I read with great interest Eric’s post of January 31, 2012 entitled Do things when you should … not when you have to. I agree with what he wrote, and it really got me going about something I’ve been mulling over in my head for several weeks: An educated and knowledgeable client is better than an ignorant one – especially if you want to help them do things at the right time.

I have a day job, but I do consult with small businesses and nonprofits on a regular basis. When I started consulting, I would do most of the work and not show anyone how to do for themselves or why I did what I did.

While I understand some clients want and need someone to just do for them, I found I really liked teaching, and those to whom I took the time to explain things responded quite well. After consulting gigs where I taught the client in more of a mentoring-like setting, I found the experience exhilarating. Teaching allowed me to have a positive impact in someone else’s efforts by giving them confidence they could maneuver around marketing technologies.

Even better, those people now had the knowledge to make better and informed decisions about strategy and tactics in their online efforts. This actually makes my work a lot easier.

Recently, I was helping the owners of a restaurant in a touristy part of Texas. They wanted to get some social media going, but had no idea where to start. For our first meeting, I put together a presentation which introduced concepts and gave suggestions on where to begin their efforts. After they digested the information and were ready to proceed, we met again. This time, I sat behind them at their computer as we walked through setting up accounts on social sites, claimed their name and location on those sites and even set up “check in” discounts.

While I know it may have been overwhelming at first, they soon got the idea and by the end of the afternoon they were claiming their spaces and setting up deals without much input from me. We’ll need to meet again to go over more advanced concepts, but I knew I did well when they emailed me the next day with the great news that several customers had already checked in and took advantage of their 10% off deals. That gave me (and I’m sure them, too) a great sense of accomplishment.

By taking a teaching/mentoring approach, my clients have become smarter. They have the confidence to move forward, to work online for their business as well as they do offline. They are learning how to “adapt and overcome” to the constant change of the online landscape.

To get back to Eric’s idea: How do we get clients to do things when they should rather than when they have to? We teach them. If we’re going to expect our clients to make those timely decisions, we have to equip them to do so. We have to give them the background knowledge to be able to look at what’s going on around them and be able to ask the smart questions. We have to develop trust with them and establish that we are the experts in whatever field we consult on – and if we can do that before the first time the client calls, all the better.

“How do I do that?” you may be asking yourself. Here’s your tip on doing something when you should: If you just asked yourself that question, then follow Eric’s (and my) lead, start a web site and start sharing some of your knowledge. Go! Do it now! If you want some advice on how to do it, ask in the comments and I’ll show you where you can get information to get going. Read the post I linked to in the preceding paragraph and see how someone else established credibility in their field to the betterment of their business.

As you take on the role of coach/mentor/teacher, both you and your clients will benefit.

Elmer Boutin is a Marketing Technologist and has worked in web marketing for almost 15 years. His first experience was as a free-lancer doing web sites for local businesses such as car dealerships and an art gallery. Later, he ran an online rental property referral web site aimed at assisting military people find homes before they moved. He’s currently Webmaster at a Texas-based decorative surfaces manufacturer. You can read more articles by Elmer at http://www.crossingmarketingandit.com.

Image Credit: education By Sean MacEntee on flickr

In one of the first few chapters, Dr. Kahneman describes the “invisible gorilla test” popularized by psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. The test consists of a team of 3 people dressed in black and a team of 3 people dressed in white passing a basketball to their teammates.

Watch for yourself…and really really focus on counting the passes between the white-shirts. (If you are reading this via RSS and don’t see a video, please click here to view it).

Did you get the number of passes correct? How about the gorilla…did you see the gorilla the first time?

Whether you saw the gorilla while watching the video or not…research shows that about half of the people that watch this video and focus on counting passes, do not see the gorilla. Pretty amazing huh? Half the people don’t see a gorrilla walk through the scene, pound its chest, turn and look at the camera, then stroll off.  Half the people.

From this test (and many other tests by other psychologists), we’ve learned that its very easy for us mere humans to get deceived, to miss things and/or just not pay attention that well. The ‘invisible gorilla’ phenomenon isn’t just some theoretical phenomena…Its something that happens in the real world every day. It happens to me and to you everyday.

