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Effective IT Communications

Empower IT employees to communicate well with any stakeholder across the organization.

IT communications are often considered ineffective. This is demonstrated by:

  • A lack of inclusion or time to present in board meetings.
  • Confusion around IT priorities and how they align to organizational objectives.
  • Segregating IT from the rest of the organization.
  • The inability to secure the necessary funding for IT-led initiatives.
  • IT employees not feeling supported or engaged.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • No one is born a good communicator. Every IT employee needs to spend the time and effort to grow their communication skills; with constant change and worsening IT crises, IT cannot afford to communicate poorly anymore.
  • The skills needed to communicate effectively as a front=line employee or CIO are the same. It is important to begin the development of these skills from the beginning of one's career.
  • Time is a non-renewable resource. Any communication needs to be considered valuable and engaging by the audience or they will be unforgiving.

Impact and Result

Communications is a responsibility of all members of IT. This is demonstrated through:

  • Engaging in two-way communications that are continuous and evolving.
  • Establishing a communications strategy – and following the plan.
  • Increasing the skills of all IT employees when it comes to communications.
  • Identifying audiences and their preferred means of communication.

Effective IT Communications Research & Tools

1. Effective IT Communications Capstone Deck – A resource center to ensure you never start communications from a blank page again.

This capstone blueprint highlights the components, best practices, and importance of good communication for all IT employees.

2. IT Townhall Template – A ready-to-use template to help you engage with IT employees and ensure consistent access to information.

IT town halls must deliver value to employees, or they will withdraw and miss key messages. To engage employees, use well-crafted communications in an event that includes crowd-sourced contents, peer involvement, recognition, significant Q&A time allotment, organizational discussions, and goal alignment.

3. IT Year in Review Template – A ready-to-use template to help communicate IT successes and future objectives.

This template provides a framework to build your own IT Year In Review presentation. An IT Year In Review presentation typically covers the major accomplishments, challenges, and initiatives of an organization's information technology (IT) department over the past year.


Effective IT Communications

Empower IT employees to communicate well with any stakeholder across the organization.

Analyst perspective

There has never been an expectation for IT to communicate well.

Brittany Lutes

Brittany Lutes
Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group

Diana MacPherson

Diana MacPherson
Senior Research Analyst
Info-Tech Research Group

IT rarely engages in proper communications. We speak at, inform, or tell our audience what we believe to be important. But true communications seldom take place.

Communications only occur when channels are created to ensure the continuous opportunity to obtain two-way feedback. It is a skill that is developed over time, with no individual having an innate ability to be better at communications. Each person in IT needs to work toward developing their personal communications style. The problem is we rarely invest in development or training related to communications. Information and technology fields spend time and money developing hard skills within IT, not soft ones.

The benefits associated with communications are immense: higher business satisfaction, funding for IT initiatives, increased employee engagement, better IT to business alignment, and the general ability to form ongoing partnerships with stakeholders. So, for IT departments looking to obtain these benefits through true communications, develop the necessary skills.

Executive summary

Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech’s Approach
IT communications are often considered ineffective. This is demonstrated by:
  • A lack of inclusion or time to present in board meetings.
  • Confusion around IT priorities and how they align to organizational objectives.
  • Segregating IT from the rest of the organization.
  • An inability to secure the necessary funding for IT-led initiatives.
  • IT employees not feeling supported or engaged.
Frequently, these barriers have prevented IT communications from being effective:
  • Using technical jargon when a universal language is needed.
  • Speaking at organization stakeholders rather than engaging through dialogue.
  • Understanding the needs of the audience.
Overall, IT has not been expected to engage in good communications or taken a proactive approach to communicate effectively.
Communications is a responsibility of all members of IT. This is demonstrated through:
  • Engaging in two-way communications that are continuous and evolving.
  • Establishing a communications strategy – and following the plan.
  • Increasing the skills of all IT employees when it comes to communications.
  • Identifying audiences and their preferred means of communication.

Info-Tech Insight
No one is born a good communicator. Every IT employee needs to spend the time and effort to grow their communication skills as constant change and worsening IT crises mean that IT cannot afford to communicate poorly anymore.

Your challenge

Overall satisfaction with IT is correlated to satisfaction with IT communications

Chart showing satisfaction with it and communications

The bottom line? For every 10% increase in communications there 8.6% increase in overall IT satisfaction. Therefore, when IT communicates with the organization, stakeholders are more likely to be satisfied with IT overall.

Info-Tech Diagnostic Programs, N=330 organizations

IT struggles to communicate effectively with the organization:

  • CIOs are given minimal time to present to the board or executive leaders about IT’s value and alignment to business goals.
  • IT initiatives are considered complicated and confusing.
  • The frequency and impact of IT crises are under planned for, making communications more difficult during a major incident.
  • IT managers do not have the skills to communicate effectively with their team.
  • IT employees do not have the skills to communicate effectively with one another and end users.

Common obstacles

IT is prevented from communicating effectively due to these barriers:

  • Difficulty assessing the needs of the audience to inform the language and means of communication that should be used.
  • Using technical jargon rather than translating the communication into commonly understood terms.
  • Not receiving the training required to develop communication skills across IT employees.
  • Frequently speak at organization stakeholders rather than engaging through dialogue.
  • Beginning many communications from a blank page, especially crisis communications.
  • Difficulty presenting complex concepts in a short time to an audience in a digestible and concise manner without diluting the point.

Effective IT communications are rare:

53% of CXOs believe poor communication between business and IT is a barrier to innovation.
Source: Info-Tech CEO-CIO Alignment Survey, 2022

69% of those in management positions don’t feel comfortable even communicating with their staff.”
Source: TeamStage, 2022

Empower IT employees to communicate well with any stakeholder across the organization.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

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Authors

Diana MacPherson

Brittany Lutes

Contributors

  • Anuja Agrawal, National Communications Director, PwC
  • Nastaran Bisheban, Chief Technology Office, KFC Canada
  • Heidi Davidson, Co-Founder & CEO, Galvanize Worldwide and Galvanize On Demand
  • Eli Gladstone, Co-Founder, Speaker Labs
  • Francisco Mahfuz, Keynote Speaker & Storytelling Coach
  • Sarah Shortreed, EVP & CTO, ATCO Ltd.
  • Eric Silverberg, Co-Founder, Speaker Labs
  • Stephanie Stewart, Communications Officer & DR Coordinator Info Security Services, Simon Fraser University
  • Steve Strout, President, Miovision Technologies
  • Plus two anonymous contributors
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