Re:Think: Teaching the IT departments to dance to a new tune
As IT departments become large over the years, there is a huge resistance to change. IT departments that started as harbingers of change in enterprises have themselves become resistant to change. We have always welcomed change as long as we were the master of change, and the impact of the change is in other parts of the enterprise.
Today, we need to change. The question is as harbingers of change are we capable of change internally or do we need external forces to lead us to change?
We have all encountered resistance to change from our teams. Some putting it more blatantly, that they have been managing their applications and systems for over 25 years so they know better, to some others openly embracing change but resisting at every step. The complete eco-system of the IT Department has been developed and sustained in a specified process, and to function in status quo.
Performing change at the complete department level would be a challenge. It is the equivalent of teaching an elephant to dance! (Using the famous title from Lou Gerstner’s book). Most of the change management performed is to extend the status quo.
When we refer to change, we are not referring to changing from one technology to another, but looking at a comprehensive change in preparation for the future.
But the huge mountain of resistance usually drains any senior management’s energy in undertaking the change, with middle and entrenched managers nodding their heads wisely, that the new boss will change before it sees the light of the day! Or they will activate their internal unofficial communication channels to resist change or build barriers for change. It is common for managers to refer to risk, compliance, quality, audit, and other functions as a reason for their objections. Though as senior management we are very much aware of the procrastination tactics, it would be extremely difficult to disagree especially in the era of unquestioned organizational obedience.
The only path is for every CIO to create a small budget to be used at his discretion. Identify the managers who are open to change, encourage them to come with new ideas and create an environment to enable these managers to undertake projects beyond the trappings of other executives’ vision. In the initial phase the budget should be small enough to ensure that none of the other IT management team be alarmed about the purpose of the budget. After the initial projects are a success, then the management needs to start looking for the next wave of change. Every wave becoming larger and larger till all the managers are engulfed in the change management process.
As referred earlier, let us use this opportunity, an unprecedented scenario, to push forward the change and pursue the change that we have always dreamed of, but have been hindered by various operational priorities. As Jeff Bezos put it, let us put the changes we planned through the “regret minimization framework” and move forward!