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4 Tiring IT Truisms

Tan-Dem by Alan Smythee

I’ve spent the last several weeks thinking a lot about the enterprise collaboration and enterprise 2.0 space given increasing interest by our clients.  One of my colleagues sent along a link to a related post about Enterprise 2.0 adoption.  The summary is much appreciated.  What I don’t appreciate as much is the use of generic truisms by experts when asked for specific advice in thinking about a concept, approach, technology or vendor.

There are 4 truisms that we hear over and over and over.  These are not unique to any individual or conference but echo in the halls of companies and conferences everywhere.  Apply these bits of advice to ANYTHING in your professional or personal lives – acquiring a company, planning a project, building a house, running a political campaign, or evaluating outsourcing:

  1. Gain Executive Support
  2. Provide Strong Leadership
  3. Involve Key Stakeholders
  4. Communicate Early and Often

Yes, these are all vitally important but they are also no-brainers and as generic as white rice.  Haven’t we heard these enough to know the basics for setting up and managing a successful initiative?  I know there are still some out there who think hiring a bunch of PMP-certified managers is enough, but they should be a small minority these days.

What I expect from subject area experts are specific bits of advice unique to to their fields.  In this case, I particularly like this kind of advice from the conference summary:

  • For Blackberry users, transition them to reading blogs via RSS feeds on the device
  • Create (or replace existing) an on-line suggestion box with comments and voting [see Kindling and Spigit as examples]
  • Integrate social bookmarking into standard browser install to replace local bookmarking

So, I’m asking you as leaders to first make sure you are all over the 4 truisms and can move beyond the seemingly constant focus on them.  These are table stakes for any business initiative and should be second nature.  I’m also asking you to demand more from leaders and experts you rely on (present company included).  Push them to expand your thinking with deep insights specific to their experience.

Oh yea, and don’t forget to say Please and Thank You.

  • http://www.asuret.com Bill Crowell

    Chris:

    I agree with your comment that we tend to focus on the four truisms about IT projects needing Executive Support, Strong Leadership, Involvement of Key Stakeholders, and Communication Early and Often. As you stated these are givens.

    So let me add something new to the list or at least something that is too often undervalued; the Impact of Change that IT brings to the organization. If an IT based initiative is truly transformational, than it brings with it transformational changes in business processes and the work that an organization performs.
    These changes can include a completely different set of tasks to be performed in a completely new way.

    In today’s environment where 30 to 40 year old mainframe systems are being replaced with state of the art, intuitive, web based applications, the degree of change that needs to be embraced and used by employees can and usually is dramatic from the user’s perspective. Do we truly understand the impact of these changes and have we allowed for adequate time for training and for the user’s experience to stabilize.

    All too often, the discipline of change management is focused on controlling changes to the project plan and not planning adequately for the changes the organization will encounter when the new system is implemented. When planning the roll-out, the impact of changes in process and work activities deserves equal time and can often be the difference between the project being viewed as a success or failure.

    Hope this is the kind of extension to the discussion that you’re seeking,

    Bill

  • http://www.asuret.com Bill Crowell

    Chris:

    I agree with your comment that we tend to focus on the four truisms about IT projects needing Executive Support, Strong Leadership, Involvement of Key Stakeholders, and Communication Early and Often. As you stated these are givens.

    So let me add something new to the list or at least something that is too often undervalued; the Impact of Change that IT brings to the organization. If an IT based initiative is truly transformational, than it brings with it transformational changes in business processes and the work that an organization performs.
    These changes can include a completely different set of tasks to be performed in a completely new way.

    In today’s environment where 30 to 40 year old mainframe systems are being replaced with state of the art, intuitive, web based applications, the degree of change that needs to be embraced and used by employees can and usually is dramatic from the user’s perspective. Do we truly understand the impact of these changes and have we allowed for adequate time for training and for the user’s experience to stabilize.

    All too often, the discipline of change management is focused on controlling changes to the project plan and not planning adequately for the changes the organization will encounter when the new system is implemented. When planning the roll-out, the impact of changes in process and work activities deserves equal time and can often be the difference between the project being viewed as a success or failure.

    Hope this is the kind of extension to the discussion that you’re seeking,

    Bill