IDC ANALYZE

THE
FUTURE

IDC PERSPECTIVE
A CIO Communication Framework for the Digital Era:
The CIO's Direct Reports
Marc Strohlein

EXECUTIVE SNAPSHOT

FIGURE 1

Executive Snapshot: A CIO Communication Framework for the Digital Era — The
CIO's Direct Reports
The Ers communications with his or her direct reports are a critical, yet sometimes overlooked, element
of digital and organizational transformation. The CIOS staff are the evangelists and change agents of
transformation and, as such, do much of the heavy lifting. To do so, they have to be informed, inspired,
and engaged; they must also be effective communicators themselves.

Key Takeaways
- The CIO's direct reports are the engine of IT organizational and digital transformation but cannot be
effective unless they understand and embrace the vision, mission, and goals and their roles in execuiing
them.
- Communication is the CICrs prirnary tool to shape and develop behaviors, practices, and
communications of direct repo rn while ensuring they are aligned in executing the IT mission and goals.
• CIOs need to have empathy for the challenges of each direct report's role and the changes to those roles
wrought by organizational and digital transformation, but they also need to hold the team to high
standards of performance and communication.

Recommended Actions
Naw • Assess direct repor& readiness to designtexecute IT digital/organizational
transformation; assess IT vision/goals, identify gapsidisagreemen-n,and find remedies.

Next6um Mhz ▪ Work with direct reports to create'change road maps" with goals/actions/milestones.
▪ Hold one-on-one meetings to implementirefine road maps and communication plans.

Next 12 months ▪ Perform semiannual checkpoint analysis of the entire team to gauge progress and fine-
tune communication strategies.

Source: IDC, 2018

May 2018, IDC #US43779718

SITUATION OVERVIEW

CIOs garner many of the headlines in articles about digital transformation (DX), but their direct reports
do much of the heavy lifting in digital and organizational transformation. The CIO's team must help
formulate the transformation vision, mission, and goals; engage and motivate workers to embrace and
execute the vision; and help create a "flywheel effect" that sustains continuous transformation. And
they must do that while managing the day-to-day operations of their departments and teams. That
makes CIO-direct report communication a critical linchpin in achieving organizational and digital
transformation.

However, CIOs often do not pay enough attention to the nature and effectiveness of CIO-direct report
communications. CIOs often struggle to get their direct reports to understand why and how IT needs to
change to meet the digital era needs of the business. To get the IT performance that CIO's want and
need from their direct reports, they need to think about how their direct reports need to change to help
create and run the IT organization that they and the business want and need — and then shape their
communication strategies accordingly.

This IDC document is the final in a series of three documents that focus on CIO communications in the
digital era and examines communications with the board of directors, with LOB executive peers, and
with the CIO's direct reports, the subject of this document. It describes what's different about
communications in the digital era, provides examples of goals of CIO-direct report communications,
describes the unique challenges and potential pitfalls in communicating with direct reports, and
provides strategies for improving the effectiveness of communications.

The CIO-Direct Report Communication Imperative

Digital transformation requires IT executives to change the way they think, act, work, and
communicate. For many IT organizations, digital transformation-driven changes include:

 Creating a culture of experimentation, failing, and learning

 Moving from project focus to products and customers
 Shifting product development to Agile/DevOps
 Shifting from risk averse to educated risk takers
 Moving from order takers to "menu planners"
Those are all nontrivial changes. Enterprise-scale DX changes (almost) everything, and it all starts
with the CIO and his or her direct reports finding new ways to communicate with each other and
ultimately with their direct reports and staff. In planning CIO-direct report communications, consider
these imperatives:

 Reaching and influencing all IT staff: While modern IT organizations make it easy for CIOs to
communicate with staff at all levels, the CIO's team has the most direct relationships with IT
managers and staff and as such are the natural vehicle for cascading communications from
CIOs out to their organizations. The CIO's team can also "translate" what might otherwise be
communications that are too abstract for some IT staff.
 Gaining support and ownership of IT vision: CIOs need support and input from their team in
creating a vision, a mission, and goals for IT, not to mention budgets and other existing
operational aspects of IT. CIOs are, or should be, the clear leader in creating the vision, but
failing to work with direct reports may result in goals that aren't anchored to reality and likely

