System Transformation Portal

Designing the participant structure requires defining where people will work and what they are going to do under the new IT organizational infrastructure. This task outlines considerations and steps in shift roles, responsibilities and culture under the new infrastructure.

Shifting Roles and Responsibilities
The core design team will need to work with each hub to define new roles and responsibilities. As the new organization is defined, individuals will take need to take various roles within a given hub structure. The following issues should be considered when planning for this phase of the organizational transformation effort.

1. IT hubs, at every level, will need to self-organize and this requires redefining certain roles, responsibilities and reporting structures.
2. All hub participants should commit to the purpose and principles of their hub and of all inner hubs to which they may be linked.
3. In a hub, everyone takes on responsibility for contributing to the purpose and principles within that hub.
4. An individual can belong to two hubs concurrently, given that both hubs agree to this arrangement.
5. With the dismantling of the management hierarchy, the organization should eliminate titles.
6. A given individual may lead a hub or may just be a participant within that hub.
7. A hub leader represents a hub at meetings of the next innermost hub.
8. Individuals within the hub should select leaders for that hub.
9. Leaders will emerge and existing managers may continue in a leadership role, assuming participants within the hub agree.
10. Hub leaders should rotate periodically to avoid the political entrenchment common in enterprises today.
11. Individuals are responsible for outlining their own responsibilities within a given hub, with concurrence from hub members and the hub leader.
12. If a hub feels it cannot function with the current personnel, members should seek out additional or replacement personnel.
13. If a hub is too unwieldy to manage or finds that it has multiple purposes, it should spin off satellites.
14. If a hub is too small, it should be rolled into the next innermost hub.

The steps required to achieve the aforementioned considerations include the following guidelines.

1. A fully defined hub model, along with corresponding purposes and principles for each hub, should be distributed to all hubs across the enterprise.
2. Any hub members determining that there are conflicts between their hub and another hub should communicate this to their hub leader.
3. Inner hub representatives (i.e. hub leaders) are responsible for motivating hub participants into shifting into their new roles and responsibilities.
4. Peripheral hubs that may not have a fully defined their purpose should complete a statement of purpose with all members of that hub.
5. Individuals within existing or previously existing hub design teams should meet to determine how they plan to fulfill their purpose.
6. Hubs should meet every 30 days to:
   • Refine communication models with other hubs
   • Review how the hub is doing
   • Determine how role and responsibility assignments need to change
   • Address conflicts or issues
   • Reconsider or adjust their purpose
   • Consider if the hub needs to be decomposed into satellites or rolled into an inner hub

   7.   Conflicts and personnel considerations are addressed in the next section on cultural
         transformation.

Transforming the IT Culture
IT leaders should communicate to the IT organizations that individuals will need to shift their patterns of belief and behavior in terms of how knowledge and tasks are shared within a collective structure (i.e. the hub). The following traits characterize this shift and can be used as input to shifting roles and responsibilities.

1. Collective and individual decisions made at the periphery replace decisions passed through the command hierarchy.
2. Failure to fulfill one�s responsibilities will be dealt with by the collective body of a given hub structure.
3. Motivation shifts to what is good for the information management function and away from what is just good for you.
4. Building an empire, or large body of subordinates as the case may be, is no longer relevant because there is no hierarchy chart and therefore no empire to build.
5. The IT council should set policy regarding human resource issues, including payroll, which can be addressed at the hub level.
6. Hub budgets can be set based on contributions of that hub to the overall goals of the IT enterprise.