CH-CH-CH CHANGES: LEADING TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION REQUIRES A NEW GAME PLAN
By Scott Barnyak,
Co-Founder and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, SDLC Partners
Recently, I had a familiar conversation with a CIO of a global company. He is charged with taking the success that he and his team achieved with one large-scale, tech-
enabled initiative and replicate it at an even larger scale into new business units and countries.
While his questions to me centered around how we could help him create a two-year strategy that could consolidate technology and decrease cost so that they can refocus spend into the new growth initiative, the real need was subtler.
What he was really asking me is “How can we build a high-performance organization that has the right tools and capabilities to achieve greater success?”
These are change-related questions and require an approach to change leadership that enables this CIO to set the vision for achieving bigger wins collaboratively.
In fact, Gartner’s 2020 CIO Agenda report highlighted 10 transformation fitness attributes or, as they call it “winning in the turns.” What all 10 attributes have in common is change – being able to maintain equilibrium, organizational adaptation, or risk missing the opportunity within disruption.
John Kotter’s e-book, “Eight Steps to Accelerating Change in Your Organization,” makes an interesting and illustrative connection between the change model from 1996 and an accelerating change model for the modern organization.
Back in 1996, the focus was on effecting or responding to episodic change in “finite and sequential ways.” We were driving change in targeted, function-focused small teams. And, we focused on doing one function well and linearly.
Today, organizations must change on multiple levels, moving ahead concurrently and continuously. Change occurs across swaths of the organization an in multiple hierarchical directions. We need to be able to function within a network across units, departments, and countries with fl exibility and nimbleness so that we can seek and capitalize on market opportunities.
My answer to him, essentially, boils down to four foci that every CIO and tech leader must stay close to in order to replicate and scale success beyond a one-off project into additional business units, wider markets, innovative products, and new countries.
TIP ONE: Don’t focus solely on technology. Change leadership will provide the overarching energy and guidance to see your initiative through to successful completion and change management will supply the tools and structures to get you there.
TIP TWO: Socialize the “why.” Change requires people to understand and connect with your greater purpose. Ensure that your vision is clear and that milestones towards success are easy to identify and quantify.
TIP THREE: Stay out of project mentality. As the change leader, it’s your goal to keep folks connected to the broader view of success rather than consider this change just another project. TIP FOUR: Resolve two blind spots. Lots of change leaders don’t pay enough attention to performance and risk. It’s easy to keep plowing forward without monitoring the energy, attitude and performance of the team, as well as looking ahead at risks to future success. Looking back and forward throughout the change process will fix problems early and avoid others altogether.
My conversation with that CIO continues as he explores the change leadership approaches that will set his strategies up for success over the next two years, as well as the technology enablers that will deliver the operational efficiency needed to free up resources and scale success into a new market.
As CIOs leading technology transformation, it’s critical for you to focus more on the business of creating a high-performing technology group that drives business value and to focus on the tools and techniques to get there second.
What business model, process, or product transformation goals are top of mind for you? In what ways could change leadership help you achieve those mission-critical goals?