“Part of finding joy in solving long-lived problems is creating an environment where others around the table can help.” — Paul Gaffney

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Transformational technology leader, Paul Gaffney, recently joined us for a special episode of our On a Limb podcast.

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We delved deep into the rich topic of finding joy in legacy IT modernization: the root causes of its thankless nature, the resulting impact on the mentality of accountable enterprise IT leaders, and the practical and psychological steps to take to move IT leaders and their stakeholders from nominally ‘approved’, to darn-right ‘invested’.

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Here are three key takeaways.

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1. Modernization has an image problem 

On the root cause of why modernization projects stir up, at best, total apathy, Paul says, “It's tough in technology because a lot of technology work is invisible to the rest of the enterprise. And historically enterprises reward visible work, not invisible work.‍

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‍“There's this massive force that inspires people to cut corners on the invisible work, which is the structure behind the scenes, which is the stuff that makes a system easier to change in the future. That work is often not necessarily less empirically rewarding, but it is less rewarded because it's less visible.”

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The problem is (and it’s a big problem), by keeping the invisible work invisible, IT leaders fail to highlight the sheer scale of the risk attached to these systems. The consequences of which could be disastrous down the line.

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The fix?

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2. Create impact by focusing on outcomes

‍“They have to paint a picture of an outcome that a business stakeholder would be comfortable describing themselves.”

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Paul believes that to get buy-in beyond tick-box approval, it’s essential that IT leaders learn to think and speak in a language that resonates with business stakeholders.

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The issue is “Most of the stakeholders are disaffiliated with the outcome because it's been pitched as a re-platforming, not an enabler of strategy. So they're in the context of, all right, we agreed to spend this money and I have no idea what we're going to get for it, but they've said it's important and we bought into it. So, then the evaluative criteria is timeline and budget. And that's a recipe for nothing but stress.”

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The solution is to surface modernization as a strategic lever in delivering and exceeding company objectives. “What will this project bring to the business? How will it help us attract new customers?”  By reframing the approach, business stakeholders can ask real questions and become invested in the technology efforts driving joint outcomes.

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In Paul’s words, “That's a higher quality dialogue. It results in better feedback. It results in better buy -in. When stuff inevitably doesn't go well, people aren't fixated on who's to blame. They're fixated on how do we get it to go well because they care about the outcome as much as the technology organization.”

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3. Continual progress and short feedback loops

Once emotional buy-in is won, showing incremental progress is the next step to joy.

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Paul says of the problem “Software is this interesting thing that no one really knows what they need until they see it. And when you give them an awful lot of software, you learn, we built a lot of stuff that they don't like. And that's a very joyless experience to have spent six, 12, 18 months building a large system. And then it gets in use and everybody hates it.“

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By improving the system piece by piece, IT leaders can keep a constant dialogue and feedback loop with their stakeholders. They can keep them invested in the process, nurture the relationships, and ultimately improve the efficiency, enjoyment and results of the project.

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“Those are the environments where work is joyful because yes, sometimes you get stuff wrong, but you get it wrong in very small pieces. You get immediate feedback and you get to adjust.”

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Finally, we asked Paul what his words or phrases of advice would be for IT leaders battling the modernization headache: 

‍“The first, I'll steal the first one from Steve Jobs. If I weren't afraid, what would I do? Steve Jobs famously used that phrase whenever he was sitting across from someone who was going to play a critical role in a breakthrough. There's a lot more support for you making a breakthrough accomplishment than you might imagine. So don't be afraid of what's going to happen if you advocate for and go after a breakthrough transformation.”

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Second, “As a leader, you have an obligation to deliver results, but you have an equally powerful obligation to make the workplace a place where people can thrive. Take that human thriving obligation seriously.”

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And last, “Don't hide the reality of what's going on with the company's current collection of systems.”

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Thank you Paul for an enlightening conversation.