More on Change

Some additional thoughts about change and Rule 4.

Change - necessary, good for the business but as Bill pointed out in his comment change can’t be indiscriminate it has to be thought through.

This weekend I celebrated my sister in law’s birthday – with a group of very intelligent, very articulate people working in and around the U.S. government. Aside from a great party - we talked about the challenges in working with government. We also talked about the challenges in dealing with all the levels of a large organization. Specifically – how do we deal with wide range of ability and need to deal with change.

We have people – frequently at the lower levels who are not interested in change. People who we rely on to get the daily reports out, to resolve issues with our systems, to change code in our primary systems and other routine jobs that have to get done to serve the business and maintain our service levels. We frequently don’t think about these people or the processes that they follow when making changes to our organizations or to our processes.

As a Sr. I.T. leader - it’s clearly difficult to think about the impact of an organization change on people who sit several layers below us in the organization. But in an organization that relies on process to operate key systems day after day – we have to think about those processes, those people and the impact.

More later.

Things to Love about IT

Justin James had a great list on Tech Republic's "10 things" blog on TechRepublic - "10 things that I love about I.T." This is a great list for I.T. Leaders. Do our people like the same things? Could they list 10 things that they like about working in our organizations?

Thanks to Justin - it's a great list.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=306

Change is good..

Rule 4 - Change is good - use it to the benefit of the business and your organization.

One of the issues that I have seen over the past 30 years is that companies and organizations that make up those companies are unwilling to change or reorganize to meet the changing needs of the market or the business. GE was the exception (in my career).

We, as managers and team members, must be constantly looking for ways to improve the business - directly (increasing revenue or decreasing cost) or indirectly (improving efficiency or doing new functions with the same $). That is very difficult to do if it's not built into the culture. The only time that it is done consistently is when the organization is under financial pressure and downsizing is used as a way to cut costs. That should not be the case.

We should be using change and reorganization as a means to improve the business, change a trend, reward our people, send a wake up message to others or move people out who cannot perform. The net is positive - it can be disconcerting to those who don't like change but I the overall effect is positive - especially if it becomes part of the culture (and not while downsizing).

Business and I.T.

Rule 4 - I.T. is part of the business (an important part) but if we are going to sit at the leadership table we need to understand the business, business environment and challenges. We also need to know what our peers (other leaders of the business) are doing and what they are reading.

The link is to PwC's CEO Survey - which given the breadth, from Global Warming to Technology - I found very interesting. This is something that I'll pass on to my friends, clients and peers.

http://www.pwc.com/extweb/home.nsf/docid/D4D7E2C6F0939E7A8525701A0007EE8B

Leading - the good and the bad

Rule 3 - (this part's not fun - but the results are often very beneficial) be prepared to make changes including moving people out of the business when an organization is not getting the job done. Net is while it's not fun the changes will improve the organization, be better for the business and better for many individuals in the effected group.

Moving people out who cannot (or will not) do the work should be straight forward - if done unemotionally. HR should be able to provide the process - take the time to understand it. It is also easier on everyone if your company provides a transition plan (pay for a few months, outplacement, etc) - if they do - use it. Those plans can be used to ease the transition for the person(s) involved.

Note: I agree that ~10% of every organization will be performing below standard. As a result you have an opportunity to replace those individuals with higher performing people - people that may a better cultural fit as well. Many times you have the opportunity in this case to improve morale - your people know these people are not performing.

Moving people out during downsizing can also be straight forward (10% rule). It only gets painful if it is a significant downsizing that involves putting a lot more work on the remaining people. This situation is problematic - more so if there is no opportunity to "simplify" your operation and processes.

Other changes - reorganizations - can provide real opportunities to reward your best people. The best organization that I've seen at this we GE (actually GE Capital). We regularly reorganized based on the changing needs of the business - I.T. included. Those changes provided opportunities for people that have delivered.

Taking the time to figure out an optimum organization will pay dividends. Organizational changes can improve an organization. Moving people out will be painfull (short term) but could significantly improve your organization if thought through.

Know where you are going.

Rule 2: Know where you (personally) are going and make sure that your key people also know where they are going.

When I was first starting my career - as an Analyst at GECC (General Electric Credit Corporation). My boss's boss made a point of having one-on-one's with everyone in his area. He asked me where I was going in my career (what I wanted to do) in a year, then 5 years, 10 years, 25 years and by the end of my career. I didn't know. He told me to think through it, write it down, and come back to him when I was done.

It took a while - but I finally came back to him with several pages of notes. We didn't really discuss the specifics but we did discuss a process - every time I had a career decision to make I had to open that notebook and look at what I had written. Did the decision at hand fit in the roadmap that I had created. If it did, great - if it didn't - was the roadmap wrong (needed revision) or was it right. Either way it made the decision making process easier (not easy). I've made mistakes - but for the right reasons.

I have (still have) a map, and I have a process. I've used that process throughout my career. I've put 10's of people who worked for me and those who I've mentored through it. It works.

In the beginning..

Any job that isn't fun isn't worth keeping!

I've met many I.T. professionals over the years who enjoy their jobs, enjoy their collegues and make an effort to keep it that way. I've met quite a few who can barely drag themselves through the day. A few of those are senior people, with many years of experience, who should know better - know that it's time to move on.

This blog is dedicated to finding ways to make the job fun.

I've been in Information Technology for longer than I care to admit (since 1979 - you do the math). During that time I've worked for company's that I liked (GE, ARINC, Lucent/Agere, Ames True Temper) and a few companies that I disliked (Black & Decker, USF&G). I've worked for myself (I like myself so I guess that qualifies as a company that I liked). I've had jobs that I disliked while working for companies that I liked.

I was fortunate to have friends / mentors who didn't counsel me to "hang in there" - they counselled me to move on when the situation was not right.

So my first rule is; if you are having fun - stay. If you are not having fun -figure out what you can do to make it better. If you can't make it better - move on.

This is true for you and it's true for the people who work for you. (It's also true for your friends and family)..