Book Review: FruITion

What’s the role of an IT manager or leader? I felt this is the fundamental question that is challenged in Chris Potts’s book fruITion, written creatively in a fiction format.

The hero is the CIO of a company who starts a two week journey of self re-discovery on the role of a CIO. The book both provides a business executive perspective on how IT can be more effective and struggles of an individual seeking to embrace feedback, opportunity to make an even greater difference, and struggle of stepping significantly out of one’s comfort zone to achieve it. Fiction format works extremely well, highlighting many of the main characters for those of us in Corporate IT, reminding us change management needs to consider many facets of an organization.

While the hero is a CIO, it could easily be about an enterprise or solution architect, a project manager, or even a data modeler. Through this journey the hero answers the universal question of “why am I here?” in an IT leadership role.

I won’t give away the answer completely but when I first read this book, it had a strong impact on me. It clarified the language I had sought to simply define my own role as an IT leader, people manager, and architect: I am here to help my organization make the best overall “investments”. This may mean different technology, project, budget, or organization structure decisions. Yet, by focusing on this fundamental question, which we can tie to why our organization exists, we can make the better decisions.

I like the book because it effectively mixes management philosophy with the inner struggle that go with change and difficult decisions. It is an easy read, over a few evenings, a shuttle flight, or few train rides, depending on your commute. I highly recommend it to IT professionals and management consultants alike.