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No. 1: Drop dead weight
As CIOs and their teams are being asked to
do more with less, it’s advantageous (and
necessary) to remove unnecessary clutter to
make room for more important items. This
can mean a physical change, like removing
a shelf full of old books or old artwork. It
can also be more process-based, such as
reviewing a backlog of tasks and deleting
noncritical items.
No. 2: Purify purpose
Ready or not, it’s time to clarify the societal
purpose of the organisation. Trust in large
organisations is low, and people are sceptical
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of corporations. Given the influence that
technology now has on company purpose
and mission, CIOs are in a position to
initiate a conversation about the purpose of
the organisation. Make sure the company
mission fits the digital age and consider
focusing on a societal issue the organisation
can impact, such as plastic pollution or
population health.
No. 3: Mend meetings
Though often well-intentioned, the reality of
meetings is that they are often unproductive
or pointless. It’s time to change that. Hack
your meetings with a few simple changes
like naming the notetaker at the end of the
meeting instead of the beginning, which
means everyone has to pay attention and
engage. Another option is to calculate and
display the cost of having all the people in
the meeting and then vote on whether the
meeting was worth the money.
No. 4: Stop apologising
CIOs often apologise for things that aren’t
totally their fault (or their fault at all.)
With that in mind, stop apologising for
things like loving IT and being a ‘geek’, or
business technology project failures that
were caused by others. Remember that
resourcing is the responsibility of the whole
executive team.
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