The invisible gorilla shows up in many workplaces too.  With so many people and organizations focused on “doing more with less” (or whatever other buzzworthy terms you want to use here), we tend to miss some of the very important details that might change our outlook and approach towards those things we are so focused on.

Take a step back in your job/life and look for that invisible gorilla.  Maybe your gorilla won’t be as easy to see as the one in the video above…but i bet there’s one there…if you look hard enough.

PS: If you want to learn more about The Invisible Gorilla phenomenon, Simons and Chabris have written many papers on the subject and have even released a book titled The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us (amazon affiliate link). 

Image Credit: Gorilla By Kris Elshout on flickr

In the article, Dave describes what he calls ‘order takers’ and ‘solution creators’. The order taker does a good job of working with clients to deliver a widget but does very little to ensure that the widget actually will solve the clients’ long term problems.  Nothing wrong with order takers mind you…they can be very reliable and in some instances, order takers are perfect.

But other times, its better to be a solution maker/creator. In his article, Dave describes the solution creator as:

 They’re idea people, they’re results people–not just for themselves but for the customer.  They help their customers envision a new future.  They help their customers think about their business differently.  They help their customer change and improve.

Emphasis mine.

He also writes:

When they engage the customer they talk about what the customer is trying to achieve.  They don’t spend a lot of time on what their solution does, it’s features or capabilities.  They know it’s not about the product but what the customer is trying to achieve.  Instead they focus on outcomes and results the customer will achieve.  They quantify these results, so the customer can clearly understand the impact it will have on their business.

Emphasis mine.

Historically, the IT group has been an order taker. They have existed to do what they are asked to do…and for the most part, we’ve been good at being order takers.

Need a new server? Check….that’ll be $$$.

Need a new application?  Check…that’ll be $$$$.

Need your email backed up?  Check…that’ll be $.

In recent years, some organizations have begun trying to transform the IT group into something more than an order taker.  Some CIO’s and IT groups have even taken the initiative to try to transform themselves into something more than order takers.

Some have been successful. Many haven’t.  Most that have succeeded in this transformation have understood that the status quo will not work going forward. The IT of yesterday will not work for the organization of tomorrow. Business is moving faster and faster every day and the order taker and gatekeeper mentality of yesterday’s IT will leave many IT professionals behind if they don’t change.

I wrote an article a few months ago titled Splitting IT – Operations and Innovation that talks about the need for IT to change or have change forced upon us. In that post I wrote:

Operational IT will focus on the tactics necessary to keep the lights on and servers running. Strategic IT / Business Technology will focus on the strategy use of technology for the organization.   Both groups will co-mingle and work together of course…but the teams will have different goals and different types of people working within each.

Notice the difference between Operational and Strategic IT?  One difference is that one is an order taker while the other is a solution creator.  Operational IT will remain the order takers and the newly formed Strategic IT / Business Technology team will be the solution creators.

So…CIO’s & IT Leaders…are you transforming your teams into solution creators or are you happy being order takers?  IT Pro’s…what about you? Are you happy in the operational world of IT or are you chomping at the bit to help your ‘customers’ create solutions?

PS: A few other posts about similar topics that I’ve published are Driving transformation with IT starts with transforming IT, Not What, but How – Connecting IT and the Business and I own the technology, you own the content for examples. If you haven’t read them yet, I’d love to have you add them to your ‘to read’ list

Image Credit: The Order-Taker By mynameisharsha on flickr

In my last post titled Driving transformation with IT starts with transforming IT, I pointed out a nice video on the Enterprise CIO Forum of Canadian Pacific’s CIO Heather Campbell titled describing her work of transforms the Canadian Pacific IT function by focusing on the needs of the business (among other things).

After I wrote that post, I saw part 1 of that series…which is just as good as the other video I pointed to.  The other video, titled Canadian Pacific: When outsourcing goes too far is a great one to watch as well.  Jump over and watch it…and come back for a brief analysis and my thoughts.

The premise of the interview is this: At some point, the majority of the Canadian Pacific IT group was outsourced. This outsourcing destroyed their ability to function, destroyed morale, careers, ambitions and a long and thorough knowledge base held within the IT group.

I’ve seen the effects of outsourcing on IT groups…and in most cases, it is devastating.  That said…we aren’t here to debate the pros/cons of outsourcing…we’re here to see how Ms. Campbell was able to recover from the devastating outsourcing that occurred at Canadian Pacific.

