.  By defining and executing an IT strategy , your entire business will become stronger.  

Need help developing an IT strategy that is aligned with your business objectives?  Let Tedder Consulting help!  Tedder Consulting will first visit your organization to understand your business, goals, and current IT situation.  Tedder Consulting will then conduct an analysis of your IT services and practices to determine how they are operating. Finally, we deliver a plan for aligning your technology strategy to your business goals.  For more information, contact Tedder Consulting today.

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ITSM, Leadership

Are You Due for an IT Health Check?

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If I asked IT leaders what it was like the week the world went remote in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I would guess 90% of them would have visceral reactions to the memory of that time. Many organizations were caught without any kind of technology contingency plan – and they felt the pain of that.

That hectic period should have taught every IT organization a valuable lesson – you can never predict when an IT emergency is going to hit.

Unfortunately, not every IT (or business) leader got the memo. They made it through COVID-19 disaster and went right back to the day-to-day grind, promising (hoping?) to get updated or new recovery plans in place when things slow down.

The problem is that the next disaster could be just around the corner. My apologies if this sounds fatalistic, but that is exactly what happened nearly 18 months ago. Organizations around the world were faced with a scenario that, while no one could have anticipated, very few had any kind of contingency. What will the next disaster look like? Could it be the moment that budgets are being reviewed and IT is suddenly on the chopping block? Or your supply chain breaks down and IT has to scramble to ensure customers receive their services?

IT disasters can be like heart attacks. There’s never a good time for one. But they can often be avoided – even prevented – by developing good healthy habits along with conducting regular health checks.

Three Healthy Habits of an IT Organization

How can you protect yourself and your IT organization from these IT “heart attacks”? Much like with your personal health, it all starts with developing healthy habits and regularly conducting IT health checks. Here are three of the top healthy habits you should develop in IT.

1. Regularly Discussing and Agreeing Business Value
IT has to understand the business value of their work. One of the healthiest things any CIO can do is to regularly connect with business peers to review value. Value is one of the hardest things to define within an organization, and may shift over time. The only way to confirm IT value is to review and discuss that value with other senior managers and leaders within the organization.

2. Regularly Review IT Service Definitions
Another healthy habit is clearly defining IT services in terms of business outcomes. Defining services demystifies what IT does and connects what IT does to business outcomes and value. Additionally, well defined IT services enable the organization to take advantage of its technology capabilities for competitive advantage. Regularly reviewing IT service definitions with other senior business managers not only positions the organization for taking advantage of current IT capability, but also to help identify and plan for future technology needs.

3. Regularly Map And Review Value Streams
Finally, having up-to-date value stream maps is a great health check for an IT organization. A value stream map illustrates how materials and information flow through an organization, and helps the entire organization clearly see how value flows in the organization. Value stream maps also provide a way for IT to identify where and how technology contributes to the value stream. Mapping and reviewing these value stream maps further enhances business relationships and also ensures alignment between IT and the business it serves.

Signs your IT organization needs a health check

  • Not sure if your organization needs a health check? Here are few signs that it’s time:
  • Your peers question the value and usefulness of IT products and services.
  • Your IT organization just can’t seem to get ‘caught up’.
  • You’re challenged to provide a clear ‘line of sight’ between investments in technology and business results.
  • IT is usually handed solutions, not opportunities, for solving business challenges.
  • Working in IT is chaotic and unrewarding. IT seems to spend more time “fire-fighting” and less time “innovating”.
  • No one asks questions about IT performance reporting.

IT Health Checks Don’t Have to Be Overwhelming

Much like eating a low-cholesterol diet and exercising more frequently, these IT health checks may initially feel like a pain that restricts your fun (or innovation, in an IT world). But the truth of the matter is if IT does these things on a regular and consistent basis, it stops feeling like a chore. You’ll have a shared understanding of business outcomes and the role that technology has in achieving those outcomes. You’ll have transparency between investments in technology and business value. And both the IT organization and the business overall end up with better outcomes, better investments, better relationships, and better businesses.

