The problem in everyday life
Disengaged management team and no budget? Just shut it down. Said with all love.
The digital workplace is not a row in Excel. It is culture, processes, investments and risk. Without direction and money, we run out of people.
In everyday life, this is how it looks: employees get different messages from different directions. IT says A, Sales says B, HR says C – and the employee ends up in a bind. Policies clash with reality, where IT says “no” but the sales process says “must”. The governance group is expected to “fix” but has neither the time nor the budget. The result is fire brigade calls, parallel solutions, endless pre-meetings – and in the end it all ends up with a single zealot who burns out.
This is not a fight between IT and Sales. It is a management assignment. Management points the way – and everyone follows.
Why is it difficult?
When vision is lacking, each department becomes its own compass. The governance group is given responsibility but no muscle. Policies that clash with processes are left unresolved and dumped into the business. And structural problems are expected to be solved by individuals – as if everyone suddenly loves guidelines and fixes them themselves. It’s wishful thinking, and an expensive one at that.
The way forward – what management must do
Change starts at the top. This is not a technical issue, but a question of governance and accountability.
Management needs to set the direction: the vision for the digital workplace and the three to five principles that apply to everyone. The governance group must be given both mandate and resources – the right people in the right place, an agreed time on the calendar, and the ability to make decisions and escalate.
Conflicts should be resolved where they belong. If a policy stops the deal, it is the management's decision – not a tug of war between IT and Sell in the basement. The governance group flags, management decides.
Build in pace: start with information security, then policies, training, budget, system development and integrations – in the right order. And make sure the game plan is clear: a common structure, a storage strategy, templates for workspaces. Duplicate storage is cleared and “scores” are developed with information owners and updated as the business learns.
It's also about prioritizing the basics before the glitz. Just like in the physical workplace, the roof must be tight and the door must be lockable before we buy the next flashy campaign system.
Concrete decisions to make
- Mandate & budget: Give the governance group real decision-making power.
- Target image: define the principles of the digital workplace.
- Escalation: Decide that policy conflicts are resolved by management.
- Build in the correct order: security, policy, education, budget – before AI and glitter.
- Game plan: a common storage strategy and workspace templates.
When the foundation is laid
Management sets the direction, mandate and resources. The governance group is given the task and pace. Escalation works. And conflicts between functions are resolved upwards – not in the trenches.
Then the digital workplace keeps pace with the business's goals, not with ad hoc desires.
