What does that mean? Professional development must now be explicitly aligned with systems development. Two weeks of training is neither synonymous with nor the sine qua non of professional development. Teaching you how to use Outlook or set up a wiki or create e-mail Listservs is not the same as you learning how to use them effectively. Not to be too cynical, but training is how IT has conveniently (and often to its detriment) "outsourced" its investment in the human capital of its users.

Indeed, many CIOs do a fantastic job of investing in and developing their own staff. They do a less than stellar - or nonexistent - job of investing in their internal clients and users. CIOs need to focus more of their attention on how to make their customers smarter and how to give their internal clients tools and training to make them smarter as well.

Not doing so is bad for two reasons: the first is the obvious one - when you underinvest in your users and customers, they are unable to get the value they need and you want from your systems investment; the second reason is the CEOs. CEOs - and even CFOs - now grasp that one cannot divorce the return on the physical or virtual asset from the return on the human asset. Whether CIOs like it or not, the systems, apps and platforms they build and procure are as much media for human capital development as they are mechanisms for global competitiveness. In reality, a portion of their global competitiveness potential is a function of how well people-as-people utilize that asset. That's professional development as human capital investment.

Every IT proposal of note should come with a human capital impact statement, not just a training budget, curriculum and schedule in the appendix. Does this pose an added burden on an already overstressed CIO? Perhaps. Does this better reflect what the CEO is now telling his direct reports, your colleagues, your company and your investors? Absolutely. It's time to coordinate your calendars so that the CEO's priorities are better embedded in your own.

Michael Schrage is co-director of the MIT Media Lab's eMarkets Initiative. He can be reached at schrage@media.mit.edu