That’s why I strongly recommend scheduling regular periodic health checks for your IT organization. These healthy habits can’t be developed in a vacuum. They can – and should – be built into all your other initiatives.

At the end of the day, these “health checks” are service management activities. Service management shouldn’t be viewed as something that is done in addition to your work. Service management is how good IT organizations get work done in a manageable, reliable, and predictable way.

Need an IT Health Check?

Need help with your IT Health Check? We can help. With over 20 years of service management experience, Tedder Consulting can provide your organization with the objective assessment of the health of your IT-business relationship, and an actionable plan for instilling those healthy habits that will have a positive impact on your organization! Contact Tedder Consulting today!

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Leadership

What Ever Happened to Critical Thinking?

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As businesses grow, so do the size and complexity of their problems and challenges. To solve those complex challenges and problems, leaders need to employ more critical thinking from themselves and their teams.

However, the world seems to be lacking critical thinking at a time when businesses need it most. And the lack of critical thinking isn’t just anecdotal tales told by frustrated leaders. There’s research to back it up. So, whatever happened to critical thinking and can we get it back?

Critical Thinking, Defined

First, let’s address the big question: what exactly is critical thinking? In the broadest terms, critical thinking is the ability to think reasonably, removing your own emotional attachment and personal bias.

Critical thinking requires individuals to rely on data and take the steps to analyze and evaluate data to make a decision. According to the Foundation for Critical Thinking, “critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.”

It’s important to note that critical thinking helps you to avoid doing things simply because they’ve always been done a certain way or because a certain way seems easier or faster.

What has happened to critical thinking?

Has there really been a decline in critical thinking? There is research that shows this is a reality for many higher education institutions and businesses.

A Wall Street Journal analysis of standardized test scores given to freshmen and seniors found that the average graduate from prestigious institutions show little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years.

That trend extends into the business world. In May 2016, a survey by PayScale and Future Workplace found that 60% of employers believe new college graduates lack critical thinking skills, based on a survey of over 76,000 managers and executives. Additionally, about half of employers rate their employees’ critical thinking skills as average or worse.

There is no one main reason for this decline in critical thinking. Most experts attribute it to a combination of things.

To start off with, there is not a clear definition of critical thinking and therefore, many professors, instructors and employers lack a way to objectively assess critical thinking skills. And many teachers struggle to teach critical thinking so many simply don’t do it. The Education Post found that only 1 out of 10 educators teach critical thinking and that teacher usually teaches at a selective school or to a select group of students.

And some experts say technology is one of the reasons for this decline. According to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children’s Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, as technology plays a bigger role, our skills in critical thinking have declined and our visual skills have improved.

Anecdotally, I think it’s important to point out that a decline in critical thinking in business might not be the actual decline in critical thinking. Rather, the decline in critical thinking is due to a lack of opportunities (or ignoring opportunities) to encourage critical thinking.

Many businesses are only looking for the fastest (and sometimes cheapest) way to a solution. Such an approach is an anti-pattern for critical thinking. When you’re always looking for shortcuts, you’re cutting out the time to critically think. When you’re too quick to say something isn’t working and that you need to change directions completely, you’re sabotaging critical thinking.

All of this probably sounds like bad news for those looking to increase critical thinking in their organizations. The good news is that critical thinking can be taught and if it’s encouraged enough in an organization, it will be taught!

How to Improve Critical Thinking

Contrary to many opinions, critical thinking is not a soft skill. It can be learned and it must be practiced to be developed. Here are a few steps that will help you tap into critical thinking.

  1.  Gather more and better data
    Critical thinking is the ability to remove your own bias from problem-solving and the best way to do that is to look at the data. Many organizations are trying to make decisions with poor data. As an organization, you need to prioritize having as much high-quality data as possible. And as the IT organization, you must collect this data and ensure that the organization is using it to its fullest ability.

