Unless you have been living in another dimension these past few weeks – Second Life perhaps – you will have been unable to avoid the hoo-hah surrounding the fact that 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s iconoclastic theory of the origin of species by means of natural selection.
It is an event well worth celebrating. Darwin’s theory may well be the single most important idea in the history of science, the notion that natural but random processes drive the adaption of living organisms to their habitat to the extent that those best adapted survive, eventually forming new species, while the less favoured perish.
Has Darwin’s idea anything to say about business and IT today? While it is always dangerous to draw comparisons between the natural world and the man-made world of commerce, today’s gloomy business environment – a random catastrophe, perhaps equivalent to the shrinking of the African forests 6m years ago which led to the evolution of modern man – suggests a parallel or two.
Most large living organisms are composed of many millions of cells organised into tissues and organs; organisations employ numbers of staff organised into departments and divisions. The comparison is not exact. In general, the cells all pull in the same direction to ensure the overall health of the organism (cancer cells being a notable exception).
Humans are more complex. They may have varying degrees of loyalty to the parent organisation. The quality of work can vary between individuals – and in single individuals – on different days and weeks. If made redundant, the damage they can do to the organisation is sometimes reflected in corporate policies which demand the surrender of laptops, memory devices and the like and the immediate denial of access to corporate data.
Individual departments play an important part in the overall performance of the business. A well-run finance department can help to compensate for the shortcomings of other parts of the organisation. An excellent IT department can give the company an advantage over competitors in much the same way that a sharp beak gives a bird the ability to crack nuts denied its blunt-beaked fellows.
So how does a good IT department become excellent and an excellent department improve?
By preparing for the unexpected, according to Gartner Group, the US consultancy, in a list of “Ten CIO resolutions” it offered this month.
Mark Raskino, vice-president and fellow, said: “It may seem like a paradox, but it is possible to prepare better for the unexpected. It is important to challenge and develop the thinking styles and frame of reference of your leadership team as well as yourself. We advise CIOs to find people to join the discussion who don’t fit the existing mould and perhaps even deliberately choose people who will irritate the majority.”
In other words – my words, not Gartner’s – build in an element of random change, something capable of doing a bit of damage to the DNA of the organisation, to promote adaption to circumstances which may be the most challenging that many CIOs will ever have experienced.
Among Gartner’s other suggestions are ways to maintain a pool of experienced staff with legacy skills by establishing a semi-official company of former staff with its own web page and “bounty schemes where staff are paid for the recruits they bring in”; and the visible use of social systems, arguing that CIOs need to start using social networks themselves to kick-start participation from other staff.
The idea is to enable “better internal communication while rebuilding brand confidence externally, energising the company culture and developing ideas and solutions”.
It also endorses the adoption of “cloud computing” – a notoriously fuzzy concept which includes utility computing, software as a service and web services.
It thinks the cloud will be the basis of much corporate IT delivery in 10 years: “CIOs need to start leading their organisations safely in this direction or risk being sidelined by its progress,” it argues, underlining the argument that organisations which do not adapt will find it hard to survive. E-book readers, Google Chrome and YouTube are recommended as ways to stay in touch.
This may be unwelcome advice for CIOs already under pressure from the business to do more and better with less. Nature and business, however, are never less than red in tooth and claw and only the sharpest beak in the nest can hope to make it through to the other side of the downturn.