According to the interview, Ms. Campbell joined Canadian Pacific as CIO and had the difficult task of rebuilding the IT group.  What was her first task? Was it to clean house and bring in her own team to run things? Nope.  Her first task was to get to know her team.  Simple but powerful.  How can you “clean house” if you don’t understand how the house got dirty (or if its really dirty at all)?

Rather than clean house, she started another tough task…changing the culture of IT. She began helping her staff rebuild their skills (and their confidence?).  Rather than just focus on pure technical skills she also helped her team build / rebuild their project management skills.  Why PM skills specifically?  So she could be sure the projects that they needed to get done actually got done on time.

The key outcome here is this:  Ms. Campbell was able to rebuild her staff’s skill-sets, their confidence and their capabilities by focusing on them rather than on how much more to outsource or how to save more money.  She focused on her people first and their capabilities.  She turned a staff of IT ‘workers’ into IT Professionals…she turned a group of people who were embarrassed to call themselves IT employees and made them proud of what they do and who they are.

Kudo’s Ms. Campbell and to the Canadian Pacific Team.

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

This piece of art just sold for $4,338,500.

Let’s take a look at this expensive photo…I mean “art work”:

Interesting photo.

In my opinion…its a horrible photograph. Ugly too.

It breaks all the rules for landscape photography.  Not only is the horizon placed in the middle of the screen, but its just generally uninteresting to me.

That said…what the heck do i know?  Sure…I’m a photographer…an amateur one to be sure…but I know what I like and this photo isn’t something that I like.

That said…what if Mr. Gursky showed me this photo after he took it?  I would have looked at it and shrugged my shoulders and said “I don’t like it…”  If that had happened…would he have deleted the photo and moved on?

If so…he would have lost the opportunity to earn $4million for this piece of art.

That’s the basic moral of this post…don’t let me or anyone else tell you that you’re wrong. You’ve got to figure that out for yourself.

If you are constantly looking for someone else to tell you that you’ve done a good job (or a bad one), you’ll get nowhere in life.

Don’t let me…or “them”… tell you that you are wrong.

Don’t let me…or “them”…tell you that you’re right either.

Have some conviction in your approach and do what you feel is right.  If you fail…you’ve learned something. If you succeed…you’ve learned something as well…and perhaps you’ve made a nice living at it too.

Image Credit: Rhein II by Andreas Gursky

The report provides the results of a survey completed by 596 IT and Business executives with the majority of respondents being IT professionals (476 out of 596 were IT professionals).

The results are interesting.  A quick summary of the results is provided below:

• 75% of respondents admit that their projects are either always or usually “doomed from the start”.
• 80% of respondents admit that they spend at least half their time on rework.
• 55% of respondents claim that business objectives of IT projects are clear
• 23% of respondents state that they are always in agreement when a project is done.
• 73% of respondents claim that the IT team is successful or very successful in delivering projects that meet the business expectations. Note: “successful” was claimed to be meeting 70% or more of the project goals.
• 75% of respondents  claim that IT is a valued, trusted partner and critical to the company’s success

Interesting stuff.  Good to see that last point for sure.

I wanted to take a second for a little discussion on a few topics…

At times, I think that part of the problem with most IT projects is the attitude of the IT team…and this survey seems to highlight that with the fact that 3/4 of respondents believed that projects are doomed from the start.  You start a project expecting it to fail, you are going to most likely fail.

Almost 3/4 of respondents claim the IT team is successful in delivering 70% or more in project deliverable.  Since when did meeting 70% of a goal mean success? Calling 70% of project goals a success is kind of like saying ‘meh…just do the bare minimum to squeak by’. In school, a 70% is a “C-”….I don’t know many teachers that would be telling a student that they were successful if they finished the year with a “C-” average.

If meeting 70% of a project’s goals is considered a success, then yes…the projects are doomed from the start.

Image Credit: 110..365 | The End? By Katkamin on flickr

The bad thing…most of us are replaceable.

Sure…you can try to be the best at what you do…but unless you ARE the BEST at what you do, you are replaceable.

Very few people can be the best…so…by elimination, very few people are irreplaceable.

