Part 2: IT Organizational Development, Recruiting and other head hurting stuff

In Part 1, I wrote about the need to have a stable IT organization and this keeps me awake at night, burning many brain cells to ensure it’s there. What the underlying foundation is, is the “Every Day IT”[tm] service must be done flawlessly and 24×7x365. And good people is still required first and foremost. Without taking care of this, one can forget about the other parts of IT. These IT engineers (e.g. system admins, network admins, database admins) are the bedrock of a healthy and effective IT function. Without them, you might as well be standing on quicksand, forever mired in firefighting mode. Only with this foundation firmed up, the business analysts, project managers etc can do their work knowing they’ve got some “back up” (i.e. “ammo” from SMEs who can provide air cover when it gets hot and heavy with the customer).

So this leads of course to the interesting question of what kind of people do you need/want in this organization? Surprisingly, I did a quick profile of my current team and found that nearly 100% of us are either the elder/eldest sibling regardless of gender. I was stunned. Now, more than half the team was inherited so they weren’t “my guys”. Still, what a quirk of fate.

It may be that it isn’t totally by accident that the team composition over time will take on some of my own personality – good, bad and ugly. For me, this is a concern because building a team requires diversity of many things. And I’m a believer people NOT being like me (unless they were smart with similar professional values and ethics as myself). So how do I look for diversity of individuals?

For one, I like using psychometric tests. Interestingly enough, my organization doesn’t. Nevertheless, we do it on an informal basis for all hires. In one of our training courses for new managers/supervisors, the instructor taught what is known as the 4 Grid Personality and Team Profiling to help communicate and coach staff or team members. The closest I could find on the web is located here. The whole team did it and we found that the balance was quite unique and that we were all represented in the 4 quadrants which is desirable result. One could say that it would cause some difficulties with communications – which did happen – but over time, the team managed it and built the strong relationships and clear communication channels and I believe is well on its way to being a high-performing team. This tool is simple to use and provides good information without going overboard – sort of like the 80-20 Rule. For project managers types, Max Wideman has a good read about suitable project manager profiles. The other thing I look for are people with uncommon backgrounds such as an IT guy NOT having an IT background. Do IT guys really need to be MIS/technical majors for example (this isn’t a rhetorical question btw)?

Inevitably, with new hires, comes the question of what kind of skills sets am I looking for? Well there’s no shortage of need.. I need BA skills, PM skills, specific technical skills, consulting skills – a superman/woman who can do anything and everything that’s required depending on the circumstances. Highly unlikely. So what to do? Hire for attitude and teach skills? Or hire for skills because you need it several weeks ago? Find the smartest regardless of “position” and let them go because smart people will figure it out eventually? Does time, strategy, IT operating framework all have to be considered? How about one’s own ability to lead and manage people? The knock against smart people is that they can sometimes be quite unmanageable. Can you or your team handle that – clear superstars? It’s the basketball equivalent of the 2003-2004 Hall of Fame LA Laker team vs. 2003-2004 Piston team. The true team beat the Hall of Fame team. 5 superstars does not make a team. My bias is clearly with these Piston teams and the Spur teams of Tim Duncan. And this is reflected in my team building approach.

What is your team building approach?

Barry Oshry – Possibilities of Organization

Quick sharing – thanks to Radha Mukkai’s blog post that talked about Barry Oshry’s writings and thoughts.

An overview of Barry’s thoughts can be found in Total System Power article. Highly recommended. I am appreciating more and more the need to look at social networks (i.e. corporations, teams etc) as social or human systems. Not sure whether this is in tune with Barry’s views but will explore further. But my gut feel is that there’s something to this that is worth following up on.

The Accidental Project Manager – Oops! You are really in the #!*%@

I’ve been moved to write this piece because over the past few months in my organization, I’ve undertaken the Herculean task of developing project management maturity in my organization – which obviously includes developing a lot of new project managers. My team consists of 3 people – “Me, Myself, and I”[tm].

I love accidental project managers. I was one once but now just a managerial-accident-waiting-to-happen. Don’t ask me, I didn’t want it to turn out this way, but such is life, eh? It took me a freaking nearly 10 years to know that about myself. Life is funny that way…by the time you figure it out, it’s done and dusted. Don’t cry, but sing and rejoice instead because you’ve embarked on a unique life journey (some would say not unlike the passengers of the Titanic…but we try not to be negative in this space).

