Thursday | 16 October, 2008
CIO
Blog: So You Want To Be an Agent For Change
Sue Bushell 21 April, 2008 11:45:31
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  • Next comes linking. Effective CIOs carry an up-to-date tool-kit of the capabilities housed within their IT portfolio, and transformation agent CIOs go further, connecting what they hear from business peers with that tool-kit of capabilities, making recommendations about relevant tools, providing them with demonstrations, and helping executives understand the connection between their business units' requirements and the common foundational competencies of the company as represented by that portfolio of tools.
  • As if that isn't enough, then there is Likeability. If you want to advocate transformational change, you have to make business peers think you are on the same team by forging trusted partnerships and alliances that help those peers do their jobs. "To build trust, CIOs should focus on: 1) telling people what they need to hear but in a way that recognizes their interests and concerns; 2) being a 'person of their word' and delivering what they say; and 3) using politics as a last resort, not as a preferred tactic."
  • All of the above, of course comes to naught unless you can Lead. Transformation agent CIOs need to both provide a vision of the desired change and offer compelling reasons with examples as to why the vision is the right one for the business.

    Above all, he notes, it's smooth business relationships that give CIOs the credentials to drive change.

    "In some organizations the CIO has a balancing act with peers who may see IT as stepping into their rightful turf. To mitigate future concern, the CIO should be working daily on forming tight relationships with them, learning their businesses, listening, and then speaking to them about transformation through technology change by using their own processes as examples."

    Successful transformation agent CIOs already know all this. Take ActewAGL's CIO Carsten Larsen, who is also General Manager of Commercial Development at ActewAGL & TransACT. The collective bowels of Larsen's board and senior executive team clinch regularly as they nervously contemplate all the changes he advocates. But they clearly like and trust him, and are willing to let him take the lead.

    That's the kind of trust that only comes if people like and trust you; isn't putting yourself in that position what the transformational role is really all about?

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