Aug
30
2010
In IT you need to hire people that can solve problems. Technology changes too fast for anything else to matter. Don’t hire to the past. You need to implement simple, elegant solutions. If your people cannot think on their feet and find creative solutions to problems, their so-called credentials won’t mean a thing.
Jun
28
2010
Much of the misunderstanding about IT comes from not knowing how to properly work with IT. Your IT department is tasked with protecting the store and keeping a lid on security. This can sometimes put a damper on innovation. The dichotomy of the situation is that your IT would like to be at the forefront of innovation, but must exert control at the same time.
So how do you work within this paradigm? Most business units do not know how to properly work an initiative through IT. Frequently, IT is viewed as a problem instead of an asset. It is imperative to smooth the workings between IT and the rest of the business.
In this regard, IT can help. It is helpful to set up proper relationship management so that the business remains fully integrated in the process. It should go without saying, but must, however be said, that there must be buy in from both sides.
IT should embed relationship managers in the other aspects of the business, to help them walk through the process of working with IT. The relationship manager also becomes an advocate for both the project and the division sponsoring the work.
May
22
2010
Have you considered having a third eye? Can you step back from yourself and your shop and see it with a fresh view? Perhaps it is time to get another independent opinion that you can trust.
In the race to keep your tech shop in order, you are juggling many priorities, fighting fires, reacting to crises, and trying to keep the business happy. Your running a shop while trying to be the business. It may be time to bring in someone that can give you a new view of your shop that you can’t get on your own. I am not talking about the studies done by the big boys and girls, but a real down to earth assessment and a pathway and partnership to a new paradigm.
You need a partner that can give you that independent view, cut through the veil and help you realign your priorities. Are you outsourcing? How’s that going for you? Is it working as you planned? Are they really your partner in success? Or did you do it to solve a problem that could of been done by your own people. How are your people reacting to this relationship? Has it really increased productivity?
Have you looked at the cloud? Does the security scare you? Does your present arrangement have the security you think it does? Could moving it outside actually increase security? Have you reviewed your disaster recovery? Has it ever been tested?
Are your star performers getting burned out while others slack off? Will your stars abandon ship as soon as the economy recovers? What will you do when your brain trust walks out the door?
These are all important questions and certainly not a comprehensive list. However, do you have the ability to review, change, implement and continue to evolve your world. Or are you still pouring water on those fires? A downturn is the prime time to work differently. Now would be a good time to get that third eye. This can be done by building up and not necessary tearing down. Let’s sit down and talk.
May
14
2010
Can we move corporate America from the old world into the future? We need to solve very technical and business problems and make the Executive Floor look great. I, like many, am passionate about technology and how it works. However, we need to always keep in mind the synergy with the company itself, and its goals. Bringing a unique and independent perspective is vital. Being able to simultaneously see the 10 foot and 35,000 foot view of your IT is also required. You need to know how it affects your business and how to better your bottom line.
Not an easy task. Frequently, the tech executive is forced into a reactive mode and cannot break loose to move the department forward. Those in the trenches no longer feel they are being heard. The line managers are juggling so many balls in the air at once, that there is no time to look at the bigger picture. Process takes over and progress suffers. Does this sound like your environment?
Sometimes it is easy to see the connection. Often they are in conflict. It is important to find a way to get an independent view. Traditionally, many companies hire the ‘big guys’ to get their assessment. They are left with ‘the book’, which then collects dust, the workers feel they are not heard, the line managers are still juggling processes and the executive is reacting to everything.
I would suggest a more holistic approach that looks at what is working and what isn’t. In addition, the people that do the work day to day get interviewed, the managers say their piece. The interactions with the business get a comprehensive assessment and a plan of action is created, then managed and implemented in conjunction with the executives.
We Fix IT Departmens
Tags: business, CIO, cloud computing, consulting, ethics, IT choreographer, Management, personal, policies, process, progress, turnaround | 
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Comments (0) Mar
17
2010
Why are companies looking at your Facebook and other social media when making hiring decisions? Why can’t we have both personal and business lives online? Do they belong in our personal space? Can they continue to monitor our online lives after we are hired? If we are helping make the company profitable and ethically doing our job, why is it any of their business?
I would like to comment on social media and job seekers. It is unfortunate that companies are trolling through personal websites, blogs, Facebook, etc. Frankly, I think this is unethical. They should concentrate on the job at hand and if the the person can do it.
Several years ago, a young person could do something stupid (as I am sure many of us did), get past it, and then it went away. Most have done this and become productive adults. Nowadays, people, especially the young, put their whole life out on the web through various social media venues. I think that companies really have no business looking at this stuff as part of the job selection process. It is not pertinent to the job. Since they won’t tell you that they looked at your stuff and will not tell you why you were not hired, you will never know the real reason. In addition, many HR departments in big companies continue to monitor you after you are hired. Don’t they have real work to do? Without much discussion, it has become a common practice.
As I said, I think that this really is an ethics problem on the part of businesses that participate in these practices. There should be a line between personal and business. And the business has no ‘business’ in your personal life. Since I am looking for work, I am extremely careful on what I put out on the various social media that I participate in. I am on LinkedIn, Twitter and have a blog. With businesses looking at my digital footprint, I have not been able to put my opinion out on political, social and other sites and blogs.
Corporations really need to take a different angle on this and allow their employees a separate personal life. In the long run they will have more productive employees and make more money. One of the nice things that I think the younger workers will bring to business is that businesses need to stay out of the personal social media of their workers. This will be evolutionary; I look forward to the change.
