For decades, core industries were ruled by left-brainers : left-brainers are smart people with mostly scientific degrees, analytical skills, driven by ratio and logic and proud possessors of an MBA. They were the epitome of the knowledge worker in the Information Age.
These are the people that you will usually find in an IT department : programmers, testers, functional and technical analysts, IT managers just to name a few of them.
According to Daniel H. Pink, writer of a Whole New Mind (see my shelfari) times are changing : Western Society wants and needs something more nowadays. He cites three forces for this : Automation, Asia and Abundance.
Automation : Left-brain processes can now easily become automated
Asia : What we can do here, they can do in Asia for a quarter of the price
Abundance : L'embarras du choix obliges product manufacturers to go beyond utility and price - Design is now leading.
In a world where the perception about IT is not so positive, technology is seen as a pure commodity (read Why IT doesn't matter by Nicholas Carr) and outsourcing is considered to be the next silver bullet - you will understand now why your CIO needs to shift gears and strive for more alignment with his business counterparts.
1. If you can only manage the supply side of IT (keep the company running) you can bet on it that your technology boutique will be closed down and shipped to Bangalore.
2. Providing standard solutions and services will not impress your executives anymore : the IT vendors are on the outlook for underperforming IT organisations and are preparing hostile take-overs as we speak. Due to their economies of scale, global network and expert centres, they will insource your basic IT services and do it cheaper. With attractive presentations, business knowledge and slick sales talks they go straight to the CEO and talk about risk, service quality, innovation, ROI, business continuity and quick time to market : In fact, they don't do geek speak anymore - their messages are tailored to such an extent (design) that it becomes more appealing to the not so tech-savvy audience.
3. Innovation : to boldly go where no ITer has ever gone before. Literally thousands of definitions exist for innovation but they all have one thing in common: creativity.
If you can only look at the world through "rational and logical" glasses, you will never be able to come up with a new idea, aesthetic concept or creative dimension. Too bad that 95% of your workforce was hired for their straight thinking skills and number crunching abilities.
These are exactly the reasons why your IT department needs more right-brainers : people that are creative, communicative, innovative, holistic, artistic - characteristics which are not so easy to automate or imitate.
They know how to make a compelling business case, speak the business language, are empathic and become true relationship builders. Your right-brainers are seen as enablers and allies instead of technies that live on another planet.
Find these people in your department and foster them - they have the innate power to initiate change and inspire their peers. Business/IT alignment will not happen by itself, nor will innovation. You need actors that diffuse this corporate philosophy and create room for innovation.
As a conclusion, the following statement by Davila et al. tells us why IT departments must see innovation is an imperative and not as a nice to have :
"Companies cannot grow through cost reduction and reengineering alone...Innovation is the key element in providing aggressive top-line growth, and for increasing bottom-line results".
Mental note though, first get your act together and make sure that you can manage your supply side (i.e. cost reductions, operational efficiency, security) before your CIO starts talking about innovation and business/IT alignment. So don't start to lay off all your left-brainers yet as you still need them - Sounds logical, doesn't it?
