Sustaining Long-Term Partnership Between Business and IT

Creating a lasting partnership between business and IT requires more than initial changes—it demands ongoing attention to maintaining and deepening the relationship. This final installment of our series on bridging the business-IT gap provides concrete strategies for sustaining effective business-IT collaboration for the long term.

Institutionalize Partnership Mechanisms

According to the authors of Flow Engineering, sustainable partnership requires embedding collaborative practices into the organization’s standard operating procedures:

Formalize Joint Governance: Establish formal governance structures that require business and technology participation. Sooner Safer Happier provides a model with:

• Joint strategic planning sessions (quarterly)
• Joint portfolio reviews (monthly)
• Joint operating reviews (weekly)
• Joint problem-solving sessions (as needed)

Create Role Clarity and Expectations: Define clear expectations for both business and technology leadership roles that emphasize partnership. “Measuring Leadership” suggests documenting:

• Joint accountabilities for outcomes.
• Specific collaboration requirements in performance expectations.
• Partnership competencies in leadership development programs.
• Partnership behaviors in recognition and reward systems.

Build Partnership into Onboarding: Ensure that new leaders from both business and technology functions receive onboarding that emphasizes the importance of partnership. This should include:

• Education on the organization’s partnership model.
• Introduction to counterparts in other functions.
• Access to case studies and success stories.
• Clear guidance on collaborative behaviors and expectations.

Practical Action: Create a “Partnership Playbook” that documents your organization’s approach to business-IT collaboration, including governance mechanisms, decision rights, meeting cadences, and metrics. Use this as a reference guide for all leaders.

Develop Leaders Who Model Partnership

“Measuring Leadership” emphasizes that sustainable partnership depends on leaders at all levels consistently modeling collaborative behaviors:

Identify Partnership Competencies: Define specific competencies that enable effective partnership between business and technology. These might include:

• Business and technical acumen
• Cross-functional collaboration skills
• Systems thinking
• Facilitation and conflict resolution
• Change leadership

Incorporate Partnership in Talent Development: Build partnership capabilities into leadership development programs for both business and technology leaders. “Transformational Leadership” suggests focusing on:

• Vision: Ability to articulate a compelling future that resonates with both business and technology stakeholders.
• Intellectual Stimulation: Encouraging innovative thinking that crosses traditional boundaries.
• Supportive Leadership: Creating psychological safety for cross-functional teams.
• Personal Recognition: Celebrating collaborative behaviors and outcomes.

Nurture Informal Leaders: Identify and develop informal leaders who act as “culture carriers” for partnership. “Measuring Leadership” suggests looking for individuals who demonstrate:

• Competence across business and technical domains.
• Collaborative orientation that bridges organizational boundaries.
• Character traits like humility, fairness, and trustworthiness.
• Catalyst behaviors that drive action and change.
• Culture-building capabilities that shape organizational norms.

Practical Action: Identify 3-5 leaders (both formal and informal) who exemplify effective business-IT partnership. Document their specific behaviors and use these as case studies in leadership development programs.

Continuously Improve Flow and Feedback Loops

Sustained partnership requires ongoing attention to the flow of value and information:

Implement Flow Metric Reviews: Establish regular reviews of flow metrics that involve both business and technology leaders. “Winning Together” suggests tracking:

• Flow Time: How long work takes from start to finish.
• Flow Efficiency: The ratio of active work to wait time.
• Flow Load: How much work is in progress.
• Flow Distribution: The balance of different work types.
• Flow Velocity: The rate of value delivery.

Create Cross-Functional Improvement Teams: Form dedicated teams focused on improving flow across the entire value stream, not just within specific functions. Flow Engineering suggests structuring these teams to:

• Include representation from all relevant functions.
• Focus on end-to-end improvement rather than local optimization.
• Use data to drive decision-making.
• Experiment with new approaches to work.

Implement Regular Feedback Mechanisms: Create structured ways to gather feedback on the partnership from stakeholders at all levels. “How to Thrive in Building a Learning Culture” suggests approaches including:

• Partnership health surveys
• Joint retrospectives
• Customer feedback sessions
• Gemba walks across organizational boundaries

Practical Action: Implement quarterly “Partnership Health Checks” that assess the quality of collaboration between business and technology functions. Use a simple red/yellow/green rating system for key dimensions like communication, trust, shared goals, and decision-making.

Navigate Change Together

“Winning Together” emphasizes that sustained partnership requires business and technology leaders to navigate organizational changes as a unified team:

Joint Change Leadership: When significant organizational changes occur (restructuring, acquisitions, leadership changes), ensure that business and technology leaders present a unified approach. This includes:

• Joint communications about the change.
• Shared accountability for change outcomes.
• Mutual support during transition periods.
• Consistent messaging about partnership importance.

Rethink Traditional Boundaries: Continuously question traditional boundaries between business and technology functions.

• Organizational structure and reporting relationships.
• Budget allocation methods.
• Decision rights and governance mechanisms.
• Physical and virtual collaboration spaces.

Build Change Resilience Together: Develop joint capabilities to respond to market disruptions and technological changes. Flow Engineering recommends:

• Joint horizon scanning for emerging trends.
• Shared scenario planning exercises.
• Cross-functional innovation teams.
• Collaborative experimentation with new approaches.

Practical Action: When significant organizational changes occur, conduct joint impact analysis sessions where business and technology leaders assess implications together and develop unified response plans.

Case Study: Nationwide Building Society’s Transformation Journey

Flow Engineering describes how Nationwide Building Society sustained their business-IT partnership through significant organizational changes:

1. They established a Ways of Working Center of Enablement with representation from both business and technology functions.
2. They developed shared metrics that connected technology delivery to business outcomes.
3. They implemented regular cadences for joint planning, review, and retrospection.
4. They created a culture of experimentation that crossed functional boundaries.
5. They built partnership capabilities into their leadership development programs.

The result was a sustainable transformation that survived multiple reorganizations and leadership changes, delivering consistent improvements in both technical capabilities and business outcomes.

Conclusion: The Journey Never Ends

Creating a lasting partnership between business and IT isn’t a one-time initiative but an ongoing journey. As technology continues to evolve and business challenges shift, the specific mechanisms of partnership will need to adapt. However, the fundamental principles remain constant:

• Shared understanding and trust provide the foundation.
• Joint ownership of outcomes drives alignment.
• Embedded governance sustains collaboration.
• Leadership at all levels models partnership.
• Continuous improvement keeps the partnership fresh and relevant.

Organizations that can sustain an effective business-IT partnership gain a significant competitive advantage in today’s digital economy. They can respond more quickly to market changes, deliver more value to customers, and create more fulfilling work environments for their employees.

The journey may not be easy, but as the research and case studies in this series have shown, the rewards make it worthwhile. By following the practical approaches outlined in these articles, you can create a partnership between business and IT that doesn’t just survive but thrives in the face of change.

- About The Authors

Leah Brown

Managing Editor at IT Revolution working on publishing books and guidance papers for the modern business leader. I also oversee the production of the IT Revolution blog, combining the best of responsible, human-centered content with the assistance of AI tools.

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