The Big Chill: I-C-E Can Spell Success or Failure for IT

IT managers and chief information officers are always looking for ways to ensure their IT shops are effective, efficient, and seen as examples of success. Much has been written about project management, change management, cybersecurity and migration to the cloud, but all too often, IT enterprises fail by not following a simple formula of three important concepts: inclusion, communications and empathy. Even before embarking on new IT initiatives, deployments or migration plans, without a solid foundation and the cultural infrastructure of I-C-E, the best laid plans can easily be derailed or skirt success. IT departments that master the I-C-E formula, on the other hand, can anticipate success for many years to come.

INCLUSION

Inclusion is defined as “the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized.” For IT management, we are not referring to physical or mental challenges or members of other minority or ethnic groups. Inclusion here refers to ensuring that employees have a seat at the IT discussion table. For example, one important question to ask at each planning project meeting is, “Who should have been invited to this meeting and hasn’t been invited before?” Ensuring IT staff have a voice before large decisions are made helps to create a positive work environment. If staff are consistently “not heard,” and if employees in the trenches don’t see value in making suggestions, they’ll remain silent. Then decisions will suffer from groupthink — “a process of flawed decision-making which occurs as a result of strong pressures among group members to reach an agreement.”

The concept of groupthink was tragically demonstrated during the NASA Challenger launch on April 4, 1983. The infamous O-ring was designed to operate at temperatures above 53 degrees. The morning of launch, the temperature was a “chilly” 36 degrees, almost freezing.

The ensuing investigations determined that groupthink and poor communication were the main factors that allowed the tragic launch to proceed. Granted, these types of catastrophic results don’t typically happen to IT projects, but certainly the projects can fail when employees are not included in the decision-making process, communications are faulty, and there is a presence of groupthink.

COMMUNICATIONS

In every IT unit, the term “communications” is constantly bandied about, but rarely sufficiently addressed or emphasized. A CIO colleague of mine would always say, “I never ran into an IT department that didn’t have communications issues.” Certainly, there can be communications obstacles in every industry, but how can we surmount them and improve internal and external exchanges? Our IT communications are multifaceted. It takes a combination of interpersonal skills, active listening, relationship building, collaboration, and aural and written correspondence. Informational technology needs effective informational communications — IT needs IC — to be successful. So how can we improve IT communications among our departments and external clientele?

First, we must be able to take the complex and make it understandable to the lay person. Avoiding complex concepts and IT-specific acronyms and terminology is a good place to start. Then we need to be able to think about clients and departments in their own terminology. There are three helpful Greek ideas which might help: ethos, pathos and logos, or logic. The essence of ethos is that when we speak to our clientele, it’s helpful to develop some credibility and ethical appeal. We want to communicate so the listener believes we are the kinds of people worth listening to. Pathos is our ability to create an emotional or motivational appeal to end users. Logos is having the logic to back up our claims with supporting facts.

Granted, most IT staff will not stop and deliberately think about ethos, pathos and logos. However, for example, working at the IT help desk, consider engaging a client as a credible tech resource, speak from an emotional perspective, and support the call with facts and a desire to provide exceptional customer service. At the end of the support call, when the client hopefully says thank you, staff should respond by saying, “It is our pleasure.” If you create this culture, it won’t be Greek to your IT staff, and clients will appreciate the attention to detail and customer service.

EMPATHY

The concept of empathy may be foreign to IT environments, but it can have a major impact on both IT staff and the end user. A successful culture of IT communication should include empathy for staff opinions, comments and suggestions. The same should hold true when IT staff speak to their clients. Having empathy in communications means better understanding how people are feeling about a situation or plan. We can improve our communications empathy by reading nonverbal expressions, which can be a challenge in IT cultures. In many instances, IT professionals can be seen going from problem to resolution — getting from point A to point B to solve an issue — in the quickest possible manner. This might be attributed to a lack of time and resources, or simply a case of highly technical people trying to quickly explain a complex resolution to lay people. The key to communications empathy is for IT staff to understand the needs of a client and put themselves “in their shoes.” In other words, resolve an issue as the client would like their issue to be resolved, with good communications, empathy and exceptional customer service.

So in the end, how can we succeed by using the I-C-E formula? To be sure, implementing this concept does not happen overnight. The formula needs to be explained, demonstrated and modified to meet specific situations and environments. The process starts when we reacquaint IT staff with the importance of communications, the elements of which it’s comprised, and subsequently how to avoid failure and ensure success. The formula is simple on paper. Demonstrating and practicing good IT communications is the hard part, but I-C-E can spell success for IT.