Because IT leaders are responsible for managing the digital workflow, they now find themselves tasked not merely with supplying work tools, but also with guiding how their colleagues actually think about their work and the conditions under which they perform it. That requires them to consider four new risks most businesses now face:
- Bad inputs: The computer science term “garbage in, garbage out” is increasingly relevant to businesses as they transform into what Hammersley calls “hybrid cognitive systems.” If all the thinking, collaboration and creation that organizations perform is done through a screen, “then you are responsible for all the info — for all the fuel — your employees are using to think with,” he told IT leaders. “We need to come to terms with the fact that we’re responsible for what’s coming through those screens.”
- Bad mental models: This has to do with the way people receive and think about data. The mental models people are using to process information may be faulty, creating an opportunity to guide them in the right direction.
- Bad environment: Businesses must think carefully about the physical environment people are working in and the tools they’re using. How many monitors do your employees need? At home they might be using one, while at the office they had two or three — and studies show that more monitors make people more productive and help them think more clearly. In fact, everything from poor lighting and the wrong office furniture to too many notifications from email and instant messaging apps can cause significant work disruptions. “We need to think about the cognitive risks, not just with the IT infrastructure but also the physical infrastructure,” he said.
- Bad outputs: All of the above can lead to poor work quality and reduced productivity.
The bottom line for IT leaders is that their job has shifted from being providers of IT solutions to supporters of the “cognitive frameworks” within which employees either succeed or fail.
“Now, instead of just looking after data and apps, as a CIO, you’re looking after the entire organization,” Hammersley said. “So I say the CIO and CTO, CISO, etc., are all the same person and should be called chief cognitive officer: the person whose job it is to help people think.”
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