By Vivek Kolpe in partnership with The Presentation Company
Storytelling has become an art form of critical importance in today’s business world. It has recently gained significant focus within organizations across all industries. I’ve seen firsthand how storytelling techniques are helping IT leaders at various levels become more effective partners to their business stakeholders. Equipped with this skill, IT professionals are taking stronger partnership roles with business, leading and winning the debates for project funding, and demonstrating greater influence in driving digital transformations. From an outcomes standpoint, I have personally seen IT personnel trained in storytelling techniques far outperform their peers with equally strong technical skills, grow faster in the organization, and display greater satisfaction in their careers.
Adapting to a changing business landscape
Just a few years ago, the dividing line between business and IT was obvious – business stakeholders focused their efforts on envisioning a new solution, developing their business case, and making the representations for budget dollars. IT, on the other hand, focused their efforts on technology and solutions areas such as solutioning, architecture, development, implementation cycles, and operations responsibilities. Their contributions were more supportive in the partnership model.
The post-pandemic times have only increased the competitive pressures, highlighted new global risks, and accelerated the digital/AI revolution. The role of the CIO/CDO has greatly evolved and further expanded IT’s rise as a strategic function. IT has evolved beyond a function that owns technology, applications, infrastructure, and IT security; to one that is more deeply engaged in strategy definition through outcomes and results management, bringing their leadership to major initiatives in the business. These factors have raised the demands and significantly increased expectations for IT leaders – from CIO down to Directors and even Managers.
The demands for strategic technology-based solutions and transition to digital products and business models have changed everything! Long gone are the days of waterfall projects and project-based team structures. Companies now routinely organize their resources into Product Teams, which inherently requires IT personnel to have increased visibility and strong presentation skills. Companies are also making increased investments in cloud platforms, SAAS applications, Data Lakes and Analytics capabilities, AI/ML capabilities, in addition to increased investments in security.
One of the obvious results of all this activity has been an even greater level of competition for limited funding. In my experience, steering and funding committees became places of intense lobbying and debates. The presentations and representations need to be greatly well-positioned and thoroughly prepared. It becomes imperative to have very clear storylines about the investment case, value and outcome propositions, and clarity on how each investment outshines an alternative investment option.
According to Deloitte, from 2017 to 2022, CIOs spent 11% less time as operators and 21% more time as strategists1. The IT teams I have led have moved from being systems personnel and order-takers to being outcome-oriented influential contributors, engaging business partners to identify problems, evaluate strategic options, and leading change. IT leaders now are called to actively partner and ensure the delivery of committed outcomes of the business case.
Gartner recently rated influence as the most important tool in the CIO’s toolbox, followed by personal communication skills and business acumen.2 IT leaders must be able to interact, influence, and communicate with the different CxOs and their functions in addition to contributing to strategy and preparing for future scenarios. They must be stronger in their leadership presence and their ability to deliver innovative solutions and rapid change.
Digital-savvy organizations now comprise strong IT and business personnel working together in envisioning the future ‘product/solutions’ and developing, measuring, and evolving solutions at a rapid pace. IT leaders, at all levels, are expected to bring strong leadership, business understanding and representation skills, own product roadmaps, and continuously evolve the technology ‘products’ to ensure competitive advantage. These IT leaders actively participate in defining the business case and future vision while leading funding discussions and presentations. Their representations can make or break the case for investing in the ever-increasing intensity of IT funding debates. Storytelling is an important enabler for capturing the attention of decision-makers, driving the active conversation, and ensuring successful approvals.
Transforming IT leaders through storytelling
In my recent leadership roles, I led large IT areas of multiple ERP and Corporate Systems across several corporate functions and business units. I saw a clear opportunity to level up our IT talent, specifically in business storytelling.
Prior to this emphasis on storytelling, most presentations had some amount of hodge-podge of cobbled together slides with a lot of data dumping. Decks lacked clear calls to action and often had an incoherent (or no) narrative flow – The Presentation Company (TPC) refers to these as Frankendecks™. Some presentations easily exceeded 20 (or more) slides, and unclear messages resulted in funding or committee presentations failing to achieve the desired outcomes. Quite often the conversations went on unexpected tangents. This most often resulted in the teams being asked to go back and bring more information or clarity.
To achieve the intended change, we actively invested in storytelling training with TPC. Leaders at various levels – from managers to tech leads, architects to directors – learned effective storytelling techniques and were encouraged to ingrain those concepts in every presentation or business communication they prepared. Over a two-year period, we actively mentored, supported, and provided feedback, allowing time for practicing their pitches and ensuring the supporting presentation material had just the right level of content.
Applying TPC’s storytelling framework ensured our communications were crafted with brevity, careful flow of thought, clarity for the ask, the value, and outcomes. As with most change efforts, this is rarely a ‘switch’ to turn on. It requires multiple training sessions spread over weeks and months to shift to a new mindset and reinforce the concepts. Through this partnership with TPC, my teams acquired the skills to transform their presentations into clear and concise audience-centric narratives that resonated with demanding stakeholders.
