The real challenge isn't execution. It's transformation.

Ahead of The Connected Worker Manufacturing Summit 2026, Avery Dennison Chief Information Officer Nicholas Colisto shares why leadership, not technology, is the defining factor in scaling impact across operations and why playing it safe is no longer a viable strategy.

 

The Early Signals That Playing It Safe Was No Longer Enough

For Nicholas Colisto, the shift began with a simple realization: operational excellence can create momentum, but it doesn't guarantee long-term impact. Looking back, he reflects on the early signals that revealed the need to move beyond stability and embrace transformation.

Nicholas Colisto: One of the earliest signals came before I joined Avery Dennison. Early in my CIO career, I had some strong operational wins. We improved reliability, modernized infrastructure, stabilized critical systems and built credibility with our business partners. Those were important accomplishments, and they created momentum.

But after a few years, I started to realize something important: operational excellence alone eventually stops differentiating you. Stability simply becomes expected. What the company begins looking for next is growth, innovation, speed, resilience and competitive advantage.

At the same time, the pace of external change was accelerating. Customer expectations were evolving, digital capabilities were reshaping industries, and new technologies were creating opportunities and risks much faster than organizations were prepared for.

I began noticing that the conversations with business leaders were shifting from, "Can IT execute reliably?" to "Can technology help us transform the business?" From "Can IT deliver?" to "Can we transform the business?"

Early success can shift leadership focus from driving change to protecting what's already working. Instead of pushing forward, organizations start:

• Optimizing for risk
• Preserving credibility
• Avoiding disruption

The result? Momentum is maintained, but transformation stalls.

That was the real turning point. Playing it safe might protect short-term relevance, but it rarely delivers lasting impact.

Making the Shift from Technology Operator to Business Leader

Success is no longer measured by technology alone. It's measured by the business impact it delivers.

Nicholas Colisto: It fundamentally changed how I viewed the role of CIO. I stopped thinking about the role primarily as leading technology operations and started thinking about it much more as leading business transformation.

Instead of focusing only on systems, infrastructure or delivery execution, I became much more intentional about connecting technology decisions directly to business outcomes. The conversation shifted from "What technology should we implement?" to "What organizational capabilities do we need to build to compete more effectively?"

It also changed how I approached influence. Early in a CIO's tenure, influence is often built through execution credibility. You earn trust by stabilizing operations, delivering projects and solving problems. But eventually, that is not enough.

I also became much more comfortable introducing constructive tension into conversations. Not for the sake of disruption, but because meaningful transformation usually requires leaders to challenge legacy thinking before circumstances force change upon the organization.

That mindset carried me into Avery Dennison. It shaped how I approached AI, digital transformation, modernization and leadership development within the IT organization. I became much more focused on creating a culture of curiosity, experimentation, continuous learning, and business partnership rather than simply optimizing operational efficiency alone.

Ultimately, I learned that long-term CIO impact does not come from protecting the status quo. It comes from helping the organization continuously evolve before it has no choice but to.

Balancing Innovation, Risk and Scale

Not every risk is worth taking. The challenge for senior leaders is knowing which opportunities will drive growth and which only add complexity.

Nicholas Colisto: I think one of the biggest mistakes organizations make is assuming that complexity automatically makes something strategic. It does not. Sometimes complexity is simply complexity.

For me, a genuinely strategic risk is one that meaningfully impacts the company's future competitiveness, resilience, growth or relevance. It changes the trajectory of the business if addressed well or creates long-term disadvantages if ignored. Those are the risks leaders need to lean into, even when they are uncomfortable or difficult.

On the other hand, there are risks that sound strategic because they are large, expensive or technically complicated, but they may not materially differentiate the business or improve outcomes. In those cases, leaders must be careful not to confuse scale with importance.

I also look at whether the risk creates optionality or paralysis. Strategic risks, when managed correctly, usually expand the organization's future opportunities. Non-strategic complexity often consumes enormous energy while producing very little transformational value.

Another test I use is whether avoiding the decision actually increases long-term risk. In many cases, the greater danger is not moving too fast. It is waiting too long while the market, customers, competitors or technology landscape evolves around you.

