Principles underpinning The Mindful CIO Manifesto

Diversity, Humanity and Sustainability

Everyone is unique and worthy of respect.  Actively preventing discrimination against any person enables them to being their whole self to work and to provide a high level of value.

Diversity of thought and identity add value not only to the team but also to the outcomes delivered by the team. Ensuring inclusivity is an essential aspect to manifest this value.

Sustainable development and delivery goals mitigate, and even resolve, social and economic inequalities.  Embracing sustainability helps protect our teams, partners, consumers and society from exploitation, and leaves behind a foundation future generations can build upon.

Healthy Culture

Promoting a psychologically safe environment that fosters wellbeing and ignites collaboration enables high performance.

Every individual has different boundaries, cultural influences and levels of assertiveness.  Aiding individuals to have input whilst ensuring a consistently sustainable work rhythm allows individuals to implement an optimal work/life balance and perform at their peak sustainable level.

Overtime has a significant impact on individuals beyond their work.  Ensuring overtime is reasonable, voluntary and well compensated reduces the negative impact on individuals and teams.

Burnout is prevalent in information industries. Providing a healthy environment, strategies and coping mechanisms can reduce perceived and actual pressure and reduce the likelihood of burnout occurring.

Human Skills over Technical Prowess

There are no “born leaders”.  Leadership skills are gained through training and experience and these need to be provided through career development opportunities supplied and supported by employers.

Relationships are vital, they contribute significantly to successful outcomes.  Empowering individuals and teams to master human, core, or soft skills equips them to develop better relationships.

Focus and Presence with People and Tasks

Information industries move rapidly and IT is no exception. It is easy to get lost in firefighting or drawn away by shiny object syndrome.  Focussing on critical, valuable outcomes reduces wasted effort and helps ensure individuals and teams see their work as valuable.

Avoid multitasking, refrain from being a distraction and guiding others to do the same leads to a reduction in context switching and the associated costs.

Presence is powerful. Giving undivided attention to self and others, increases productivity and helps build and maintain relationships.

We have the courage to identify the important things we will NOT do; reducing the size of the backlog and limiting work in progress to become more sustainable and productive.