I was recently contemplating the nature of wisdom and what it really meant. Was it something that had relevance to an organization? Could you create a "wise" IT organization? And if so, what did that mean?
I think wisdom really has three elements:
- Knowing what is right
- Knowing how to apply that knowledge to the situation (what's right for me)
- Knowing when and how to take action on that knowledge (and when not to)
Isn't that what wisdom really is - applied knowledge for the greater good? But does that have meaning to an IT organization as a whole? I think it does.
In ITIL v3, this is actually addressed somewhat in the context of a Service Knowledge Management Systems (SKMS). Within it, it lays out a structure of Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom. It basically describes the process in which discrete pieces of data are provided context to become information, which is then analyzed and associated to become knowledge. Wisdom, then is the judgment and discernment to apply that knowledge in a meaningful way.
I think that this is the essence of organizational wisdom and frankly, a missing element in most IT organizations. Most IT organizations are awash in data - particularly the technical kind. But what happens with that data? The entire context of ITIL's SKMS is to lay out the need to do something more - to add context and analysis so that the data transcends into something useful and meaningful and actionable.
I think that this is what it might mean to become a "wise" IT organization and I think it should be a stated goal of any IT leadership team. Every IT organization should strive to create a "wise" culture that seeks to do three things:
- To know what is right. To know the needs of the customer. To understand the true goals and objectives for the organization. To truly understand their reason for being.
- Create Understanding and Knowledge. To gather data and apply the context of customer needs. To analyze it in the context of business impact and so convert that data into information and then knowledge. To transform the relationship between the data and the customer to go from a disconnected, dissociative relationship to an intimate one that applies to everything IT does.
- Seize the Moment. To leverage this knowledge and understanding and take the prudent action - or inaction - to meet the present and future needs of the business. Through this knowledge, to seize opportunities that leverage technology in ways that may be new and innovative. To see the coming changes in the business and create flexible, adaptable business approaches that enable the IT organization to react quickly to the changing business needs.
If you could create an IT organization that operated like this - holistically and baked into its culture - would you call it a "wise" IT organization? Whatever you'd call it, it would be a highly effective organization that was driven and bound by a "higher purpose." It would be an organization that wasn't merely providing technology or even IT services, but one that was fully connected with its customer and able to provide true, lasting and meaningful value through its application of knowledge for the greater good of the business. That sounds like an IT organization I'd love to be a part of.
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