Seth Godin states it well in his book Lynchpin (amazon affiliate link):

“If all you can do is the task and you’re not in a league of your own at doing the task, you’re not indispensable.”

Let’s take a tour of the world of IT for a minute and think about the people within most IT groups.

You’ve got System Administrators. Developers. Project Managers. Testers. System Analysts. Business Analysts, Managers, etc etc.  The list goes on and on…

Out of this group of people how many are irreplaceable?

Each of these positions are necessary in the modern day IT group. That said, each is replaceable…but each is replaceable via internal or external means…via fireing/ hiring or via outsourcing.

Every single IT professional in every role has some chance of being replaced. From the CIO down the ladder to the most junior level IT grunt…everyone’s replaceable…unless they aren’t.

Think about your team.  How many on your team could be replaced (with someone of equal experience) and not have much of a hiccup?  Sure there’s some knowledge transfer that has to happen, but for the most part things would operate smoothly.

Out of a group of 100 IT professionals, are 10 irreplaceable?  How about 5? How about 1?

What makes an IT professional (or anyone) irreplaceable isn’t that they do a job or that they know something that others may not know…its how they do their job and how they apply their knowledge.

No longer can you lean on your years of service, expertise or ‘what you know’ to be successful and/or to remain employed.  To be irreplaceable, you’ve got to be irreplaceable.

You’ve got to be the person that everyone in your team / organization looks to for answers. You’ve got to be the person that everyone knows is irreplaceable.

Are you truly irreplaceable? Are you the person who gets the phone call when something ‘must get done’?  If not…you should be.

Image Credit: Replaceable By steve heath on flickr

I’ve watched many of the No Reservations episodes and have always come away from each show with some new-found piece of of knowledge and/or appreciation about a new part of the world.   Anthony does great work on No Reservations.

The episode last night was different than usual.  The episode, titled “Into the Fire“, places Bourdain back on the cooking ‘line’ in his old kitchen as a cook.  No longer is Tony the ‘Executive Chef’…he’s a line cook responsible for delivering many (many) dishes throughout the lunch and dinner shifts.

Throughout the episode, Bourdain is able to keep up but you can tell he’s not quite up to par as he was when he was a younger chef working the line.  It was obvious that he was out of practice as he was scrambling around trying to find ingredients and pans and trying to remember what orders he had ready or not ready.

It was an excellent episode.

For one, it showed just how tough it really is to be a line cook.

But even more importantly, to me, was the fact that Bourdain, a well-respected chef, author and TV personality, had trouble doing a job that he used to be able to do extremely well (according to him).

Now….given enough time, I’m sure Bourdain could get back up to speed as a line cook but the point is – he couldn’t just waltz in after years of not being a line cook and be a good line cook.

I have a point. I really do. Read on….

Tony used to be a good line cook. In fact, he used to be a great line cook (he says…and I believe him).

But…he stepped off the line years ago to be an Executive Chef. He’s been making menus, ensuring there are enough supplies to run the restaurant, etc etc.  He’s even stepped away from that job lately and has been a TV star and author.

So…what made him think he could step into the line and be a cook again? I’m sure part of it was for TV…and it made a really good TV show.  But…I wonder if he thought that he really could step in and be as good as he used to be?

That said…if Tony stepped into any kitchen in the world and told the line cooks how to do their jobs better, wouldn’t those line cooks listen?  I’m sure some would see him as some ‘old dude’ and not pay attention, but the smart cooks will pay attention and try to learn from that ‘old’ dude.

Regardless of whether Bourdain can still cut it as a line cook, he’s still someone worth listening to, no?  He still has a great deal of experience and can provide some great insights that might help a young line cook in their career.

So what’s the takeaway from my rambling?

How many times have you been in a meeting and the CEO, CIO, VP or even a senior IT professional try to step into your role and tell you ‘how things should be done’?

In many instances, I see eyes role or glaze over. I see the ‘young’ IT professionals snicker and joke around about how things are different now in 2011 (or whatever year it is).  Maybe there’s an age different between you and the CIO or older IT pro’s, but they’ve been in your role and have seen most of the things you’ve seen.

Just like Tony had a hard time stepping back into a line cook role, a CIO might have a hard time stepping into the role of a Systems Administrator – but that doesn’t mean her insights and experience aren’t valuable.

