IT Governance

Future of Work

Tech Intensity and the Adaptive Organisation

Stephen Danelutti 1 Comment

Tech Intensity is not my phrase or concept, it comes from the CEO of the company I work for, Microsoft – Satya Nadella first wrote about it here earlier this year: The necessity of tech intensity in today’s digital world.

I have written about it before in the context of agility and speed as it is implicit in all the technology adoption work I do, indeed in Tech Intensity: Agile in nature not just by name.

In that last post I wrote in the video there was a graphic which is similar to the one above but in this one I wanted to simplify and call out the role of IT specifically.

Essentially the graphics main statement is as follows:

The pace of technology change which is exponential will never be matched by slower moving logarithmic organisations. But everyone in the organisation, especially IT departments who’s traditional role is to manage technology adoption, need to get behind technology adoption that strives to narrow the gap to at worst, remain competitive. At best, adaptive organisations close the gap and compete better.

I’m calling the role of IT out because of the two different kinds of IT organisations and mindsets I often encounter in my work. Those that inhibit and those that enable. Here are some differences between the two:

Inhibitors

  1. See themselves as the only arbiters of technology decision making and adoption.
  2. Under the pretext of IT governance, everything is locked down.
  3. See business / user technology decision making as an existential threat to their roles.
  4. Think the technology adoption cycle still works in months and years.
  5. Act with vendors as gatekeepers to the business and users.
  6. Believe that value outcomes should be measured in IT terms.

Enablers

  1. Understand that the business and users are who ultimately should inform decision making.
  2. Have a strong governance program in place that is flexible.
  3. Understand that enabling the business and users in decision making is a valuable role.
  4. Understand tech intensity and that speed of adoption now works in weeks.
  5. Work closely with vendors to empower and educate business and users.
  6. Believe that value outcomes can only be measured in business terms.