©2018 IDC #US43779718 2

 won't be embraced by those who have to execute. Moreover, executing complex DX initiatives
and organizational change can require extraordinary effort that will only come from IT
executives that are fully invested in the success of the IT vision and mission.
 Creating change agents that drive culture change: While CIOs can envision and communicate
the need for and parameters of change for their organizations, their teams will bear a
significant part of the actual heavy lifting that makes change happen. Organizational and
digital transformation are, above all, about culture change. Such change is a massive
undertaking that requires leaders to orchestrate initiatives, and cooperate among themselves,
and lead transformation of their workers and functions. Focused CIO-direct report
communications must motivate and align the CIO's team to drive transformation.
 Tapping knowledge and innovation sources: While CIOs are often in the limelight of digital
transformation, they can't survive, or thrive, without their team's ideas and expertise. Direct
reports are the front line to the rest of the IT organization and, often, IT customers, both of
which are critical sources of innovation. IDC's 2017 CIO Sentiment Survey found that CIOs
rate innovation second to last out of 10 parameters of IT performance — which points to the
importance of improving communication. Close and continuous communications are key to
accessing the knowledge and innovations that direct reports can provide.
 Achieving "full-stack performance": While the customer-facing elements of DX get the most
visibility and attention, the CIO's team must ensure that the full stack of IT products and
services is extensible and operating well. Along with their focus on DX, CIOs can't lose sight of
the necessity for those full-stack services to be available, reliable, and extensible to support
the more visible products and services. And CIOs are the singular connection among all parts
of the IT stack.

What's Different About Communicating with Direct Reports in the

Digital Era?
Some of the most visible impacts of digital technologies and transformation include the increased
velocity of business, the growing volatility and unpredictability of business environments,
hypercompetitive start-ups from around the globe, and the growing mix of skills needed to create
digital products and services. These and other factors all directly impact IT organizations and
specifically how CIOs and their direct reports communicate.

Increased Velocity of Change

Achieving velocity in adapting to changing business and technology environments requires that
decision making be pushed to the edges of the organizations where workers have direct visibility into
the changes that are taking place. That requires CIOs and their direct reports to clearly communicate
shared IT goals to guide and anchor decision making throughout the organization.

Communications as Driver of Change

Traditional CIO-direct report communications comprise a mix of requests, status updates, problem
reporting, and personal chat via email, conversations, or meetings. In contrast, digital era
communications include a broader multimodal mix of idea sharing, customer knowledge and insight,
market and ecosystem intelligence, and data-driven insights — all aimed at focusing and driving
change in the IT organization including what it does and how it works.

©2018 IDC #US43779718 3

Different Success Measures
IT executives have a long history of measuring their organization's performance based on traditional IT
metrics that focus on operational and project-oriented measurements. As digital transformation gains
in importance to the business, those metrics need to be augmented by new business-focused metrics
that are ultimately more important than the traditional ones, at least to business leaders. CIOs and
direct reports need to discuss new metrics and why they are important to IT and the business.

Cross-Functional Everything
Until now, IT executives have managed and worked with a relatively focused set of talent and skill
sets. As IT becomes more critical to customer-facing business activities with the varied needs of digital
transformation, teams must be cross-functional, with a mix of business, technology, and design
workers. CIOs and their staff must learn the "new languages" of cross-functional disciplines.

Agile/DevOps and Customer Centricity and Products

Moving from the old word of waterfall development, bucket brigade-style workflows, and project focus
to the new world of customers, products, design thinking, and agile product development is a large
shift. IT executives that are steeped in serial sequential methods may struggle to cross the chasm.
CIOs will need to champion agile transformation until it is achieved and sustained at enterprise scale.
Moreover, since new customer experiences and new digital product revenue are the top 2
organizational objectives, as demonstrated in IDC's 2017 CIO Sentiment Survey, the CIO will have to
communicate to his or her team the need to build customer centricity and product focus into the
organization's cultures.

Identify Primary Goals of Direct Report Communications

One of the challenges in communicating with direct reports is the number and variety of reasons for
and goals of those communications. What are the reasons and goals for organizational and digital
transformation? What must CIOs do to stay in sync with direct reports?