2. Question assumptions
This is the most important piece to critical thinking — and it’s often the most difficult part. Don’t just look at the “what” of the problem. Ask about why it’s happening. Be wary of the assumptions you may bring to the table and when you come to a conclusion, ask yourself if you’re basing the conclusion on the matter at hand or on previous experiences. Additionally, it’s important to separate data and facts from assumptions and inferences. Often, leaders will make an assumption and then treat it as fact. Dig into the why and use data to protect yourself from inferences.

3. Look for opportunities and potential
Critical thinking isn’t about shutting down opportunities or ideas. It’s about seeing possibility and potential based on data and without assumption. For example, failed initiatives and major service interruptions are opportunities to revamp processes or rethink strategies to create something better.

4. Look for new perspectives
To be a critical thinker, you have to get out of the echo chamber. Engage in active listening when discussing problems and solutions. Engage with and actively listen to colleagues with opposing views in your own organization. While most people dread having to speak to someone who simply does not understand their role, it can be an excellent exercise to obtain new perspectives that can give more context to problems, examine your own biases and spark more ideas. Additionally, as a leader, you may benefit from learning from other industries or experts from other organizations. Be open to new perspectives or ideas from unlikely avenues.

5. Manage ambiguity
Finally to improve your critical thinking skills, get comfortable with ambiguity. We are all operating in rapidly changing environments. The data we have will change. Your own perspectives will shift, as well the perspective of others. You have to be comfortable identifying that you are making the right decision today, but the way those decisions get made can change in the future. Getting comfortable with this type of ambiguity and being able to practice critical thinking despite this rapid pace of change will help you to make better decisions for your organization in the long run.

Critical thinking doesn’t have to be a lost art. It can and should be encouraged at all levels of the organization – but it must start from the top. If you’re wondering whatever happened to critical thinking in your organization, perhaps it’s time to take a step back to examine your own critical thinking approach.

Is your organization suffering from a lack of critical thinking? Has your organization found ways to nurture and encourage critical thinking? Please share your thoughts!

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Leadership

The CIO Role, Reasserted

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After an unprecedented year of change, many organizations are adjusting to a new status quo with technology – and technology experts – leading the way. 

And changing right along with the rest of the organization is the CIO role. With more reliance on technology, remote and hybrid working environments, and more technology-focused roles in an organization, the CIO has also had to adjust to the new status quo.

What can a CIO do to cement their status and reassert themselves into the conversation?

It’s time for the CIO role to reassert itself.

The CIO Role, Reasserted

As technology has become more critical for the daily needs of a business, the role of the CIO has become more fractionalized. New technology leadership roles, such as the CTO, CDO, and CISO, have emerged within many organizations. While these emerging roles may have been responsibilities that the CIO formerly performed – at least at times – the CIO is no longer the only technology leader within the organization. 

But that doesn’t mean the CIO doesn’t play a vital role among these technology-focused roles. In fact, I’d argue that with all the different technology initiatives, it’s even more important for the CIO to reassert their role in the organization. With so many specialized roles, organizations are in danger of more technology silos. So instead of being a gatekeeper or the arbiter of technology, the CIO has to become the connector, especially in this age of technology democratization. 

Progressive CIOs have a deep business acumen and understand how technology contributes to the success of the business. A good CIO brings a broad, holistic view of the business and how technology can impact the bottom line – and the top line.  The CIO can use these specific skills and knowledge not only to support the CTO, CDO, and CISO – but any business leader as well. 

Using this holistic understanding of the business, the CIO has to become the common thread and ensure balance between the different technology roles and business leaders. Instead of Chief Information Officer, the CIO could be more like the “Central Information Officer” and be the driver of all business initiatives involving technology. 

But make no mistake – this isn’t about a power grab. It’s about the idea that the CIOs knowledge of business strategies and technology will strengthen and enhance everyone’s initiatives. For example, business leaders could use the CIO’s knowledge and understanding of how to drive a positive customer experience that IT has gained through the service desk in order to improve their offerings. 

This shift into the Central Information Officer requires all of the hallmarks of breaking down silos: open communication, shared workflows, and driving and emphasizing the achievement of organizational goals over isolated departmental goals.

