A change relapse is happening across so many industries right now when it comes to digital. The debate had been won, or so we thought, digital and the role of digital leader to lead change and transformation had been had and most organisations set about the journey and yet for some reason a relapse appears to be happening when I talk to peers, organisations seem to be retrenching back to IT as a cost centre and a bit of disbelief as to whether technology can really deliver us all to the promised land of efficiency, accuracy and productivity.
Why?
The move from cynic to pragmatist to enthusiast doesn’t seem to have stuck after a few moments of success. Technology costs money, and transformation with technology as both foundation and catalyst is a graveyard of almost rans. Spend that has yet to truly deliver on the promised ROI, and the productivity leakage of the AI agent seems to be the common parlance rather than the promised gold in the hills of the future prediction of only a couple of years ago.
The fear of messing up rather than the fear of missing out is taking hold in 2025, and we have to find a way to combat this. As Digital Leaders, it’s on us to seize back the narrative that we are here to support our businesses as they seek to make a change happen. We need to be seen to overtly support every aspect of our business, understand the need and reply with the art of the possible to ensure that the journey started is not a journey stalled.
Productivity leakage can only be stopped by adding full system capacity engineering to the change journey, and that can’t be done every time a new technology solution goes live, can it? Not if we hold with the belief that business change is more important than the actual delivery of the technology itself, then it is hard to justify a full organisational reshuffle every time a piece of technology offers an evolution to the way we do ‘stuff’ as an organisation. Maybe AI as the tool for doing this work, we are starting to see some brilliant changes in thinking where AI becomes not just part of the change being offered but part of the way in which we adapt to it and adopt the technology itself. AI as a tool for process engineering, I think, could be a future opportunity for facilitating constant change as a positive force for successful delivery.
We have learnt to always be clear on the consequences of change to every stakeholder. This is key to holding on to the change cycle and creating a journey for everyone to go on together. Even if the consequences are less than what was initially expected, we need to stay on the journey together. I wonder if the (over) promise of new technology is perhaps what is causing the relapse to happen in some quarters? The belief that hitting the big red button marked ‘AI Futures’ is all that is needed to be a business of the future, when that button has been pressed and we haven’t become x times more of all the things that were promised, then the trust has started to ebb away. As Digital Leaders, we need to build and maintain that trust somehow. Your own personal credibility is key, and that can only be done, I believe, through transparency and engagement, two watchwords that are starting to take over the job description of a CIO in 2026, I think. And I believe that is a good thing!
The successful CIO of 2026 who has embedded change into every aspect of delivery has learnt from the builder laying a new drive with cement, seriously, let me explain…
Transformation occurs when you lay out the wet cement, the rocks and dirt, and hard-core cease looking like a barren piece of land and start to look like the smooth pathway and drive that you need to make it home safely on a dark night in December. Whilst that cement is wet and drying, the risks to its form and function are at their most heightened; the escape dog that runs through the wet cement leaves his paw prints in it in perpetuity. Just as transformation is about to solidify, it is at its most risky; the hard work has been done, and we ‘simply’ need the last bit of transformation to set, and the business can then build on the solid foundations that have been created.
It’s kind of cute as well, though, to leave your mark in the cement so that it is there forever for people to see. I guess that temptation is there for us too, as agents of what we want the future to look like, the risk of us leaving our own mark on the transformation, just because we can. I am never sure if this is a good thing or not. An example, the knowledge and information strategy set in ‘stone’ for the Irish healthcare system in the spring of 2015 is my legacy in Ireland, in so many ways, my initials rudely carved into the cement for all to see forever. A bit like the cement of the driveway in the analogy, though, to start a fresh and make new it takes a lot of smashing of the old cement to be able to create a new smoother road that is informed by the time elapsed and new ways for laying it, simply changing the title to information and knowledge strategy will not suffice.
In summary of this analogy, cement does not make for a good agile way for creating foundations, but in times gone by, we have all used this solution and created environments that have sustainability issues and create drag for the future. Maybe it’s this that is causing this recurrence of apathy for change. As we leave 2025, we need a new substance that brings the solid nature of foundations but can flex to the winds of change as new ‘gusts’ of technology arrive.
Adoption done effectively is not ‘just’ the role of us as digital leaders. We have had to be the ones who start the charge for difference in the last few years, and we now need to be the ones cajoling the end of the change too, unless we have hit the right inspiring notes for our colleagues to take the lead from us. Landing the message that change is now an endless journey is one that has fallen to us and is quite uncomfortable when making the case for each change. I wonder if we are moving from vertical expertise to horizontal expertise, and the art of collaboration is becoming more people are starting to accepted as the route to constant change? I know I am well known for quoting the phrase ‘collaborative sensemaker’, but perhaps now more than ever before, this is starting to matter.
Lastly, in this little study on the relapse of change boredom! So many colleagues across different industries want to describe themselves as entrepreneurial; the case for change is often grounded in building consistency to create efficiency and productivity. Maybe this new apathy for change is to some degree about protecting the image of a business entrepreneur, an exciting business-focused person who is all about the new, the innovative and the quickest route to success. There was once a time when innovation and the art of the new was ‘owned’ by the digital people. Now, as we have rightly found ways to simplify what it is we do and technology becomes more and more commoditised, our business colleagues own this space. We have to find ways to be alongside them; we should no longer consider ourselves to be the gatekeepers to the digital budget and investment but to be facilitators of access and pathfinders to solutions.
Oh, how the world keeps a changing. What is it we want as digital leaders? Not so long ago, we wished for business colleagues who understood us; now they often do, and we wish for a little less understanding and a bit more trust and belief. Will we ever be satisfied? I believe that as we head into 2026, what we need to do the most is be alongside our colleagues, understand their needs and make sure that we pull up out of the apathy pit of disillusionment and do so as one team with positivity for our industries, our organisations and our colleagues at the centre of what we do.
Our mission is clear: to rebuild trust, foster collaboration, and lead change not as gatekeepers, but as enablers. Let’s invent the new cement of transformation together.