So, congratulations! You’ve done a great thing! Impressed some bosses, given people the idea that you’re someone who can get things done, have lots of drive and initiative, and for that not only do you not get a company sponsored bonus trip but instead, they’ve made you a project manager. Fantastic, you are now part of a unique community of individuals who through a quirk of fate have drawn the equivalent of a professional short straw. If you’re so lucky, you’ll turn yourself into the business “sanitation engineer”
which isn’t all that bad if you embrace it. Simply because everyone needs a “sanitation engineer” and it’s nice to be needed.

Drawing on my own school of hard knocks and from others who were kind enough to pass down their pearls of wisdom, a few guiding principles to help get started.
1. There is a different way of working - everything you do must ensure that the project objective happens. That will make you do your “day job” differently. Because you realize that the project objective doesn’t magically happen and there’s not a lot you can do because projects aren’t done by one-man/woman armies. The inexperienced PMs think that they’re superman, embued with supernatural authority to command people in a single command. But what these inexperienced PMs quickly learn is that even Superman died and while he was resurrected, they might not be.

So you quickly find yourself at the mercy of people – people who can get you fired (once you understand this, you will have found “PM religion”) – who may not be entirely on the same page as you. Because you’re smart and done some homework, you know that perhaps getting along with people and developing what we call “soft skills” (a misnomer if I saw one because if you don’t master them, I guarantee you that the landing will be anything but soft) is a “Good Thing”[tm]. What are “soft skills”? Many things but a good short list:
- influencing
- communication
- team management
- delegating
- appraising
- presenting
- motivating
- coaching
Followed up by a healthy dose of observing the universal Golden Rule.

2. MBWA (Management By Walking Around) – my mentor taught me the value of this and I fortunately listened and learned. My days as a helpdesk engineer helped prepare me for this though and well, no way for me to really know that at the time (dumb blind luck). Supposedly, David Packard of HP fame first introduced this management technique and well, that’s pretty good pedigree IMHO. One of my favorite postings on MBWA is from someone who clearly knows about it and does it regularly as part of his management style – Kailash Awati’s “Going Walkabout” blog post is spot on.

3. You need to be a student - what that means is that professional project managers need to know what they don’t know and then work at getting down to the right level of detail. The question of how technical does a PM need to be is debated ad infinitem but my short answer is that you need to be technical enough to detect bullshit when you hear it. It takes years to hone your BS radar and if you can, it’s a skill worth developing.

Which leads the next learning and perhaps the most important one…

4. “Trust But Verify”[tm] - I say this all the time. I’m continuously amazed at how people simply will take face value, what someone else has told them. I ask the poor messenger, how do you know so-and-so did what they said they did in their project status report? I don’t blame him because the poor messenger isn’t the one with his/her head on the chopping block when the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan. But is exasperating nonetheless. For those from a quality background, you know this through Deming’s teachings:

PDCA Quality Wheel

This will save your butt. Because hopefully, you’ll come to realize the importance of MBWA and you can actually verify yourself how things are going. Because if you don’t, when someone asks you why a multimillion dollar project is going south, you will be wishing that you were in a galaxy far far away. That’s a “Bad Thing”[tm].

A Beacon of Hope for the Keep It Simple Stupid Way of Working

Southwest’s 7 secrets for success is a beacon of hope for “smart” business. There is hope! Simple is profitable, but yet, inspite of itself, so many companies want to “be smart” and complicate things. I have no idea why.

How we can learn from Southwest to run our IT departments the same way to bring value to the business:
1. Southwest: One plane fits all - can it be that this can also be applied to our systems and processes? How many different ways must we do the same process or procedure across the enterprise? Following this, how many different ways must be measure the same process or procedure? Of course, because the same process is performed differently, measuring it would also be different so it’s self-fulfilling. Yes, there are many paths to the same destination but operationally, that’s a stupid way to do it. Cynically, it’s because of the law of self-preservation, people must create complexity and work for their corporate existence. It’s the Wally’s of the world, a typical class of corporate being.

Paper pusher's champion!

Look, I did...nothing!

2. Southwest: Point-to-point flying - how about that, the quickest, easiest, and cost effective way to get to the next point is direct and uninterrupted. Why is it that IT managers don’t or can’t just keep it simple and straightforward? Why load it up with bells and whistles on a management information system that requires nothing more than a “can I click a button and get my information” without running through several layers of technology and massaged through the latest reporting software tool?

No, sorry customer you can’t because well, if you knew how simple it was, we’d lose our jobs and you would want to do IT yourself. And we can’t have that you see…you understand right? Anyways, we know where many of you think just because you set up your home wifi network, you’re now qualified to be the IT manager. Right.

