Building on my previous blog post about trust being the foundation for great results, I want to turn the attention from the team to the organization. Unfortunately many organizations do not trust their IT team. Here are 3 common reasons (although there are a myriad of others):
- Lack of understanding what IT is and isn’t (Hint it’s more than helpdesk support).
- IT team hasn’t been successful in reliably providing the services they are responsible for (e.g. unplanned outages or scheduled maintenance that causes more issues than it fixes).
- IT team doesn’t understand business problems and so can’t help identify or implement solutions to those problems. This leads to the rise of shadow IT.
As a result, IT is often treated as an afterthought – a back office function or basic utility – both by the IT team and the organization leadership. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The number of firms I encounter that have no IT team or a skeleton crew (typically mostly helpdesk) amazes me.
My background as a management consultant has given me unique insight into how to transform IT to become an enabler of business goals and outcomes.
Organizations that have trusted IT teams are more likely to succeed long-term. Especially when you factor in cybersecurity or regulatory risks that are primarily addressed through technology.
PS: If you have a group that’s struggling to operate like a team, reach out to me. I have strategies I can recommend that I have successfully used to establish strong, cohesive teams in multiple organizations. And the results speak for themselves.
