Chaos to Clarity Part Deux : Enlisiting Support By Becoming a Humble Student
IT really has gotten a bad rap over the years for consisting
largely of antisocial engineer geek types with a penchant for pager
drama. While there is often a hint of truth in those stereotypes today's
blog focuses on how to create powerful relationships with those that you serve.
In order to create effective working relationships we are going to have to get
used to hearing the hard truth and losing our defensiveness. I call this
becoming a boundary-spanner.
Try this. Take a blank sheet of paper and list out the business units or
organizations that your IT team supports. Put names next to those
organizations. Who runs them? Put together a small list of
questions that will tell you how IT is helping and hurting them. Schedule
up two meetings per day until you have met with the entire list. Tell each
person you are meeting with that you are faced with the need to improve the
quality of IT operations but you wanted to hear from them so you could
determine what needed the most attention and in what order.
What you are after is to figure out two things. The first is to understand how
the particular line of business or organizational unit helps the overall
company achieve its goal. Secondly you need to understand if IT is
helping or hurting in pursuit of their goals. Write down everything these
folks tell you and try to avoid defending yourself. You are listening.
Why the tour of truth? No, I am not a masochist. It is very important to
hear the complaints and issues of the folks you support.
In my next
update I will tell you how we are going to use this information to build a
ground swell of support for IT process improvement.