The High Priests of IT.
IT management can so easily get into a rut when it comes to IT innovation. I am sure that most people that get into the information technology field have a great desire to innovate. As the years go by innovation seems to become their lost love. This especially happens in IT management.
The High Priest of ITA religion that shuns IT innovation. |
IT High Priests – a Religion of Governance and Cost Management. There is something about being in IT management that it becomes so easy to forget about innovation and just start managing your costs and infrastructure. Instead of being innovators, IT management become High Priests. Their religion becomes governance, standards, infrastructure, information security, and Return On Investment (ROI).
The Heretics – Super Users and Supper Geeks. Innovation seems to go against all of the tenets of managing IT. The people that even show a glimmer of innovation, the “super users” and the “super geeks”, are the heretics to the High Priests of IT. See Cory Doctorow posting on The High Priests of IT — And the Heretics for more on the High Priests of IT and the Heretics.
IT As Engineers That Innovate, Build, and Maintain Systems.
IT as Engineers. I am a big believer that IT is not a cost center, and that they should be thought of as engineers that innovate, build, and maintain systems. It is so easy to get into a rut where business and IT both buy into the notion that IT managers are just IT High Priests that maintain the systems and manage the costs. Yes, IT needs to maintain systems and have policies in place that maintain standards and security. At the same time, a significant objective of IT must be to innovate, re-event itself, and build new and better solutions that meet future business requirements.
The Need for an Innovation Dialog Between Business and IT. Business and IT both must challenge the notion of IT management just being the High Priests of IT. Without innovation coming within the IT organization, business users will go outside the IT organization to find IT solutions that meet their current business problems. This becomes a disjointed way to introduce new information technology into the organization, but may be the only way to innovate when the organization has a High Priest of IT. A worst scenario is when neither IT nor the business users will shepherd in new IT innovations into the business. If this IT innovation stalemate continues, the competition will eventually increase market share through their IT innovations. Business users and IT need to maintain a dialog and take action to continue to innovate in IT. See Adrian Gonzalez’s posting, Can Logistics and IT Eat Lunch Together? on the need for IT and business users to do a better job of communicating with each other.
