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Adaptive IT Leadership

Lead at the pace of exponential change.

Analyst Perspective

Leading is fundamentally different in IT. You need to lead in real time.

The most critical success factor for the future of IT is you, the IT leader, regardless of your role in the organization. The world around us has changed. The technology curve has bent exponentially, and there is no return.

Amid this change, something remarkable stands out: leadership has not evolved at the same pace. Despite the thousands of best-selling books on leadership, we still see a surprising lack of exceptional leaders. In today's world, what separates successful leaders from those who struggle? How does leadership need to evolve to keep up with the pace of change? One of the clearest findings is that leading in IT is fundamentally different from leading in other parts of an organization. If you work in IT, it's not unlikely that you've been through a transformation maybe even two, three, or more.

IT is unique in that the core responsibilities shift every 18 months or less. IT experiences transformations that require new technology skills and expectations on a compressed timeline. No other department faces this kind of rapid evolution. While other departments and leaders do experience change, none experience the same speed and intensity of change as those in IT. Transformation cycles in other areas marketing or finance, for example span years. In IT, they're measured in months.

How do you lead an organization that changes every 18 months?

Carlene McCubbin
Associate Vice President 91制片厂 Development, CIO
91制片厂

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

The critical success factor for exponential IT is you, regardless of your role in the organization. Leadership isn't a job it's how you show up. The world around us is constantly changing. The technology curve has bent exponentially and there is no return. This has left people feeling fearful, and when we're fearful, we regress. Leaders need to show up for each member of the team to help them think differently. Before leaders can do that, however, they need to start with themselves.

CIOs and CxOs agree that the future of transformation is IT-led

The pace of transformation shows no signs of slowing down.

According to Info-Tech's CxO Alignment Diagnostic, more than 50% of CxOs agree that IT's role is to expand (business partner) or transform (innovator) the organization. The catch? Only 5% of IT organizations are currently meeting this expectation.

Source: Info-Tech CxO Alignment Diagnostic, 2020-2024; N= 1,161. The study included CxOs and CIOs from 384 unique organizations since Jan. 1, 2020.

CxOs and CIOs are aligned on the top three pain points:

1. Staff sufficiency, skills, and engagement issues
2. Business frustration with IT failure to deliver value
3. IT limits affecting business agility

Notice that none of these are technology challenges. They all come down to people.

In IT, a lot changes in a little time

As organizations strive to succeed in the next phase of technology-driven transformation, CIOs will have an opportunity to demonstrate their organizational leadership. To do so, they will have to start delivering organizational capabilities, instead of services, while owning organizational targets. If IT leaders cannot lead the upcoming transformation, then the organization will move forward without them. For more information on opportunities in exponential technologies, see Info-Tech's Develop an Exponential IT Roadmap blueprint:

Develop an Exponential IT Roadmap

IT leaders are tasked to keep up with a world that won't wait

While the technology curve has bent exponentially, the human ability to adapt is better represented by a linear trajectory. It is this challenge of human adaptability that leaders need to address. Consider the images below: 30 linear steps representing human adaptability and 30 exponential steps representing exponential IT. By the time you walk to the corner store, technology change has looped Earth 26 times. How will you keep up to a world that won't wait?

Source: Singularity Hub, 2016

Take a step back to see how IT has evolved

And how leadership has evolved in IT

The role of IT as an organizational leader

Accelerate value creation by embracing exponential technologies.

The era of integration necessitates a change in the role of the IT leader as an organizational leader. IT leaders must bridge technology and human-centered principles. You need to drive adaptability at four levels:

• Enterprise Leadership
• Strategic Leadership
• IT Team Leadership
• Personal Leadership

We call this Adaptive IT Leadership.

Info-Tech Insight

Technology is disrupting social systems. For much of our lives, technology has been a tool. Today, it's embedded in our social systems. IT leaders need to see technology this way they need to see that our social system is part of our world of work.

Adaptive IT Leadership

A set of core practices that enables IT leaders to drive sustainable change in the organization.

The Info-Tech Difference

1. Use Info-Tech's Adaptive IT Leadership process to drive sustainable change. Each core practice is designed to help you navigate a rapidly changing IT landscape and make real-time changes to drive success.
2. Propel yourself with a few adaptations to the leadership skills that got you to where you are.
3. To do this, drive adaptability in four ways:
• Enterprise Leadership Identify and execute on the right opportunities for the organization.
• Strategic Leadership Create an environment where you intentionally pivot to ensure value of investments.
• IT Team Leadership Do more by creating space for success.
• Personal Leadership Make light-touch, high-impact observable changes in how you lead.

Insight Summary

Lead at the pace of exponential change.
The critical success factor for exponential IT is you, regardless of your role in the organization. Leadership isn't a job it's how you show up. The world around us is constantly changing. The technology curve has bent exponentially and there is no return. This has left people feeling fearful, and when we're fearful, we regress. Leaders need to show up for each member of the team to help each member think differently. Before leaders can do that, however, they need to start with themselves.

Lead with technology first.
Lead with technology first, not with technology for technology's sake. Identify and execute the right opportunities for the organization.

Pivot with purpose.
Most organizations are trapped by a three-year planning cycle that does not allow them to pivot in real time. To drive adaptability, you have to be able to use flexible decision-making and drive collective empowerment.

Clear the path to solve tomorrow's problems.
Adopt a transdisciplinary mindset. Focus on a mindset shift in which you're always thinking about how your skills can change and how you can collaborate with AI and others to execute in new ways.

Move from theory to practice.
Leading in IT is fundamentally different. It's different from leading in any other part of the organization, it's different than it was 18 months ago, and it will be different again in another 18 months. Your organization will evolve and so can you.