creating an unstoppable it organisation: the ten essentials · ten essentials evolving your it...

CREATING AN UNSTOPPABLE IT ORGANISATION: THE TEN ESSENTIALS

Evolving your IT Operating Model is a demanding process. Digital is everybody’s business, so the impacts go deep and wide. IT colleagues will have to step into new roles and ways of working. The model will place new demands on business stakeholders and reset key supplier relationships. Continuous refinement will then be required as the landscape in which you operate continues to change. Making this happen, and continue to happen, will draw on the resilience, creativity and energy of everyone involved. This paper gives you ten essential tips on how to build a team which is not just capable of change but unstoppable. 21 January 2019 0.2

Mozaic-Services Limited, 41 Lothbury, London, EC2R 7HG Copyright © 2019, Mozaic-Services Limited. All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval devices or systems, without prior written permission from Mozaic-Services Limited.

Creating an unstoppable IT organisation

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Soft factors can be the hardest to get right

Most IT organisations are travelling a similar road. Driven by the imperative to become more agile and innovative without compromising IT service reliability and security, they are implementing new operating models. A confident culture of continuous improvement needs to be created. Stakeholders need to step into a more engaged partnership with IT. Suppliers will play different roles too. It is relatively straightforward to articulate the hard factors that are required to support fast, purposeful changes of this nature:

1) Deep, shared understanding of current performance and how well the organisation is delivering value and driving forward business imperatives. Mozaic has a facilitated process for gaining this insight and crystallising the areas of opportunity and risk that must be addressed.

2) A target operating model design based on evolved versions of the best practice frameworks. We have written extensively about our ‘Digital Service Management’ model which brings together the best of traditional enterprise models with product based digital approaches and can be quickly customised for the particular challenges that are being faced.

3) A business case that sets out the financial and intangible benefits of change and estimates the costs and risks of getting there. Mozaic’s financial modelling tools and comparator data lend authority to these cases.

4) A clear and achievable roadmap for implementing the changes across all dimensions: Organisational Design, Sourcing Strategy, Processes, Data, Tooling and Governance. Mozaic has practical expertise in all of these areas to support rapid implementation.

It is less easy to articulate the ‘soft factors’ required for success. These factors are more intangible and harder to measure but if they are absent key aspects of the change will fail, the benefits of the change will be compromised, and the organisation will not build the capability and resilience required for ongoing change.

This paper outlines ten essential ‘soft factors’ that must be in place and offers practical suggestions for how to ensure that they are.

Use Agile to become agile Every aspect of the approach to change should be underpinned by agile principles. We learn by experience and the change programme will itself be a great opportunity for learning about Agile methods. For this reason, we have defined the ten essential soft factors as ‘user stories’. These have to be prioritised, created and implemented in the same way as the hard ones. Defining them in this way provides a great device for ensuring they get the attention and focus that they deserve.


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Ten essential User Stories

1. “As a team member, I need to believe in the purpose of my organisation so that I can commit wholeheartedly to it”

Tune into the language of many leaders and you will hear them talk about driving change as if they sat behind a steering wheel. This analogy suggests that leadership is about driving a machine in the right direction. People are seen as passive cogs in the machine and must be controlled. Every cog must know what to do. There can be only one driver. The driver is not part of the machine but outside it.

This metaphor might have worked well in the age of industrialised IT, but it is inadequate for today’s task of leadership. We believe that organisations are more like organisms than machines. They are made up of individuals each of whom has a strong sense of purpose and wishes to have a high degree of autonomy. Forward movement of the organisation will happen naturally as soon as a way is found to align their strong individual sense of purpose with the purpose of the whole.

The first task then is to articulate succinctly the purpose of your organisation and each of its component parts. A few clear and resonant statements of purpose provide a hugely powerful way of aligning everyone’s energy and focus.

Figure 1: Example statements of purpose


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2. “As a team member, I need to envisage the future so that I can commit wholeheartedly to it”

It is vital to establish a really clear vision for the change. What will be different? How will users experience our products and services? What will people say about us? What would happen if there were no change? In our experience the best way to establish a clear vision and momentum for change is through a cathartic series of interviews and workshops. The questions to ask are:

• What are the blockers and challenges that stop your team meeting its purpose? • How could we meet that purpose more effectively and generate more value for XXX? • What do you need to measure to show how well you are meeting your purpose? • What do users care about?

