It's Called Leadership, Not Followship

I don't believe in consensus — rough or otherwise. I have little but contempt for management gurus and consultants who condescendingly declare that the customer — and the user — is always "right". That said, I've witnessed breathtakingly ill-considered systems implementations by IT shops that have allowed the problem at hand — or their budget — to be defined primarily on technical grounds. I've seen smart CIOs organizationally scalded by well-intentioned direct reports who let their accurate spreadsheet calculations overwhelm their common sense and common courtesy.

This happens for simple reasons: We interpret responsibility and accountability the wrong way. Remember how annoyed we get when HR unilaterally imposes policies that counterproductively constrain our people to do their best work in a timely manner. That's a microcosm of the frustration people feel when IT has unilaterally made seemingly minor systems changes that everyone now has to live and work with.

My senior IT manager should become a Dimon in the rough: Get those three groups in a room and make them accountable for what they need so that he can become accountable for delivering it. If they won't do their job, how on earth can he do his?

Michael Schrage is co-director of the MIT Media Lab's eMarkets Initiative. He can be reached at schrage@media.mit.edu