3. Southwest: Simple in-flight service - how about that, every customer is the same because most customers just wants to get from A -> B with a minimum of fuss*. Delivery of service and information is all about quick, fast, and to the point without 100 different ways to describe the same thing. You know, black is …. well, black and white is… you get the point. How many consultants do we need to tell us that?!

* I’m a repeat Marco Polo Gold member and having done 55 sectors in 5 months this year so I believe I’ve got a good perspective on flying needs of a typical passenger.

4. Southwest: No frills, no fees - Yes, a simple service model. Flat rate for all-inclusive service. Makes my customer relationship uncomplicated, makes it easier to provide a good service, and most importantly makes it simple to provide value to the business partner who just wants it, not how it was done. Follow this and you’ve got the essence of providing customer satisfaction and earning “repeat business”.

5. Southwest: Strong management - Oops, now that’s a tough one. Not really, it’s simple too – “Birds of a feather flock together”. This proverb is NEVER wrong.

6. Southwest: A relatively happy workforce - Morale is completely underrated. Managers forget the simple rule that there’s no “I” in T-E-A-M. Remember, Google isn’t just about two guys named Sergey and Larry. They had some really good heavy lifters who believed in the mission, vision, and executed the strategy. Same for us in the trenches… our successes, failures, happiness and unhappiness, depends much on those who immediately touch us daily. We do it for our team(s). Daily IT or Project Management in some ways feels like the corporate version of trench warefare, guerrilla warefare, or fighting an insurgency. At the end of the day, it’s our “cubicle colleagues” who we fight for and fight with….because no one truly understands.**

**I’m a relative newbie to IT and Project Management. However, if there’s anything one thing I know in my heart of hearts about the people in IT and Project Management, they’ve got to be a few fries short of a happy meal to be able to do this kind of work day-in-day out as their life calling. It takes either a complete fool or a completely deranged person to put up with the kind of “corporate combat” with so little obvious upside. If we take an American Football analogy, IT and Project Guys are like the linemen of the team. Totally unglamorous, ugly, anonymous – except for when they get flagged for a penalty. IT guys – anything less than 100% is nearly there. 100% is just doing your job and anything over 100% well, that means you keep your job for awhile. Project Managers have it even worse probably – no credit and all the blame. Wow, sign me up for one of those jobs baby!

7. Southwest: Aggressive fuel hedging - That’s called knowing your core business and creating lots of buffer/reserve to ensure the continuing good-will of your service.

Just KISS!

*** ADDENDUM: I found this KISS gem from Toby Ward from 2006 on IntranetBlogs.

Love his example diagram, where in a picture it captures the essence of what’s so often wrong – too much genius. The world isn’t that smart people…it really isn’t.

Genius Information Architecture

In memoriam – Dr. Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon University Professor of Computer Science

Dr. Pausch was known as that “Last Lecture” Professor from Carnegie Mellon University. He recently passed away and this space is in appreciation for all that he’s achieved and done for so many all over the world. There are many warm tributes to him: Washington Post’s and New York Times. What resonated for me was the topic he chose – childlike wonder. I’ve expanded that to mean that one needs to have “natural curiosity” because it’s important in life that we do not stop learning, questioning, observing, re-looking at the old and new alike as part of our own drive to excellence. Incidentally, this theme was somewhat touched upon in the move Kung Fu Panda which I wrote about in the previous post (not to spoil things, but it involves the secret of the secret ingredient…and you should definitely see it). However, “childlike wonder” works alot better and much more meaningful as life should be.

Life is not only a journey but it should be interesting and “fun”. That it is not often, well, perhaps a reminder every now and then is a good thing. Let’s keep it fresh, uplifting, and a daily “rediscovery” of the things that make it wonderful, even when it seems that every day is a raining day.

Thank you Dr. Randy Pausch from H&SS ‘91, Applied History.

Managing Chinese talent – what we can learn from Kung Fu Panda

The Kung Fu Panda brouhaha can help shed some insight into how the new generation of Chinese think. And the future of the global economy requires we find a way to work with, manage, lead (and vice versa), but it’s quite a challenge….so how?

Richard Bernstein’s article is a nice balanced look at the issue and provides some avenues for inquiry. I think he framed the question correctly:

The main question being asked is: How could Western filmmakers have used Chinese themes to create such a brilliant animated movie with such widespread appeal to the Chinese themselves?