 Achieve clarity and agreement on IT vision: Recent research has shown significant
disconnects between CEOs and their leadership teams in their understanding of and
agreement on top goals, and the same occurs with CIOs and their teams (see
sloanreview.mit.edu/article/no-one-knows-your-strategy-not-even-your-top-leaders/). By
achieving shared understanding and consensus on IT vision and goals, CIOs further two
critical goals:
 Enable decision making at the edges of the organization
 Extend the reach of the CIO
The first goal frees up CIO and team bandwidth to focus on more strategic pursuits while
ensuring alignment of decision making with goals; the second is a necessary component of
digital transformation. If direct reports don't understand or agree with the IT vision, they can't
or won't support it or promote it to their organizations. CIOs need the unwavering support of
their teams to make the culture changes that are needed in enterprise DX.
 Spark entrepreneurial behaviors: One of the most important, yet difficult to obtain, attributes
for modern IT organizations is entrepreneurship — the proactive "searching and solving" of
important business problems and opportunities. CIOs cannot afford for their teams to always
wait for instruction. They need entrepreneurial business- and customer-focused leaders who
can solve problems and innovate to advance the IT organization. Given the crush of
operational work, CIOs must publicly underscore the importance of entrepreneurial behaviors.

©2018 IDC #US43779718 4

  Gain buy-in, engage, and motivate: The CIO's direct reports are executives in their own right
and have their own views about what should be done and how. CIOs must master a tricky
balance of communication that ensures that all team members feel heard and that strategies,
goals, and actions include direct reports' ideas and contributions wherever possible.
 Ensure fitness and success in role: Technologists often get promoted into management roles
that they aren't well suited for and may not even want. CIOs, especially those that are new to
an IT organization, should discuss each direct report's role and work, including span of control,
talent and talent management, organization culture, and customer relationships — dimensions
that contribute to success or failure.
 Develop and mentor staff to meet changing needs: One of the CIO's most important
responsibilities is developing staff to meet the needs of the IT organization and the business.
The traditional "one and done" career development plan is not sufficient: the skills and
qualities needed by IT executives have now changed dramatically. CIOs need a dynamic and
interactive process to shape and guide development of their direct reports.
 Champion integration and alignment of IT assets and strategies: While DX is the "order of the
day" for CIOs, they need to instill in their direct reports the critical importance of a clear
alignment of IT and the business in relation to the organization's workers, assets, and plans.
The CIO's team must maintain that alignment and cannot be distracted from that alignment.

Unique Challenges in Communicating with Direct Reports

Unlike communicating with the board of directors and LOB executives, it would seem that CIOs should
have an easier time communicating with their direct reports, as, after all, they report to the CIO. In fact,
the communications are often more complex, more nuanced, and indeed more impactful than those
with the other stakeholder groups. In tackling the organizational changes needed for IT to become a
true enabler and driver of enterprise DX, the CIO's team may face the need for unprecedented change
that cuts to the core of their work and personal lives. Direct reports can represent a significant
challenge to the CIO's communication skills (see Table 1).

©2018 IDC #US43779718 5

 TABLE 1

Keys to Successful Communications with Direct Reports

Action Rationale

Develop staff For the members of the CIO's team, the next career step up is the CIO role; some will
aspire to that step. CIOs must have the confidence to develop their staff to be able to take
on the CIO role without worrying about their own replaceability.

Anticipate power shifts Digital transformation inevitably drives changes in strategies, roles, and responsibilities.
Seasoned IT executives who have spent years honing their managerial and technology
skills can be threatened by new requirements for soft skills and ability to coach self-directed
teams, especially if younger colleagues are better versed in the new job requirements. CIOs
should anticipate such shifts and work with their teams to develop needed new skills.

Nurture diverse profiles CIO teams can have significant differences in experience, personalities, attitudes, risk
acceptance or aversion, business savvy, and other attributes. CIOs must understand those
differences and craft individualized and tailored communications strategies for each direct
report.

Attend to operations While CIOs with strong teams can pay more attention to the business-focused side of IT,
their IT executives cannot afford to ignore the operational aspects of running IT
infrastructure and applications. CIOs need to communicate the need for customer and
business orientation while recognizing the demands of running IT infrastructure and
operations.

