I’ve touched on this theme in several posts, but I feel it’s time to call it out: don’t be a victim - be a leader! I’m moved to get back into this because I continue to hear IT professionals bemoan the fact that “Our business partners just don’t want to use IT to innovate - they still see IT as a cost, not an investment, blah, blah, blah…” I’m not doubting the fact that this is what people are hearing in many enterprises - it’s symptomatic of Level 1 or Low-to-mid Level 2 Business-IT Maturity in general, and indicative of less-than-progressive business demand.

However, I’ve also said that the role of the Relationship Manager(RM) is the critical bridge between the IT organization and the business(es) it serves. (Even if you don’t have people with this title, you do have people who fill this role.) As Business-IT Maturity increases, the RM role increases its value add by shifting from “order-taking,” to “service-provisioning” (a more consultative role - advising the business on potential opportunities for IT enablement) and ultimately, toa true “business-IT partnership” - for example, partnering with the business in process and product innovation.

Let me now connect this progression of RM role back to my “victim or leader” headline by quoting some organizational change management wisdom - if you want to change an organization, you have to change your relationship with that organization. i.e., If you don’t think the business has sufficient demand maturity, you have to figure out what you can do to elevate demand maturity. If they don’t “get” this Enterprise 2.0 stuff, you have to figure out what you can do to help them “get” it! That is leadership. Everything else is whining, victim behavior. As a consultant, I learned many years ago from my best mentors, any time you find yourself about to criticize your clients, stop and realize you are really criticizing yourself. If they don’t “get” what you are proposing, your proposal was lacking somewhere. If they don’t implement your recommendations, your recommendations were lacking somewhere.

So, what can be done to help RM’s act and behave as champions for higher value (read, more mature) IT demand?

1. Ensure the people filling the RM role have the competencies they need to be effective in driving demand to high value opportunities.
2. Ensure they are facing off with the appropriate business counterparts. Align your best RM’s with the biggest business opportunities (i.e., most innovative, growth oriented business units; most change oriented business leaders; more critical and customer-differentiating business processes.
3. Ensure the RM’s have the time to focus on value-generating activities. Do a quick and dirty time analysis - where are they spending their time? - how much of thier time do they spend on demand stimulation? how much is spent on business innovation? If the answer is little to none, do a root cause analysis - what low value activities can be taken off their plates? Is it (back to #1 above) a competency issue?
4. Ensure the RM’s are motivated towards higher value activities. This is especially important given that ‘higher value’ often translates into ‘riskier’ activities. Is intelligent risk taking rewarded or punished? If the incentives and motivators are ‘risk avoidance’ rather than ‘risk embracing’, what can be done to shift this?
5. Make even small successes visible. IT professionals tend not to be great promoters, so work even harder at celebrating and sharing each and every success with stimulating and satisfying high value/innovative demand. Remember, however, these are business successes - not yours, or IT’s success. As one of my bosses used to say years ago, “When they take the event photo, make sure your in the frame, but not in the center - that’s the place for your business client and her team!”