With a little reflection and foresight, it's possible for CIOs to avoid tension and acrimony by identifying strategic initiatives that require changes in traditional approaches to decision making. IT leaders can also identify decisions that could be made better and faster with more direction from above.

Consider the "pebble". Viewed from a decision-making perspective, the "pebble" was actually a large and imposing rock. It required a significant shift in decision authority from the operating units to the enterprise. Conflicts naturally arose since the operating units assumed that their authority had not changed, while those coordinating the initiative at the enterprise level assumed rights that they viewed as critical to getting their job done.

To avoid this problem, examine your strategic and operating plans with an eye toward understanding their impact on decision making across the organization. Next, require that those coordinating these initiatives include redefinition of decision rights as part of the program plan. Decision authorities are best defined by identifying key resolutions that need to be made and using frameworks to ensure that all parties understand their role and that it is clear to all who the ultimate decision makers are.

At the same time, some decisions made at lower levels of the organization take too long or are just plain wrong. A classic IT example involves the selection of standards. At lower levels of the organization, "out of standard" products creep in over time for reasons that are good in the micro but not in the macro.