The Twelve Principles of Strategic IT Partnering
The essence of what it means to be a Strategic IT Partner.....
As a consultant I get the opportunity read broadly and in depth looking at how the IT business partner role is evolving. I get to reflect on how I performed in my corporate roles and recognise where I could have improved. In addition, this consulting role allows me to speak to dozens of clients on a monthly basis to validate where we as a discipline are. As a result I've distilled these principles.
You'll read these principles and you'll think "well, that's obvious". That's the point. They should be self evident truths. Despite the obvious nature of these principles, I find there is still plenty of opportunity in our day to day work to apply these. In effect we sabotage our ambition of wanting to be more strategic by allowing the distractions of other people's agenda to get in the way. Performing the role of IT Business Partner is tough. We're at the highway intersection of all that is change within an organisation and it is so easy to swept up by it rather than be the co-driver of it. So, armed with these principles, we can shine a light on our work and hold ourselves accountable to these principles and determine whether, in fact, we're positioning ourselves to be strategic partners longer term.
A simple application of this list is to ask your line manager / budget holder / decision maker / leader / business stakeholder whether they agree to these principles. If they do, fine. You can further qualify this to ensure you then have the remit and authority to conduct the extra / different activities to fulfill them. If not, it's an opportunity to clarify expectations and set the agenda. What principles would they agree to instead?
There is a rationale for each of the principles below the checkerboard.
1) A company, department or team must do something valuable for it’s stakeholders.
2) Value needs to be expressed as clear outcomes.
3) To realise value you must have an outcome, an activity and a link between that outcome and activity.
4) Outcomes are refined and shaped by those who lead the destiny of that company, department or team.
5) Leaders must ensure planning for the long term to ensure the long term viability of the company, department or team.
6) To plan effectively, you must review the outcomes from past activities and decide how to improve future activities.
7) To plan and communicate effectively, the impact of the activities needs to be understood for all stakeholders.
8) To be an influencer you must create trust with your stakeholders.
9) To create trust, you must have empathy in your relationships.
10) To create trust, you must plan, communicate the plan and do the plan.
11) Planning, communicating and doing the plan happen concurrently, not sequentially.
12) The sooner you apply a small lesson learnt, the bigger the value later.
1) A company, department or team must do something valuable for it’s stakeholders.
2) Value needs to be expressed as clear outcomes.
3) To realise value you must have an outcome, an activity and a link between that outcome and activity.
4) Outcomes are refined and shaped by those who lead the destiny of that company, department or team.
5) Leaders must ensure planning for the long term to ensure the long term viability of the company, department or team.
6) To plan effectively, you must review the outcomes from past activities and decide how to improve future activities.
7) To plan and communicate effectively, the impact of the activities needs to be understood for all stakeholders.
8) To be an influencer you must create trust with your stakeholders.
9) To create trust, you must have empathy in your relationships.
10) To create trust, you must plan, communicate the plan and do the plan.
11) Planning, communicating and doing the plan happen concurrently, not sequentially.
12) The sooner you apply a small lesson learnt, the bigger the value later.