Steve makes some excellent points and his comments should be taken seriously by any CIO who aspires to make a significant business impact upon their enterprise and/or their industry. Almost by definition, the term "alignment" implies that you are starting with two or more disparate entities or ideas, and the goal then becomes about finding reasonable points of intersection, connection and communication. But by implication, the original entities are still somehow separate. This cannot be an efficient or sustainable model for any organization that is serious about leveraging IT to do more than keep things running at a lower cost.
Business and IT should be no more disparate than Business and Finance or Business and Marketing. A more productive perspective would be to say that Business equals the sum of it's functional parts, e.g. Product + Sales + Marketing + Finance + Human Resources + ... + Information Technology = "The Business". All are component pieces of the whole; the componet pieces are not "aligned" but rather integrated; the whole is then (hopefully) greater than the sum of its parts.
In most organizations, the integration of these core functions is played out within the executive team, aka the C-suite. The operative word here is "team". Look how Merriam-Webster defines team: "...a number of persons associated together in work or activity: as a group on one side (as in football or a debate)" . Note that there is nothing in the definition about the group being "aligned" but rather the reference is to "associated together ... a group on one side".
Take a look at the attributes most often associated with high performing teams (from an article by Kevin Eikenberry,President of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, 1997)
- Commitment - Team members see themselves belonging to the team. They are committed to group goals above and beyond their personal goals and agendas.
- Trust - Team members have faith in each other to honor commitments, maintain confidences, support each other and generally behave predictably and consistently.
- Purpose - The team understands how it fits into the overall business of the organization. Team members know their roles, feel a sense of ownership, and can see how they personally, and as a team, make a difference.
- Communication - Effective teams communicate effectively and frequently with each other and also communicate clearly and consistently with people outside the team about team activities. Effective internal communication allows these teams to make balanced decisions, handle conflict constructively and provide each other valuable feedback.
- Involvement - Everyone has a role on the team. Despite differences in roles, perspectives and experience, team members feel a sense of partnership with each other. Contributions are respected and expected. True consensus is reached when appropriate.
- Process Orientation - High performing teams have a large number of process tools they can use when needed. Process tools would include: problem solving tools, planning techniques, regular meetings, agendas, and successful ways of dealing with problems, behavioral agreements, and ways to improve those processes within the team.
- Continuous Improvement - The team understands the importance of continuous improvement, has the tools, knowledge and time at their disposal to make Continuous Improvement really happen. All improvement efforts are done in support of the organization's goals and objectives.
Notice that what is conspicuously not mentioned anywhere - the word "alignment". Perhaps what CIOs need to do, as Steve suggests, is give up on the "never-ending chase for alignment" and replace the mission with "becoming a better C-suite team member". Perhaps CIOs should look at the seven attributes described above and make them their daily mantra, continuously asking themselves how they can do one thing each day to move the needle on just one of these attributes. I doubt that any CIO, or any executive for that matter, would disagree with the criticality of any of these attributes and, in fact, CIOs likely routinely include these very attributes in their Powerpoint presentations. Perhaps we as a community, as a profession, need to stop talking about these things and start living them.
The Center for CIO Leadership is committed to assist CIOs in acquiring, developing and mastering the skills and competencies needed to live these values and to become better C-suite team members. Visit us regularly to take advantage of our offerings and, most importantly, to continue the conversation...
