COBIT 5.0 Culture,Ethics,Behavior...a critical enabler for Digital transformation

Digital transformation seems to be one of the top trends at the moment - harnessing the power of Information technology to transform businesses. However if I look at many of the emerging IT related trends, topics, hypes and buzzwords such as ‘Digital Transformation’,  ‘Customer experience’, ‘DevOps’, ‘Agile’, ‘Cyber Security and Resilience’……Common characteristics that differentiate successful organizations from the rest seem to be ‘Culture’, ‘Behavior’, ‘Discipline’, ‘Ownership’, ‘Leadership’ – People related aspects. (One of the reasons we developed the ABC of ICT products – ABC standing for Attitude, Behavior, Culture).

Yet the majority of organizations struggle in these areas.

This is a high scoring ABC card from global workshops with thousands of organizations.

Digital transformation requires a strong Business & IT alignment. However Key European management trends 2015 (European research on IT trends for CIONet ) showed ‘Business & IT Alignment’ STILL as the number 1 management concern for CIO’s. This concern being characterized by issues such as ‘the poor relationship’, ‘the lack of understanding’, ‘the growing communications gap’ -  again People related aspects.  

This is a top scoring ABC card chosen in relation to Business & IT alignment. Perhaps this is why we see an explosion of interest in BRM (Business Relationship management) to fulfill the marriage guidance counselor role!

We have been promising for years (decades) to improve Business & IT Alignment and to deliver business value, yet we continue to struggle. However it is not only IT behavior that is holding us back. The business must also take responsibility for effectively governing IT.  Indeed a recent ISACA study (Benchmarking and Business value assessment of COBIT 5) revealed ‘More business involvement in the Governance of Enterprise IT (GEIT) is required’.

If Digital transformation is to succeed then we can no longer afford to fail to transform IT Culture and Behaviors that are holding us back. This is perhaps why ‘IT Governance’ and ‘Demonstrating value’ were named as the ‘most significant changes’ required to face the future in the European survey mentioned earlier.

IT Governance

COBIT in my humble opinion is an ideal framework for driving the Governance of Enterprise IT, and helping towards solving the business & IT alignment problem, especially with it’s clear link to frameworks such as ITIL® which help align the Governance AND management domains. The good news is that COBIT has a key enabler called ‘Culture, Ethics and Behavior’ which can help address the people related issues mentioned above – sadly however this enabler isn’t seen as sufficiently critical at the moment to warrant its further development. I am hoping this blog will provide ISACA with room for thought and persuade them to re-prioritize this enabler.

What does COBIT say about this enabler?

‘Culture, ethics and behavior of individuals and of the enterprise are very often underestimated as a success factor in governance and management activities’.

…I can certainly confirm this if we look at the consistent ABC (Attitude, Behaviour, Culture) issues chosen by hundreds of organizations, year in year out in our workshops, and also as discovered in a business simulation session at an ISACA workshop.

‘Behaviour is also a key enabler of good governance and management of the enterprise. It is set at the top—leading by example—and is therefore an important interaction between governance and management’.

…another top scoring card chosen in IT transformation programs (in which a focus is to change behavior by adopting frameworks such as is COBIT and ITIL is ‘No management commitment’, indeed the ISACA benchmarking report showed a lack of board level ownership.

The COBIT enabler also talks about ‘Good Practices’. I have described these below, with some observations. These observations for me are a clear indicator for the need for this good practice to be expanded with some additional guidance, whitepapers, cases in COBIT 5.

• Communication throughout the enterprise of desired behaviors and the underlying corporate values.
  
  My observations: Communication is a key issue (see CIO article). The latest ITIL related certification the ITIL practitioner has this as one of the 3 core capabilities and give some practical guidance and exercises in this area.
• My observation: I see more and more organizations adopting new ‘Values’ such as ‘Customer & Service focused’, ‘ Collaboration’ (see blog: values to create values), however these remain more often than not ‘posters on the wall’ and ‘well (or NOT) intentioned memos’.
  My observation: Many organizations send their staff on training, e.g COBIT, ITIL - to HOPEFULLY change behavior and support the values, however this is not explicitly translated into the training content (off-the shelf certificates), not facilitated in the transfer of theory into practice at the workplace. (see blog: Most training is a waste).
• Awareness of desired behavior, strengthened by the example behavior exercised by senior management.
  
  My observation: Leadership, the important role of middle managers especially in being able to manage the organizational change aspects associated with digital transformation.
  My observation: many of the other observations I have made require ‘Leadership’ skills as opposed to ‘management’ skills. Training programs such as COBIT, ITIL at the moment do not equip managers with these leadership skills. The ITIL practitioner has now incorporated OCM (Organizational Change Management) as a core capability.
• Incentives to encourage and deterrents to enforce desired behavior. There is a clear link between individual behavior and the HR reward scheme that an enterprise puts in place.
  
  My observation: Managers are not properly enabled to apply concepts such as ‘Organizational Behavior management’, such as ’consequence management’.
• Rules and norms, which provide more guidance on desired organisational behavior. This links very clearly to the principles and policies that an enterprise puts in place.
  
  My observations: We are very good at putting rules in place, e.g ITIL type process flows and procedures – however the framework very often becomes the goal, not how the framework enables corporate values or desired behavior, nor how they relate to stakeholder needs and value creation.
  My observations: very often we make ‘agreements’ but confronting each other on agreements, giving feedback, ownership are rarely embedded in behavior and ‘the way we do things’. One of the key takeaways in our business simulations is ‘an agreement is an agreement’.

Another key enabler related to the people aspects is the ‘People, Skills and competence’ enabler. This certainly helps toward addressing the ‘IT Talent’ problem which scores highly in the list of CIO worries.

This enabler stresses the need for ‘Goals for skills and competencies relate to education and qualification levels’. Good Practices refer to defining the need for objective skill requirements for each role played by the various stakeholders.

My observations: We see a growing emphasis on skills frameworks such as SFIA and ECF and the AXELOS career development initiative, and we see vast amounts being spent on Education and certification in frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT, however we see a poor focus on the facilitated transfer of learning to the workplace and translating theory into practice. The ITIL® practitioner is a good example of an initiative aimed at ‘translating theory into practice’ but generally have a poor focus on ‘learning transfer’ activities and controls which I think this enabler could focus on.

My conclusion is that the two enablers are critical for the success of digital transformation, and that the current issues relating to business & IT alignment are persistent and pervasive and have been for many years. Guidance is needed to address these issues. ISACA, in my mind would do well to further develop guidance relating to these enablers.

Although ISACA recognizes the importance of the enabler it isn't a priority according to their studies.

If you agree with ME then please mail ISACA and stress the importance....will you do that? another top scoring ABC card chosen globally is 'Not my responsibility' :-)