Discourage weak soft skills Technology and operating skills used to be of prime importance: CIOs are likely to have
and business skills senior staff who are rooted in technology and lacking in necessary soft skills and business
acumen. CIOs must find ways to either help those staff members develop the skills or
change the roles and responsibilities of the incumbents. In either case, communicating the
gap between actual versus needed skills is an important first step.

Source: IDC, 2018

In contrast with CIO-LOB executive communications described in another document in the series,
CIOs and their direct reports live in much more similar worlds — but closeness and familiarity may lead
to potential pitfalls (see Table 2).

©2018 IDC #US43779718 6

 TABLE 2

Never Do This

Mistake Risk

Communicate too much If communications are too frequent and granular, the CIO runs the risk of
micromanaging, real or perceived, which will alienate and frustrate IT
executives.

Assume understanding and agreement Miscommunication can result in inaction, wrong actions, or frustration on the part
of CIOs and their team.

Push too fast and hard Change takes time and can feel threatening to many IT executives. CIOs must
firmly move the organization ahead while being realistic about what can be a
multiyear process.

Source: IDC, 2018

Crafting a Communication Strategy for Direct Reports

In our previous two documents in the series, communications focused on informing and educating,
learning, engaging, establishing urgency, and persuading or influencing. To that list, communications
with direct reports adds developing, mentoring, and coaching; assessing and appraising; and working
through them to cascade communications out to the rest of the IT organization. That makes some
facets of communication more personal and hence challenging and definitively rules out "winging it" as
a CIO communication strategy. The most important element in CIO-to-direct report communications is
a strategy for each report that is tailored to their attributes, effectiveness, aspirations, and the changes
in thinking, behaviors, and practices that will be required as the organization evolves to meet the
needs of enterprise DX. How?

 Be clear about the purpose of communications. CIOs and their direct reports talk about a
varied set of topics, and there may be confusion about the reason for a given exchange. CIOs
should be clear in their communications with their direct reports about the purpose of their
communications, whether focused on executing IT's mission, identifying needed changes in
roles and behaviors, or developing new skills and attributes.
 Create and articulate the shared digital IT vision. At the heart of DX-related CIO
communications are the vision, mission, and goals for digital and organizational change. High-
performing CIOs must articulate a compelling vision, crafted in collaboration with their
leadership team. This vision helps their direct reports make the connection from IT's work to
operational and business model transformation so that they, in turn, can recruit their workers
to execute the mission. The iterative process is a virtuous cycle that builds on itself and
strengthens CIO-direct report communications while ensuring that the vision and goals are
truly shared and embraced.
 Adopt a "change framework." Changing behaviors is difficult, and trying to do so by instructing
direct reports about "how they need to change" is futile. It is better to use a framework, such as
John Kotter's "see-feel-change" approach, which informs the content, structure, and timing of
communications. In his book, The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change

©2018 IDC #US43779718 7

 Their Organizations, Kotter proposes that "people change what they do less because they are
given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences
their feelings." CIOs can apply Kotter's approach by working with direct reports to:
 Understand what changes are needed (see).
 Understand why changes are needed and why they are urgent (feel).
 Embrace, orchestrate, and execute changes (change).
 Assess current state and identify transformation goals. An important step in developing IT
executives is working with them to identify and formalize their goals for change — in other
words, what changes in thinking, behaviors, practices, and communications will the executive
need to undergo to achieve needed change. Those goals form the foundation for CIOs to
create individualized communications strategies using the change framework to add structure.
 Create strategies and plans for each direct report. CIOs are experts at planning and executing
technology strategies. Yet many do not apply the same rigor to developing and executing
communications for their staff, resulting in hit-or-miss results. Minimally, such plans should
have formally identified time slots for communications, defined methods for increasing
understanding of each executive, goals and a road map, identified measurements for
determining success, and avenues for feedback used to refine the plan and strategy.
 Meet one-on-one. Most CIOs and their direct reports have frequent discussions about IT
matters, personnel issues, system failures, and the like: Those are not one-on-one meetings.
True one-on-one meetings focus on specific topics of concern to the direct report and/or the
CIO — including what's working or not working in their interactions. Moreover, one-on-ones
should have homework and deliverables and include assessments of the direct report's work
along with recaps and takeaways to cement progress. Above all, CIOs need to keep to
schedules and not revert to "drive-by meetings" or email.
 Communicate outward too. While communicating with direct reports to help ensure their
success, CIOs should also make sure their teams are visible to the business and get credit for
their accomplishments. By communicating those successes outward, CIOs build self-
confidence in their staff while building the reputation of their team, which also makes the CIO
look good.

