One of the biggest challenges that you are going to be facing when you become a CIO is managing an IT workforce that is made up of multiple generations. Each has its own set of views and skills, and yet you have to somehow come up with ways that they can work together. How hard could that be?
Can’t We All Just Work Together?
An IT department is made up a whole bunch of different types of workers. The reason that you’ll have such a challenge in getting them to work together is that they all see the world differently.
In order for your IT department to be successful, they are going to have to be able to successfully complete large IT projects. The secret to doing this type of work well is to engage in what the experts call “task sharing”. This is no more complicated than taking a single large task and breaking it up into a series of smaller tasks.
IT teams that can do this have the ability to solve very large problems by working together. The ones who can’t are the ones who exceed schedules and blow through budgets.
Welcome To The World Of Wikinomics
The term “wikinomics” was coined by Don Tapscott & Anthony Williams in their book “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything”. They point out that for the first time ever, technology, demographics, and global economics have come together to make change and innovation easier than ever.
The use of Internet based tools like wikis finally has provided CIOs with the tools that they need in order to get their IT teams to do the one thing that will make them more successful: exchange information. No matter what generation a given worker is, the use of web-based communication tools is the common factor that will allow them to both send and receive the information that they will need to do better work
What All Of This Means For You
As CIO you will be faced with many challenges. Potentially the greatest of these will be finding a way to get your entire IT team to work together as a single smooth flowing unit.
The arrival of web based collaboration tools such as wikis may be the silver bullet that you need. All of a sudden it has become very easy for everyone in an IT department to both send and receive knowledge.
Just having the tools to exchange information is not enough. As CIO you are going to have to find ways to motivate your teams to use the tools that are available. That’s why being a CIO is such a tough job!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Department Leadership Skills™
Question For You: If you provided your IT team with a Wiki, do you think that they would actually use it or would you end up having to bribe them to use it?
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
Just imagine that amazing moment in the future when you finally become the CIO! Now imagine yourself all alone – none of the other “C” level executives want to play with you. What’s going on here?