Directors' Cut: IT and office politics

You will no doubt be familiar with one of the IT director's most frequent and biggest gripes, namely "management by magazine".

An internal envelope arrives from the chief executive or finance director with a cutting/article from a newspaper/management journal. Scrawled across the top are comments like: "What are we doing on this?" or worse still: "Just bringing this to your attention."

Management by email is worse - the same message, copied to the top power players in the organisation (and sometimes everyone else), are even more infuriating and time consuming because a response is required.

As if IT leaders are unaware of the big issues, or don't already have enough to read. Also, too many of these 'helpful' communications are only made for political gain - the "Look at me, aren't I clever?" syndrome.

Such approaches must be treated carefully, and with far more respect than they deserve. Reacting negatively causes problems in itself, and puts you on the defensive, while a polite "thank you" saying this is already in hand may commit you and your resources to a low priority area.

There is a third route and it has the additional benefit of reversing the pressure and putting you at the heart of your company's thinking. It is also a genuine way of drawing your board's attention to the need for IT and ecommerce investment.

Start sending cuttings/emails and Web downloads to your CEO and other directors. Make them more paranoid than they already are - about your competitors and what they are up to, about the new, young and hungry competition that is emerging all the time. Encourage them to make fast decisions, and take decisive action to drive your company forward.

There are three levels you can take, depending on the response you desire. At a basic level, send a relevant clipping about a competitor in the internal mail. Write on it: "Thought you would find this of interest, we can easily do better - let's discuss ASAP."

The next level is to send an email to the CEO/FD copying the whole board. Highlight a new dot-com that will be a threat to you, and add one paragraph about how you can utilise the inherent resources you already have to "squash them before they get started".

Finally, for those serious political players who really want to make a difference, send a private email just to your CEO, saying: "There are industry developments which represent a serious and direct threat to the future of the organisation. These are so urgent they require face-to-face discussion and speedy action. Please call me at your earliest opportunity." On this one, you will need to have a clear understanding of the new and existing threats out there, with clear plans for how to overcome them.

Many people reading this will condemn my suggestions for playing office politics. But what is office politics? To me it is simply communicating with other people. Everyone sees the world differently, so everyone has their own personal "agendas". Politics is played by everyone in every walk of life.

Your approach in this specific area will largely depend on your relationships, existing influence and desired outcome. If you are already at the centre of board level decisions, you will not have to pursue this route. However, many IT directors are not taken seriously by their organisations at the highest levels. This route of action will ensure the door to the CEO opens. It will then be up to you to walk through, and make sure it never closes again.

** David Taylor is the former head of IT business services at Cornhill Insurance and now president of the UK IT directors' association, Certus. He is also CEO of IT Turnaround (http://www.dtaltd.co.uk )