The MakingITclear® Newsletter

September, 2006

Volume 4, Number 6

In this issue:

1. New 20-Question Self-Test: How Much Magic Do You Have in Your IT Organization?

2. Featured Article: Achievement is Not the Absence of Failure
   You have to make things better for your business.

3. New Self-Study Course for Business and IT People

4. Quotes of the month

Self-Test: How Much Magic Do You Have in Your IT Organization?

There's a quotation from Arthur C. Clarke on the home page of my web site, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I use the quotation because I've learned from my own experience that when an Information Technology organization is regarded as magical by its business users then bad things start to happen. The IT organizations are expected to do things that aren't possible with the resource constraints they've been given; IT is blamed for things that are caused by the users themselves; and all of this happens because IT is so magical and misunderstood.

I've found that the secret to IT success is to get rid of the magic and have complete and honest communication between the business and the IT organization. Once the magic is removed and the communication starts, then you'll build the trust that you need.

Does your IT organization have a magic problem? I've recently developed a 20-question test to help you find out. You can take the test on my web site by clicking here. The test is confidential, so you can keep the test results to yourself. But if the test results show that you have too much magic, then please do something about it.

Featured Article

Achievement is not the absence of failure

There are some jobs where achievement is the absence – or maybe the avoidance – of failure. Driving a bus is one of those jobs; if you make it through the day without an accident, without hurting or annoying anyone, and without falling behind your schedule, then you’re successful. There are other jobs where carrying out your duties and avoiding failure is more of a challenge; defending an army outpost against an enemy is an example.

In the IT world, much of our success with IT infrastructure is measured this way. Systems and network availability is determined by the absence of failure. IT security is similarly measured by the lack of security breaches.

In some companies (a declining number) where IT is not a critical part of the company’s products or services, the IT organization is invisible. In those companies, in fact, you can say that IT is measured by its invisibility. If business people can do their jobs without an IT problem, then IT is successful. This kind of thinking is at the heart of Nicholas Carr’s May, 2003 Harvard Business Review article, “IT Doesn’t Matter.” Carr’s main point in the article is that IT is increasingly being judged by its reliability and cost – not by its breakthrough contributions to the business.

I won’t go into an argument against some of Carr’s thoughts here (for more on that subject, see my June, 2003 newsletter article). But I want to point out that even when overall IT success is judged by the absence of failure, the success of individuals within the IT organization is still judged by their unique contributions – not their absence of failure. If you’re personally responsible for IT infrastructure, then you’ll be personally measured by improvements in infrastructure reliability and cost – not merely by a continued level of constant reliability and cost. Senior managers and executives are expected to make things better: to achieve something. If things around you stay the way they are then you will be regarded as a failure even while your organization may be regarded as a success.

There is only one exception to this rule, and that’s the case of an organization continuing at the same level of reliability and cost in the face of a dramatic increase in the issues facing the organization. If you’re defending an army outpost and you continue to hold off the enemy while the attacking force doubles, then surely you must be a success, and it’s the same way in business. But there’s a catch: the people measuring you must recognize the increase in the attacking force. That’s more difficult than you might think, since many IT organizations are not well understood by the business itself. How does the business know that you're in a struggle to hold the line on reliability and cost in the face of an increasing number of problems? As an example, how many IT security management teams have been regarded as failures due to extraordinary increases in hacker attempts in the last few years?

The key to being recognized as an achiever is to clearly demonstrate your achievement, and to show that things are much better because you’re there and they would be much worse without your contribution. You have to prove your contribution to the business. And then when you’re done proving, go right back and prove some more, because you won’t be rewarded again for yesterday’s achievement.

Conclusion
Yes, in some jobs, achievement is the absence of failure. But if you want to be truly successful in life you have to do more. It’s not enough to avoid failure – you have to make things better.

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Harwell Thrasher is an author, speaker, and advisor specializing in the human side of Information Technology. Harwell's workshops and consulting show IT people and their non-IT customers how to work together more effectively by taking the magic out of IT. Call Harwell at (770) 331-6979, or see more on the web site at www.makingITclear.com.

Send comments or questions to newsletter@makingITclear.com.

New Self-Study Course for Business and IT People

I've recently released a new 17-lesson self-study course that teaches the 44 secrets of successful business IT. In the past, too many business IT courses have focused on teaching business users about computers. But that doesn’t make sense. Does driver training focus on the technology of driving: engine air-fuel mixtures and compression ratios? Do exercise classes focus on the technology of exercise: how muscle cells change in response to stress? Do cooking classes focus on the technology of cooking: how the molecules of food change when heat is applied? No, obviously not. Yet somehow people think that teaching IT is synonymous with teaching about computers.

My new self-study course explains business Information Technology issues the way that the subject ought to be explained: in business terms, at a high level, and without the complications of unnecessary technical gibberish. Information Technology organizations are made up of people – just like the rest of a business – and the people issues in IT contribute more to IT’s success or failure than the technology ever will. So this course focuses on people issues – not computers.

The course begins by taking you through a description of an IT organization the way the business ought to see it, using simple terms and analogies to explain what IT organizations do, and to explain the issues that IT organizations have to face. Then the course goes on to confront a number of common myths and misperceptions about IT, explaining the truth and giving you a perspective that will truly make IT clear.

During the course you'll learn 44 secrets – keys to really understanding business IT issues – and each secret will enlighten you a little more. By the end of the course, business people will have a new foundation on which to build a relationship with IT, and IT people will have a new way to communicate with business.

If you're interested in learning more about my new self-study course, click here. And if you think you already know everything there is to know about business IT, then please recommend this course to your business associates, especially your business customers. It will help them understand the issues that IT organizations face on a day-to-day basis, and their new understanding will make your job easier.

Quotes of the Month

In keeping with this month's topic, here are some appropriate quotations from the MakingITclear® collection. Use them in your presentations to emphasize critical points.


“Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one's levels of aspiration and expectation.”

Jack Nicklaus (1940 - ), My Story


“The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become.”

Harold Taylor


“It isn't the incompetent who destroy an organization. It is those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up.”

Charles Sorenson


“Remember, there are two benefits of failure: First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn't work. And second, the failure gives you an opportunity to try a new approach.”

Roger Van Oech


“....it is better to succeed with success than failure.”

George W. Bush Jan. 21, 2001, Inauguration speech