Business performance is being strangled because of poor communication and lack of collaboration between IT and its fellow business departments. Kevin Baker says we need leaders to end this problem once and for all.
One of the IT management mistakes identified in this cio.com article is introducing over-engineered IT projects without the perquisite senior support to see these project through.
The article says that IT must gain buy-in from executives or other key influencers because, without senior support, projects all too often fizzle out as soon as they encounter problems. It is therefore suggested that IT professionals work hard to solve technology problems affecting executives and departmental leaders to gain trust and backing. This goodwill will create ‘champions’ at both executive and operational levels of the business.
This observation is worth exploring further because it works at all levels, not just IT projects. IT processes or plans or good intentions are nothing without the support of the correct people. Yet this support cannot be counted on, prescribed or forced. It has to originate from a position of authenticity. Human nature means that people help and support those who take an interest in them and reciprocate goodwill. This is why the article is right to point out the need for ‘champions’ who are willing to progress the relationship between the business and IT.
This is the kind of nuanced, human intangible that is all too often missing from IT projects and indeed any kind of theological development. And it can be expressed simply in one word: relationships.
2018: relationships take centre stage
Initiatives such as DevOps and the growing interest in concepts such as collaboration have been instrumental in educating IT professionals about the importance of relationships. But these have thus far tended to have a limited scope (DevOps focuses on the relationship between Development and Operations) or the communication and interaction medium itself (collaboration).
Business Relationship Management (BRM) on the other hand encompasses the entire business. Not one department or individual is excluded, because BRM recognises that there are a staggering number of ever-shifting connections and relationships which define the health of an organisation. Because of this glaring need to improve the way we handle relationships, 2018 will see the profile of BRM grow even larger.
The hope is that as the ideas of BRM become ingrained into working practices, there will be no need for ‘champions’ to show others how the IT business relationship works. But in 2018 and the foreseeable future, these champions are critical to unlock the potential of technology by smashing the ‘them/us’ silo once and for all. So, are you prepared to become an IT business in 2018?
If you want to become an IT business champion and improve relationships, it’s incredibly helpful to gain a visual and editable representation of the organisation’s relationship infrastructure. We are proud to have built the world’s first BRM solution specifically to address this challenge, and we’d love to show it to you. Find out more about our BRM solution, Convergence here, and get in touch if you’d like a demo.
