The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/34686
to theEdge: Close IT’s Fight to Stay Ahead of the Curve with Intel, they are developing a set of internal programs intended to teach every IT employee the basics of innovation. You’d think that a company like Intel wouldn’t need to be any more innovative, but the question is how do you align IT with an innovation culture so that it can support and accelerate the innovation of the business? Further, how do you train IT staff on this essential skill so that they can meaningfully interact with and drive innovation in the business? Here is where nearly everyone gets it wrong: IT does not need to be the innovator, but rather the facilitators of innovation. Intel isn’t going to look to IT to design its next processor, but IT can absolutely lead the charge to build an innovation practice and process in the organization that supports this — for example, creating an open innovation initiative that captures a broader range of product ideas from various business units. In fact, IT is typically the only group with an organization that crosses the existing silos and otherwise disconnected parts of an organization. Think about that for a minute. Who is better suited to build an innovation practice? Train IT staff on how to facilitate innovation and you create a whole new set of skills that enhance your organization and the value of your IT staff — classic win-win! IT Aligns Second, IT needs to align itself with the core competency of the organization. This is a tough one for some us who have grown up in IT departments of less innovative firms and get accustomed to just doing what it takes to keep the lights on. If your organization’s business is family law, it’s highly doubtful that IT will develop a competency in the intricacies of family law. subsequent firm they worked for! And those lapel pins? They were worn proudly enough to put a Freemason to shame! 5. Advertise Success: OK, so you’ve recognized your IT superstars. But to whom have you advertised this recognition? More than likely you’ve broadcast it only to IT. What about the rest of the organization? These folks aren’t just IT superstars: they are firm superstars, industry superstars. Get the message? Recognition is as valuable as the size of the community who knows about it. Send a company-wide announcement. Send a press release. Post the award in the person’s local neighborhood newspaper. In short, do whatever you can to make a big deal about their achievements, because they are a big deal. 6. Develop Team-Based Core Competencies: IT has a reputation for being a bunch of geeks locked up in a closet with a gap under the door just high enough to slip an occasional pizza under. That’s exactly the sort of IT that’s moving to the cloud. The IT that’s relevant and necessary to your firm is team-based IT. These are IT professionals who understand the process of teamwork, are adept at meetings, group interactions and bridging the divides of an organization. Keep in mind that of all the functions in an organization, IT is the one that is still the most likely to cross the most silos. 7. Develop Sourcing Competency: IT will increasingly need to manage a portfolio of service providers who span the globe. In this sort of environment, IT professionals need to master a set of skills that expand far beyond technology. For example, trying to manage a global workforce without training in cultural sensitivity is a disaster waiting to happen. If you do not equip your people with these sorts of skills, they will spend most of their time frustrated as the complexity of IT sourcing increases. 8. Create Free Space: IT professionals are thinkers and problem solvers. Everyone in IT has experienced the addictive euphoria of problem-solving. Most of us eventually grow out of that pure problem-solving chapter of our careers and fondly look back on it. However, we never grow out of problem-solving mode, we just move on to different sorts of problems. But what we often do not realize is that as the problems grow, so too must the time we have to unplug from the problems. This sort of free space to think is severely lacking in most IT organizations. Yet many of the most successful innovators, from 3M to Google, give their people time away from their day-to- day tasks to work on projects that are personally gratifying. 9. Challenge: The late Peter Drucker once told me that the best way he knew to motivate knowledge workers was to challenge them. 10. Lead: There is no denying that IT is changing. This sort of uncertainty creates high levels of stress. If you cannot lead IT in a way that acknowledges and clearly addresses the root causes of this stress, you will lose some of your best people. At the end of the day we all want to choose to follow a leader who deserves our loyalty. The role of a leader at times like this is to provide a pathway from the present into the future. ILTA Peer to Peer the quarterly magazine of ILTA 67