And to do this, there is one concrete step a CIO can take to begin facilitating connections and reasserting the importance of their role.

The Start of the Reimagined CIO

CIOs can’t afford to wait to start reinventing their role. The longer a CIO waits to start connecting other technology roles, the more siloed and fractionalized the organization could become. 

So where does the CIO start?  

If all companies are now technology companies, and we want to connect how the different parts of the organization leverage technology, then true service management is the way forward. 

But I’m not referring to ITSM of the past, where an organization would invest in a tool and blindly implement out-of-the-box workflows and constructs that weren’t designed with your company in mind. I’m referring to Enterprise Service Management (ESM), an organizational capability for delivering business value and outcomes by leveraging the resources of the organization (including technology) to produce and deliver products and services in a holistic way.

As I mentioned earlier, the progressive CIO has a holistic view of how technology and business functions work together to co-create more value for the company. In order to have that view, you have to understand the people and processes at work. People and processes are what drive businesses forward and combining people, processes, and technology in a clear, consistent and organized manner is the most impactful thing a CIO can do.  That’s why effective ESM is so vital today. 

Implementing a strong ESM approach is a multi-step process. First, if your IT foundation is not solid, you’ll need to clean that up before you will be able to engage other business leaders in ESM. But once you’ve audited and tightened your own workflows and your IT team is working like a well-oiled machine, then you can start to implement ESM in other parts of your business.

And the best place to start ESM is with those frequently executed value streams. This is where a CIO can test their connector powers and leverage other business leaders’ expertise to adopt ESM within their departments. Doing so results in improved transparency and underpins the importance of having effective, cross-functional processes across all parts of the organization.

ESM opens the door to better customer experience, better employee experience, better business outcomes, and better value – for both the organization and its customers. Good ESM also eliminates silos, which can be among the biggest problems organizations face as they try to scale, and truly elevates the organization as a whole.

For many organizations, the CIO saved the day last year when the pandemic hit. But as businesses move forward, the CIO can’t bank on past successes to maintain their leverage in an organization. Reasserting the CIO role requires open collaboration, effective communication, and bringing other parts of the organization together. Strong ESM is the path forward for CIOs to reassert their role within the organization.

 How can ESM help your organization? How can you leverage ESM as an organizational strategy to connect your organization in such a way that drives and enables success?  Contact me today for a free, no-obligation 30-minute chat to discuss! 

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Leadership

A New CIO’s Guide to Mapping Experiences

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Delivering and enabling business value is a large part of IT’s job.  As such, the CIO must track how value flows, not only within IT, but across the organization. 

It may sound easier than it actually is. Because value is tricky. For one thing, it’s not always well-defined. And it often gets lost in day-to-day operations as the business evolves.  This often leaves end users wondering what happened to the value that they were expecting. 

One of the first tasks of new CIOs is to determine what’s driving value, what’s not, and how improved value can be delivered to all stakeholders. But how can you do that? Where do you start? 

In order to answer that question, we need to stop talking only about value. Instead, we need to include talking about the experiences of the customer, the user, and the employee. 

Customer experience

As defined by Hubspot, customer experience is “the impression your customers have of your brand as a whole throughout all aspects of the buyer’s journey.” The customer experience factors into a customer’s view of your brand and it can impact the bottom line. A strong customer experience can increase customer retention, which will reduce marketing and advertising costs. And loyal customers often spend more than new ones as one study found that if a business increases customer retention by 5%, profits can increase by up to 95%. Additionally, according to a survey by Info Quest CRM, a totally satisfied customer contributes 2.6 times more revenue than a somewhat satisfied customer.

User experience

The user experience is very similar to customer experience but it is directly related to the product, application or service. User experience refers to the journey a user takes when they interface with a system whether that is an application, a digital service, a website or a product. In today’s digital world, user experience matters. 88% of consumers are unlikely to return to a site after a bad experience and a recent study found that a well-designed user interface could increase conversion rates by 200%. 