Learning from those who ‘did’ or ‘used to do’ is important.

Just because someone isn’t doing a role any more doesn’t mean they aren’t worth learning from.

Image Credit: chips reading the star wars incredible cross-sections book to nick – _MG_9778 on flickr

I”m not talking about a meeting agenda…I’m talking about the personal agenda that everyone has built their lives around.

This agenda is the driving force for everything a person does. Its the motivation behind most decisions a person makes throughout their personal and professional life.

This personal agenda can be either good or bad for an organization / team.  If a  personal agenda is at odds with the businesses values / agenda, there will most likely be problems in the long run.

Your job as a leader – find those agendas and figure out how to help people work towards their agenda.

When I went looking for a quick definition of ‘personal agenda’, I found a definition on WikiBooks in a book titled Managing Groups and Teams that I was troubled by.  The definition is:

Personal agendas. A dysfunctional group dynamic that undermines the group objectives. Occur when the natural process of jockeying for a position of status within the group progresses into individual members of the group becoming overly preoccupied with personal concerns and position within the group.

I have to take issue with this definition.  Personal Agendas don’t have to be a bad thing.

Sure…they can get in the way. They can cause real trouble within a team and/or organization…but as a leader, your role is to understand your team members.

And…by ‘understand’, I mean you need to truly know your team.    Don’t just read a resume or a short profile of each team member.  Sit down with them to better understand their motivations, dreams and aspirations.

You need to find each person’s agenda and look for a way to let that person fulfill their own agenda.  In addition, once you understand a person’s agenda and you realize you can’t help them fulfill their needs, perhaps its time to help them find another role in the organization so they can work towards their ultimate goal(s).

Part of being in a leadership role means interacting with your team(s) and the people on those teams. It also means trying to understand what drives the people that work for you.

Are your people driven by money or by challenge?  Are the driven by safety or risk?  What about their need for a life outside of work?

If you don’t understand these basic drivers of your team, how can you motivate them?

If you have a team full of technical folks who want to be challenged by staying on the cutting edge of technology, it may not be that great to force them into playing with legacy systems all day.

If you have a team interested in building their credentials with certifications and training, it might make sense to actually help them with those goals.

To me, finding the agenda of every person on your team is one of the most important – and often overlooked – things a leader can do. That said – you can’t let each person’s agenda drive your decisions.

That’s why being a good leader is so hard…you’ve got to weigh the good of the organization along with what’s good for yourself and your team.  But…finding the agenda of each person on your team will help you make better informed decisions when you need to.

Are you working on finding the agenda of the people on your team?  Do you know what’s really driving the people that work with and/or for you?

Start looking for those agendas…you may be surprised at what you find – different people are motivated by different things.

Image Credit: Agenda 2010 par Pénélope Bagieu By louisvolant on Flickr

First off there are a lot of lessons to learn from that letter.  A couple of key sentences:

You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.

and

Rather than constantly mocking iPhone and Android, we should encourage key decision makers across the board to use these products as their primary device for a week or so at a time

and

The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are. Even our closest dev partners do their best to say it politely, but they will never bite the hand that feeds them

and lastly

Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.

Man…I’d like to find the person that wrote that letter and give them a high five.   If I were in a position to do so, I’d also hire that person on the spot.

I really love that last line –  ”Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.”  How powerful is that?

With this letter we get to see some real insight into the inner-workings and culture of RIM. If the allegations are true, there’s some serious culture issues within this company….and it will take some serious change to make any progress in the future.

I used to love my blackberry. I couldn’t imagine owning anything else….until the iPhone came out.  Then…shortly afterward, the Android OS arrived….and I couldn’t imagine continuing to carry a blackberry. I bought the Motorola Droid the first day it was available and have never looked back.

I’ve traded that droid in for an HTC Incredible and love it. I’m tempted to jump into an iPhone I’ve so far resisted the temptations…we’ll see what happens with the next iPhone.

What would it have taken to keep me on the blackberry?  Looking back….a lot. I’d want the simplicity of the Android OS plus the sexy Apple design.    And we all know those are qualities that RIM has had a hard time with.

And…I think the above mentioned letter shines some light on why those changes never came about …and why they will most likely never come.

Image Credit: Blackberry Fail  By jaygrandin on flickr