The people in your organisation know the answers to these questions and will value the chance to articulate the long list of things they would like to change. They are likely to be experiencing the frustration of blockers and missed opportunities every day. Their comments and responses may sound like complaints, but each one of these can be re-expressed in a positive way that becomes a component of your vision. Perhaps your personal vision for the organisation is for it to be ‘Recognised to be innovative and agile’. Others might identify more with contributory elements such as ‘We are fully empowered and have the skills to provide value at first contact’ or ‘We have agreed roadmaps for maintaining our infrastructure’ or ‘Our governance bodies act transparently and decisively’. These and all other elements must be woven together to be coherent and to give inspiration to all. It is important too to determine and express what it will feel like to work in the new organisation. It is therefore vital to establish the values which will be embodied in the change.

Ask a group of seasoned IT professionals to shut their eyes and remember a time in their working life when they felt most energised and positive. Then ask them to tell you why it was so good and you will provoke an outpouring of thoughts that will help you to create some great value statements for you to live by as an organisation. Your whole leadership team can immediately start to lead the change in a way that is aligned to these values and the culture you are aiming to create rather than the one you that you are trying to leave behind.

Figure 3: Example value statements


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3. “As a team member, I need to know that everyone understands the challenges ahead so that I can be sure of support and appreciation along the way”

If you are a visionary leader the chances are that you have an optimism bias. You are impatient for change and you can already see what the future looks like. It’s easy to forget that others in your team will be focusing on the areas of uncertainty, the technology challenges that don’t yet have a solution and the tough political battles that will have to be fought. It’s just as well that they are, because you are going to need their ingenuity to resolve these problems. It is really important not to down play the challenges when you are talking to these people. They need to know that you recognise the difficulties ahead. Tell them that you and they are going to feel uncomfortable and uncertain at times. If learning is a value for them (and it is for most IT people) tell them ‘when I’m feeling uncomfortable I know I’m learning’.

4. “As a team member, I need to be released from old myths so that we can write the new story of success”

Stories are very powerful. The chances are that people in your organisation are being influenced by unhelpful stories of various kinds. Perhaps there is a myth running about service unreliability that has long been been fixed. Perhaps there was a previous reoganisation that was badly handled. Unhelpful stories contain generalisations and distortions and words like ‘never’ and ‘always’. (e.g. “The business will never engage”. “Reorganisations always result in job losses”.) Call these stories out and challenge them. Having cleared the space for a new story you need to write it. Writing the new story is a systematic process involving characters and plot line and an understanding of the audience. You have people in your team who will enjoy creating the story board and turning it into posters, presentations, animations etc. These will powerfully communicate the journey, why it is necessary, what interests it will serve, what trials will be experienced along the way and what the outcome will be. The process of developing the story will be valuable in itself and the investment in effort will bring significant returns as more and more people ‘get’ what you are trying to do and bring their support. Ensure that there are posters in every meeting room. Invite people to lunchtime sessions so that they can see the material you are creating. A well-crafted animation on YouTube will run like a positive virus through your organisation.

Figure 4: Example roadmap for change


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Figure 5: Example poster showing the conceptual model for a new operating model

5. “As a team member, I need to feel secure so that I can show up as my whole self and contribute fully”

Fear is debilitating. Anyone who is feeling fearful will effectively be ‘working to rule’ and performing to a minimum standard. If fear is widespread you will be squandering a large part of the talent in your organisation. For this reason, it is vital to make any decisions that involve individuals leaving the team as quickly as possible and then be as positive as you can about collective and individual security. Take a systemic view. Your role as leader is to work on the performance of the system. Working on the performance of individuals is much less effective and can be counterproductive. Generally, people perform well in good systems and that is what you are aiming to create with your new operating model.

6. “As a team member, I need to know, and feel known by everyone so I have a

strong sense of belonging” Having a sense of belonging is a basic human need. If your organisation is spread across multiple locations or has been subject to a merger or is simply growing quickly it may be full of people who have never met. The new operating model will ask these people to work together in new ways. You need to create the opportunity for them to get to know each other, create relationships and generate that sense of belonging.

