BusinessForward

By John Huckle, Founder BusinessForward

The cultural divide between CIOs and their CxO peers has become an evergreen theme in modern thought leadership. Articles have been penned, a multitude of blogs have been typed, and many speeches have been given around the world. The topic of CIOs not being heard or understood in strategic planning conversations seems an immortal trend. And yet for all of these musings between business and technology professionals, we still don’t understand why our fearless C-leaders don’t align.

At the core is the simple question: “What can be done so that CIOs are respected, valued, and looked to for strategic advice?” With your permission, I would like to offer that the reason we keep asking the question is because there is not, in fact, one answer. Further, the misunderstood CIO is a role that has been created not just by the CIOs themselves, but fostered by their peers.

In my experience as a consultant for both globally-focused and locally-based companies, I’ve had the distinct vantage-point of seeing the role of the CIO as it relates to other CxO roles in an organization. Because I come to the company table as a problem-solver, engaged for perspective as much as for IT strategy expertise, I get to see both sides of the disconnect conundrum. Considering I founded a company based on the premise that we could provide empathy-driven consulting, I consider empathy to be critical to the conversation.

The smartest, most collaborative leaders still struggle to understand how those that were previously tasked with keeping the lights on can actually use their skills to light, heat, and power the entire enterprise. So, I’ve worked with plenty of non-technology executives to help them ask to understand the critical role of their peer, the CIO. Conversely, couldn’t CIOs help their peers better understand their positions both literally and strategically without all of the jargon?

Why isn’t this obvious?

1. Perhaps CIOs don’t understand how goods and services are becoming so commoditized that executives are desperately seeking new ways to differentiate their company through innovation. Sure, technology is innovative, but is it being presented this way?

2. Perhaps CIOs don’t understand that today’s barriers to entry are so small that market-place competitors can approach and pass you faster than you can say competit… see, there, it just happened.

3. Perhaps CIOs don’t understand that a significant portion of a company’s workforce is comprised of a generation of people with very different technology expectations.

But on the other hand…

1. Perhaps CxOs don’t understand that finding and deploying the RIGHT technology isn’t as easy as just typing a user name and password into the latest flavor of  the moment.

2. And perhaps CxOs don’t understand that innovation in technology is happening so rapidly that newly available technology solutions can approach and pass you faster than you can say cloud… see, there, it just happened.

3. And perhaps CxOs don’t understand that a CIO’s workforce is getting younger and attitudes of technology staff are slowly becoming more customer-focused and business-focused. It’s this parallel, yet one-way conversation that has to change lanes over to a dialogue.

My perspective, what I offer, is an opportunity for us all to examine why, from both sides, this disconnect exists and offer what can be done. I would love for you to join me as we openly discuss the different viewpoints of our fearless leaders and how we all can help…

Stay tuned for next week’s blog where I’ll discuss the importance of CIO-Multilingualism. The savvy CIO must speak fluent HR, operations, sales and finance. In the meantime, send me a tweet @BUSFWD with your thoughts.