As CIOs, we are often asked to reduce risk. But part of leadership is recognizing which risks are necessary to remain competitive and relevant in the future.

When External Signals Challenge the Status Quo

Markets, customers, and technologies are constantly changing. To stay competitive, organizations need to spot these shifts early and respond quickly.

Nicholas Colisto: One example was the acceleration of AI adoption following the release of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Like many organizations, our initial instinct was caution. We immediately recognized the potential risks around data security, governance, intellectual property and misinformation.

The traditional enterprise response would have been slowing everything down until every policy, framework and approval process was fully mature. But what became clear very quickly through conversations with employees, partners, technology providers and industry peers was that experimentation was already happening whether companies formally approved it or not.

That was an important signal. The workforce was moving faster than traditional governance models. Employees were discovering productivity gains on their own. Partners were embedding AI into products and workflows. Competitors were beginning to communicate AI-enabled capabilities externally.

At that point, I realized the bigger risk was not responsible experimentation. The bigger risk was organizational paralysis.

So instead of taking a purely restrictive approach, we shifted toward controlled enablement. We created guardrails, established governance principles, focused on approved enterprise tools and encouraged disciplined experimentation tied to business value.

What I learned through that experience is that leadership in moments of disruption is often about balancing protection with progress. If you over-index protection, the organization falls behind. If you over-index on speed without discipline, you create unnecessary exposure. The real leadership challenge is building enough governance to move responsibly without slowing innovation to the point where momentum disappears.

Driving Outcome-Focused Thinking from the Frontline to the Boardroom

Successful transformation relies on people as much as technology and creating the right culture helps turn ideas into action.

Nicholas Colisto: One of the biggest shifts we made was moving conversations away from technology activities and toward business outcomes. Instead of celebrating the implementation itself, we started asking a different set of questions: What business problems are we solving? What friction are we removing? What measurable outcome are we improving?

That sounds simple, but it changes behavior significantly.

Within the IT organization, I've tried to create an environment where thoughtful experimentation is encouraged, especially when tied to learning or business value. I never wanted the culture to become one where people avoided ideas because they were afraid of failure. At the same time, I also believe innovation has to be disciplined. Experimentation without accountability becomes chaos.

One thing that helped was normalizing pilots and controlled experimentation. We encouraged teams to test ideas quickly, learn fast and scale what worked. That applied to AI, automation, factory technologies, digital workplace capabilities and even process redesign.

Across business teams, we worked hard to strengthen partnerships instead of acting like a centralized order-taking IT function. We wanted IT leaders sitting alongside operations, commercial, supply chain, HR and manufacturing leaders to understand the business deeply enough to challenge thinking and co-create solutions together.

Success is not defined by technology itself. It’s defined by how leaders: Create feedback loops, build trust, encourage experimentation and connect frontline insight into enterprise decisions.

Ultimately, encouraging smart risk-taking is really about building trust. People need to believe they will be supported when they pursue meaningful improvements responsibly, even if every initiative fails perfectly the first time.

With frontline workers specifically, one of the most important lessons was recognizing that innovation cannot just happen in conference rooms or corporate offices. Some of the best operational insights come directly from people closest to the work. Whether in factories, distribution environments or customer-facing operations, we tried to create stronger feedback loops between frontline employees and technology teams.

I also think visibility matters. When employees see leaders openly discussing lessons learned, acknowledging mistakes and adapting quickly, it gives others permission to think more boldly about themselves. Culture is often shaped less by what leaders say and more by what leaders consistently reward and reinforce.

The One Question Every Leader Should Be Asking

Senior technology leaders are increasingly expected to help shape business strategy, not just oversee operations.

Nicholas Colisto: I think one of the most important questions a CIO can ask is: "If IT disappeared from this initiative tomorrow, would the business strategy fundamentally change?"

If the answer is no, there is a good chance the organization still sees IT primarily as an execution function rather than a strategic partner. That question forces CIOs to think beyond uptime, project delivery and operational efficiency. Those things absolutely matter, but operational excellence alone rarely earns a lasting strategic voice.

