CIOs and their teams will need a change management strategy and a digital transformation 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, incorporating the digital transformation 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 and the digital transformation strategy for IT  looks like and why it is needed.

The CIO as Advisor, Educator and Evangelist

The CIO has a role as an advisor, educator and evangelist. The CIO has a responsibility to ensure that the rest of the C-suite and business leaders are guided, educated and inspired about technologies and how they can be applied in the business.

Business advisor

The CIO has traditionally had an internal focus and advised on the technology that employees and stakeholders need to be more productive and then support those technologies.

Now that technology plays such a critical role in every organisation, the CIO role has to shift to one of advisor that guides the digital transformation of the entire enterprise - not just the tools and infrastructure that employees use on a day-to-day basis.

The CIO needs to become a catalyst for business transformation, a true digital champion and a trusted advisor to the CEO.

Educator

A MIT Sloan Management Review “The New Leadership Playbook for the Digital Age - Reimagining What It Takes to Lead” (January 21, 2020) revealed there was a deficit of digital savviness in organisational leaders. This leads to the organisation being stuck in a state of inertia. The digital transformation strategy needs a kick-start through education.

The CIO has a critical role in educating organisation leaders and their teams about why digital transformation is critical to business survival, what it entails and how it is going to be approached.

An intrinsic part of the CIO role is the digital education of their C-suite peers and the wider business.

Not all business leaders need to become IT experts, but they should understand the opportunities fast-evolving digital technologies offer and know how they might be applied in the digital transformation strategy.

In the past training and development in regard to use of technology was the remit of HR or L&D. The transformational change that digitisation brings makes that different. There is now an expectation that the CIO should lead the initiative and educate and empower the organisation with digital knowledge.

Understanding technology can no longer be limited to the people within IT. Leaders across the business must learn and stay abreast of digital trends, the implications of those trends for the business, and to leverage the technologies. These leaders, in turn, must educate and raise the digital awareness of their teams.

Leaders are looking to the CIO for help in understanding the digital trends and opportunities, and what digital transformation means to them, their teams and the wider organisation.

Evangelist

A Cherwell blog “How IT Leaders Can Drive Digital Transformation: Advice from CIO Strategic Advisor Tim Crawford (September 25, 2019) said:

“The truth is that many people are tired of digital transformation before the climb has even begun. That’s why inspiring, visionary IT leadership is essential in developing a strategy, creating organizational buy-in, and maintaining solidarity throughout the journey.”

The CIO has to be that leader. The CIO must champion IT’s role in digital strategy and business transformation.

The CIO must constantly develop and communicate business strategies, and the outcomes they will achieve, to the C-suite, in order to prove how invaluable they are.

The CIO is the voice of digital transformation - evangelising the possibilities and what other organisations are doing in this space.

Summary

Digital transformation means new skills for leaders and a new role for the CIO. The CIO is best-placed to drive higher levels of digital understanding, be a trusted advisor to the CEO and the C-suite, and promote digital readiness by acting as the digital evangelist.