It Started with a Question That Wouldn’t Go Away

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working with organisations undertaking significant change.

Sometimes those changes involved new technology. Sometimes they involved new operating models, mergers, customer experience initiatives, digital transformation, AI or business modernisation. Whatever the label, they all had one thing in common.

They were trying to move the organisation from where it was to where it needed to be.

Over the years, one question kept coming back to me.

Why do so many transformation initiatives struggle to deliver the business outcomes and value they promised?

That question has been asked for decades.

Billions have been invested transformations, and almost as much in trying to understand transformation success and failure.

• Project management methodologies have evolved.
• Change management has matured.
• Leadership models have changed.
• Technology has advanced beyond anything we could have imagined even just ten years ago.

And yet, despite all of this progress, transformation remains one of the greatest challenges facing organisations today.

If anything, the pressure seems to be increasing rather than decreasing.

That simply didn’t make sense to me.

Then I Started Looking at the CIO

As digital transformation became central to business strategy, I noticed another important shift.

Increasingly, CIOs were finding themselves at the centre of transformation.

Not because transformation is an IT initiative.

But because almost every significant business change now depends on technology.

Today’s CIO isn’t simply responsible for technology.

They are expected to help modernise the business.

• Enable AI.
• Improve customer experience.
• Strengthen cyber resilience.
• Drive innovation.
• Deliver measurable business value.

It’s one of the most exciting executive roles in any organisation.

It’s also one of the most demanding.

The more CIOs I spoke to, the more I realised they were carrying an extraordinary level of responsibility.

What struck me, however, wasn’t the technology.

It was something else.

The Responsibility Gap

When transformation programmes struggle, the reasons are surprisingly familiar.

• Leadership alignment.
• Business ownership.
• Decision-making.
• Resistance to change.
• Executive commitment.
• Cross-functional collaboration.

These are all recognised as critical factors in transformation success.

Yet very few of them sit within the CIO’s direct authority.

That observation stayed with me.

If the recognised causes of transformation failure lie largely outside the CIO’s control, why are CIOs so often expected to carry responsibility for the outcome?

Perhaps that helps explain why so many technology leaders describe transformation as one of the most rewarding—and one of the most exhausting—parts of their role.

It also made me wonder whether we were looking at transformation through the wrong lens.

A Different Way of Looking at the Problem

Around this time, I had the opportunity to become involved with the work of Dr Myles Sweeney and his research behind Unitary Development Theory (UDT).

Initially, my interest was professional curiosity.

Like many people, I saw it as another body of research into organisational development and change.

But the more I explored the findings, the more they challenged my own thinking.

One idea, in particular, kept returning to me.

An organisation cannot sustainably operate beyond the level of its current organisational capability.

In practical terms, this means that every transformation asks an organisation to operate differently in the future than it does today. Every transformation raises the level of organisational capability required to achieve that future state. If those capabilities do not develop alongside the transformation, achieving and sustaining the desired outcomes becomes progressively more difficult.

At first glance, it seems obvious.

But the more I reflected on conversations I’ve had with CIOs over many years, the more profound its implications became.

The Insight That Changed Everything

What excited me wasn’t simply the research itself.

It was what it might mean for CIOs.

For years, CIOs have been expected to deliver transformation while many of the factors determining success have remained outside their direct control.

UDT gave me a completely different way of looking at that dilemma.

• Perhaps the missing piece wasn’t another project methodology.
• Perhaps it wasn’t another change framework.
• Perhaps it wasn’t even better technology.

Perhaps the missing discipline was understanding organisational capability itself.

More specifically, understanding where organisational capability gaps existed before they become transformation problems.

That was the moment everything started connecting.

From Capability to Governance

The more I explored the implications of the research, the more convinced I became that organisational capability shouldn’t simply be discussed.

It should be governed.

Not because CIOs should become responsible for organisational development.

They shouldn’t.

But because, UDT and other more recent research has shown, organisational capability represents one of the most significant sources of transformation risk.

If capability-related risks could be identified earlier, understood more clearly and discussed at executive level before major transformation initiatives began, organisations would be in a far stronger position to realise the value they expect from their investments.

That insight ultimately led me to the concept of Organisation Capability Governance.

Not as another management framework.

But as a missing layer of transformation governance.

Why I Created The CIO Dilemma

The CIO Dilemma is a relook at, and a conversation around, the role of the CIO in transformation.

Not from a leadership perspective.

But rather, from a governance perspective.

CIOs are not looking to take on even more responsibility.

What they are looking for is a way to reduce the risk of transformation failure and improve the business value of transformation to the business.

I don’t believe CIOs should become responsible for developing organisational capability.

That responsibility belongs across the executive team.

What I do believe is that CIOs are uniquely positioned to help identify the capabilities transformation will require, understand where significant capability gaps exist and ensure those risks become visible within the organisation’s transformation governance.

Once capability risk becomes visible, it can be discussed.

It can be prioritised.

It can be governed.

And most importantly, it can be addressed before it undermines the transformation itself.

An Invitation

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the questions, insights and observations that have emerged from this journey.

• Some are drawn from my own experience.
• Some from conversations with CIOs.
• Some from the research behind Unitary Development Theory and the Digital Maturity Index.

All of them are driven by one objective.

To help CIOs reduce transformation risk, improve value realisation and become even more successful in leading the organisations they serve.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers.

But I do believe we’ve reached a point where we need to start asking different questions.

I’d be delighted if you’d join me in that conversation.