The short simple answer is captured by the Howard Jones’ song I mentioned in a previous posting. It’s mental and one’s artificial but very real worldly environment needs to be understood before it can be “managed”. As we know, it’s amazingly difficult to do things, achieve things in a corporate setting (see Robert Townsend) but how about the things that one’s never seen or imagined before? And this is part of the main issue with respect to succeeding in business change management. How do you move a body of people to a place where they not only do they not know but they resist because it’s like traveling to the end of the world and they know that the world is flat!

The article lists some Chinese pundits pained to acknowledge some lacking aspect of their culture – how could a bunch of Westerners (gasp!) take something uniquely Chinese and create a runaway success about China/Chinese and not themselves? Hmmm, that’s a tough question and somewhat unfair but it is the point of the matter – what can we learn from this to improve? It’s exactly the same thing as doing a 360 feedback for oneself, a well-recognized management and leadership tool.

The truth of the matter is that one doesn’t have the definitive view of himself or herself. Insight into the beauty of an object for example, isn’t gained from one perspective, but from different dimensions. Looking at a beautifully cut diamond and appreciating it requires looking at the 4Cs, how its ring highlights it features, as well as turning the stone around under different lighting conditions. Even then, the beauty of the diamond will look different depending on the environment. A person isn’t unlike the diamond: multi-faceted, complicated, different under various circumstances and environments, as well as requiring significant amount of heat and pressure to change

So returning back, what to do? Berstein quotes:

Mr. Lu, the commentator in China Daily, had a telling story in this regard, about a project he undertook to produce an animation for the Olympic Games. “I kept on receiving directions and orders from related parties on what the movie should be like,” he recalled. “We were given very specific rules on how to promote it.

“Under such pressure, my co-workers and I really felt stifled,” he continued. In the end, “the planned animation was never produced.”

For those who’ve ever managed Chinese staff, it’s a bit of a chicken or the egg. On the one hand, managers must have staff who take initiative, use creativity, drive for results and deliver quality work product (and innovation if they can get it). In practice, many fall short of this – staff is passive, prone to mere order takers, rarely pushing the envelop, lose focus, confusing busy-work with productivity, learning to go with the flow because it’s prudent survival technique. The quote also highlights another hidden cultural facet – conformity is a cultural norm and a highly desirable trait. Its importance to Chinese culture is as equivalent to that of the American and independence, individual freedoms and liberty. Whereas the US has

Life Free or Die!

the Chinese have the 24 Examples of Filial Piety

孝經 - Xiao Jing

The process however isn’t pre-ordained. Learning, self-enlightenment are also very strong Chinese cultural values which can give the manager some useful ways to manage – perhaps a “Chinese Management Way” [tm]. While top-down is a tried and true technique, being a disciplinarian/dictator isn’t always going to work – unless that is your true personality which then should match your management style (i.e. “authentic leadership”). Therefore, perhaps taking the learned philosopher/teacher way would be more effective. The catch here is, that presupposes that the manager/leader is learned and enlightened. One can’t really have a young junior manager “leading” the way although many do try*. Yet, corporations have a bit of an aversion to the grey-haired crowd – something to do with old-dogs and tricks… For IT and Project Management, grey-haired folks or those with lots of battle scars to show for it, are my preference. What’s the right mix? What is the right management style (authoritarian or collaboratve)? What is the right personal profile (under 40 or over 40)?

Perhaps the right answer is … depends on the context.

*My view on young managerial talents is that they are necessary and important for success and survival of a business, but that context is required such as: industry, business maturity, functional area, personal maturity, external cultural factors etc.

Notice – In memoriam Dr. O. P.(Om) Kharbanda

I had the pleasant opportunity to “know” Om Kharbanda through online project management forums, email lists and the occasional emails exchanges. He was an interesting read, so much so that I often didn’t quite have a grasp on what it was that he was trying to point out. As one of the unwashed PM masses, I’m fortunate to have at least had the chance to been able to read his writings and share some thoughts.

A nice notice on PMFORUM website about Om.

Up (Your) the Organization

I’m needing it right now… some inspiration/rant that I need to just share.

The organization that grows profits also grows its people…. That may be one of the lessons not learned well enough.

A corporate hero for those needing to fight the forces of evil. Feel the force….
1. Excellence: Or What the Hell are you Doing Here? I agree, life is too short firstly so you better be spending it doing something you really enjoy. There’s a whole lotta other ways to make a decent living without being a miserable donkey for someone.