 Employee experience

According to Gallup, the employee experience is the journey an employee takes with your organization and is made up of all the interactions that employees have during their tenure at the organization. The employee experience matters because research shows that companies with actively engaged employees outperform competitors by 147% in earnings per share and happy employees are up to 20% more productive at work. Improving the employee experience can earn your company money. 

The experience matters

Each of these experiences contributes to the overall value that stakeholders derive from an organization and all of these experiences directly impact the bottom line. If an experience is bad, there is no realized value from that experience. Therefore each of these experiences is very important to CIOs because better experiences means better value. 

Luckily, there is a tried and true approach for enabling more value through creating better experiences.  It starts with mapping the current experiences.

Whether you are mapping customer journeys or employee journeys, every mapping exercise will include the same steps. My recommendation is to choose one experience to map and improve before addressing the others. You’ll be able to use the lessons learned from mapping that one experience as guidance when mapping each of the other two.  Also, you can iterate faster when only focused on one experience at a time.

1. Include all stakeholders

This is the first and most important step you can take when mapping experiences — get all stakeholders involved. These stakeholders will want to work with you if they understand how improving experiences will benefit them, so communicate those potential wins. For example, if you chose to map the employee experience, you can explain to HR that mapping and improving this experience can improve the onboarding experience, decrease employee turnover, and increase employee engagement — thus helping HR to hit their departmental objectives.

2. Map the value streams

How is value flowing through these experiences? For example, how does a user realize value from first touch with your website through purchase? What are the steps and who is responsible for each? Mapping the value streams that enable experiences will identify where responsibilities lie, what parts of the organization are involved,  and where there may be gaps or bottlenecks.  

3. Audit workflows 

Once you have the team on the same page, review and audit the processes that underpin the value streams that underpin an experience. What’s going on under the hood of that experience? Approach these audits with an open minded curiosity, and don’t be afraid to ask why a workflow is designed the way it is.  Let your team know that this is a discovery and learning exercise, not a blame exercise, and that you are simply building a clear picture of how work is being completed. Workflows, no matter how well they were designed, have a tendency to ‘drift’ over time. 

4. Embed continual improvement  

Where is the experience falling short or encountering friction?  

This is the most critical question a CIO must be able to answer when it comes to experience.  And it’s a question that the answer is continually changing, due to continual changes in marketplaces, stakeholders, technology, and more. This is why embedding continual improvement within the experience is so important. 

New CIOs have a big opportunity to establish a mindset of continual improvement right from the start. Regularly survey end-users regarding improvement suggestions and feedback.  Develop and maintain a continual improvement log for capturing, prioritizing, and publicizing improvement suggestions. Establish a regular cadence for designing and implementing improvements. Market the successes and lessons learned from continual improvement. Why?  Because continually improving the experience continually improves value realization.

Applying the above four steps will provide great insight into each of the three experiences that are driving value within your organization. Even though the focus of each experience is different, the process of mapping these experiences is the same because they all revolve around people, processes, and technology, and how well each of these factors are working with the others. 

What has been your experience with mapping experiences?  I’d enjoy hearing about your discoveries and successes with experience mapping. 

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Leadership

Is the CIO the Continual Improvement Officer?

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The CIO is often wearing many hats. They have to be tech whizzes and also strategic visionaries. And in my opinion, they now have to be the Continual Improvement Officer for their teams, their organizations, and in their careers.

Continual improvement is about improving the quality of products and services by learning from past successes and failures and making incremental changes over time. It helps IT align and realign its products, services, and activities to meet ever-changing business needs.  Continual improvement can be the key to large-scale growth. 

When done correctly, continual improvement can improve product and service quality, boost productivity and creativity, increase teamwork and create a competitive advantage. 

It sounds simple, doesn’t it? We should learn from the mistakes – and the successes –  we have. But, in a business environment, it’s never that simple. Why? Because many leaders don’t want to admit to mistakes. They don’t want to explore why things aren’t working as well as they should.  They settle for “good enough”.  They don’t want to examine what could be done better because they want to plunge ahead into that next project and hope that people forget about whatever mistakes were made or problems that were encountered. 

