Dr Robina Chatham considers how to get the most out of your IT staff...
Many years ago, as an analyst programmer, I remember being taught to differentiate between 'customer' wants and needs. The latter were to be addressed, but the former were to receive a polite rejection. But as I have grown older and wiser, and thanks also to my training in psychology, I now understand that wants have an emotional element, and if they are not addressed they can lead to grumpy, dissatisfied and potentially adversarial customers.
Difficult dilemma
In my opinion, business people are great at dreaming up solutions to business problems, but these solutions are often flawed. IT people react to this in one of two ways: either they say that something can't be done, reinforcing the stereotype that IT people have a 'can't do' mentality; or they do their very best to comply, even if the request is ill-conceived - and when these solutions involve technology, they often are. Either way, IT ends up being seen as the 'bad guy' constraining the business, dictating what it can or can't have and delivering inappropriate solutions which waste time, resource and money.
So what should IT people do? I believe the solution lies in the development of two key skills: questioning to uncover and address the nub of the issue, and imagination to come up with alternative ways of addressing the real problem. And at the same time, giving customers a choice of solutions, thus enabling them to own the outcome rather than be told what it should be.
Alternative solution
So how does this work? I can best explain it by way of an example. In a past life, I was the CIO of a retail bank, and one day I was asked to extend our services to a 24/7 operation. This was neither practical nor feasible, but instead of rejecting the idea or giving an exorbitant cost estimate, I asked the business why it wanted to go for 24/7. My customer explained that we had been the first telephone bank, and that for a couple of years this had been our unique selling proposition (USP). However, many other banks had subsequently followed suit, and we now needed a new USP. Switching to a 24/7 operation was seen as providing this.
Encourage IT people to use their imaginations to come up with alternatives
I then asked my customer a number of questions to find out exactly what he was trying to achieve - i.e. if he wanted to offer a full service throughout the night, what volumes he anticipated, whether the data needed to be up-to-the-minute or whether it would matter if it was a few hours old, and so on. Armed with the answers to these questions, I was able to suggest an alternative solution: downloading the data at 6pm each evening onto a large PC and running a basic enquiry service overnight until the main systems came back online at 8am the following morning. My customer liked the idea of trialling such a quick and simple solution.
Over the subsequent three-month trial period, we monitored the volumes and types of activity. Equipped with this information, my customer made a somewhat different decision. He decided to offer the full banking service, but only between the hours of 7am and 9pm seven days a week. Managers would work shifts, allowing complex decisions on loans and so on to be made.
The trial, and the data collected from it, had enabled the business to make a wiser decision than was previously possible. We in IT had exceeded expectations and delighted our customer. I became the heroine of the hour rather than the villain of the piece.
Taking the initiative
So, ensure your IT people develop their listening skills and that they learn how to ask the 'right questions'. Encourage them to use their imaginations to come up with alternatives and to think 'out of the box'. You need your IT people to take the initiative and to have the courage and confidence to challenge accepted wisdom and authority. Remind them that it is better to seek forgiveness than to ask for permission!
Ensure that the organisational culture is supportive, that there is advocacy from the top, no blame or fear of failure, a clear and consistent message throughout and that open and candid conversations are encouraged. In essence, ensure your IT people become 'can do' people.
This article is adapted from Robina's fourth book, The Art of IT Management: Practical tools, techniques and people skills, published by the British Computer Society.
Dr Robina Chatham is the Programme Director for Cranfield IT and Digital Leadership Programme. This modular course, spread over three months, provides senior IT and digital personnel the skills and confidence needed to ensure they are effective in their roles. It helps them define and drive their digital agenda and shape future business direction. A personal development element gives participants impact and influence at board level.
When leading within the IT space it's important to ensure your team develop the right attitude and ask the right questions, to support organisational change and advancement. Let us help you support your staff become 'can do' people.
