Unleashing the Power of IT Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together

If you're in IT, quite a lot is expected of you and your team: be technologically advanced, business-minded, customer-focused, and financially astute, all at once. In the face of unforgiving competition, rampant globalization, and demanding customers, business leaders are discovering that it's absolutely essential to have a strong, active partner keeping a firm hand on the decisions and strategies surrounding information technology. Unleashing the Power of IT provides tangible, hard-hitting, real-world strategies, techniques, and approaches that will immediately transform your IT workforce and culture, presenting the new mindset, skill set, and tool set necessary for IT leaders to thrive in today's challenging environment.

• Includes new discussion on social media
• Offers online access to the IT Skill Builder Competency Assessment Tool
• Features top ten lists of tips and techniques, proven frameworks, and practical guidance to help you launch and sustain your IT culture change and professional development initiatives

Profiling several world-class organizations that have implemented the principles in this book, Unleashing the Power of IT reveals the best practices to get you on the path to implementation.

Dan Roberts is President and CEO of Ouellette & Associates, an IT-specific consulting and professional development firm known globally for developing the "human side" of the IT equation. Roberts is a keynote speaker and panel moderator at corporate and industry events and has published numerous articles on topics relating to transforming IT cultures. Roberts is co-author of Confessions of a Successful CIO, a book that captures the secret sauce of 10 industry leading, "bet-the-farm" CIOs.

Ouellette & Associates Consulting, Inc. has worked with more than 3,000 IT and shared service organizations since its founding in 1984. The firm works closely with CIOs and IT leadership teams to build the culture and assess and develop the "Core" skills that are necessary for success in today's increasingly complex, always changing, need-for -speed business environment. To learn more, visit www.ouellette-online.com.

FOREWORD ix

PREFACE xiii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS xix

CHAPTER 1 Creating Your Twenty-First-Century Workforce and Culture 1

Core Skills for Success 2

Assess Your Core Competencies 3

Who Will Benefit Most? 4

Getting the Most out of This Book 5

CHAPTER 2 Transforming Your IT Team 7

How to Make This Transition: Learn to Think Differently 10

Five Critical Success Factors That Enable IT Organizational Excellence 14

Conclusion 21

CHAPTER 3 Driving Change with Intent 23

Defining Terms 24

The Components of Change 25

Achieving Commitment Is Essential for Sustaining Change 25

Change Takes a Community 28

Clarity Precedes Activity 31

Messaging the Change 34

Conclusion 36

CHAPTER 4 Building a Client-Focused IT Culture 39

What Good Service Looks Like 41

Service Skills for a New Mind-Set 43

Strategies for Developing a Service Mentality 50

Conclusion 53

CHAPTER 5 Evolving into the Role of Consultant 55

What Is the Consultant’s Role? 57

Why Do I Need to Become More Consultative? 59

Learning to Change Hats: The Four Roles of IT 60

How Do I Become a Consultant? 61

How Difficult Can This Be? 67

Conclusion 68

CHAPTER 6 Negotiating: Getting What You Want without Damaging the Relationship 71

Position versus Interest Negotiations 72

Three Steps and Three Key Factors 74

Applying the Key Factors to the Second Step: Information Exchange 80

The Final Step: Now Comes the Bargaining 81

Conclusion 82

CHAPTER 7 Sharpening Your Political Savvy 85

Picturing Yourself as a Political Player 86

IT and Politics: Historically Strange Bedfellows 87

A Five-Step Process for Developing Political Awareness 89

Developing Political Skills 92

Conclusion 96

CHAPTER 8 Managing Projects: The Science and the Art 99

The Building Blocks of Project Management 101

Structuring Projects for Success 104

Developing Plans That Work 105

Managing to Successful Completion 107

The Four Tenets of the Project Manager’s Mind-Set 110

Conclusion 114

CHAPTER 9 Changing Your Requirements-Gathering Mind-Set 117

The What, Not the How 119

The Importance of the Interview 121

Communicating through Pictures 124

Writing a Solid Requirements Document 126

Conclusion 127

CHAPTER 10 Managing the Vendor Relationship 129

Both Sides of the Coin 130

Preparing for a New Role 131

Getting a Fresh Start 133

The Seven Phases of Managing Vendor Partnerships 135

Conclusion 145

CHAPTER 11 Marketing IT’s Value 147

Market to the IT Department 149

Build Partnerships 151

Differentiate Yourself 152

Establish Credibility 153

Create Product and Service Awareness 154

Develop a Formal Plan 155

Determine Your Success 156

Conclusion 157

CHAPTER 12 Creating the Social Organization 159

The Social Business Framework 161

Conclusion 170

CHAPTER 13 O&A Clients in Action: Stories from the Trenches 173

St. Luke’s Health System: Transformation through a Newly Consultative IT Function 174

Marriott: Success Enhanced through a Transformed IT-Business Relationship 178

Bowdoin College: Trust in IT Creates a Culture of Change 182

Conclusion 186

CHAPTER 14 Moving IT up the Maturity Curve: IT Talent Management 187

Gaining a Core Competency Mind-Set 188

Moving up the IT Maturity Curve 189

Talent Management 2.0 191

A Look at the Best of the Best 193

Conclusion 195

ACCESS YOUR FREE TRIAL OF IT SKILL BUILDER 197

BIBLIOGRAPHY 199

INDEX 203

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