For continual improvement to have success, it has to be embedded into the culture of an organization. It has to be accepted – and driven – from the top-down so that everyone is empowered to look at failed initiatives and missed KPIs as learning and improvement opportunities. 

How can the CIO become the Continual Improvement Officer and build a culture that supports this?

Continual Improvement in IT

If a CIO wants to become the Continual Improvement Officer, she has to start with her own teams. One of the most important things a CIO can do then is allocate the time for continual improvement. IT is often (usually?) inundated with day-to-day work. They often are putting out fires or working to meet aggressive delivery deadlines and objectives. There is rarely-if ever- time for that “be back” work that inevitably comes up. 

It’s up to the CIO to ensure continual improvement becomes a standard mode of operation and allocate adequate time to address continual improvement. How? It could be frequent projects or sprints with an objective to reduce technical debt. Perhaps it is establishing a cadence of regular meetings or time to discuss and implement continual improvement initiatives.  Or it could be requiring that teams take the time to reflect on completed projects and initiatives and identify gaps, issues, and what could have been done differently. 

Make these efforts inclusive by encouraging team members to bring their ideas to the table — and then identify opportunities to implement those ideas. Companies with a strong culture of continual improvement implement about 80% of their employees’ improvement ideas, according to KaiNexus.  By implementing the improvement ideas from those that do the work establishes a mindset of continual improvement and encourages the team to identify and suggest further improvements.  It’s a win-win for both the team and the organization. 

Continual Improvement in the Rest of the Organization

IT is only one piece of the improvement puzzle though. To really build a culture of continual improvement, the CIO has to be the continual improvement champion within the rest of the organization and that requires communicating with and motivating other leaders. 

CIOs can share their own continual improvement learnings and lessons. CIOs must be open about the setbacks and the growth from continual improvement activities, and when able, connect how continual improvement enhanced another department’s initiatives. Invite other executives to your continual improvement meetings to demonstrate how building a culture of continual improvement within IT is working.  Offer to provide coaching and the expertise to help those leaders establish continual improvement efforts within their teams. 

Continual Improvement as a CIO

I think the CIO needs to be the Continual Improvement Officer because it will not only improve their organization, but it is a critical skillset and approach that will benefit the CIO’s career. 

Unfortunately, the CIO role has one of the highest turnover rates among the C-suite. According to TechTarget, the average CIO tenure hovers around 4 years. That means CIOs are frequently moving into new environments and navigating new work cultures. The best thing any CIO can do when they first step into a role is to bring an attitude of continual improvement.  Not just for the new organization, but for their own individual actions.

It’s a powerful move to reflect on what could have been done differently in a  past role as you move into a new role. This will help you embody the culture of continual improvement that you want your team to adapt as well. Be willing to address and share your own opportunities for improvement with your team as you begin implementing new initiatives.

What continual improvement successes have you had within your organization? What advice would you give to other leaders working toward a culture of continual improvement? Share your thoughts with me on LinkedIn! 

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ITSM

How to Master the Art of IT Partnerships

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As businesses continue to become more reliant on technology, more and more organizations have formed partnership ecosystems. Bringing in and working with multiple partners is a smart way to deliver better experiences with optimized costs and capabilities. 

While there are many pros to working with partners — there are some drawbacks as well. Operations become increasingly complex as a partnership ecosystem grows. Regardless, end users will still expect a seamless experience, and the more partners you work with, the harder it could become to maintain that smooth experience. 

This article will address how CIOs can effectively manage those IT partnerships and set up their organizations for success in a partnership ecosystem.   

Partners vs. Suppliers and Vendors

You’ll notice that I refer to “partners” and not “suppliers” or “vendors”. That’s intentional verbiage. In order to succeed in this new paradigm, CIOs need to evolve from working with vendors and suppliers in a strictly transactional sense. Strategic partners are vendors that have go above and beyond effective delivery of systems and services – they commit to helping the CIO achieve the organizational goals of the company. 

The difference between “partner” and “supplier” has become increasingly noticeable due to COVID-19. Many CIOs saw partners be more proactive in their relationships by reaching out to see how they could better assist organizations during the pandemic. 

