The Bystander Effect: Can BRMs Intervene?
Imagine this scenario. You are on a crowded subway, and you see a guy on his way to work getting hassled by some punk to hand over his wallet. No one on the subway car says a word. No one moves a muscle.
The more bystanders there are watching, the less likely anyone will intervene to help the victim. Psychologists call this the Bystander Effect—basically, everyone expects that someone else will do something to stop the situation, so no one does anything at all.
This scenario plays out in corporate enterprises as well. We all expect others to take action, especially if there are so many other people who could be responsible for a solution. After all, our resources are often simply stretched too thin to take on anyone else’s actions.
But if you don’t intervene, who will?
Your BRMs Can Intervene
Let’s take a step back and just consider the challenges IT leaders face in corporate enterprises. What are the common reasons why IT programs start going sideways in your organization?
Image source: Dan Kotrapu
Fortunately for the enterprise, your Business Relationship Managers can intervene—and fortunately for BRMs, intervention doesn’t have to be professionally life-threatening.
BRMs are accountable for building IT-business partnerships, and in challenging times, BRMs can intervene as objective, value-focused facilitators. Most of the time, all it takes is engaging in a conversation. What do you think happens after one person starts a conversation?
Your BRMs Can Get Others to Intervene, Too
One person talking usually leads to another person talking—and another, and yet another, and so on. This is one of the benefits of having a BRM capability in your organization.
Every CIO that I have ever worked with has one major flaw—they can only be in one place at a time. There is no possible way to orchestrate every single coalition needed in person. Every CIO tries to manage this in different ways, but there is only one way that is actually successful: business and IT leaders need to partner on their own.
You can garner support and engagement by having your BRMs begin the conversation. If you set things up correctly, your BRM capability will be self-sufficient, and the conversations with business and IT will happen naturally, without individual heroic efforts.
Every CIO that I have ever worked with has one major flaw——they can only be in one place at a time.
Your BRM Uses Influence, Not Authority
“But we already have a lot of blah-blah-blah conversations. They’re pointless without some authority! We need the CIO to mandate this.”
What happens when you only do what you’re forced to do? Distrust. Resentment. Resolution that only lasts as long as the authority exerts power.
I hear you. Believe me, I’ve had self-doubt and existential crises about this many times. However, I keep coming back to the realization that the conversation can only work when it happens without the oversight of authority.
With authority, CIOs and other executives have the power to control the outcome. This power imbalance challenges relationships—someone always gets to walk away from the conversation, leaving no room for trust, much less a strategic partnership. Here are a few examples of the old way of thinking:
“If you cut our budget, we’ll stop your IT projects.”
“I’m doing this IT project with or without you.”
What happens when you only do what you’re forced to do? Distrust. Resentment. Resolution that only lasts as long as the authority exerts power.
Beginning the Conversation
The BRM conversation must begin without authority. BRMs can frame conversations and structure dialogue to convert bystanders into enrolled stakeholders.
Looking back on the subway scenario, we know that there will be challenges along the way. There will always be bystanders, and we know that no one is any more responsible than the next to intervene.
Simultaneously, however, we have a great opportunity to change the way we address our challenges. Will you make the change?
Dan Kotrapu, BRMP® is based in the Washington, D.C. area. His professional experience includes building IT partnerships in Finance, HR, and Legal functions as a BRM for a large global enterprise, as well as IT program and project management. His background includes Big 4 consulting to commercial and federal organizations, corporate finance, and an early career as a litigation attorney.