7. “As a team member, I need to be seen and heard so that I am sure my ideas and views have been considered”

Nothing generates ‘buy in’ better than listening. The workshops and interviews you will use to generate a full understanding of the current state are multi-purposed. They help you gather shared insights about the problems that most need to be solved. They help you generate a


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crystal clear and relatable vision. Just as importantly, they ensure that as many people as possible feel heard and have a sense of ownership of the direction that is being set.

8. “As a leader, I need to trust the resourcefulness of my whole team so that we can all move forward together”

As you begin this complex change there are many unknowns. You cannot know in advance which problems will be encountered or how they will be solved. Your resourcefulness, and your trust in the resourcefulness of your team, will create the resilience required. You want people to speak up and tell you about risks and issues. You want to tap in to the collective intelligence of the whole team. The meeting environments that you create must feel safe enough to generate authentic, non-judgemental dialogue. Framing the right question can be a powerful catalyst for creativity. Focus shifts to solving the challenge rather than defending or advocating for a particular position. People stop waiting for others to come up with the ‘right answer’ and feel able to contribute fully. A questioning style of leadership will gradually shift the culture away from hierarchy and increase the fluidity with which ideas emerge and decisions are made.

9. “As a leader, I need to seek diverse perspectives that spark innovation” Innovation is a team game that works best when multiple, diverse perspectives are brought together. It is helpful to consider the diversity of the team that is driving the change and of the organisation that you are aiming to create. You need people who have deep historical knowledge of your organisation, but you also need people with experience from other sectors. You need a balance of genders. You need youthful voices as well as experienced ones. You need people with different personality types and preferences. Diversity of all kinds is a valuable asset that brings concrete return.

10. “As a leader, I need someone to hold up the mirror so I can see how my own behaviour is impacting the behaviours of others”

Your interior perspective, or how you think and feel about the change, will have a huge impact on your own behaviour. This in turn will have a powerful impact on the behaviour of others and the outcomes of the change. Few of us are sufficiently reflective to see this chain of impact without the mirror that a trusted coach can provide. Make sure all of those with pivotal leadership roles to play are supported by expert, confidential and agenda-free coaching that helps them be their best.

We can help you with the ten essentials At Mozaic, we have experienced consultants who can help you reflect on these soft factors and design activities and approaches to establish and maintain them. We recognise that every organisation and leadership team will come to these challenges in a different way and with various resources on which to lean. Whatever your starting point we can help you in some practical ways. Our ‘current state assessment’ is a listening and collaborative process which allows everyone to tune in to the cultural dynamics as well as the concrete performance of your organisation. The whole process is a great way of making people feel that they have been heard and for you to see the changes you most want to make.


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We can help you generate clear statements of purpose and the sharply defined metrics which your leaders will use every day to focus the efforts of their teams on meeting that purpose. We can help you articulate your values, create a compelling vision and write the ‘story’ for the change. We can produce conceptual models and imaginative collateral to help you explain and communicate the planned changes. We can help you move forward in a fast and purposeful way knowing that you have the essentials in place. About Mozaic Mozaic is a specialist in IT Consultancy. We offer client-side advice and operational support, always acting impartially to best serve our client’s needs.

Mozaic believe we have four characteristics which make our approach a good fit with our clients:

Specialisation - We specialise in IT assessment, operating model design and transformation. Our models and methods have been proven and refined in the field. We are independent, which means our approach is unbiased and recommendations are always focussed on delivering maximum value to our clients.

People - Our people have a healthy balance of operational and delivery knowledge and consulting experience. We are very comfortable working alongside clients to help identify the right recommendations and gain buy-in and acceptance with client teams.

Established materials and method – we use these to quickly understand how you manage IT today, confirm and optimise the form of your future roadmap, and value the benefits that transformation will deliver.

Demonstrable track record – We have experience in working effectively at senior levels in complex organisations, across a wide range of industry sectors. Please call us on +44 (0)203 709 1625 to discuss your thoughts on our white paper; we would be delighted to hear from you.

creating an unstoppable it organisation: the ten essentials · ten essentials evolving your it...

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