Fix Your IT Culture
Improve your culture and enable your strategy.
- Go beyond value statements to create a culture that enables the departmental strategy.
- There is confusion about how to translate culture from an abstract concept to something that is measurable, actionable, and process driven.
- Organizations lack clarity about who is accountable and responsible for culture, with groups often pointing fingers at each other.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- When it comes to culture, the lived experience can be different from stated values. Culture is the pattern of behaviors and the way work is done rather than simply perks, working environment, and policy.
- Executives’ active participation in culture change is paramount. If executives aren’t willing to change the way they behave, attempts to shift the culture will fail.
- Elevate culture to a business imperative. Foster a culture that is linked to strategy rather than trying to replicate the hot culture of the moment.
- Target values that will have the greatest impact. Select a few focus values as a guide and align all behaviors and work practices to those values.
Impact and Result
- Executives need to clarify how the culture they want will help achieve their strategy and choose the focus values that will have the maximum impact.
- Measure the current state of culture and facilitate the process of leveraging existing elements while shifting undesirable ones.
Fix Your IT Culture
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should improve your culture to enable your strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Assessment: Determine current culture and identify focus values
Complete a cultural assessment and select focus values to form core culture efforts.
2. Tools: Give IT executives the tools to drive change
Enable executives to gather feedback on behavioral perceptions and support behavioral change.
3. Behavioral Alignment: Align IT behaviors to the desired culture
Review all areas of the department to understand where the links to culture exist and create a communication plan.
4. Sustainment: Disseminate and manage culture within the department
Customize a process to infuse behaviors aligned with focus values in work practices and complete the first wave of meetings.
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.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Try Our Guided Implementations
Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 7 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation #1 - Assessment: Determine current culture and identify focus values
- Call #1 - Confirm you are prepared to chair the culture kick-off meeting prior to meeting with the executive team.
- Call #2 - Create a strategy to measure the current culture in your organization.
- Call #3 - Discuss the results of the cultural assessment and prepare for the action meeting.
Guided Implementation #2 - Tools: Give IT executives the tools to drive change
- Call #1 - Discuss feedback documentation and how to complete the executive reflection.
Guided Implementation #3 - Behavioral Alignment: Align IT behaviors to the desired culture
- Call #1 - Review department processes to understand where to prioritize action and learn about best practices for influencing behavior.
Guided Implementation #4 - Sustainment: Disseminate and manage culture within the department
- Call #1 - Discuss the facilitation process and review changes to the facilitation guide.
- Call #2 - Check in after all meetings have been conducted to determine when the process will need to be refreshed.
Contributors
- Allen Annett, HR/OD Consultant and Executive Coach, DMD Connects
- Richard Barrett, Speaker, Author, and Values Thought Leader, Barrett Values Centre
- Greg Besner, CEO, CultureIQ
- Marcia Buchholz, Associate Vice President of Human Resources, University of Calgary
- Phil Buckley, Managing Director, Change with Confidence
- Alexis Dean, Founder and Chief Experience Officer, Dovetail
- Michael Franklin, Employee Engagement Specialist, MagnaCare
- Ivan Joseph, Director of Athletics, Ryerson University
- Carol Leaman, CEO, Axonify Inc.
- Edward Marshall, Adjunct Professor at Duke University. www.marshallgroup.com
- Colleen Meeker, Vice President of Human Resources, Victorinox Swiss Army, Inc.
- Catherine Spence, Co-Founder, Pomello
- Carolyn Taylor, CEO, Walking the Talk
- Dr. John Traphagan, Professor of Religious Studies and Human Dimensions of Organizations, University of Texas
- Dr. David S. Weiss, President & CEO of Weiss International Ltd. weissinternational.ca