|
Great CIOs are not just good at change; they are masters of it. Great CIOs anticipate and drive change. Organizing the perpetual journey from the status quo to the desired state is central to every CIO's job. Like it or not, if you are an IT leader, you are in the change business.
"Being successful at change management is the most important leadership skill in any organization," says the CIO at a midmarket transportation company, where he created a shared IT service organization for six different business units. "Business is constantly changing, and IT is constantly changing."
Over the past 12 years, this CIO has moved through four leadership positions, reassessing and changing various organizations. During his stint at a retailer, for example, he led an effort to transform IT from an internally focused team to a business-facing one. At a services firm, he oversaw an IT transformation that enabled growth in business strategy, sales, marketing, operations, application development and service delivery. Then, at a conglomerate, his group reorganized disparate teams to create a centralized, business-focused IT approach. Throughout this IT leader's career, changing the natural state of things has been a common thread.
But we all know that not every CIO is a change master. In this month's CIO Habitat, we asked respondents (45 from large companies, 55 from midmarket firms) to share their understanding of the lifecycle of change and to dissect the change management process. Ultimately, we wanted to learn why change is so hard.
The Dynamics of Change
The concept of punctuated equilibrium tells us that change is not evenly distributed. There are times of calm and times of frenzy. Whether it takes place in organizations, society or biology, change does not advance through steady progress. Instead the status quo moves through a series of peaceful interludes punctuated by violent revolutions in which one world view is replaced by another.
Our research indicates that several industries are now in periods of disruptive change, particularly retail, media, quick-service restaurants, services and transportation. Several CIOs in the quick-service restaurant industry say their business is constantly changing on several fronts: in technology (evolving point-of-sale [POS] systems, for example), in culture (such as changing tastes and use of leisure time) and in the economy (such as plant closings). Other industries, however, are more static, such as education, the federal government and insurance.
But no matter which industry they occupy, most organizations struggle with change. John P. Kotter, a leading change management scholar, observes that "people who have been through failed change efforts are suspicious of the motives of those pushing change." He adds that many veterans of failed efforts "are convinced that change is not possible without carnage."
|
 |
|
|