ADVICE FOR THE TECHNOLOGY LEADER

While this document has focused on the importance of CIO-direct report communications, it's also true
that "actions speak louder than words." CIOs must back up their communications with actions that
mirror their communications. Consistent and tightly synchronized communications and actions have a
far greater impact than words alone. CIOs should carefully assess the consistency of their actions,
behaviors, and words as they construct and evolve communication strategies for their direct reports
(see Figure 2).

©2018 IDC #US43779718 8

FIGURE 2

Essential Guidance

Assess readiness of direct reports to

drive needed transformation of the FT Create a baseline, identify
CID and
organization and discuss current and perFormance gaps, and begin
direct Now
desired states of communication development of communication
reports
including frequency, length, mode, strategies.
and topi.
CIO and
select IT Discuss perFormance of direct reports Obtain a 360-degree view of each
staff ancl Now and gather feedback on direct report's effectiveness and
LO B needed/desired changes. needed changes.
executives

Create plans and road maps for

communications with direct reports Provide a framework and structure
CIO Now
to address role changes and for ongoing communications.
development needs.

Use one-on-one meetings and a mix Keep the IT mission front and center
CID and
offormal and informal with direct reports and solicit their
direct 6 months
communications for evolving the IT innovations and improve alignment
reports
vision, mission, and goals. and team cohesiveness.

CIO and Make one-on-one sessions Working Focus working sessions to accelerate
direct 6 months meetings with homework, the learning and development
reports assessments, a ncl takeaways. process.

Conduct at least annual checkpoint

CID and
assessments to assess the progress Avoid falling into a communications
direct 12 rnonths
made and the Fructiven ess of rut with litde impact.
reports
communications.

Source: IDC, 2018

LEARN MORE

Related Research
 A CIO Communication Framework for the Digital Era: The Board of Directors (IDC
#US43779918, May 2018)
 A CIO Communication Framework for the Digital Era: Line-of-Business Executives (IDC
#US43779818, May 2018)

©2018 IDC #US43779718 9

Synopsis
This IDC Perspective discusses how CIOs can communicate effectively with their direct reports. The
CIO's team must help formulate the transformation vision, mission, and goals; engage and motivate
workers to embrace and execute the vision; and help create a "flywheel effect" that sustains
continuous transformation. CIO–direct report communication is a critical linchpin in achieving
organizational and digital transformation. This document is the third in a series of three documents that
focus on CIO communications with the board of directors, LOB executive peers, and direct reports.
This document describes what's different about communications in the digital era, lays out goals of
CIO-direct report communications, calls out the challenges and pitfalls in communicating with direct
reports, and offers strategies for improving the effectiveness of communications.

"Digital transformation requires IT executives to change the way they think, act, work, and
communicate in relation to their direct reports," says Marc Strohlein, adjunct research advisor with
IDC's Research Network. "CIOs need to spearhead change with their direct reports to multiply their
effectiveness in the organization."

©2018 IDC #US43779718 10

About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory
services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology
markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-
based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts
provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in
over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients
achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology
media, research, and events company.

Global Headquarters

5 Speen Street
Framingham, MA 01701
USA
508.872.8200
Twitter: @IDC
idc-community.com
www.idc.com

Copyright Notice

This IDC research document was published as part of an IDC continuous intelligence service, providing written
research, analyst interactions, telebriefings, and conferences. Visit www.idc.com to learn more about IDC
subscription and consulting services. To view a list of IDC offices worldwide, visit www.idc.com/offices. Please
contact the IDC Hotline at 800.343.4952, ext. 7988 (or +1.508.988.7988) or [email protected] for information on
applying the price of this document toward the purchase of an IDC service or for information on additional copies
or web rights.

Copyright 2018 IDC. Reproduction is forbidden unless authorized. All rights reserved.