Restart & Budgets…
The role of a language barrier
As businesses restart and budgets semi-settle – after a summer of continual re-do’s – some executives see a silver-lining in the pandemic. The pandemic successfully illustrated on a global scale what so many CIOs have struggled to do: tell the value proposition story of technology. And the story is simple: business continuity. A language barrier – technical versus non-technical – between many CIOs/CTOs and the rest of the C-suite challenges business readiness. Chief technologists are seeing the need to focus on improved communication efforts. And the most successful CIOs are doubling-down on communication as they seize today’s opportunity to increase credibility with their peers and secure funding – even during today’s pandemic-plagued budget season. CIOs not paying attention to communication risk incredible budget cuts and failure.
“Gartner predicts that through 2025, CIOs who successfully communicate their organization’s business value will maintain 60% higher funding levels than their market peers.”
The C-Suite Language Barrier
The ability to connect with a C-suite audience is a key differentiator between an executive’s success and failure. Their budget depends on it. “Gartner predicts that through 2025, CIOs who successfully communicate their organization’s business value will maintain 60% higher funding levels than their market peers.”
Yet, so frequently, CIOs fall in love with the technical story for their priorities – instead of value and business outcome. And they start talking about data lakes, A/B testing, automation, and the like. CIOs tend to tell stories that simply do not resonate with their audience. They tell the story that they want to hear. Yet, for the rest of the C-suite, this approach is too technical, boring… and fails to relay the business benefit. The worst part? This language barrier reinforces a lack of proper alignment on the company’s goals/objectives. And failed communication undermines technology leaders’ seat at the executive table.
Precision overcomplicates the technology story and prevents CEOs and CFOs from understanding its value.
The Balancing Act: Precision vs. Simplicity
This C-suite language barrier is not a new challenge… and it’s easy to see how we got here. Technologists succeed when they excel at mastering left-brained, quantitative skills. Technology requires precision and has inherent complexity. And skilled technologists have less forgiveness for a lack of precision. As time passes, the right-brained, creative skills take more effort.
Honing the ability to masterfully tell the executive value story requires the right brain – and an allowance for simplification. Precision overcomplicates the technology story and prevents CIOs and their teams from conveying their value. In fact, many technologists fear telling a “simple story” because of the potential for inaccuracies. This fear usually comes when technologists try to explain the technology or process – instead of the simple strategic value (i.e. business continuity) of how the priority aligns with company goals.
The most successful CIOs are doubling-down on improved communication as they seize today’s opportunity to increase credibility with their peers and secure funding – even during today’s pandemic-plagued budget season.
A Painful Lesson
The entire C-suite feels the cost of a CIO who fails to communicate the value of IT priorities. For example, companies could have had today’s remote work capabilities before the pandemic. The technologies existed. Companies that struggled with business continuity early this year simply had not prioritized technology. Too many CIOs failed to convey to their CEOs and CFOs the full value of transformative business technologies.
In contrast, CIOs with successful communication strategies, like those at the NBA and NBCUniversal, had already started down the business transformation path, giving their companies a leg-up during the forced remote work period. And this built trust equity with the rest of the C-suite. Clear, relatable communication builds trust. But how can a CIO communicate clearly about such complex topics as enterprise technology?
Successful CIOs adeptly step back far enough to find the value story.
Breaking Past the Barrier
Executives do not need – or want – to see how the proverbial sausage is made. Executives want to understand the value, frequently understood in just a few words. Successful CIOs adeptly step back far enough to find the value story. Example stories can include: “keeping employee data safe,” “business continuity,” and “improving employee productivity.”
CIOs have a new responsibility in today’s technology era: they need to both manage the technical aspects of the business and serve as the strategic visionaries who can translate new technical opportunities – simply – to the C-suite and the Board. “Digital business is driving a need for more strategic engagement with the board and executives. IT changes how businesses operate from the technology core to the strategic direction,” notes Gartner’s Heather Colella. The executive audience – whether the CEO, CFO, CHRO, Board of Directors, etc. – must understand the CIOs story.
CIOs have a new responsibility in today’s technology era: they need to both manage the technical aspects of the business and serve as the strategic visionaries who can translate new technical opportunities – simply – to the C-suite and the Board.
Today’s Simple Example
CEOs, CFOs and Boards of Directors know the cost of failure to implement remote work/cloud service technologies: business continuity. It’s a simple story. We see this in Gartner’s widely reported research, which points to IT budget cuts of $300 billion – across most of IT. The area where Gartner finds budget growth due to the pandemic? Cloud services is expected to increase by 19% this year. Widespread office closures mean executives have no choice but to lean on CIOs and leverage technologies – including Amazon Web Services, Zoom, Office 365, and more – for business continuity. The remote work craze that started as a “nice to have feature” for employees years ago is now requisite.
Today represents an opportunity for CIOs to shift from acting as pure cost centers to true partners – with simple communication.
A Compelling Story
It’s hard to find a more compelling story than keeping the lights on. Having said that, CIOs must lead their teams in finding the equivalent value message. Failure to do so will squander today’s “15-minutes of glory” in the corporate spotlight. Today represents an opportunity for CIOs to shift from acting as pure cost centers to true partners – with simple communication. Partners who can lead the company in delivering on goals/objectives, providing trusted guidance to internal/external stakeholders, and strategically positioning the business for a resilient future. And, CIOs who master the skill of communication position themselves to become their business’ next CEO.
CIOs who master the skill of communication position themselves to become their business’ next CEO.
Ellebridge Can Help
As skilled technologists have risen through the ranks, many failed to either learn for themselves – or teach their teams – how to communicate effectively with non-technical colleagues. And that’s OK. Ellebridge serves as the strategic advisor, specializing in translating the technical into value for the rest of the business. And this improved communication helps CIOs move their priorities forward, keeping their strategic seat at the table.
Take 5 Steps To Get Your IT Story Right:
Step 1: Meet with a trusted communication executive – someone who understands audiences
Step 2: Define your goals and audience(s) with your communication expert
Step 3: Provide top-down support, asking your leadership to partner with your communication strategist to accelerate promoting the right story
Step 4: Be available to provide guidance/feedback to the communication expert
Step 5: Contact Ellebridge with questions or for additional support – your brand is on the line
Ellebridge expertly partners with HR and IT leaders to simplify messaging for all employees – essential when fostering an engaging culture. Contact us to learn more about how we can bridge your company's technology, HR, and marketing teams.