CIOs and their teams will need a change management strategy that embraces the can-do attitude and agile approaches that got employees working remotely in a timeframe never experienced before.

They will need a change management strategy to be future fit. This, according to Forrester, is a combination of being adaptive, resilient and creative. 

These are traits that have seen organisations not only survive previous crises such as the burst of the dot.com bubble in 2001-2002 and the global financial crisis of 2207-2008 but will also see them differentiate themselves as the winners, not losers, in this pandemic of 2020.

In this series of articles, I am going to explore what the change management strategy for IT  looks like and why it is needed.

CIO as a culture change agent

Last week I explored how this rapid digital transformation has put the CIO and their teams at the centre of organizational change. They were not just introducing new technology but new ways of thinking and new ways of working.

We are now in an era of continuous change, and this will require a culture of adaptation, agility, resilience and innovation for organisational survival.

The CIO has a key role in the establishment of the right ways of thinking and the right ways of working. The CIO has to build the right mindsets for this era of constant and disruptive change.

Gartner predicts that by 2021, “CIOs will be as responsible for culture change as chief HR officers (CHROs).”

““A lot of CIOs have realized that culture can be an accelerator of digital transformation and that they have the means to reinforce a desired culture through their technology choices,” said Elise Olding, research vice president at Gartner. “A partnership with the CHRO is the perfect way to align technology selections and design processes to shape the desired work behaviours .”

Fit not fragile

For digital transformation to be successful, organisations have to be fit, not fragile, and have a workforce that can adapt to rapid change.

Those organisations that are fit see the uncertainly of change as the norm and develop a culture prepared to adapt to changing environments. This culture helps organisations traverse the uncertainty and ambiguity and come out the other side stronger and fitter whilst their fragile counterparts dwindle into irrelevance.

At its core, this culture is one of innovation that embraces appropriate risk taking and learning from failure. It is also an organisation with an explicit and persuasive learning culture.

Because much transformation is driven by technology changes, the CIO and IT team have large roles to play in ensuring a culture of continuous learning and change.

The mindset of continual learning and agility over technical and technology expertise is at the core. When this is in place, there is continual proactive adaption rather than waiting to be forced to change by market conditions. The CIO and the IT teams need to ensure that the organisation is in front of change and not consumed by it, or left behind it.

In the lap of the CIO

If we take a look at the source of transformation underway the list includes artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, blockchain, machine-learning, edge computing, internet of things, and human augmentation.

All of this falls into the lap of the CIO. If this digital transformation is to be successful, it will take more than just innovative processes, increased agility and new skills. It will require a culture change.

The CIO has to take on the role of cultural change agent for these initiatives to be a success.

According to Gartner research, most CIOs agree.

“IT chiefs often regard cultural barriers in their organisations as the main challenge when scaling out a digital strategy across the business, and Gartner’s research found that 46% of CIOs report culture as the biggest barrier to change.”

Patience

The CIO will need patience as cultural change does not happen overnight. It is an ongoing process - not a project which the CIO may be more comfortable with.

If digital transformation is to be a success, there will need to be broad buy-in across the entire enterprise. Along with the organisational change capability in the organisation, CIO’s will need clear communication to obtain buy-in.

Every organisation is undergoing constant and disruptive change. For most organisations, regardless of industry, IT is both the driver and recipient of the changes underway. Therefore the stress, anxiety and fatigue this bring can be exacerbated in IT. CIOs will have to keep a close eye on signs of change fatigue across their teams in their roles of custodian and change agent.

Summary

CIOs have to think long and hard about their role as culture change agent. If they don’t adopt it, digital transformation initiatives will not be adopted by the organisation.

The culture change needs to start happening before the transformation can happen. The whole organisation will need to acquire digital skills and adopt digital processes.

It is a bit like trying to plant a field that has not been ploughed. It has to be change ready.

Next week I am going to explore why the change management strategy for IT includes the CIO / CHRO partnership.