Driving Cultural Change Through Information Democracy

Democratisation of information is not new and dates back to the era when we started printing and dissipating information, which is the key ingredient of knowledge. One can’t stress enough on how it changed our society and economy. Further, the advent of internet and telecommunication and later social media has truly unleashed the power and potential that information democracy can bring. If used properly, it can be the change agent to help create healthier society and organisations.

What Type Of Organisation Are You? In many organisations, when we ask people at the grassroots about the company’s strategy and goals, we don’t get clear answers. This happens when information is systematically suppressed and is out of reach of general employees, or generally we have disengaged people. By hiding the information and releasing it through ‘need to know’ basis, line managers gain power to control as ‘information is power’. Workforce under them are expected to clear their ‘to do’ list and obey the commands. Value realisation is generally not understood.

Generally, the above kind of organisations are governed by ‘Strategy’, ‘Structure’ and ‘System’. Strategy is known to top bosses, who control the rest of the workforce creating a structure which is usually highly functional and create a system where people are dispensable resources and can be replaced at will. The vision of these organisations are implemented by CIO’s vision and CSO’s commitment of ‘Contract’, ‘Control’ and ‘Compliance’ to enforce information is hidden from own people, empowerment is taken away by automation and controlled through chain of approvals and strict deployment of information security.

Mediocrity is a natural outcome of all these endeavors. These organisations mostly prepare good HR practices, but the way they treat their human capital assets is something beyond the scope of this blog.

Contrary to this, there are organisations built around the vision of ‘Purpose’, ‘Process’ and ‘People’. The vision of CEO is implemented by CIO’s vision of ‘Empower’, ‘Engage’ and ‘Enable’. The democratisation of information enables every employee to see the company’s vision, strategy and goals, and allows healthy discussion. People have the right to discuss something which they want to improve, and generally entrepreneurship is both encouraged and appreciated within a framework of process. Learnability is encouraged through available means and leadership thrives at every level through succession planning.

Excellence is a natural outcome of the endeavors, and people are considered as strategic assets and treated with respect, with or without processes. A large energetic workforce is retained with negligible turnover and appraisal is used for development of human capital.

CIO’s Role In Information Democracy

Technology has has enabled creation of organisations which thrive on excellence from each individual, either as part of a team or in isolation. Hence, it is not the CEO alone who is responsible for creation or destruction. Considering the empowerment that technology gives to each individual, the CIO’s role in driving information democratisation becomes all the more significant.

Now, considering the CIO is responsible for dissipation and democratisation of information, his/her inputs to the CEO should be in the right way to build organisations. Too much protection and prevention, and too much of control could be bad for the organisation. Much of the secrecy is in our mind and we feel threatened because we lack trust in our own people. As organisations become large they often loose trust in people, bringing in complexity and killing agility. A CIO’s role, therefore, becomes very important in large organisations. They can protect it from destruction through a robust architecture which allows people to breathe in fresh air and promote healthy culture through engagement and empowerment using technology.

Here I would like to leave it to the CIOs and CSOs to debate whether to allow internet access to the grassroots or whether allowing social media will kill the organisation’s productivity. We should have a mechanism to empower people so that they are able to not just use the concept but also prevent its misuse. In my view, if we allow people access to information and adopt democratisation of information as a principle in our IT Policy based on fair usage of capabilities, it helps. This has an economic impact on the organisation in terms of employee satisfaction and increase in productivity. I have personally experienced that by releasing the power both the employees and the organisation stand to gain, creating a healthier environment.

Sailing Against The Wind

There could be scenarios where the CIO may have to go against the CEO to make the positive organisational change towards information democracy. In such a scenario, if a big bang is not possible a more silent and invisible change is a better option. This can be done through a variety of ways of camouflaging the change through other means available, and sometimes through technology to change the mindset. Complexity at times can be removed under the guise of process improvement and cycle time reduction. Needless to say, going against the existing culture requires courage, financial backup and choices which is not everyone’s cup of tea. But in my view, doing nothing does not help and by doing something at least martyrdom is guaranteed.

In conclusion, I strongly believe today’s CIO has greater ownership for success and failure of the organisation than used to exist earlier. We have to capture the signs early on before an organisation becomes a titanic ship heading to sink. Creative destruction of legacy beliefs is often necessary to create a better and healthy business. CIOs must visualise this challenge, especially in large organisations, on how they build trust, remove complexity and bring agility. I believe information democracy and knowledge management is the key towards a cultural change.

Reference: The words Strategy, Structure and System and Purpose, Process and People and some views taken from Prof Sumantra Ghosal’s discussion on CNBC.