2. Killing Things, VP In Charge Of … Now that would be a cool job, wouldn’t it? What would not be good about a job where you get to be the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse running through an inefficient, ineffective organization? Hacking and slashing to unconstipate thing? Sign me up! From my angle though, that’s already the job of the IT guy for the organization. Who’s better to know where’s the clog, what’s the clog eh? Thus, armed with such knowledge, be the roto router man! Do a BPR project or just threaten to shut down the server.

On a personal leadership level, the boss (yeah, that’s you) at the very minimum needs to step in and

’cause if you don’t, you’re going to lose your people. They’re going to not only leave the company, but they’re going to stampede out the door leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. The collateral damage should strike fear in even the heartiest of managers.

The other missing point about Townsend’s nugget of wisdom here is that sometimes, you just have to stop doing things because it’s stupid, interfering with real work, outlived its usefulness, giving a charity job to the undeserving or simply it’s humanly not possible to continue to take on new things without giving up the old. It’s common sense but it’s hardly common. Stop doing things doesn’t mean you stop having a job (but people, especially in this part of the world, feel the need to paper push to justify their earthly existence, sad to say) – just do something more useful and helpful (a shocking idea I know).

Say No to Stupidity!

Never under estimate the power of stupidity and what it will do to your person, your career, your life. Just kill it and get on with what’s important – quoting Lin Yutang

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

Good luck and may the force be with you!

First cart, then horse. It is the ….

Planning is a funny exercise… often, we say we are going to go someplace called…there…. and then put the stake in the ground, marking the decision we have just made – written in blood and stone.  This decision, often revolving around some number (or choice of action), is at best an educated guess of a future point in time.  But as we know so well… there’s a constant in the universe, the change factor which comes in many guises – could be entropy, could be bad luck, could be law of averages, maybe even the law of “shit happens” or simply:

Damn me!

Because of your misfortune to have communicated this up the line, someone in a galaxy far far away is now going to hold you to your word.  It’s now become one of the 10 Commandments, Thou Shall Not Go Against The Made Up Number in Planning!  You are sooo doomed because “real” projects and decisions are being made which this number was factored into making “abort mission” a near impossibility.  When people say not to lie, i’m sure a lot of it is because a lie has many siblings, cousins and family members more than happy to create havoc all in your good name.

You find yourself in

Part 1: IT Organizational Development, Recruiting and other head hurting stuff

Many things keep me up at night…but the thing that probably occupies my mental space the most is people – despite being an IT manager, I admit that IT isn’t what I think at night (but don’t tell my employer). My organizational capabilities stem from the quality of people I have. Needless to say that my success and failure depends on how I development, motivate, lead, direct, support my team to achieve our functional and business strategic objectives. Quite scary if you think about it – someone who works for me, could get me fired (see HBR OnPoint Article 1723 by Linda Hill for an interesting read on what it means to be “the Boss”). And being that I’m a selfish individual interested only in my self-preservation, neglecting this basic managerial work would be a “career limiting” move, you’d think? Of course, I don’t just think about “my functional” people, but all people in the organization because engaging with staff is an opportunity to learn, teach, share information and isn’t that what “knowledge workers” are supposed to be doing?

So with this period of immense competitive business challenges, our organization is also moving to develop new internal capabilities and skill sets to meet them which means – recruitment. I learned something during the process — it’s damn hard and it’s really damn hard. My experience tracks….umm, validates, Anonymous CIO’s piece in his CIO Confidential column from March 2000(!) – surprised? The more things change, the more things stay the same!

I’d put it another way:
1. IT depts need to be stable because IT service is a 24×7x365 function and no amount of SLAs and outsourcing will ever provide close to what the core internal IT team must do for its customer. That’s why indiscriminate outsourcing strategies are demoralizing to staff because they’re like earthquakes to the team. The nature of IT service doesn’t change, but how it is provided does and often not in the way it should be.
2. IT turnover has the effect of a bullet in the foot – each IT piece that’s dislodged causes a domino affect and creates more stress along the fault lines that’s always there in the nature of IT work.
3. Finding the right IT person is not unlike finding the next CEO. Uh, ok, that was over-the-top, but here me out… like CEOs, IT people need to be generalists at heart despite their role as technical specialists. The reason they need to be generalists is because they are the natural keepers of how business’ are run – understanding end to end business processes, information flows, provider of business infrastructure… Try running a business without a proper working IT function and you’ll find out how brain damaged it is – ask anyone who’s ever worked in a Chinese company and you’ll realize the sheer idiocy and futility they go through.

With this context, Part 2 will look at lessons learned from recruiting IT analysts, helpdesk engineers, business analysts (BAs), and project managers.