In my previous blog I outlined five habits of highly effective IT
organizations. (Thanks for your insightful comments and suggestions, btw. Very
helpful!)
But how can organizations
manage to make these five habits stick? In other words, how do they make business
value messaging a permanent practice? Not just for the CIO, but for all the
VPs, directors and project managers across your organization.
In most
organizations today, business value messaging is left to the discretion of each
IT leader. It’s seen as a “style” or even an “artistic” skill that can vary wildly
from one leader to the next. Some are naturally gifted in translating IT
language into business language. Others feel uncomfortable outside the confines
of their technical domain.
How about at your
own organization: Is business value
messaging a unique art -- or is it a consistent, repeatable practice? I
would argue that if your IT organization wants to become a true strategic
partner, you’ll need to practice business value messaging at scale. That means creating a formal business value realization program with full
business alignment, rigor, repeatability and standardization. Here are five
steps to get there.
1. Pick a Leader
First you need
to Identify a leader to run your business value realization program. Your CIO’s
chief of staff might be a good candidate for this role. Next, staff the team
with someone with good business acumen and another with great communications skills.
They’ll work with your IT leaders to develop standard processes and outputs
across the organization.
2. Identify Sources of Business Value
Identify key
projects that you know will add value to the business. These could be projects
that:
·
Improve business processes (to boost efficiencies and productivity,
or control costs)
·
Create new capabilities for the business (to improve
competitive advantage, generate revenue or improve profitability)
·
Strengthen the foundation (to enable future growth and
profitability)
Seeing each
project through the lens of business value communication compels you to create business-friendly
narratives, hard numbers, and visualizations that can appeal to a broad
business audience across multiple channels. Consider creating a single-page
“project inventory” focused on business value realization.
3. Define Use Cases and KPIs
Business
leaders want to see business outcomes. So, for each project you identify, build
3-4 use cases that are expected to deliver 80% of the total benefits. Be
specific. For example, explain your new customer application in terms of how
its predictive analytic capabilities will boost retention and subscription
renewal rates. Explain how other KPIs are impacted, such as retention costs, complaints
per customer, customer satisfaction, etc.
Make sure your
case studies are clearly articulated. You may have detailed spreadsheets and PowerPoints,
but do you have a concise 30-word and 100-word summary of why you’re doing the
project, and what benefits are expected?
4. Create an Editorial Calendar
It’s best to
assume your business stakeholders have short memories. One-off communications are
quickly forgotten, so reinforce your business value messaging with frequent
communications that are both memorable and easily consumed. Of course, leverage
all the channels and formats at your disposal:
·
Channels: Email communications, QBR meetings, intranet, internal
social media, in-person meetings, cafeteria displays, etc.
·
Formats: Slide decks, blogs, dashboards, web pages, IT annual/quarterly
reports, infographics, video-graphics, etc.
To orchestrate
the communications, I recommend creating a basic “editorial calendar” that
lists all the content assets to be published, the format and channel to be used,
and when they’ll be published. Using a simple spreadsheet for the calendar is
fine for most programs. Just make sure all your project teams have reviewed and
bought into it.
5. Create a Content Library
Once your
business value communication program is up and running, you’ll quickly
accumulate a ton of content, most of which can be easily reused and repurposed
across other channels and formats. To make the most of your assets, organize a
“central repository” in which your published content can easily searched and
retrieved for new communications.
Hopefully these
five steps will help make your business value communications more consistent,
repeatable, and scalable. In other words, making it a “stickier” habit. At a
minimum, you’ll avoid the scramble of putting together communications on an ad-hoc
basis. For example, preparing an IT annual report – a task can seem truly mountainous
in the face of your other responsibilities – suddenly becomes an orderly,
hassle-free exercise. Best of all, your credibility will rise in the eyes of
business leaders who will increasingly view IT as a strategic business enabler.