Another version of the question I often reflect on personally is: "Are we helping the business run better, or are we helping the business become different and better?"

There is a big difference between optimizing existing processes and helping reshape how the company competes, serves customers, develops products or creates value.

For CIOs, shaping strategy requires spending time outside traditional IT boundaries. It means understanding customers, market pressures, manufacturing realities, workforce dynamics, competitive threats and emerging technologies deeply enough to connect dots that others may not yet see.

In many organizations, the CIO role evolved from operational stewardship. Today, the opportunity is much broader. The CIO can help shape how the enterprise adapts to disruption, scales innovation and builds long-term resilience. But that only happens when technology leaders consistently engage at the level of business capability, growth and transformation, not just systems and service delivery.

What Today's Manufacturing Leaders Must Rethink

• Stability is the baseline, not the benchmark.
• Execution builds trust, but strategy creates impact.
• Playing it safe protects performance, but limits transformation.
• Governance should enable progress, not slow it down.
• The future is shaped by those who act on signals early, not those who wait for certainty.
• The connected workforce is a leadership challenge before it's a technology one.

 

Why Connected Worker Conversations Matter More Than Ever

As manufacturers accelerate digital transformation, the Connected Worker Summit Series brings together leaders to explore how technology can better support frontline operations and workforce performance.

Nicholas Colisto: What drew me to The Connected Worker Exchange was that it focused on one of the most important and often overlooked areas of digital transformation: the intersection of people, operations and technology on the front lines of the business.

A lot of digital transformation conversations historically centered around enterprise systems, analytics or corporate productivity. Those things matter, but in manufacturing and industrial environments, some of the greatest opportunities exist closer to the factory floor, supply chain operations, field services and frontline decision-making.

What makes this moment especially important is that several technology shifts are converging at the same time. AI is becoming more accessible. Automation capabilities are accelerating. Real-time data is improving. Mobile technologies, IoT, computer vision and connected platforms are maturing. But technology alone is not transformation. The real question is how organizations empower workers with better information, better tools and better decision-making capabilities in real operational environments.

I also think there is a broader leadership conversation happening right now. Many organizations spent years digitizing processes. Now they are asking a more important question: how do we make work better, smarter, safer, faster and more human-centered at the same time?

That is where connected worker conversations become incredibly relevant.

What I was most looking forward to at the event was hearing how other leaders are navigating these challenges in practice, not just in theory. I always learn the most from candid conversations about what is working, where organizations are struggling, and how leaders are balancing innovation with operational realities.

I was also excited to share some of my own experiences around how CIOs and technology leaders can move beyond operational execution and play a larger role in enabling transformation across the enterprise. Events like this create space for leaders to exchange ideas openly, challenge assumptions, and learn from one another in ways that are difficult to replicate through reports or virtual meetings alone.

 

Continuing the Conversation at the Connected Worker Manufacturing Summit

Nicholas Colisto: What I'm most excited to discuss is the leadership shift required as technology becomes increasingly central to business strategy. Many CIOs have successfully built stable, reliable technology organizations, but operational excellence alone is no longer enough.

I'm looking forward to exploring how technology leaders can move beyond execution to become architects of business transformation, how to distinguish strategic risks from unnecessary complexity and how organizations can balance innovation with governance in an era defined by AI, automation and rapid change.

Most importantly, I'm excited to learn from and exchange ideas with peers facing similar challenges.

 

 

Connected Worker Manufacturing Summit

October 13 - 15, 2026
Westin North Shore, Chicago IL

The Connected Worker Manufacturing Summit is built for leaders who own or influence Connected Worker programs and frontline-focused digital transformation. It is designed for executives and practitioners across Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, IT/OT, and Digital Manufacturing who are responsible for digitizing frontline workflows, deploying connected worker platforms, and enabling safer, more productive, and more autonomous plant-floor operations.

Whether you're rolling out digital work instructions, scaling AI-guided support tools, modernizing MES and work execution systems, or building the infrastructure and change management required for enterprise-wide adoption, The Connected Worker Manufacturing Summit is built for you.

To learn more about who qualifies to attend, the full list of speakers and sessions and what makes the Summit so unique, access the event brochure.