Answer the question, it's not just about (Y)EU!

We are now in the final leg of the should we stay or should we go debate leading up to the EU referendum on the 23rd June. I am not a hugely politically motivated person and like most have increased interest as the date has drawn nearer and media coverage has become greater. Having watched a number of televised debates it amazes me how little the participants from  both camps fail to answer most questions, sometimes completely missing the point and instead defaulting back to a very biased single extreme view favouring their own position.

I have recently come to realise I have seen similar behaviour in my own working life. I have lost count the amount of times strategic projects fail to answer the "exam question".  Like with the EU debate it is really difficult to obtain a completely unbiased and impartial view on any particular subject or disruptive trend in the technology space. I don't just mean that a person is likely to have more experience in one solution as opposed to an other always drawing them towards that suggestion but at an agreed business and partner level. If when defining your strategic approach you limit the options available to you from the start, can you really expect to be able make a fully informed decision or to successfully innovate, which lets be honest is hard enough even when you have the required budget and blank canvas to begin with!

Couple this with the number of times I see strategy or product teams surprised when projects get halted after electing to forgo talking to customers or colleagues for requirements, failing to run structured selection processes,  not standing up rapid proof of concepts and then never communicating the change effectively magnifying issues ten fold. I was told by a senior IT leader last week that the IT organisation can't speak to their business colleagues, which nearly caused me to fall of my chair, when in the next breath they started to explain that they were having difficulty meeting expectations and driving awareness…..Really!!

In a time when technology seems to be moving faster and faster with everyone  under more pressure to deliver missing out proper governance and process surely isn't the answer but seems to be happening regularly and in much larger volumes than ever before!