Speaking the Language of the Business

Think Tank - 2:25 pm - 2:50 pm

For many years the CIO, has struggled with the concept of IT-Business alignment and finding ways to ensure that the IT department and the Lines of Business with which it integrates have a common understanding and ability to communicate. Now, as the CISO and the information security department grow out of the IT shadow, they increasingly find themselves in the same position. Their challenge however is greater in that the concepts of IT security are in many ways more abstract than those of generalist IT, and their activities often run counter to the goals of the rest of the organization. CISOs must learn for the trials and tribulations of the CIO and the IT department, and find common ground with the business, to ensure they can hear what their partners are saying, while communicating their own points in understandable terms.

Takeaways:

IT-Business communications have long been strained and only now are improving across most organizations through concerted effort
IT has had to find ways to speak the language of the business " it was not the business that learned to speak IT
The CISO must adopt and emulate the successful communications practices and strategies of the IT department or risk serious relationship issues