- Individual & Team Development
- Leading Peers
- Managing Stakeholders
- Talent
- Diversity
Leadership, People & Culture
Explore the conference topics and stay ahead
Hot Topics covered at Gartner IT Symposium will include
Leadership and culture have no purpose unless there is a priority placed on people. Successful digital enterprises understand that a skilled, engaged and innovative workforce is their greatest asset. CIOs can leverage this resource by ensuring their leadership acknowledges that the No. 1 priority is people, both individuals and in teams, and that they must develop, execute and communicate a people plan. This includes ensuring that the IT organization has the right combination of skills, competencies and experience. CIOs can build a high-performance workforce by taking a comprehensive view and approach to their people practices.
CIOs must go beyond supporting organizational change management practices to exercise organizational change leadership. Developing a change-ready culture involves shifting the mindset of the IT organization, teams and individuals, as well as the mindset of the rest of the enterprise. It requires a commitment to embrace change fitness and adopt enterprise wide competencies for change, not just implement a big change process. Adaptive organizations that have developed change fitness are ready for anything and prepared to respond to escalating business and competitive demands that are becoming part of normal business operations.
Analyst Q&A Suzanne Adnams, VP Analyst, CIO Research
1. How have these topics evolved since last year? Have you noticed any major changes in strategies or approaches IT leaders undertake?
A: We are seeing increasing demand for change leadership guidance not just for IT but at an enterprise levels. Leaders are becoming more aware of the need to have an enterprise approach to culture change, not just within IT if they want to succeed in a digital business environment. Culture continues to be a label that is often applied to process and procedural challenges. As leaders start to differentiate cultural characteristics from operating model constructs, they will start to make progress on both.
2. How important do you think the topic “Workplace People, Culture, and Diversity” is when it comes to digital business transformation?
A: Digital business transformation is highly dependent on having an inspired and engaged workforce that is ready to take on new ideas, learn new ways of working and build new relationships. Developing an appropriate workplace culture that demonstrates diversity and inclusion provides an environment for change to happen.
3. What’s one of the biggest mistake organizations make when it comes to changing organizational culture?
A: There is a false belief that culture can be changed by making a decision to do so, or that it's possible to adopt a culture from another organization and have it work the same way. Culture is not something that can be directed or mandated. It emerges as a result of a number of other factors that will be unique to each organization. Learning how to shape culture is more important than trying to change culture.
4. Finish this sentence: “If organizations don’t establish the right culture for digital business, they will…."
A:...they will find it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain the knowledge and resources that they need to succeed in a highly competitive business environment.
5. How attending Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2020 will help IT leaders with their priorities and key initiatives?
A: A Symposium experience offers leaders an opportunity to not only find out the latest in technology & information that they need to support their enterprise, but it also gives them the leadership and business strategy acumen that their enterprise needs from them to succeed.
Important questions IT executives must be able to answer around leadership, people & culture
- Which leadership skills and competencies will CIOs need to influence and guide their enterprise and to deliver value in a rapidly changing digital business environment?
- How will CIOs shape the culture of the IT organization to scale business transformation and innovation and to demonstrate tangible contribution to the enterprise?
- How will CIOs anticipate changing skills and competencies of the IT workforce and ensure they have the right people on board?
- How will CIOs promote organizational “change fitness” and change leadership for themselves and within their teams?
