Telecom & Technology Consulting
Here in 2026, every organization – no matter what they sell or provide – is essentially a technology organization. Efficiency, sales, and profits depend on the quality of software, systems, and the people who oversee them.
But in many cases, the IT department has become similar to the quarterback on the football team: They get all the credit when the team wins and all the blame for a loss. That’s not fair, of course, but perception is reality. If online sales drop for a few quarters, the folks who built the ecommerce engine must have screwed up.
Much of this viewpoint has to do with poor communication on the part of tech leaders. While generalizations are dangerous, it’s true that some CIOs aren’t necessarily the best at expressing themselves in lay terms. As such, others in the C-Suite can conveniently blame IT because they didn’t fully understand, say, the potential ramifications of the new technology implementation.
CIOs shouldn’t let them off the hook so easily. Saying you “didn’t understand” doesn’t work for a 16-year old who came home past their curfew, and the excuse certainly doesn’t work for corporate leaders whose jobs depend upon them understanding the who, what, where, when, why, and how of all initiatives – especially for projects that will directly impact the departments they run. Part of their job is to ask questions if something’s unclear, ambiguous, or lacks the amount of detail they require to…understand.
To this end – to avoid the blame game down the line – CIOs should remember to say what all good leaders spell out after they finish talking: “Does anyone have any questions?”
The communication issues don’t stop there. Blame also rears its head when other departments have different expectations in mind for a given project. For example, the COO might believe that purchasing new laptops for the staff will deliver a sizable and immediate ROI, only to get frustrated when metrics haven’t shifted after two months. She didn’t realize that ROI takes considerable time to manifest. Again, CIOs can get ahead of the blame-game curve by not only clarifying realistic expectations, but also by documenting them.
This isn’t meant to beat up on those in non-technical leadership roles. In most cases they’re holding legitimate opinions about IT based on their limited knowledge of the topic. After all, marketing and sales leaders don’t expect the CIO to have deep expertise in those topics.
But here’s yet another scenario where CIOs can proactively educate others to avoid blame: Enterprises tend to under-invest in technology when business is booming, but are baffled when lack of the right technology hurts them during tough periods. Leaders then point fingers at the IT department instead of asking, “What did we do wrong?” The answer: They didn’t realize that technology is an ongoing strategic investment rather than a band-aid to be used as-needed.
It’s a matter of them being educated on the root causes of a crisis, seeing below the surface to discover the true reasons for an outage, security breach, or performance issue. Non-tech executives, as we said before, possess limited knowledge of complex IT environments, and how projects are actually carried out.
CIOs should consistently communicate with other executives, reporting on the current state of the technology landscape: What’s working, what’s being considered, what needs fixing/updating, and how potential technical decisions carry specific consequences for the business.
Also be sure to explain the value of tradeoffs, as well as what may be lost when one initiative is swapped for another. This type of communication cuts blame off at the pass, as no one can be surprised – or claim ignorance – when something unfavorable occurs.
You not only protect yourself and the reputation of IT, in the process you improve overall enterprise efficiency. That’s something that no one will complain about.
