Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

In my worlds, Republicans are people who think that IT is a “cost center” and Democrats are people who think that IT is a “strategic asset.” Depending on who has the majority in the C-suite greatly impacts my ability to impact change. You do not ask for additional budget when the “cost center” has the majority, and you don’t talk about server consolidation when the “strategic asset” group has control. This majority changes over time, so your approach must change as well.

The biggest challenge, and the biggest area where good political skills can make a difference, is when it comes to IT standards. Most CIOs I think would agree that the more standards in place, the higher the likelihood of success an IT team has. I argue that every time you make an exception to a standard, you increase your risk of failure dramatically. It is the outliers that tend to cause problems.

Yet to be successful politically in an organization, sometimes your “slices of pizza” become exceptions to a standard. It might be a business partner who wants to skip part of the process or wants a non-standard piece of hardware or software. Or, in some cases, it could be as big as a skunk-work project. No matter what, CIOs are forced to weigh the risks of compromising the standards versus the political fallout of not doing so.

It is a very tight line to walk, and in my opinion very few people do it well. Compromise too much, and you take on significant risk of systems outages, project failures (or delays) or team mutiny. Compromise too little, and you may find the business partners outsourcing IT projects to third parties or hiring their own IT teams.

So how do you strike the right balance of “bending” but not “breaking”? Here are a few of my suggestions:

• Decide upfront what is non-negotiable and make sure everyone knows what those items are. Communicate openly and honestly with your business partners and with your team.
• The number of “rule bending/breaking” incidents is more important than how far the rule is bent/broken. In my experience, you are more likely to die by death-of-a-thousand-cuts than you are from one major issue.
• Look at things from the perspective of both your current role and your career. As an example, compromising on an information security standard may have a long-term impact on your career (I’m not going to hire the guy who let “that” happen).
• There is plenty of grey to work with. Many IT people see the world as completely black or white. A CIO’s success depends on how well he or she uses the grey. If you do not make any exceptions at all, you will be ousted even if you are delivering solid results.
• More decisions are made on emotion than on logic or facts. Make sure you have strong personal relationships with your peers; it will take you a lot farther than being either “good” or “right.” Make it a priority to get out there and “shake hands and kiss babies.”
• Communicate well with your team when you bend/break a rule. (Something I need to do a better job at.) They will use rules and standards as their guard-rails to do their jobs. Changes may be seen as a violation of trust. Make sure you explain to the team what the exception is and why you chose to make it.

What do you think? Do I have a chance for a Senate seat? Any pizza chains out there that want to contribute to my campaign?

Leave a comment, or E-mail me at Todd.Michaud@FranchiseIT.org. You can also follow me on Twitter: @todd_michaud.

And don’t forget to follow my Ironman training progress at www.IronGeek.me. (This week I ran a 10K race and learned there are some REALLY big catfish out there.)