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Decision Making

Industry Articles

The Technology Decision Nobody Can Explain

Ask three executives who made the call on the last major technology investment, and the answers may not match. This article names the structural cause: an official decision process on the org chart running alongside a real, unofficial one that carries the actual authority, unmapped and unreconciled. It closes with what fixes it, mapping what actually happened and making four things explicit before redesigning anything.
Scott Smeester
August 25, 2026
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Why Layered Approval Fails Technology Leaders... And The Levers That Reverse It

Technology decisions often stall inside an approval chain nobody designed on purpose, even when ownership of the decision is completely clear. This article separates decision rights from approval architecture and names the specific levers, from collapsing redundant sign-offs to running independent reviews in parallel, that rebuild an approval chain for speed without lowering the organization's risk standard.
Scott Smeester
July 28, 2026
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Why CIOs Avoid Explicit Tradeoffs... And Why It Hurts Them

CIOs routinely omit the one piece of information executives need most: what is being given up to fund the ask. The executive room reads that omission as incomplete prioritization, and adjusts trust accordingly. The CIOs who declare the sacrifice ... and stand behind the call ... earn a kind of credibility that thorough analysis alone cannot produce.
Scott Smeester
March 2, 2026
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Leadership Blogs

How To Get Buy-in For Buying In A Hard Market

Hard markets and tight budgets don’t need to delay the spending you need now. Buy-in isn’t about the budget. It’s about the right decision. And that’s something you can lead.

Joe Woodruff

March 21, 2024

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What CEOs Need CIOs To Understand About Influence And Authority

CEOs want their CIOs to be of greater influence, especially where they don’t have decision making authority.. That means the CIOs need to invest and leverage three critical assets their CEOs have been utilizing for years.

Scott Smeester

February 29, 2024

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The One Dynamic CIOs Do Not Overlook In Strategic Implementation

It's not enough to form new habits to accomplish great plans.

Scott Smeester

January 4, 2024

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