Ahead of the marcus evans Australian CIO Summit 2023, Greg Cassis discusses how managing the impact of change can be more effective when the executive leadership, technical and operational teams are better aligned.

1. Interview with: Greg Cassis, CIO &
Program Director Service Moderni-
sation, Australian Financial Security
Authority
“CIOs spend most of their time discuss-
ing strategies, long-term objectives and
opportunities, with the C-suite, Board
and consultants, but that is not the
language their technical people use
every day. Their message often gets
lost, and they don’t get the buy-in they
are looking for. There must be better
alignment between the teams,” said
Greg Cassis, CIO & Program Director
Service Modernisation, Australian
Financial Security Authority.
Cassis is a speaker at the marcus
evans Australian CIO Summit 2023.
Why are CIOs struggling with
executive leadership and technical
execution alignment?
There is a gap between the CIO and the
technical team perspectives. CIOs spend
their time focused on high-level issues,
and they get caught up in that language
even when they are with their technical
people, who might have very operation-
al roles that aren’t directly linked to
organisational outcomes. Their messag-
es get lost because they are not
applicable. The changes or strategic
conversations don’t impact the technical
staff. It doesn’t make a difference to
their daily tasks.
When CIOs are wondering why their
teams aren’t buying into a strategy, it is
not necessarily that they don’t want to,
sometimes they simply do not under-
stand how it impacts them. They don’t
see the benefits of the change on their
work.
There is a gap there. The challenge is in
managing the difference in messaging
between highly technical roles that are
operationally focused versus the
management executive level.
Why does this gap persist? Is it
about communication or ineffective
change management?
It is partly about understanding that not
everyone needs to buy into the vision or
the dream. Some people just want to
deliver technically and understand only
what they need to know. CIOs need to
conduct stakeholder analysis around
what’s important to different groups of
people, and craft the message to make
it relevant for them. One message
cannot fit all. They cannot expect that
everyone’s expectations are aligned.
The messaging needs to be crafted
accordingly.
When CIOs are thinking about change
management, they should actually be
thinking about change impact manage-
ment. Managing the impact of a change
on people. Rather than why the change
is good, why now, we have to think
about its impact and how to manage it.
That is the same whether it is internal
or external. Sometimes IT departments
are the drivers of technical change, and
we’re not always good at understanding
how it will impact people internally and
externally. We need to get better at
that.
What trends or future should CIOs
prepare their organisations for?
Many CIOs are being asked for their
opinion on generative AI. Understanding
how to embrace new technologies,
apply them and extract value in a way
that doesn’t compromise security or
confidentiality is important. CIOs need
to be at the front, educating people on
what they are hearing about in the
media. People are learning about Chat
GPT outside of work, their children are
using them, so understanding how they
can be applied in the work context and
leading the messaging is important.
What risks should CIOs prepare for?
How can they safeguard their
organisation against evolving
threats?
The biggest risk for many organisations
is the risk where customers stop
trusting them with their money or
information. There are different reasons
why they might lose trust. We have
seen privacy and cybersecurity breach-
es. Sometimes it is just somebody
making a simple mistake, other times it
is a sophisticated group of cyber
criminals. But the impact from a
customer trust perspective is the same.
However, there is a big difference if
what is exposed is customer information
the organisation didn’t need to keep. It
is the leaking of that additional data
that makes the breach much bigger
than it needs to be. One way to reduce
risk is by limiting the personally identifi-
able information the company saves,
keeping just what is needed.
Any final words of advice?
Take the time to speak to as many
people in your technology division that
you can, not just your management
team, but outside of your division. Find
out what people really think and what is
going on.
Their
messages get
lost because
they are not
applicable
How CIOs Can Bridge the Gap Between
Executive Leadership and IT Teams

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