Numerous blogs I’ve written over the last several years have focused on the importance of – and challenges associated with – IT organizations becoming strategic partners in delivering IT services that meet business needs. My three most recent blogs (here, here, and here) discuss why alignment is so difficult to achieve. As with any significant transformational change, there will always be resistance from stakeholders on both the IT and business sides. What can a CIO (or a CTO, or another IT leader) do to mitigate possible resistance?
Stuart McGuigan, a former chief information officer of the United States Department of State and a former chief information officer of Johnson & Johnson, notes that it is advantageous to embark on transformational change at a time when enough people are saying, “Our company needs to improve; we’re not performing as well as we should.”
When this occurs, he explains, “you have a small amount of energy in the system, which you can usually channel toward more beneficial uses.”
However, this is not always the case, as many business leaders and IT employees believe they are doing a good job and do not wish to change anything. In this case, IT leadership should intervene and assist in fostering interest in the art of the possible.
However, the CIO or other IT executive must first establish trust. I recently spoke with McGuigan about how he developed organizational trust in his change management. He discussed three behavioral traits he believes are critical for success.
Coverage From Above And Accountability
“Almost every large organization has a history of disappointment in information technology because the vast majority of projects do not go as planned,” McGuigan explains.
Regardless, IT leadership must work to keep IT employees from adopting a defensive posture. They need to overcome the “fortress IT” mentality that they cannot take on too much responsibility or their careers will suffer.
McGuigan explains that the most effective way to manage this fortress IT mentality is for the CIO/IT leader to take accountability and provide air cover for IT employees, allowing them to focus on the task at hand.
He believes that the larger the problem, the more senior the person who explains things to business leadership should be. And there are frequently issues that require the CIO to bear the brunt of the blame directly.
He does not allow blame to “fall downhill.” Fear of being held accountable paralyzes IT teams. Rather than that, McGuigan will tell his business partners, “I accept responsibility because it occurred under my leadership.” My team was carrying out their responsibilities, but something went wrong. That is my responsibility as a leader. Allow the team to concentrate on the next step.”
According to him, a CIO typically only needs to do this a few times before IT workers gain enough trust in the CIO to stop worrying as much about personal risk. If the IT team believes the CIO when he or she says there will be air cover, the team can focus on solving problems rather than avoiding blame.
Individual accountability begins at the very top. The tone of their organizations is set by their leaders. Once they begin pointing fingers, everyone will follow suit. It reminds me of former United States Attorney General Janet Reno’s statement following the Branch Davidians incident in Waco, Texas, in 1993: “I am accountable.” The onus is on me.” This solidified her legacy for the remainder of her tenure in office.
With the support of the IT leader and demonstration of accountability, IT employees can overcome their resistance to change. McGuigan shared an example of a failed SAP deployment in a large South American country that he was involved in. The issue cost the company between $20 and $25 million in revenue. Consider how tense the meeting with senior management must have been.
This system was developed over a two- or three-year period prior to McGuigan’s arrival at the company. Despite this, he claims he held himself accountable because he was now a member of the team and was aware of the team’s shortcomings.
“It was an excellent moment,” he recalls. “It was critical that the members of the IT team believed I was accepting personal responsibility and not imposing it on them. I did not say, ‘I need to speak with the team about how badly they screwed up.’ Because I accepted responsibility, I was able to take the initiative in resolving the issue.” As a result, they fundamentally altered how they conducted deployments in other countries, and customers were not impacted thereafter.
Genuineness
Authenticity is the third behavioral characteristic that IT leaders must demonstrate when managing change. Employees and associates cannot develop trust in a chief information officer/information technology leader unless they believe that person is authentic. This manifests itself during times of stress, when they can be consistently candid and open in their interactions with others.
McGuigan recalls a time when his candor during a management conversation enraged others. “What I said may not have been popular, but it was accurate,” he explained. “I was assisting an infrastructure team in assessing the state of operations and implementing ITIL. I expressed concern that they possessed the form but lacked the substance. The team could demonstrate that all basic ITIL processes were being followed, but there was no discernible improvement in measurable outcomes. There has been no improvement in cycle time, mean time to restore, incident reduction, or anything else.”
Authenticity requires demonstrating empathy for employees and associates. Additionally, it entails transparency. McGuigan exemplifies these characteristics by encouraging people to send him direct emails. “I assure them that I will never reveal their identity if they wish for me to keep the email between us. Transparency is critical for high-performing IT, and IT staff should feel they have access to leadership in the event of a crisis.”
He recalls a meeting in which an IT employee decided to assess the trustworthiness of the organization by determining whether employees would be held accountable for how leadership handled an incident. The employee disclosed during the meeting what was really going on, namely that a project was running late and over budget. His courage and candor were a litmus test for whether IT leadership practiced what it preached and avoided blaming employees.
McGuigan responded, “Thank you for informing us of that. If we’ve gotten off track, let’s rewrite the project plan. Let us reset the baseline. Additionally, we will incorporate some contingency. Early bad news is good news; therefore, thank you for bringing this up. Excellent work.”
Then he ensured that they were able to celebrate their success later. “When people begin to observe such behaviors, they develop a sense of trust.”
When employees believe their leader genuinely cares about them, they are more likely to follow the leader’s transformational change plan of action. They have a better chance of understanding that success benefits everyone, not just the CIO.
