Always Know "Why"

I had the pleasure of having a conversation with the CIO of a leading fortune 500 company at a recent LEGG event. I was immediately struck by his attitude and philosphy toward leading his organization. When I asked him what his biggest challange is he said "getting business engagement and the expectation from the business that IT can fix their problems". He told me that he coaches his team to "always know why". It's the responsibility of the business to determine the best solution to their problem, it's the resposibility of IT to design technology that automates and facilitates executing that solution. He teaches his team to keep asking questions of the business until they have the solution. IT should feel comfortable drawing the line in the sand between the business's role and IT's role on a project.