The best partners recognize that a business relationship is about more than making a sale. It’s about building a relationship where they understand the customer’s business models and the inner workings of the company. They don’t just execute on the customer’s demands, they work with the customer to find mutually beneficial solutions. 

When Badly Managed Partnerships Happen to Good Organizations

Why should you care about managing your partnerships? When does a vendor need to be a partner? 

Silo mentality has been a frequent roadblock within many organizations –  and IT is no stranger to them. Internal silos can wreak havoc on workflows and efficiencies. When IT isn’t looped into the full scope of projects and how the rest of the organization is driving value, they are often left to catch up — and end-users always suffer. And that’s just with internal silos! 

Compound that with the fact that more organizations are reducing staffing yet increasing demand for technology. This means more outsourcing and external support.  But without a shared and agreed approach to delivering that support, IT organizations could easily find themselves in a chaotic situation.  

Finding the Right Partners

Of course, there are many vendors simply parading as partners –  so how do you know what to look for in a partner? The most important thing is not to rush into a relationship or make a decision based solely on price. Yes, it can be time-consuming to get referrals and do your due diligence when evaluating potential partners. Start off with your trusted circle of IT leaders. Other leaders are often the best source of knowledge of who is a great partner and who simply delivers a product. 

Once you have your shortlist of partners from your own research and recommendations from peers, it’s time to start establishing connections. Remember that the right partner doesn’t start the conversation about themselves or their product – they will want to first talk about your goals and objectives.

Perhaps more importantly though, you have to view a potential partnership for what it is — a partnership, not a vendor-client relationship. It’s important to not view the potential partner as just a fulfiller of work. During those initial discussions, you have the responsibility of clearly defining expectations, challenges, organizational dynamics, and the goals of your organization. Don’t limit your conversations to specifically IT or the initiatives for a particular tool or product. IT is crucial to the success of any business so any IT partner needs to have a clear picture of that business. 

This will give the partner the opportunity to create a better strategy for delivering the right products and services for helping you achieve your goals. 

How to Better Manage Your Partners 

The best partnerships happen because they’re built on trust, respect, and mutual understanding. So there is a level of “people-work” that has to go into any of these relationships. But there are some ways you can better structure your organization so your partnerships will be more successful. 

  • Keep the lines of communication open. 

 

Far too often, supplier check-ins are just quick reviews of operational metrics or updates on the tasks completed during a timeframe. These types of communications aren’t sufficient in a partner relationship – in fact, this is a disadvantage to you and your partners! You want your team to be actively communicating with your partners about what’s happening in your organization so they can continue to get a clear vision of the overall picture of your organization.

 

  • Establish transparent workflows for all your partners.

 

This might be difficult because your partners likely have their own workflows. But working with them to establish a shared process that all partners follow makes for a smoother experience for your entire organization. Again, this might be a difficult ask and could take some time to develop, but the right partners will be willing to engage in defining workflows that work for your organization.

 

  • Get your internal teams and stakeholders to see partners as part of the team

 

Silo mentality doesn’t work — even when those silos are made up of full-time employees and contractors. Your internal departments and teams should feel empowered to be a part of the partner-IT relationship. You want everyone in your organization to know and trust your partners. This might mean bringing other departments to meetings with external partners or looping your external partners into existing initiatives with other departments.  

Introducing Service Integration and Management 

If you are looking for a better way to integrate your partnerships, Service Integration and Management (SIAM) might be the best option for you. SIAM is a management methodology that is growing in popularity. SIAM will provide an organization with governance, coordination, assurance, and integration for working with outside partners by introducing a “service integrator” role. If you’re working with multiple vendors, suppliers, and partners, SIAM can enhance the experience for everyone within your organization and for suppliers and partners working with your organization.  

If you’re curious about introducing SIAM or improving your partner relationships, I’d love to discuss how to prepare your organization to thrive in a multi-partner ecosystem.

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Leadership

Are You Winning the IT Participation Trophy?