Mar
11
2010
I have worked with and visited many IT shops. In today’s busy times, it is common that the IT executives never really sit down with their staff anymore. They think they know what is going on, but frequently have no idea. More often then not, they rely on reports and dashboards from their immediate reports and do not communicate with the worker bees that do the day to day work that keeps the shop running.
Talk to your workers; these are the folks that really know what’s going on. Give them an opening; being techies, they will not hesitate to tell you. You as a leader need to know what is really going on down there – not what you think is going on down there.
Frequently we impose standards, processes, certifications, etc. Then we reward people for doing these things. Is anything really getting done? Or are you just possessing ‘good process’. I personally prefer progress over process. While a certain level of standards are needed, we need to learn not to be wedded to these. Too often the process takes over and we have perfectly documented processes and systems that don’t work. Does this really serve the business?
In IT we have built ourselves nice boxes of certifications, structures, with rewards for the same. But are we building good hardware and software systems? Does it make the business money? Get down from the mountaintop. Visit with your people and get a direct line on what is really going on in the trenches. Guard against becoming too dogmatic in your practices. Don’t be afraid to improvise and throw out what isn’t working. You will find that you will have a bit more progress and a lot less process. But the stuff will work and your workforce will carry a lot more pride and accomplishment.
Tags: CIO, dashboards, IT, Management, process, progress, reorganize, techies, turnaround, workers |
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Comments (0) Feb
10
2010
I am an IT Choreographer. I am the person you want to get IT done. I am especially adept at facilitating the communications between technical and non-technical stakeholders and can get them communicating. I have successfully turned around departments, and difficult programs and projects. I can manage both consultants and employees simultaneously and integrate your systems with the cloud. I am able to bring a new perspective that allows for a successful conclusion where it was missing before.
I am looking for two types of opportunities:
- Connect and work with a consulting group or company to bring turnaround, interim CIO services and success to there clients while leading the initiative.
- IT Director in a small or medium-sized company or division. Especially companies that are at the point where they need leadership of their IT.
Jan
16
2010
I am still amazed on how often I find businesses, especially small ones find themselves in the untenable position of having their systems crash with no viable backup. A case in point, a few years ago, I came into a shop of a reputable business. I was asked to do an assessment of their current systems. One of the things that I checked was the disaster recovery setup. To my amazement, I found that they has been doing incremental backups only for the last 2 years? The backups had been set up by an outside vendor 2 years before and no one had ever re-examined the way it worked. The operator diligently put a new tape in every night and then sent it to offsite the next day.
Fortunately for the company, the systems had not crashed during that time. Of course, the first thing I had them do was stop everything and do a complete backup of everything. We were able to implement a true disaster recovery system and they are now operating in that much improved mode.
You cannot rely on being this lucky. Do you run periodic disaster recovery drills? Do you rely on an outside agency to take care of it for you? Do you know where your data is and where you can recover it? Do you have contracts in place to cover this? How fast can you come back up to working order?
You would be amazed by how many do not have policies in place. This is especially true in smaller businesses. They do not have the resources to maintain redundant systems like the big guys. Many times, they are running their business off of their laptops. Frequently, they keep saying that they know that they should back it up, but don’t have or take the time. Disaster recovery is not just for large shops. What would you do if your system crashed and everything relied on was on one computer? Think what this would do to your business.
Time to change. Time to set up and test your disaster recovery.
Dec
26
2009
Repeatedly, we here from industry leaders, media pundits, and so called hiring experts, that there is a shortage of talent and that “they just can’t find the right person”. This has been repeated so many times, that many are starting to believe it. It is a self fulfilling prophecy.
I meet talented people all of the time through my networking in person and through social media. Many of these talented people are actively looking for work. So why are they looking and the companies hiring claiming that there is no body out there? Because, this is an artificial shortage.
There is a large mismatch between what companies are hiring for and what they actually need. Caught up in the employment machine that calls for perfect matches to all qualifications, they are repeatedly disappointed. Resumes flood in to ridiculous requirements while hiring managers go wanting for talent. Yet, time and again, this system is utilized and the same mistakes are repeated. Do you see that there is a problem with the present way of doing things?
It is time to take a breath and reflect on what is really needed for your company, department, etc. to succeed. What you need is talented people that can take you into the future, not those that only have requirements from the past. You must reassess how you are hiring and not blame it on a talent shortage. It is time to change the way you are doing this.
We are out here. Your company will make money with our talents. Try another path and you will find there is no talent shortage, just an enlightened hiring shortage.
Dec
8
2009
Many companies tout the fact that their CEO came from another industry. They even peruse them for that very reason. Often, they see things from a different perspective and turn the company around. Ford is an example of this.
However, they don’t carry this to their workers. Seems short sighted – it works for the top. Just like the military prepare for the last war, companies hire to the past. Or phrased differently – forward into the past.
No job stays static. You need problem solvers and managers that can train new workers. Hopefully, this changes soon and hiring managers see the light, so we can maintain our competitive edge.
IT Choreographer- Hire to Solve Problems
- How Does Your Business Talk to and Work with IT?
- You Need A Third Eye
- Fixing Your IT Department
- Why Can’t We Have Both Personal and Business Lives Online?
- Do You Know What is Going on Down on the IT Floor?
- Looking For Opportunities
- When is the Last Time You Backed It Up?
- A Talent Shortage?
- It Works at the Top – Let’s Stay Competative