#ciochat — Public Fediverse posts

At The Futurum Group, I regularly collect the latest #CIO insights in our Futurum Intelligence portal.

Here's the latest snapshot of the main concerns that CIOs have on executing well with AI.

Compliance rules the roost, then privacy, leaks, trust!

#CIOInsights #CIOChat

9 key metrics for IT success

1 ROI
2 Value delivered
3 Rate of change
4 Delivery success
5 Stakeholder engagement
6 CX quality
7 End-user sat
8 Tech debt index
9 Speed + quality + value

#CIO #ITSM #CIOChat

CIOs are moving legacy workloads to the cloud en masse in 2025 (80%.)

Decades of apps and data are being modernized, with years still to go.

Yet 71% of CIOs in my research report they are considering whether public or private cloud is best.

Fodder for #CIOChat today.

Source: The Futurum Group #CIOInsights

Join this week’s #CIOchat 2-3 p.m. EST Thursday.

Topic: Generative AI Strategy

Join this week’s #CIOchat 2-3 p.m. EST Thursday. Topic: Innovating with Limited Resources

A4: Mostly by simply listening carefully. Conflicts often surface previously unstated issues and concerns.

These can often be turned into opportunities with sufficient reflection and development .

#CIOChat

A3: My take on personal coping strategies for a #CIO in a high conflict situation:

- Find an outlet for stress (I find many CIOs are big on exercise)
- Have a confidante that can listen
- Outsource conflict management when it's wise: Stakeholder managers + mediators

#CIOChat

A2: #CIO conflict management strartegies continued:

- Be transparent (but not in real-time), yet protect privacy
- Discretion is the better part of valor
- Always follow up, after letting everyone cool down

#CIOChat

2/2

A2: My answers are from many years spent in IT.

Good conflict management strategies:

- Always take actions in good faith (never get personal)
- Have the highest EQ + most patience in the room
- Sometimes, just letting them be heard is the answer

#CIOChat

1/2

A1: Being a #CIO is a stressful job in an critical operational role. Top conflicts include:

- Staff problems
- Vendor issues
- Budget challenges
- Strategic alignment
- Chaos from cyberattacks
- Projects failing
- Stakeholder headaches
- Tech adoption woes
- Change/complexity

#CIOChat

Joining #CIOChat from Washington, DC, where it is quite cold right now.

Today's Topic:

Conflict Management

Please follow along and join in if you can.

#CIO

A4: For most CIOs, I would work with the CEO to set enterprise-wide AI strategy, and then unleash #changeagents at scale across the business.

#AI is going to absolutely infuse everything. Time to get the tech in place with guardrails, upskill, and unleash.

#CIOChat #CIO

A3: Since AI is one of the largest tech revolutions in a long time + has serious competitive ramifications for many industries, NOT acting can have serious opportunity costs.

For some, even existential implications.

Most orgs must evaluate that risk + shorter term competitive ramifications (lower costs, better product/services with AI.)

#CIOChat

A2: In my research, the biggest concerns that CIOs have about Gen AI (which is holding them back) are, in order:

- Data security/control/privacy
- Compliance/regulatory
- Explainability
- Bias
- Availability of talent
- Cost

#CIOChat

A1: Cont’d: In terms of alignment of AI initiatives with data strategy, that varies widely by org type, industry, IT maturity, and corporate structure.

Basically, it’s all over the map. But the orgs with data discipline are moving faster with Gen AI for sure.

#CIOChat

In my latest #CIO survey, org maturity with Gen AI is mostly at the experimenting + running pilots/PoCs.

Some customer-facing / internal Gen AI is in production but mostly small rollouts. Some large orgs however, have a few big rollouts for employee support/service.

#CIOChat

A4: Guidance for new CIOs:

- Get to know the team
- Be seen
- Steadily ramp comms
- Storytell to set the cultural stage
- Listen + learn
- Talk to stakeholders
- Craft your 100 day plan (that's all you have)
- Set top KPIs + measure + adjust
- Get the ear of the board

#CIOChat

A3: Cont'd:

The steps a CIO should take varies by the tech problem.

But usually falls into:

- Identify who is responsible for resolving the issue and make sure they're on it
- Monitor status
- Allocate more resources depending on the severity

Most block+tackle.

#CIOChat

2/2

A3: The list of #tech problems likely to rise to the CIO level isn't that large. But when they do, it's a big deal:

- Technical debt
- Vendor failures/new risks/delayed key features
- Cyber incidents involving a new tech vector
- Cloud migration
- Data silos
- Broken integration

#CIOChat

1/2

A1: Top barriers to IT modernization:

- Technical debt
- Lack of vision + strategy
- Constant fire drill mode
- Insufficient capable, senior talent
- Wrong CIO (operational CIO vs innovation)
- Vendor lock-in
- Resistance to change/inertia
- Uncertain ROI
- Integration

#CIOChat

A2: Arguably, the CIO is *the* grown-up in the room re: dysfunction + underperformance in IT.

One of the key jobs.

Inject sanity / constructive improvement in the very hard processes of IT ops, digitization, modernization, and transformation.

Be proactive. Do good.

#CIOChat

However, there is a useful hair to split here:

- DON'T tie up everyone's time with appointment-based reviews of how the KPIs are doing, unless things are going south.
- DO review KPIs to see if they are still meaningful and the right ones.

#CIOChat

A4: My unconventional take:

Don't update metrics occasionally. Don't review w/ stakeholders frequently.

Collect KPIs automatically + continuously, then display openly for all in a dashboard.

Forecast misses before they happen + then proactively meet w/ stakeholders.

#CIOChat

A3: For business projects, the metrics should almost entirely be in terms of meaningful outcomes to stakeholders.

IT might also have some internal KPIs (like defect rate, backlog, etc.)

For IT-only projects, technical metrics are acceptable/useful.

#CIOChat

A2: There are some standard digital #KPIs that can be used from the outset (my latest take attached).

However the business + IT should partner closely to define initial success metrics + then evolve them in together as things mature.

#CIOChat #CIO #collaboration

#IT must be a learning organization, if it hopes to cope with the oncoming freight train of constant change and mass tech adoption.

Retrospectives, post-partums/mortems, NPS scoring, and more are key to get in touch with ground truth.

#CIOChat #CIO

A1: Yes, most #IT projects should have well-defined success metrics.

Just be sure to update them as you learn more. The #KPIs you thought were key at the beginning often need to be changed based on contact with reality.

Hardest one: #EntArch projects w/ many (re)uses.

#CIOChat

Jumping into #CIOChat from Washington, DC.

Today's Topic: Defining Success Metrics

Please follow along and join in if you can.

#CIO

A3: Retrospectives are vital for IT orgs to understand what they’ve achieved + to learn from their mistakes.

Must be held after a bit of time to reflect first.

Reserve a portion of time for business stakeholders, but let IT do a good bit of it internally for candor.

#CIOChat

A2: My take on project failure:

- Most projects don’t have to fail outright
- But they must be allowed to change considerably en route
- Agile = key for regular delivery of success
- Until it can no longer
- Then it’s time to replan
- Be 100% transparent
- Learn, most of all

#CIOChat