To CIO's Seeking "Buy-In:" Snap Out of It

The universal, chronic, and incurable complaint of CIO's?  That they can't get management "buy-in" for their IT initiatives.  The syndrome is as follows:   The CIO/CTO has a great idea for a new way to support a business function, they do diligent research and determine best-of-breed vendor, put the thumbscrews to pricing, create a compelling case for the business value of the new app, and it dies upon contact with the COO/CFO/CEO.  Next quarter, repeat.  And repeat.

The often contrarian Michael Schrage combines diagnosis and prescription in analyzing this long-running mutual consternation society:  "Dude, stop selling 'buy-in!'  Salesmanship is not your friend."

But without buy-in, where are we?  Aren't we still staring at a landscape of still-born tech initiatives?  Actually, there is an alternative.   CIO's (and their departments) need to stop thinking of themselves as "leaders" [stay with me on this one, folks] and become "enablers:"

"In other words, IT shouldn't be a change or transformation leader; it should be a change or transformation enabler. What's the essential difference? For the purpose of this column, leaders are those individuals most responsible and accountable for setting the right objectives and ensuring the right results. Enablers, by contrast, are those individuals most responsible and accountable for providing leaders with the tools, techniques and technologies for achieving those objectives and results. Enablers make effective leadership practical and probable."

The gem of wisdom at the core of this is simple:  It requires executive management to take control of, and responsibility for, digital initiatives—it requires them to be imaginative and creative about the uses of IT.  In other words, they sell themselves.