There’s a common misconception that the world of technology is one that is spent on the cutting edge. You only need to look at most organisations’ standard PCs to realise how far from reality that can be.
For most technology teams, the lion’s share of time is taken up providing what’s already there. The support of legacy systems is an increasingly complex task. Next up on the list of time spent is running the projects necessary to update and change the current environment. And for most IT operations, that’s pretty much everything.
Running projects isn’t the same as taking time to think of new ideas. Too often the technology team can see themselves as merely order takers, with the ideas coming from elsewhere.
With all this in mind, creating a strategic imperative to make time and space for innovation activities is a clear statement of intent. Carving out resources that could be deployed on other things isn’t as easy as it might first sound.
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I’ve recently launched Stamp London’s first physical product – a set of playing cards called CIO Priorities. You can find out more about them here, and order a set for yourself here (or simply download the PDF and print them out).