ICT v “Comms”. One vision?
ICT v COMMS
Three months into the launch of the business and a few themes are beginning to emerge from both sides of the table.
Suppliers in general want to know how to “get to” people in Government with new ideas; Senior Government people are yearning for new ideas; ICT solutions remain focussed on process and platforms rather than improved service delivery outcomes. And everyone knows that time and money is being wasted in the current state of flux.
In discussions with Government departments, here and overseas, we constantly hear of a “tension” between the ICT team and the “comms” team. At its worst, ICT staff are making decisions on content and headlines, at its best, ICT teams are bringing the CEO’s vision to life and saving money. All the people we speak to see the latter as a nirvana state.
It’s unfortunate that even this post is titled ICT v Comms, but also true that for any organisation to progress, the two areas must have a clear shared purpose and clearly defined roles. It’s interesting that in these times of tumultuous change, some of those basic tenets of management are being lost. For the sake of record, successful businesses function effectively when all members of the team, from receptionist to cook to bottle washer, all share the CEO and Board’s vision about the priorities of the business. From there, departmental heads should be clearly charged with and understand the role they play.
It’s possible that in the Brave New Digital World we might have forgotten that bit about clarifying who does what. In old fashioned print media, after years of streamlining to help meet daily deadlines, roles were wonderfully clear cut and everyone got on with their job. Writers wrote, subeditors tidied up the copy to make sure it was a) correct b) in the house style and c) on deadline, ad people sold ads, printers looked after printing and the distribution people made sure the copies are available on the day it goes on sale. And then next day it would start all over again….
Sure, ad sales staff and printers, even receptionists (especially receptionists) all had an opinion on whether you put Jennifer or Candice on the cover, just like everyone is an expert on how the product should be priced and where it should be sold. But great leaders find a way to listen to those views without them disrupting the business.
In the New World, I’d suggest it seems fairly straightforward to put similar rules in place;
Let’s agree that editorial content/pix/social media posts are the responsibility of the editorial people. They’d also let the tech people know if they wanted a new gadget, forum, widget, app, whatever (and the tech people would tell the boss how long it would take and how much it would cost before they did it).
The marketing teams should broadly have their eye on optimisation, moderate the forums and be listening to social media. They’d also let the tech people know if they wanted a new gadget, forum, widget, app (see above!)
That leaves the ICT teams with the critical roles of being the common sense advisor on the viability of some of the more lunatic ideas that the marketing and editorial teams come up with (speaking, by the way as someone who once cover-mounted a tin of free cat food on Your Cat magazine) whilst also managing their key roles in providing the best platforms to suit the agreed business needs, making sure it’s secure from the interests of Russian hackers and generally being on top of improvements and enhancements.
The ICT role in modern media is more essential and adds more value than any support role in publishing and Comms history. But just like no marketing person should ever be left in charge of the firewalls, or negotiating hosting arrangements, so ICT teams shouldn’t be making decisions on words and pictures. Sorry, but that’s a fact. And to stress the most important issue of all, everybody on the team should be focused on playing their part to deliver the shared future vision. Or go work somewhere else…