Aneel Lakhani“What IT people call shadow IT..what other people call getting work done.”
-Jeff Gelb, Director of Technical Strategy at Pearson
Getting work done is what people are paid for. IT exists to provide tools, platforms, levers, force multipliers, accelerators. No one invests in IT to create inhibitors to the work that needs doing. But where there’s shadow IT, you have a very strong signal that that’s exactly what is going on.
The good: people very motivated to get things done
The bad: IT not a part of things getting done
The ugly: disintermediation, loss of confidence in IT
Despite all the hand waving that goes on about this, it’s not so bad. This is an opportunity for IT to reconsider not just how, but why, it does what it does.
Quoting Hugh MacLeod, “RelentÂlessly ask, ‘How are we helÂping our users kick a**?’”
2 responses so far ↓
1 Doug August 29, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Actually, shadow IT is because of a failure of leadership. Either leadership is not giving IT the resources it needs, not planning a cohesive environment, or are excessively permissive with emplyess that are just allowed to do whatever they please. Either way, it’s a failure. I love how it’s blamed on IT.
2 Aneel Lakhani September 11, 2012 at 9:33 pm
If IT hasn’t articulated what needs to get done, why, to what benefit, with what value proposition–why should “leadership” behave differently.
I tend to agree that IT is underrated by those in charge. But I also think IT tends to utterly fail at articulating why it matters.
Interestingly: the Gartner-Forbes 2012 Board of Directors Survey shows IT is at top of investment priorities. So I think you’ll have less and less cause to point the finger at “leadership” as time passes.
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