The article How to Tap IT’s Hidden Potential by Amit Basu and Chip Jarnagin reprinted in the Wall Street Journal is getting lots of attention. It analyzes the rift between IT and Top Dogs.

The article has good points to make, but misses the key remedy: better leadership from the top.

These articles discuss IT and management as ‘we’ and ’them,’ prescribing that ‘we’ need to better collaborate with ‘them.’ It assumes a model in which management’s role is a passive ok’er of investments which then sits back and effectively says, “Go ahead, make my day…”

That kind of passivity leads to costly failures as IT carries the risk and is left guessing about how best to deliver value. Because they aren’t not effectively leading, Top Dogs don’t carry a deep understanding of what was decided, and because they aren’t sufficiently engaged, they don’t give themselves the chance to shape the business outcome for maximum punch.

Here’s how a Top Dog must lead:

1. Teach IT leadership how to analyze the business and its key challenges.
2. Make the needs of the strategy vivid.
3. Include IT in the strategy process.
4. Conduct the conversation in the language of business results.
5. Set up measurement to assess IT’s contribution to strategy.

Focusing on these points reduces the intensity of the ‘lost in translation’ problem, as the article calls it. Following these points get Top Dogs prescribing priorities and the key constraints IT must satisfy. IT now has a better top-down grasp of how to add value.

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