Normalising change

David sits down with Chris Bradbury, a CIO 100 in 2019, former interim CTO at reed.co.uk and a self-proclaimed ‘capability-builder’. Chris has worked with some of the UK’s largest and most well-defined digital brands, specialising in helping businesses build, deliver and monetise great digital products. During this conversation Chris talks about the constant evolution of tech and how that manifests for businesses, normalising change in tech teams and the culture of accountability we should strive for.

00:01:15

Second-tier transformations I think we’re going through second-tier transformations. Reed is a business that’s gone through a second-tier digital transformation. So it went through point, where Reed as a recruitment business one digital and then that digital business was being disrupted by new incumbents in that market and had to go through another phase transformation in their business. Is transformation ever really going to end? Well technology doesn’t stop. The way in which we think, the behaviours, capabilities that you need in an organisation are continually evolving and changing. So we end up with this organisation of people that, a group of technologists, this cohort, who are constantly in a state of flux and change. Change has become a norm for lots of people, especially people like myself in the business.

00:02:37

Characteristics of Change Agents I’ve stopped calling myself a digital transformation person. I hate the phrase now. I’ve started referring to myself as a capability builder. Going into organisations that are deficient in a certain area of capability and helping them grow that specific thing out. People are constantly changing and moving on.

00:05:31

Culture of Accountability You do need to create that culture of accountability. That culture of openness and anti-blame culture. If you can do that, then you have a real fighting chance to be able to learn as you go, not continually repeating the same mistakes, which is setting that plagues many organisations. Get yourself out on a trajectory towards capability. Just do that.