The OS of a CIO in 2025

As the Chief Information Officer role continues to try to find ways to move away from the ‘old school’ IT implications and truly becomes the leader of change, transformation, and all things that we call digital the debate still rages as to what the ‘makeup’ of the role needs to be in 2025.

Unlocking our leadership 'Operating System' feels like a good place to start. If we think of ourselves as a part of an organisation what is the OS that each of us needs to have ‘installed’ to be the best we can be. How can we be(come) the component part that leads transformation of organisations.

I think my role in 2025 is to ‘infect’ the business with enthusiasm for change. I am asked regularly if we can have a conversation about what is the ‘art of the possible’, how do we open the eyes of our business so they can challenge us to be one step ahead and truly bring the next generation of ‘things’. I use the word things deliberately as I no longer think we are here to only bring elements that have an electronic current running through them. It is our absolute role to be front and centre of the people and process change required, the execution of change.

IQ + EQ = XQ (Execution) = Value and the assurance of value.

Moving away from enablement alone we need to be speeding up the route to value and be responsible for its measurement so that we can provide assurance to our business that the investment made is worth it.

To understand the risks of innovation, we need a shared language that highlights the value of taking risks. As we adopt a product-focused delivery model, we aim to describe the value of each innovation in business terms. This value might not always be monetary; it could be about avoiding risks or fostering a mindset shift. There are new skills needed to make this change of mindset happen.

The change in workforce skill set for 2030 has been predicted by The World Economic Forum.

They predict that 39% of core skills will change, emphasising the need for skills in some areas we could see coming but others that frankly are a surprise in some ways, but for me a welcome one. Analytical thinking remains the top skill, Resilience and Flexibility, AI and Big Data Skills, Technological Literacy and Emotional Intelligence go on to make up the top skills that a future focused organisation needs to create, if we go back to the opening premise of this thinking these skills need to be highly ‘activated’ in the CIO OS of 2025.

It is fascinating to see that skills related to interpersonal, communication, empathy, and collaboration remain so vital, highlighting the importance of human-centred skills in the future workforce and how a product focused mindset will start to manifest.

A further aspect of this OS activation comes to the forefront when more senior people don’t ‘get’ digital. How do we make sure that the hierarchy of the organisation doesn’t prevent anyone from asking the difficult or awkward questions. The CIO role is more influential now than when I took up my first leadership role 20 years ago. It does however need to continue to evolve and one of the ways it does that is through empowerment of the entire organisation and once this is felt its on us as CIOs to be on a continuous learning journey.

One way we could look at the new OS of the CIO is to compare our role to the evolution of the chef! The CIO as the Chef, the old school world where nobody knew who the chef was has changed. Now the chef is often the brand in of its own, dinners want to know the motivation, the style and the experiences of the chef, not dissimilar to the role of the CIO.

CIOs are expected to be part of the team and yet be the leader of change so often too, and this feels a good place to be for me. Get out of the ‘kitchen’ and be seen to offering the advice on what next, being present and accountable to the customers not in the back room waiting to fix the next broken thing.

Table stakes for being who we are in 2025 are different, the skills and attributes that got you in the kitchen will not keep you there, the more elaborate the restaurant (read organisation) and therefore the kitchen the more influencing and being different you will be required to be.

We need to let go of being the smartest person in the room, we need to be about shaping the direction and stop firefighting the issues and seek ways to create moments of collaboration so a ‘taste sensation’ can evolve. The technology leader is now part of OUR business not a stand-alone person. We should be proud of what that means, its been a long hard battle to get there and now we are there we need to continue to evolve with our business needs.

To evolve we need a strategy, but we need to consider that a strategy is just a plan with a known adversary to our plan! It has to have a route to be effective not just to ‘win’. We want to stand for success, and the strategy needs to define what that success looks like in 2025. Digitally fluency for leaders needs to be a new kind of focus,  more and more on what are the benefits and values the transformation releases, what will the value be that is released to every part of the organisation. Building this into every leadership role is becoming intrinsic to our success.

Disentangling the chaos that change can cause is often part of the leadership OS too. Prioritisation and how to get the organisation to be involved in deciding the order of the day is a route to removing the chaos of change I think. We need to ensure that clarity on the relevance of each priority is there. This can only be done by being clear on the value being derived.

Ultimately what do we want our evolved OS to create, a culture of curiosity and a focus on learning I believe is what I want to be known for in 2025. I’m trying now to make sure that my OS evolves in this way so that I can really be the best version of me. I am happy to keep looking for the next version of the OS too though, even offering to beta test some of the features as we work out what they are!