On being a CIO ... part 10 - lost in translation

On being a CIO ... part 10 - lost in translation

A few years ago, I spent a few years working in Japan and I used to joke that I was the highest paid translator in the company. My Japanese was really pretty basic - so I was absolutely not translating languages. What I *did* spend a lot of time doing was helping the local team understand what "Global HQ" wanted and helping the Global HQ understand the nuances of the local market and practices in Japan and what was and was not realistic to expect.

In order to be successful at this I had to do a number of things ... the most important of which was to build trust on both sides. The skill to translating different needs and wants, involves both parties being honest in the first place. To build trust, in my case particularly with the Japanese team, I needed to spend a lot of time listening and building my understanding of work in an unfamiliar culture. It was through building this trust that I properly understood perspectives on both sides and was able to find a path through to resolve any differences and get to the right outcomes for both sides.

Fast forward a few years, I'm now working in a role where I'm bringing a lot of new technology concepts to my colleagues and finding myself, once again, in the role of translator. The challenge I have is that so much of what we deal with as technologists is quite complex. The business, quite rightly, want to concentrate on their business ambitions and not get bogged down by technology constraints, but as we know, the devil is always in the detail and realising these ambitions may be harder, longer or more expensive than it may first appear. Those of us who've been round the block a few times know well developing and implementing tech is never straightforward or goes to plan and many a compromise is needed along the way!

So I'm taking a bit of time to reflect on how I help bring less-technically focussed colleagues along with us on the tech development journey - and the inevitable challenges, pitfalls and realities that come with it - in ways that make sense, without drowning them in the detail!?What are the ways you have found to bridge this "tech to business gap"? And how have you built trust with your colleagues?

Tara Duffy

NHS Resolution Core Systems Programme Communications Manager

2 年

?? Reading this again Niamh, makes me think there’s definitely something about how learning how to trust is quite like learning how to fail. We all know there has to be trust to succeed and from experience we’ve all evolved better from things that have gone wrong. Often more than from the things that have gone right! But maybe this makes it sound like the tech has to fail before it can succeed ?? which is not ideal! Hmmm…??

Declan Conroy

Head of Platform Architecture at Manchester Airports Group (MAG)

2 年

"The devil is in the detail" Interesting article, and very topical. One of my favourite quotes is from Miyamoto Musahshi from around 1645 where he says "..it is important to see distant things as if they were close, and to take a distanced view of close things" I've always read this to mean that the detail is important, but so is the big picture, and you really need to see both. I think the challenge in some organisations is that you have "big picture people" that don't want to worry about the detail, and you have detail people that don't see the bigger picture. It's a perspective thing. Helping big picture people understand the challenges at the detail level, and helping detail people understand the drivers from the big picture go a long way to smoothing out the frustrations on both side, but only if both sides are willing to see things from another perspective.

Ghalib Khan

Improving patient experience around medication information | NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow | Founder of Written Medicine

2 年

This is so relevant to the conversation we had regarding translating medication information and the perceived risks pharmacists were concerned about when using software to solve the problem. Its how I explain the concept and processes. Its not just a digital transformation, but a cultural and educational one as well.

Mark Pearce

AI Conversation and Case Summarisation | Wyser AI

2 年

Niamh, well said. As a company that specialises in AI, we understand exactly what you are getting at. I was asked only yesterday why do you spend so much time on the human side of digital transformation programmes? I said our technology is there to enhance and elevate your teams not replace them, which is why we spend so much time talking to users about their needs, demonstrating the effectiveness of the tech and addressing any fears around AI directly. Trust isn't given it is earnt, I think the same can be said for tech adoption.

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