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November 2, 1998

Secret CIO:
Align Yourself Today

Technically speaking, people are more likely to understand what we're saying if we don't fill our language with jargon

By Herbert W. Lovelace

f it is your fond desire to achieve seamless alignment with your internal business partners, and to change the paradigm of the IT group from that of a service provider to one of an enabler of strategic transformational change in this era of knowledge management dynamics, I have some advice for you: Cut out the jargon.

If you think I'm being too harsh, then try repeating as your goal for the organization my first sentence (which could fit undetected into any number of self-important consulting brochures) to someone in your senior management. I bet if you do, you're well on your way to being dismissed forever as irrelevant in your company's future plans.

I recently had a discussion with one of our senior business executives, a person I really respect. Tom was a trench warrior in his day, rising from a salesman in the boondocks, rotating through a low-level manufacturing position to get experience, then running a division before he was 40, and finally, after many years of hard work, being appointed to head a very significant business sector. Our conversation drifted from the weather, the latest sports scores, and the miserable sales outlook in Asia to the communications gap between IT people and the rest of the world.

"Herb," he said, "I just don't understand what your people are saying. Are they trying to impress me or snow me?"

Since we're friends, I pointed out that it is just as hard for IT people to understand what he's saying as it is for him to understand IT lingo.

"I know they don't understand what I'm talking about," he added. "But they won't admit it. I can't trust people I don't understand. I learned that on the road more than 30 years ago."

As we talked, I realized that Tom, who is as honest as a summer day is long, was clearly articulating a major problem. People want us to talk in a language that makes sense to them--especially if we're asking them to spend money and to depend on us for something vital.

Take a look at the arcane language we use. Does anyone have a clear definition of what "knowledge management" is? It would probably be too simple for us to say that if there is valuable information in one spot, we want to make sure it's available to others who might need it. Instead, to quote one definition in the literature, we explain that knowledge management is the process by which we "harvest and share an organization's collective knowledge to achieve breakthrough results in productivity and innovation." What?

Still not convinced we have a problem? Just read a few of our trade publications. You'll find lots of examples of what I'm saying. Make your own list. Then burn it.

I don't think we've figured out that buzzwords are new products to consulting organizations: another way of selling their services. One set of prestigious prognosticators has come up with impressive concepts like zero-latency and we hurry to their conferences to learn about it. What is zero-latency? According to one high-placed analyst, a zero-latency enterprise strategy is one "that exploits the immediate exchange of information across geographical, technical, and organizational boundaries to achieve business benefit." My guess (0.8 probability) is that zero-latency would not be considered such a big deal if we simply said our goal is to have information available throughout the company as soon as it's gathered. Maybe we're afraid that if we're clear, we run the risk that some folks would say, "I don't need that."

If we want to achieve real alignment with our business colleagues, we need to communicate with them. And let me give you a prediction (1.0 probability): It won't be because they learn our language, so we'd best start talking theirs.

Herbert W. Lovelace is the CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. Herb practices his day job under an alias and has changed the names of colleagues to protect the guilty. Send him E-mail at lovelace@home.com. He'll provide real answers--and whimsical comments--to your questions on InformationWeek Online at www.informationweek.com.