Making It Clear

If you're an executive or a future manager, this book is for you. 

The author worked at all levels of IT for over 30 years. Then he started his own company to solve communication problems between business and IT organizations. He created a newsletter about his experiences, and the 156 essays in this book are the result. 

Business is complex. IT is complicated. These essays cut through the complexity and make it clear. Here are just a few of the topics covered in this book: 

3 things required to get someone to change; 10 laws of human organizational behavior; 18 things I believe about business; dealing with disagreement; how to listen; handling complaints and complainers; coping with grief 

Why people want to be a manager, and 13 skills you'll need; 7 biggest challenges of a manager; why middle managers are important; how and who to hire; a manager's biggest burden; stories of management failure and success; 8 ways to deal with employee personal problems; 8 attributes of an ideal boss; 3 ways to deal with a bad boss 

15 career mistakes; success versus happiness; job versus passion; finding the truth; the importance of trust; how to prevent a crisis; 4 stages of learning 

Only 2 reasons for strategy; what a good strategy looks like; how to make it successful How to create wildly successful projects and reduce their risk; why ROI doesn't work and how to fix it; how to stop runaway projects; 2 questions to ask after a project 

Why companies do acquisitions; avoiding technology surprises in M how to do technology due diligence; how to tell when people are lying 

18 CIO secrets for IT effectiveness; a hierarchy of business IT needs; 7 ways IT can improve your business; 5 approaches to software strategy; how to organize IT; reducing business IT expense; aligning IT with business direction; best practices in IT governance; handling "shadow IT;" taking the "magic" out of IT; justifying security investment; how to succeed and fail as a CIO; buying an IT product; how to become a CIO; how to sell to a CIO