How CIOs and CTOs Are Bridging Cross-Functional Collaboration

IT's role continues to evolve and so do the everyday things CIOs and CTOs do. Order taking is out, cross-functional problem-solving and innovation are in. At the tip of the spear is IT leadership, building stronger and more collaborative relationships with other leaders in the organization. 

"Everything we do is in the service of the business, and I mean every function across the company. What I find interesting is that there aren't too many other functions within an organization that have the kind of vantage point that we have," says Saket Srivastava, chief information officer at work management platform Asana. "We work with everyone, so we see what their priorities are and what they are working on. We play that group that's connecting the dots and guiding behavior or change in behavior, because we can see things like no one else." 

Even without IT's involvement, work has become more collaborative for both social and technological reasons. Younger generations expect it and there are more channels than ever in which to communicate — email, Slack, Zoom, Asana, and more. 

"Employee experience used to be thought of as an HR thing, but you cannot build a delightful, frictionless digital experience without the CIO and CHRO," says Srivastava. "When I started in IT, there was a big conversation around how IT organizations need to be service oriented, which is still important, but we've been thinking more from a product-minded shift where we want to build a capability and workforce that has deeper domain understanding on the business side." 

Related:ITPro Today’s 2024 IT Priorities Report

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