Effective IT Communications
Empower IT employees to communicate well with any stakeholder across the organization.
IT communications are often considered ineffective. This is demonstrated by:
- A lack of inclusion or time to present in board meetings.
- Confusion around IT priorities and how they align to organizational objectives.
- Segregating IT from the rest of the organization.
- The inability to secure the necessary funding for IT-led initiatives.
- IT employees not feeling supported or engaged.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- No one is born a good communicator. Every IT employee needs to spend the time and effort to grow their communication skills; with constant change and worsening IT crises, IT cannot afford to communicate poorly anymore.
- The skills needed to communicate effectively as a front=line employee or CIO are the same. It is important to begin the development of these skills from the beginning of one's career.
- Time is a non-renewable resource. Any communication needs to be considered valuable and engaging by the audience or they will be unforgiving.
Impact and Result
Communications is a responsibility of all members of IT. This is demonstrated through:
- Engaging in two-way communications that are continuous and evolving.
- Establishing a communications strategy – and following the plan.
- Increasing the skills of all IT employees when it comes to communications.
- Identifying audiences and their preferred means of communication.
Effective IT Communications
Empower IT employees to communicate well with any stakeholder across the organization.
Analyst perspective
There has never been an expectation for IT to communicate well.
Brittany Lutes
Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group
Diana MacPherson
Senior Research Analyst
Info-Tech Research Group
IT rarely engages in proper communications. We speak at, inform, or tell our audience what we believe to be important. But true communications seldom take place.
Communications only occur when channels are created to ensure the continuous opportunity to obtain two-way feedback. It is a skill that is developed over time, with no individual having an innate ability to be better at communications. Each person in IT needs to work toward developing their personal communications style. The problem is we rarely invest in development or training related to communications. Information and technology fields spend time and money developing hard skills within IT, not soft ones.
The benefits associated with communications are immense: higher business satisfaction, funding for IT initiatives, increased employee engagement, better IT to business alignment, and the general ability to form ongoing partnerships with stakeholders. So, for IT departments looking to obtain these benefits through true communications, develop the necessary skills.
Executive summary
| Your Challenge | Common Obstacles | Info-Tech’s Approach |
IT communications are often considered ineffective. This is demonstrated by:
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Frequently, these barriers have prevented IT communications from being effective:
|
Communications is a responsibility of all members of IT. This is demonstrated through:
|
Info-Tech Insight
No one is born a good communicator. Every IT employee needs to spend the time and effort to grow their communication skills as constant change and worsening IT crises mean that IT cannot afford to communicate poorly anymore.
Your challenge
Overall satisfaction with IT is correlated to satisfaction with IT communications
The bottom line? For every 10% increase in communications there 8.6% increase in overall IT satisfaction. Therefore, when IT communicates with the organization, stakeholders are more likely to be satisfied with IT overall.
Info-Tech Diagnostic Programs, N=330 organizations
IT struggles to communicate effectively with the organization:
- CIOs are given minimal time to present to the board or executive leaders about IT’s value and alignment to business goals.
- IT initiatives are considered complicated and confusing.
- The frequency and impact of IT crises are under planned for, making communications more difficult during a major incident.
- IT managers do not have the skills to communicate effectively with their team.
- IT employees do not have the skills to communicate effectively with one another and end users.
Common obstacles
IT is prevented from communicating effectively due to these barriers:
- Difficulty assessing the needs of the audience to inform the language and means of communication that should be used.
- Using technical jargon rather than translating the communication into commonly understood terms.
- Not receiving the training required to develop communication skills across IT employees.
- Frequently speak at organization stakeholders rather than engaging through dialogue.
- Beginning many communications from a blank page, especially crisis communications.
- Difficulty presenting complex concepts in a short time to an audience in a digestible and concise manner without diluting the point.
Effective IT communications are rare:
53% of CXOs believe poor communication between business and IT is a barrier to innovation.
Source: Info-Tech CEO-CIO Alignment Survey, 2022
“69% of those in management positions don’t feel comfortable even communicating with their staff.”
Source: TeamStage, 2022
About Info-Tech
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Unlock Sample ResearchContributors
- Anuja Agrawal, National Communications Director, PwC
- Nastaran Bisheban, Chief Technology Office, KFC Canada
- Heidi Davidson, Co-Founder & CEO, Galvanize Worldwide and Galvanize On Demand
- Eli Gladstone, Co-Founder, Speaker Labs
- Francisco Mahfuz, Keynote Speaker & Storytelling Coach
- Sarah Shortreed, EVP & CTO, ATCO Ltd.
- Eric Silverberg, Co-Founder, Speaker Labs
- Stephanie Stewart, Communications Officer & DR Coordinator Info Security Services, Simon Fraser University
- Steve Strout, President, Miovision Technologies
- Plus two anonymous contributors
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