2 Don't Just Listen Up
(Do Listen Down as Well)

Ignoring the executive board's wishes in the IT strategic-planning process clearly would be career suicide. CIOs report a variety of methods for making sure those wishes are reflected both in their plans and in the execution. At Nationwide Mutual Insurance in Columbus, Ohio, for example, CIO George McKinnon says every single IT project is sponsored by a senior vice president and business sponsor (and with $30 billion in revenue, Nationwide has "several hundred" IT projects going at one time). While the senior vice presidents don't micromanage these projects, they are aware of the budget requirements and reasons for each, which keeps the company's top leadership involved in the IT group's strategic planning.

However, Arnie Rind, CIO of staffing company Adecco's North American operations (based in Melville, N.Y.), has an important reminder about gathering other input: Don't forget the little people.

That's not only because they have good ideas - which they frequently do. "I often say that we in corporate say we know what's going on with the business, but the people in the field really know," says Rind. Line of business employees can offer honest feedback on what's working, what's failing and what's missing, and all that information can feed back to make stronger prioritization decisions in the strategic-planning process. Rind's plan is to conduct several internal focus groups as he rewrites Adecco NA's first IT strategic plan. And he plans to do it on a budget. "You can piggyback this - we've got a sales meeting coming up, let's get them advance questionnaires to get their wish lists and carve out some time at the meeting to talk about this," Rind says. An example of end user input that's already on Rind's radar: The "associates" (temps) whom Adecco places in work assignments used to get assignments by phone and checks by mail. "Now they need more than that - they need to get on the Net, see their next assignment, see their year-to-date [income] information, when the last check was mailed," says Rind.

Just as important as the actual feedback, though, is the message that inclusion sends throughout the company. Business employees get one of two messages from IT: either that IT listens or that it doesn't. Soliciting input from workers in various functions, and then using it in the planning process, communicates the former, Rind says. "The people running operations, payroll, whatever - we want to include these groups. We're not going to paint this picture strictly within IT," says Rind.