The benefits of this upskilling of IT personnel have shown up in a variety of ways and exceeded my expectations:
- No more Frankendecks. Now that the teams are equipped with effective storytelling skills, their decks are succinct, well-thought out, and the flow of information is just right. The material connects with, captivates, and compels the audience to engage and take decisive action.
- Improved job satisfaction. We received consistent employee feedback that the storytelling training was fundamentally most effective and helped grow their careers. They experienced improved job satisfaction and professional fulfillment. I have personally seen team members advance from Architects to Director-level leaders in short timespans.
- Better alignment between IT and business. The IT leaders also expressed great satisfaction in seeing tangible and remarkably notable improvements in how they were viewed by business. My business stakeholders have come to rely on my teams and make our IT investments most effective for the company.
In short, storytelling helped my teams become indispensable to their business partners and functional counterparts. My business stakeholders have never been more ecstatic about the role of IT in partnership with them; this has led to unparalleled competitive advantage in the industry.
This work doesn’t end here, and as with any journey, we must continue to assess, train, reinforce, and enhance this skill. This storytelling training goes way beyond IT and should be expanded to similar levels in every function of the company.
The case for storytelling in IT
I’ve gone into detail about how storytelling has empowered my team to advance conversations and elevate their partnership with the business. I truly believe it’s one of the most effective ways to make complex, data-driven information both compelling and memorable. Here are just a few more reasons why storytelling is essential for today’s IT leaders:
It provides a common language and framework. Every form of business communication has a story to tell—the trick is knowing how to uncover it and present it. By learning and applying the foundational elements of storytelling, IT teams have a simple, yet effective way to create compelling messages and engage their audiences. Using a practical, repeatable framework provides a common storytelling language that can flex to any audience and format, from written proposals to in-person presentations.
It improves data visualization. As any IT leader knows, data drives many of today’s business decisions—but only when it’s meaningful. Numbers and graphs that lack insight are nothing more than distractions, especially for nontechnical audiences. Data wrapped in a story and supported by strong visual elements, however, is unstoppable. Knowing how to pull key insights and build a narrative journey around data not only engages and educates business stakeholders but also gives credibility and establishes the authority IT leaders need to influence decisions.
It supports effective change management. Big IT initiatives such as digital transformation are only successful with effective change management—and that requires good communication. Case in point: Research shows that around 70% change initiatives fail to achieve their goals2, and more than 30% of project failures are caused by poor communication.3 IT leaders looking to implement any form of change will need the skills to make those changes stick. Business storytelling is a must-have change communication skill because it puts the audience’s needs first, which helps foster buy-in. It also brings clarity and meaning, which gets everyone on the same page and moving toward the same goal.
It fosters collaboration and innovation. Today’s IT leaders need to be able to prioritize projects, gain buy-in, and establish rapport with CxOs. Storytelling aids in all these aspects by providing a persuasive communication strategy that clearly articulates new ideas while focusing on how it will benefit their audiences. This not only promotes collaboration and teamwork, but it also builds executive presence and trust among these cross-functional groups, each with different needs. Uncovering the bigger narrative also helps teams think more strategically and opens the door to more innovative thinking.
It helps IT professionals (and their companies) level up. Perhaps the most compelling argument for business storytelling is that it equips today’s IT leaders with the skills they will need for tomorrow. While strong communication skills may be a differentiator among IT professionals today, they will likely be table stakes in the future. Elevated roles will require elevated abilities, and storytelling helps rising CIO and IT leaders develop the critical skills companies are starting to demand—and will eventually need—to stay competitive.
Rising to the occasion
The call on today’s CIOs and IT leaders is a far cry from the “order taker” of years past. Their expertise has now become a more collaborative and integral part of the larger business strategy, and I’ve been happy to see my teams finally getting a much-deserved seat at the table.
The IT function today is not only expected to understand the business strategy, but also be able to translate and incorporate that strategy into their technology playbook. They need to be much stronger in their presence to solve problems, champion for what projects need to be prioritized in the company, and how to ask for the right funding on said projects.
From redesigning the customer experience, getting buy-in and adoption on new tools, to working in lockstep with the CEO, IT leaders are being challenged to think more dynamically and strategically. By expanding their skill set outside of their technical comfort zone, IT professionals are winning the new race of digitization. Storytelling is without doubt a key component of that success.
Vivek Kolpe is an experienced IT leader in the MedTech and Healthcare industry. He has worked in various IT leadership roles at Medtronic and Boston Scientific and management consulting roles at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) and Computer Sciences and Top Tier Consulting (now Cognizant). He has focused on IT Enterprise Apps and Platforms, IT Capability/People Development, Product Team optimizations, and driving global digital transformation.
The Presentation Company (TPC) is a corporate training company that helps talented businesspeople bring clarity and meaning to their ideas and data and influence decisions through storytelling. For over 20 years, TPC’s workshops have helped the world’s top brands – including Meta, T-Mobile, and Medtronic – transform their teams into strategic, influential visual communicators and drive business forward. We believe that with our storytelling framework, some simple guidance, and the right tools, everyone can be a great business storyteller!
