How can technology leaders effectively communicate the true value of IT to leadership?

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IT can be a bottleneck, but sometimes we're also the aligners. For all the things that we can't get done and are constrained by in IT, because of the vista that we have across the organization, sometimes we can take things that would be misaligned and bring them together to unlock a lot of capability or movement. You have to always keep your eyes open for that.

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I used to use this analogy when I was working in an enterprise architect (EA) competency within an organization: When one part of the business went to dig a tunnel under the harbor using all the people power and shovels, and the other part of the business was trying to dig a tunnel at the other end of the harbor using all the mechanized tools and money, our job was to bring the two of them together and say, &#34;There's no point in digging at that end because it's solid rock. And there's no point in digging at that end because it's sticky clay. You should meet in the middle so both of you can work together and we'll have a proper tunnel that stands up for a century. It's cheaper and it's easier to do.&#34; That's partly what I think IT's role is: to align everything together instead of letting people work on their own common thing.

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There's a quote from the end of the movie &#34;Trading Places&#34; where one of the characters says, &#34;sell, sell, sell&#34;. Seriously, being able to clearly articulate the use of technology to enable the business and business solutions is the best way to effectively communicate IT's value to the organization (and leadership).

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I think the key is to focus on the enablement that IT delivers. IT creates frameworks, provides tools, and allows information exchange.

Look to distinctive examples in your current organization, and elevate them to the level your discussing.

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Every executive has their top priorities; show them how these individual goals or objectives can be synergized to drive greater overall value (and financial benefit) for the organization by making the connections between them. For example Cxo wants to improve product quality through added sensors actuators (IioT). CMO wants a metaverse. Can IT deliver to both at the same time? Sure. An IoT feedback loop in the IIoT. We know improving product quality impacts every part of the organization and touches every costumer supplier and employee. Connect the dots between these objectives and paint the picture for unlikely bedfellow CSuiters (and perhaps others) creates more value, faster and at lower cost. It also articulates the overall value of IT as a value driven business centric solution partner which sees the big and detail pictures.

How can technology leaders effectively communicate the true value of IT to leadership?

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