Building an IT culture for transformation

In my previous posts I discussed how, at DHL, we have encouraged a different mindset and approach to how we design and deploy new technology to support transformation. And I concluded by saying that in the process we have also started to change the culture. In this post I want to explore what that really means.

First, I want to be clear that that everything I have said about the role of the CIO and IT to be agents of transformation represents an additional responsibility, it does not replace the need to keep the lights on, to be the prime agents of continuity. The IT function has simply taken on a much broader range of roles and responsibilities.

What then does that mean for my teams? Is it simply a question of new skills? Or does successful evolution require a more fundamental shift in team culture and how they behave, how they interact with the rest of the organisation?

There is no question that the ability of IT to deliver on so many fronts demands a broader range of skills within the function, in particular an understanding of business impact. And for people who have gained their experience in more ‘classical’ IT environments, some or even many of these skills will be unfamiliar.

But skills can be learned – and they should be learned. What I think makes the biggest difference, but is also the biggest challenge, is building a culture in which the team automatically know what they need to do to keep the lights running but create the capacity and the mindset to innovate as well.

This starts with everyone being clear about the absolute priorities, the things that are non- negotiable. For DHL that means 100% uptime on the core operational systems that handle every parcel we are responsible for. Clearly IT and data security, legal compliance are also part of this pyramid of priorities. Once people know what these are and the time and resource needed to deliver them, they can also see what is available to use on innovation and improvement.

The challenge then becomes prioritising how to invest this additional time and resource. For me, it is really important to have a culture of listening. If IT listens carefully to the different business stakeholders, they will tell you what is relevant, what can make the biggest difference. Of course there are many stakeholders, their priorities will not all be aligned. But the answer lies in my first point. When the CIO and the IT team understand the overall strategic priorities, for example growing digital sales, then we can focus our efforts on the opportunities most likely to deliver against these.

We then need to turn that understanding into action. We cannot expect people in the business to understand what our platforms are capable of and how we can use them to better meet their objectives and challenges. We need to think and act more like advisors, guiding and even shaping the business. This means explaining and demonstrating to the business what can be done, and being prepared to make a clear recommendation for what should be done, based on what we have been told.

So, I want a culture where everyone is clear and aligned on the priorities, uses their listening skills to assess new opportunities and their expertise to explain and recommend solutions. The final thing I want to mention is resilience. In very simple terms our approach is to strive for perfection but recognise that it is not actually possible and in fact, at some point, we will have to deal with a crisis. When you have a resilient culture, everyone understands that stress is inevitable, but they are also better able to deal with it, individually and as a team. Because when you have coached people to be resilient, then when something goes wrong, they do not try and blame someone, there is no shouting, people come together to fix the problem.