IT Slowing Down Projects - Let’s Examine That (And What To Do About It)

Too often, IT isn’t enabling progress, it’s slowing it down.

And when that happens, it’s not just annoying.

It’s a threat to the business.

Like what you see? Want to see more? I invite you to chat with my team at Shinydocs.

If You're Not Speeding Things Up, You're Slowing the Business Down

I was on a call earlier this week with a leader at a major institution. They are trying to move a critical information project forward.

But every time they makes progress, IT throws up another roadblock of staffing issues, hardware provisioning issues, security concerns, endless competitive vendor quotes, you name it.

Clearly frustrated, they asked me for talk tracks to cut through the noise.

Here’s what I said:

“Start by laying out the values. That’s how you regain control of the conversation.”

My last post goes into greater detail on how to go values-first.

The Customer Drives the Outcome — Not IT

• “We need this information to be accessible.”
• “We need to remove outdated content.”
• “We need to support faster, more confident decision-making.”

That's the order. Of course, all done securely, but in service of the goals, not in opposition to it. 

Not Seen as an Enabler? That’s a Problem

If your IT team is seen as the group that always says "no," you're not managing risk. You're creating risk.

You either speed things up, or you slowly go out of business.

It All Comes Back to Values

If your values prioritize protecting the system over empowering people, you are stuck.  Your business will eventually fade and fail.

If your values prioritize access, clarity, and speed (with the right security), you’ll build trust, gain momentum, and win.

TL;DR: Start every project with that values conversation. Everything else flows from there.