Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives
Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.
Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices
Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.
Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices
This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »April 01, 2004 — CIO —
Politics is a term with a bad smell. For most people, it conjures up images of shady backroom deals and conniving people who push through their own agendas, usually at the expense of others. But if politics is a dirty word, then roll up your sleeves. Political skills are essential for every CIO. And you don’t have to sell your soul to master them.
"Any time you get three people together, you’ve got politics. It’s a reality of human relations," says Doug Barker, CEO of Barker & Scott Consulting and former CIO of The Nature Conservancy. "It means you have stakeholders who have a vested interest in the outcome. You need to recognize those vested interests and move toward situations that can create win-wins."
Not every politically charged situation will be fraught with peril and deceit. "People take politics in a bad context, but it’s not always bad," says AndrŽ Spatz, CIO of Unicef. "It’s part of the process of making and influencing decisions."
Political skills such as identifying stakeholders, managing relationships and communicating well are critical for IT leaders. Yet they’re hardly unique to the CIO role. "The higher up you report in your organization, the more important it is to be sensitive and savvy to the dynamics of your organization," says Judi Zito, CIO of Miami-Dade County in Florida.
Whatever your reaction to thinking of yourself as a politician, it’s just business as usual in most cases, says Bill Hagerup, a senior consultant with Ouellette & Associates Consulting. "Like it or not, we are all in conflict for the scarce resources available to the organization," he says. "Politics is the most common way of resolving organizational conflicts." In that sense, politics is preferable to raw displays of power?especially if you’re at a power disadvantage.
So what does it take for a CIO to successfully navigate the political twists and snares that develop in any organization? In the spirit of the current presidential campaigns, we present some tips. While organizational politics isn’t quite as dramatic, CIOs can draw on the strategic and tactical mind-sets of the vote-mongering variety of candidate.
Understand your constituency. Quite simply, know whom you’re dealing with and how they fit into the organization. "You need to develop an understanding of who the key players are and thoughtfully consider their motives, goals, perspectives, relationships with one another and their relationships with IT," says Barker. "Once you’ve done that, you’re in a position to more successfully wade through politically charged situations."