I was approached by an executive at a local manufacturing facility a fews days ago. He actually said the words “I have a dream” and proceeded to tell me how he dreamed of an Information Technology process that “just worked”.
For many years, I’ve been on a mission to educate business leaders around how executives view Information Technology and the people who manage it (like us and/or internal IT).
IT professionals get a bad rap for all kinds of things...
Executives feel like IT is just asking for money all the time and that “nothing ever comes of it.” Executives are trying so hard to manage the IT function, but find it very difficult to understand what the IT department “actually does.” Sometimes they tell me that the IT department supports hundreds of users, but at the same time say that the department “doesn’t get anything accomplished”…
These are common frustrations that, all too often, result in costly turnover of potentially good IT people.
Here is the crux of the situation: IT for a company of almost any size cannot be planned, managed, supported, and kept secure by one or two individuals who are probably not the right personality type for all-things-IT. Each area of the IT function requires a personality type and skill set that is different from the other. One or two guys cannot be all things to all people.
The good news is that with the right IT team and process, there’s a way for businesses to “do” Information Technology that gets the right results for executives, IT folks, and the users.
Someday I may get the opportunity to educate at a higher level, but for now, my quest is one business professional at a time!
