Gartner Research

Earn the Right to Say No to Stakeholders or Fail to Deliver Strategic Outcomes

Published: 01 May 2023

Summary

IT leaders are inundated with stakeholder demands across the democratized organization. Trying to satisfy them all only leads to failure in strategic outcome delivery. Therefore, IT leaders must earn the right to say no to requests that create divergence between digital and business strategies.

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Overview

Key Findings
  • IT leaders often struggle to align digital and business strategies because they fail to reject incoming initiative requests that are unrelated to organizational priorities.

  • IT leaders fear rejecting initiative requests because of the political risk associated with upsetting stakeholders who may respond negatively.

  • IT teams do not feel empowered to reject stakeholder demands because they do not have the right resources to push back.

Recommendations

IT leaders responsible for digital business strategy and plans must:

  • Earn the right to say no by using business architecture concepts to provide a foundation of evidence for rejecting initiative requests or providing alternatives.

  • Master

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