Sometimes the CIO has to say 'no' to the business
- IT TOPICS:Management
I know we're all supposed to be in "alignment" these days, which makes it hard to say anything but "yes" when the business wants to do something. But sometimes, let's face it, a business exec comes up with a half-baked idea or wants to jump on something he saw in an airline magazine. Or you may get an unrealistic deadline for a project.
What do you do? If that half-baked idea turns into a real IT project, or the rush-rush deadline gets cemented into place, it will be a disaster. Computerworld has published several articles over the years on this topic with some sage advice, which I've summarized and tweaked below:
- Ask: "Which specific business strategy does this [half-baked] idea fit?" Start talking about ROI. This may quiet things down considerably.
- Say: "Let's go together to the CEO with our arguments and see what he says." Ditto.
- Employ what Gopal Kapur, president of the Center for Project Management, calls "intelligent disobedience" -- the way a guide dog will prevent a blind person from stepping into traffic. You want to keep your business out of harm's way.
Another scenario when you ought to "just say no" is when the business wants to change or customize a system so much that the higher costs resulting from IT complexity will overwhelm the meager business benefits. That's something I'll be writing about in the next installment of Think Tank in Computerworld (Sept. 5).
Saying "no" to the business requires credibility: The CIO must have built up, over a long period of time, a reputation for understanding business realities, saying "yes" whenever possible, and delivering business value. But as Dave Berg, CIO at O.C. Tanner Co., puts it: "If you never say no, you must be a yes man -- and nobody likes a yes man."
----------
For more information on this topic:
"Just Say No": How to refuse ill-advised business requests and live to tell the tale."
Intelligent Disobedience, by Gopal Kapur
Project Management: IT Enemy No.1: Half-Baked Ideas
Invite Performers to Decline, from the Reforming Project Management blog
Free Insider Guide