The Language for Success

CIO Master Class led by Alistair Fuller

The Challenge

Why is it that even today customers and users of corporate IS so often feel dissatisfied with their interactions with the IT team, and senior executives complain that their IS leaders don’t speak the language of business? This is nowhere more evident than in projects, often high profile and business critical, the project can be a fruitful source of failed expectations.

The classic IT response to challenges to improve this track record has been to adopt and apply methodologies such as PRINCE II and ITIL, but as good as these are, there is often an unrealistic expectation of what they can achieve; sometimes the language these methods introduce can further distance IT from their business colleagues. So how can you get over the language barrier, understand the situational factors that surround decisions to invest and maximize your chances of success?

Our Solution

This has proved to be one of the most intractable problems of IT over the last 25 years, one that every IT leader has to accommodate even if few really master it.

Alistair Fuller MBA, is Director of IT at Signet Trading, the world’s number 1 specialty retail jeweller. He is a traditionally technical IT leader who has spent much of his career in retail, working closely in fast-changing, high pressure environments. Now in his third “CIO Paratrooper” role, he had to find a quick and effective way through the language barrier which prevents effective communication between his IT teams and their customers. And he did, after a lot of pain, deep thought and reflection.

In this highly interactive CIO Master Class, Alistair will share how he has used what he learned from experience and from his MBA (from 1994) to create simple frameworks, which allow sometimes disbelieving colleagues to engage in change and get it right.

He will share his tried and tested methods for shaping and delivering change and also some of his emerging ideas for helping the organisation make the right choices of which projects to execute when.

Benefits and Outcomes

 

• You will have a simple ways to share the challenges of any initiative or project.

• Your ability to shape and prioritise programmes and portfolios will improve.

• You will be able to back the right project at the right time for maximum success.

	AGENDA
09:00 – 09:30	Coffee
	Introductions and share example projects: Take the High Ground: 15 words to remember.
	Three models that use simple common sense language for categorising projects and how they develop.Exploration of how the language of the models can be used to help colleagues explore and understand the challenges of change.
11:00 – 11:15	Coffee
	Using the Project Types in depth.Explore how the Project Types models indicate risk profiles, leadership needs and planning approaches.Practical: applying the models to participant’s examples.
13:00 – 14:00	Lunch
	Using Project Types to optimize portfolio choices.Examine how Project Types can be used to model portfolios and manage contingency factors.Practical: modelling your portfolio and recommending your investment choices.
15:00 – 15:15	Coffee
	Adopting the language.Explore how to introduce and adopt the simple language models.Reflections and next steps.
16:30	Finish

Book now or please enquire further of rachel.onder@ciodevelopment.com.