As Chief Information Officer at Gallagher, a global technology leader in the animal management and security industries, Neville Richardson says his team are focused on using a key framework for critical thinking to deliver successful projects.

Richardson says while they make technological innovations, be that using internal systems to provide contact tracing to keep staff safe, to using some unique toolsets with legacy ERP systems to help us tackle supply chain issues and maintain increased supply during the last couple of years, the most useful thing for the team at Gallagher was to create a framework to drive the value of technology to as near 100% as possible.

“How many technology projects have not met their goals? As technologists we know it is most of them. Using this model reduces that likelihood,” says Richardson. 
  
Using the framework forces the team at Gallagher to consider all aspects of the project, not just the technology but the structures and people needed. 

“We use this in multiple ways. Some time ago we introduced a robust governance (vPMO) process to take in (and have the business prioritise, as part of our shared ownership model) IS project requests. We now use the model to determine the root cause of issues, or call to actions for change, to make sure we are applying the right solution to the right scenario. Systemising a bad process just gets to a bad result quicker, right? It is also the case that if people can’t work a system effectively, this might be seen as technology, when it is actually people or structure at play. “

The framework is complementary to a business-wide transformation program at Gallagher called ‘better ways of working’. 

“In this we are looking to make teams more autonomous, reduce handoffs, and increase critical thinking. This has been a key framework for that critical thinking (asking why for four possible reasons, not just one), and also for an increased focus on the people side,” adds Richardson. 

“There are several examples of where we have stopped large technology spends and focused on the people side to drive better outcomes, and a measurable improvement in sticking to capex budgets.  We have sometime made short term ‘two way door’ decisions on technology just to ensure we get the people and process learning before ‘setting things in stone’. It also makes it obvious which technology changes are ‘no brainers’ so adds to that confidence,” says Richardson. 

Why the culture of a business matters

Richardson says one the biggest career mistakes he made in his career was not leaving a dysfunctional business culture earlier, “thinking that I could ‘make things better’, and then heading for the exit anyways, seeing this as a failure.” 

“I have been very fortunate to work in amazing businesses, from an iconic New Zealand entrepreneur driven organisation, to two of the largest brands in the world. I had not given the power of culture much thought, until, unfortunately, working for an organisation that had many aspects of poor business culture, such as low psychological safety and toxic masculinity,” he adds.

What he learned is that if the culture fit is so jarring, you need to leave. 

“This experience led me to choose culture above all else, to find an organisation that has the right DNA on which to grow. It has got me to understand that trust and psychological safety are key foundations to high performing teams. It has led me to become a qualified coach, understanding human psychology, which has been especially useful in the last couple of years. It has led to an IS team that has aspects of neurodiversity in addition to a team that ‘looks much more like the country we live in’. And it has also led me to totally commit to an amazing leadership team, an ELT member first, and ‘IT person’ second.”