By April Jacobs
Network World, 12/24/01

So you want to be an IT visionary. You need to be, in fact, because you can't make every decision for every employee all day long. Your vision has to stand as their guide. Well, all you need to do is tell a compelling IT story that everyone inside and outside of your company understands, trusts and finds motivating.

OK, it's a difficult task, but with the right skills, it's one you can master.

First, make sure your vision is indeed that. Central here is not to mistake tactics - projects, production goals, etc. - for vision. A vision is strategy, while tactics are day-to-day management requirements. Think of it this way: If your job were a novel, your vision would be the plot and your day-to-day management the individual chapters. Also know that a vision is not an attempt to foretell the future. Its role is simply to prevent a company from focusing so heavily on near-term objectives that it overlooks the major trends that impact long-term health, says Steve Randich, executive vice president of operations & technology and CIO at the Nasdaq in New York.

But having a great vision will only get you so far. You've also got to articulate it well. It can't be a guidepost if others don't see it. Often visions are misunderstood because they are abstract. Counter this by expressing the abstract goal (globalization, for instance) and the achievable action items that will make your vision succeed (new systems that handle multiple currencies).

"In order to have effective decentralized decision-making, all employees must understand not only the vision but also the intent of the operational guidance they have been given," Randich says.

When Nasdaq executives envisioned the exchange becoming a truly global marketplace by 2002, IT's tactical projects involved implementation of a new system that used decimalization for stock prices and the rollout of a primary order routing and automatic execution system for Nasdaq National Market securities. Both projects are steps in Nasdaq's plans for implementing SuperMontage, an order display and execution system due in mid-2002, and will enable stock trading for international orders.

These projects were successful because Nasdaq's vision (a global marketplace by a certain deadline) was effectively communicated through clear and attainable steps (three hierarchical projects), Randich says.

Make it personal

A vision should always be expressed in terms that are clearly relevant to the listener. Avoid language that is authoritarian or condescending, and instead focus the message on getting support from the listener, says Sharon Rose Powell, president and co-founder of Princeton's Center for Leadership Training in Princeton, N.J.

When Jeri Lose, CIO of St. Jude Medical Center in St. Paul, Minn., envisioned increasing employee efficiency, she thought her tactic would be implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) application. In talking about CRM with the CEO, she concentrated on how it would help St. Jude better serve its customers and increase employee productivity. "I explained the business need for the technology and made clear what we will be able to do with the technology," she says.

When talking to users, she zeroed in on how the technology will ease their jobs, how they'll receive training and where they can turn for help, she says.

One strategy is to craft phrases geared toward various constituencies. Other business managers and executives want to hear about good return on investment (ROI). Salespeople want to know how your plan will improve their relationships with customers and help close deals. Investors, the board and CEO will be moved by how your vision keeps the company competitive, increases growth or reduces costs.

A work in progress

Your words should not just rally the troops, but bring them home without disappointment. Make sure that people understand that while your vision is firm, your tactics are works in progress. This is not simply a matter of using bet-hedging language (that is, words such as "probably," "perhaps," "may,"and "if-then"). Ideally, it means knowing that the tactics you propose will lead to the effects you envision.

Kevin Tolly, CEO of The Tolly Group, suggests using "proof points" you get from testing technology before incorporating it into your vision. This will demonstrate when "a technology that might work well at the vision level is not yet ready for the implementation level," Tolly says. When tests confirm a workable tactic, they also give you the empirical data you need to craft those compelling ROI and productivity-improvement statements.

Then, with such strong words at the ready, your vision is sure to become what everyone sees.