CIOs are putting the pedal to the metal
For CIOs, the challenge is this: Build the car while driving it at full speed. Disruption isn't exactly a new concept, but the current rate of change is accelerating exponentially. CIOs think about staying ahead of market shifts, and building a business that's faster, more agile, and more decision-driven than the competition. It's clear that best way to not just keep up, but thrive, is to invest in digital transformation to work smarter and faster, and bring maximum benefit to the customer—but what does this mean for the organization and its employees?
Beware the deceleration zone
To get ahead and stay there, CIOs need to focus on creating awesome customer experiences that meet those customer's demands. Leaders are thinking about driving market disruption by anticipating its next move, perhaps with the help of AI. To revisit the car analogy: The road ahead is ready and waiting, but when CIOs hit the gas, the car stalls. Why? Because the car is only as good as its engine. And the engine in this case is any organization's ability to make decisions quickly.
Think about how many times you've opened the email app on your phone, “just to take care of one thing,” and—poof!—an hour of your workday is gone, just like that. You got stuck replying to unnecessary pings and reading through long threads while, most likely, half a dozen truly important things sat waiting for you. Now imagine this happening to every leader throughout your company, every day. We call this the decision deceleration zone. You try to speed back up after this curve in the road that slowed you down, but the engine isn't cooperating. It's clogged up with email threads, siloed teams, and more meetings than any reasonable person could handle.
Then, factor in your company's tools. It's very likely your employees are all still on pre-cloud era, antiquated software with check-in-check-out systems, or bolted-on single purpose tools that exist outside the workflow. Time gets lost, context is nowhere to be found, and any momentum you had is—again with the poof!—gone.
Hyperspeed is what you need
It's time for an engine upgrade. Something that lets you speed around the curves in your business' road without slowing down, worrying about recovery time, or getting passed by the competition. Something that lets you navigate the road ahead in a way that makes for a smoother ride: less slowdowns in the form of meetings, emails, and wasted time. Tools that bring teams together instead of encouraging siloed behavior and lost context.
Teams that find work to be fun, engaging, and fulfilling get work done exponentially faster. Smart leaders know this, and they're giving their people tools that keep everyone on the same page so projects can move, launch, and succeed. In my next post, I'll talk about what that kind of tool might look like. But you can probably guess where I'm going with this.
