Across the higher education sector, university leadership is demanding more of IT leaders: more strategic contribution, more active participation in shaping the future of their institutions, and more innovative exploitation of the cloud, BYOD, and the next IT sweet spot. But how well equipped are our IT leaders to step up to being more than order-taking service providers?
Increasingly, university leaders realize that intelligent use of information technology in their institutions depends on them -- on administrative and academic leaders being engaged in choices about IT use. And they are getting engaged: in prioritizing IT investments, in leading successful change enabled by technology, and in overseeing effective use of systems supporting the core activities of their university. IT has become a key enabler for them, and they are teased by the wider potential of the new consumer technologies in their hands and homes. As more leaders recognize that IT is as important as money, staff, and facilities, university leadership renewal is also trimming the fat of those who can't or won't.
What is the IT group's response to this surging interest from leadership? At best, IT has an effective leader who has garnered respect from the university leadership community. At best, the IT group is respected for the set of services -- usually core infrastructure and several major admin systems -- it provides with some reliability. At worst, IT is seen as a blockage to avoid -- full of Dilbert's cliché, "Mordak the Preventer of IT Services." Often, to add to the confusion, IT is seen both ways, by different parts of their university. This is the harsh reality for how university IT is really seen by the rest of the organization: IT is at best operationally useful but is not pulling its weight strategically, for the future of the organization.
Not involved in higher education? Do you really think it's much different in the hallowed halls of industry? Government?
Apart from the CIO and IT director, few in the IT group typically have positive, strategic visibility across university leadership. There is a potential gold rush of strategic IT engagement if IT staff was ready, willing, and able, however. This potential comes from all domains of university activity; the familiar administration, but also by getting involved in areas such as teaching, learning, and research. The potential is beyond the ability of one or two individuals to handle because of the volume and range of engagements that are necessary.
Listening to and working with these user groups gives individual and IT groups more chances to shine and more opportunities to integrate technology throughout the university (or business or government agency).
IT groups need diverse and skilled individuals to offer the right chemistry, domain knowledge, and skill sets, especially in active strategic listening, akin to high-end consulting or business analysis. Many current IT leaders have been elevated for their articulateness in promoting IT, but even this can become a deficit if overused. Those few who have found their voice often need next to find their ears.
— Neil Thelander spent more than 30 years as an IT executive in the government, technology, healthcare, and university sectors. He consults with and coaches IT leaders.
Yes staff immersion seems to work as one engagement method. I'd be happy to post more on business immersion programs for IT professionals, if folk are interested.
Your point on strategic partnership is central to our reason for engagement. We need to be clear on who we engage with. Because we can't engage strategically with everyone, not purposefully and effectively anyway. We need to find the 80/20 approach to engagement and that means finding the key actors. I am drafting a post on how I've seen this work. We need to step out into the light with the right partners
With clear sight of these 80/20 strategic partners, then there are a handful of engagement methods that I have seen work with my clients, immersion being one. Generally they are about getting out there and getting involved with the business but they use different methods for different layers and different relationships. I have a rough outline of a post on a few of these methods, that I am planning for later in March.
Engagement is a necessary front-end part of the value we bring as IT professionals, but it is only a part. We need it to be targetted and rewarding for it to be sustained, for us and our partners.
Comments welcome as usual, e.g. on which posts might be more useful or not.
Tend to agree wholeheartedly that staff immersion is key to a successful IT Division. Through immersive activities, staff will undoubtedly gain a greater understanding of 'business' objectives, develop a greater understanding of their issues, challenges and opportunities, and, in my mind, deliver a far superior level of service initially, but begin to develop a strong trust relationship, which leads to a strategic partnership.
Starting with the basics of immersion by encouraging all IT staff to talk with their customers, be they researchers, general academics, professional general staff, students or whoever. Don't dismiss the value of open discussion. Engage with then and gain the understanding.
I am interested in your comments around the comprehensive immersion program and can see some real benefits in this. In our institution, we are only dipping our toes in the water but need to dive in deeper. A challenge for 2013 and beyond.
Immersing IT folk in the business of their organisation is a key part of helping them out of the shadows.
The insights they gain with just a few hours of direct experience in the business can have remarkable benefits - to their motivation, to the value they bring with their hard IT work, to the regard they are held in by the business.
One uni I know runs a comprehensive service immersion program for its IT staff requiring all of them to spend at least a few hours every year in some form of direct uni service - on help desks, in the library, working with a researcher, helping a teacher adopt technology. The IT staff there are amongst the most motivated and tuned in to their work I have seen.
This kind of immersion has been standard practice in many service industries for middle and senior managers but I think it also needs to be extended to back office professionals like IT, accountants, lawyers .....
Technology is evolving, IT departments mostly not. Businesses become more about everything else and less about IT unless IT finds out a way to be part of the processes. CIO and IT directors need to think and live business not IT going forward.
For the past few years I have been involved with IT in the construction industry, and one of the things that the CIOs have been stressing is that IT personnel go out to jobsites. All too often IT stays at the home base and works with users in the field remotely. Actually going to these jobsites can make IT staff really understand how a construction company works and how dependent they have become with technology when it was not too long ago you would have never seen a computer, tablet or smartphone at a jobsite.
I think you have outlined it well, Paul. It is an evolution.
That is my distinction in the IT Pros, are those you will demonstrate leadership in the information technology and step up to that challenge. Those are the Pros. The IT team that stays in the "technology" mode alone, will not demonstrate that leadership and they and their organizations will be left behind.
I think you are missing Neil's perspective here. No one is disputing the fact IT are hard working guys and that they bring so much to effective working of bith public and private enterprises.
Neil is kind of like challenging you guys to move from the mentality of being the regular IT guy to considering yourself as been an integral member of the C-suite. In an information age like ours, IT will have to step up considerably to the leadership podium. You can argue that bin some enterpirses, the enviroment is not condusive to make this transition but many enterprises are now beginning to realize that IT has has gone past the age of the IT guy to occupying ammore central leadership role. Enterprises with this kind of mentality have thus provided an enablingh enviroment to integrate IT within the management circle.
"As Neil points out, the true IT pros need to exercise more of their leadership skills in applying technology and building a base of users that truly bring the value to life."
So how do you define true IT pros? Back to Neil's point, I think it is an evolutionary process as the IT guy transforms to the IT leader. I don't think we are there yet but as more and more private and public enterprises come to the realization that IT is no longer that guy you can just call to fix your computer when it is down, but in truth is an integral player in the overall management of the enterprise.
In this age of information economy, I think it is just a matter of time before we see IT taking its rightful place in leadership.
Be proud of working in IT. Many companies would never work the proper without those of us in IT. We could be some of the hardest workers out there ever and we never get the accolades that we deserve. so maybe we can start a day to pay our respects to those of us who work in the field?
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