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IT has gotten a bad rap in the past and I think it’s partially deserved. There are still far too many IT leaders just willing to phone it in. That’s an old way of leading IT and it’s about winning the participation trophy.

You do know what the “participation trophy” is, right?

The participation trophy is often awarded to each player on a youth sports team. It recognizes that the team member showed up to most of the practices and most of the games.

And while that may be an accomplishment, it doesn’t mean (at the risk of being harsh) that anything was won or accomplished. It doesn’t represent an outstanding contribution.

It only means that a player showed up.

Many organizations recognize that IT leaders need to be business leaders who are actively working with the rest of the organization to drive value. Many IT leaders have accepted the challenge and are the business leaders that their organizations need. However, there are still traces of the old way of leading IT around some IT organizations.

Here are the signs that the old way of leading IT is present in your organization.

6 Signs You’re Only Winning the IT Participation Trophy

You measure and publish outputs instead of outcomes

Crossing things off a to-do list and checking off the tasks that IT accomplishes isn’t enough. Everyone produces outputs. Anyone can check off tasks. But the IT leader of today is the one who understands how those outputs lead to the outcomes that drive the business forward.

IT works in a silo

Today’s IT organization can no longer be just a support department. If you’re only working within IT in near-isolation from other departments, then you’re continuing the mistakes of the CIO of the past. IT includes more than technology these days. You can’t simply show up for the technology aspects of business initiatives. Today’s IT is about co-creating value, enabling flow across the entire organization, and leading innovation. IT leaders must work with the rest of the organization on initiatives from start to finish.

Everyone is an adversary

If you see fellow employees as customers and not colleagues, then you’re winning the IT participation trophy. Not everyone is against IT like so many CIOs have believed in the past. Modern CIOs view other departments and leaders within the company as allies. Even when these people have feedback about IT that is hard to hear, you need to treat them as allies who can help you elevate IT. If they didn’t care about your success, they wouldn’t be sharing that difficult feedback.

You’re always playing defense

CIOs holding the participation trophy are always playing defense. They are too worried about protecting themselves from criticism and keeping prying eyes away from IT to be truly effective.

Today’s great CIO now plays offense. They are continually innovating and looking for ways to improve IT, even if that means on occasion having to accept some tough feedback or criticism. They know that experimenting from a position of knowledge, learning from mistakes, and being responsive is more important than protecting IT from criticism.

You selectively use – or avoid – data

Whether it’s good or bad — you need to rely on the data of your IT organization. Picking up the IT participation trophy means you’re focused on what looks good for IT and how you can shine the best light on IT. This means you avoid the data that can show you where you need to fill in the gaps or where you’re leaking value.

You’re on the sidelines in business decisions

IT has traditionally been seen as a support department. Some CIOs are content for it to stay that way, passively accepting whatever the business asks of them, and never really taking an active role in the larger organization-wide initiatives.

Give Up the IT Participation Trophy

If any of this sounds familiar to you, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is there’s plenty of opportunities to give up these bad habits and say goodbye to perpetually winning the participation trophy. The bad news is that you’re going to have to make these changes quickly because technology is evolving by the day and organizations need involved and innovative IT leaders.

So if you want to be more than a participant and instead, be a leader, it starts with changing your own mindset around the power of IT and your own role in IT. Technology plays a vital role in organizations these days and as an IT leader, you have to play just as big of a role. This might mean ditching some previously held beliefs about your role or the way IT has been managed. If you find yourself thinking “but we’ve always done it this way,” that’s a sign that you’re holding onto that participation trophy a little too tightly.

But with a shift of your mindset, you can take the actions that will shift the mindset of those around you. Slowly but surely, you’ll stop winning the participation trophy and instead start your campaign to win the MVP.

Learn more about becoming an innovative CIO by downloading the CIO’s Guide to Navigating Shifting Priorities, which is a bundle of 3 of my most popular webinars for the CIOs who want to advance their organizations in the next 12 months.

Download the CIO’s Guide to Navigating Shifting Priorities.  

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