CIOs and the politics of technology

At just about any technology conference — be it a conference addressing social media, mobility, analytics and big data, cloud computing, security or any other topic — at least one keynoter is sure at some point to emphatically say something along the lines of, “Technology is the easy part; the hard part is politics.” 

I often hear people in IT say that things would go much more smoothly if not for politics. I’m sorry to have to tell you that this attitude is misinformed. In fact, one former CIO, H. James Dallas, who is also the author of Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change: Inspire the People and Succeed Where Others Fail, counsels that those who do not like politics should “get out of the game.” Politics is what effective CIOs do.

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