Author: Jenn Steele

On Tactics

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Like most heads of IT Departments, I have a long-term strategy in place. Granted, it’s vague (it has to be), but I look at industry trends, technology trends, and my firm’s history, shake them all up, and dump them out into a crystal ball. I gaze into the crystal ball and take a stab at where we’ll need to be in the next 3-5 years.

I also have a shorter-term strategy, where the next year’s goals are more concretely expressed. I determine the probable larger capital expenses and figure out generally where we’ll be in a year in the hardware, software, staffing, and user experience realms.

Tactics, however, are where I might depart from the “normal” way of doing things. See, my tactics are never truly solidified beyond the next step or two. Why? Because I plan my tactics according to the Theory of Constraints.

(Brief note to my Operations prof: See? I listened in class and even read The Goal!)

How does this play out? Well, I’m so glad you asked!

  1. I collect all of the various tactical components I need to have done in order to accomplish my short-term strategy.
  2. I determine which of said components are dependent (e.g., I have to move File/Print off of two blades before I can expand my Citrix farm onto the same blades).
  3. I determine which immediate actions will address the most user pain.
  4. I execute that set of actions. (Okay, so it’s actually mostly my geeks and various consultants who do the true execution here, but you already knew that.)
  5. I move to the next most painful item, and continue the process.

Someday, I hope to run out of user pain to address such that I can manage more proactively. In other words, I hope to find the “bottleneck” that will cause pain and address it before the users feel the pain.

On the one hand, this gives me a lot of freedom to be more agile in implementation. On the other hand, it can drive some of my linear thinkers insane…

Why IT Goes Nuts Sometimes

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I still have lots of thoughts on the transparency discussion going on in my brain; eventually they will become a useful blog post.

However, I just thought I’d share briefly on why I go nuts sometimes…

So it’s time for us to renew an SSL certificate. How do I find out? The email goes to my predecessor’s email account.

But not to his name; that was to an old network engineer who left well over a year ago.

Okay; fine. I go to the link, try to renew, etc. I can’t. I don’t have the password for it, and it’s not on my (10 page) password list.

Again, fine. I’ll put in the email of the technical contact.

Doesn’t work.

Try a different one.

Still doesn’t work.

Try every possible permutation of every IT Director or Network Manager/Engineer and domain name. No luck.

Email customer service rep that I need help renewing, because I cannot get the website method to work.

What does he do?

Sends me the same $%^&* links, and says I have to renew that way. And you all wonder why I’m slightly nuts sometimes?

On Information

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Years ago, a friend’s parents told me a story of when they decided that he could and should start taking responsibility for his own decisions. At the end of winter break, they decided to let him make the call of when to leave for the airport for the plane back to Boston. They asked him what time to leave, and, when he named a time, they knew it was too late. However, they didn’t say anything. He missed his plane, of course, and had to work with the airline to get back to Boston.

I mentioned this to him later (they told me the story in his absence), and his response was, “You’re kidding! I honestly thought the plane was an hour later! I wish they’d at least said something about the time so that I could have known. That really pisses me off.”

To a large extent, I know how he feels. Somehow, geeks often expect their leaders to know about things and act upon them, but they haven’t told us the time of departure. Likewise, users will sit on a problem for a long time and expect geeks to fix it. Their (usually irate) conversation goes something like this:

User: As you know, this has been a problem for a while.

Geek: Uh… I’m sorry; I didn’t know. For how long has it been a problem?

User: Since I called you six months ago and told you about it.

Geek: I’m sorry; I thought we resolved it at the time.

User: Well, you fixed it for me that once, but it keeps happening, and I’m just at the end of my rope!! Why are you so incompetent!?!?

At this point, the geek gets off the phone and drinks heavil–er, fixes or escalates the problem appropriately.

Geeks and leaders of geeks aren’t mind readers, and we’re not perfect. Sometimes, especially if things have been stressful, we completely forget to follow up on a problem or assume it’s fixed. That problem was one of 40 or so that the geek heard or found and fixed that day. (That’s not an excuse, but it is an explanation.)

Leaders are often treated similarly to the geek above. Maybe I forgot to return your phone call when the systems crashed. Maybe I didn’t get back to you about that great project idea you had. Please tell me. Please remind me. I’m sorry if I dropped the ball, but I can’t fix something if I don’t know it’s broken.

By giving me information, you help me to know the following:

  • The problem still exists.
  • The problem is important to you.
  • I need to either take or facilitate action to resolve the problem.

If I cannot address the problem immediately, I need to manage your expectations such that you know I haven’t forgotten about it. As I often say, if I don’t know about something, I cannot fix it. Or, to put it another way (as my Help Desk often hears me say after they get off of a call like the one above), “Help me help you.” I cannot do that without information.

On Being Content

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Last night, I was talking to my mom on the phone. She mentioned one of my sisters, who is now at week 36 of her pregnancy, and apparently is carrying very awkwardly (“toothpick with a beach ball” was the description). My mom said, “You know her, though. She doesn’t really complain.”

This sister (I have 3) and I have lives that are wildly different. She works in my dad’s office (patients adore her), lives in a pretty, immaculate, modest house, and has (almost) 2 kids. She seems content. I, on the other hand, am the IT Director of a law firm, have an MBA, can’t imagine having kids, and have a larger townhouse that looks like it’s been hit by a tornado even AFTER the cleaning people visit. I am so driven I drive myself nuts.

I wouldn’t want to give up my profession, and can’t imagine having the sudden desire to either spawn or pick up all the books and papers around my desk, but this sister is the one of whom I am most envious. Why?

She seems content.

I’ve always wondered how she did it–until this morning. It was what my mom said last night: “You know her, though. She doesn’t really complain.”

I’ve been wondering why I seem so miserable sometimes, and I think this might be the key. During those times, I’m complaining too much. I’m thinking about problems, but not solutions.

I believe geeks often do the same thing. In my career with geeks, I’ve heard more complaints than praises, and more discussion of problems than solutions. Especially if things haven’t been going well with technology or projects, geeks seem to complain a lot.

There’s a time and place for venting, granted. As with everything else, it’s a balancing act. However, for me, I’m going to try substituting positive comments for complaints and talking about solutions for talking about problems. Maybe, by doing so, I can, like my sister, seem content.

On Assumption, Part II

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(Part I is here)

The other morning, I decided it was just too cold for me to walk across the bridge with the wind, and I elected to catch the #7 bus from South Station to work. Usually, I get off right after the bridge across the channel.

This morning, however, I watched that stop pass me right by.

The next stop was out at the Boston Convention and Exhibition center. I had to walk back from that stop–a much longer, colder walk than the one I was avoiding. And, of course, the #7 bus passed me on the way back, too.

What happened? Well, every other time I rode the bus, someone else had pressed the “stop requested” tape. Somehow, in my brain, I really really thought that someone had pressed it already.

Faulty assumption, where I didn’t even know I was making an assumption.

How does this pertain to leading geeks?

Well, we all live inside our own minds, where we interpret the world around us. Inside that vast, cavernous spac–er, that world, we react to things based on how we interpret them. That interpretation can include assumption, where we assume that something exists or happens. Unfortunately, under stressful conditions (or lack of sleep and/or caffeine), those assumptions can be faulty.

As a leader, I find that I have to be willing to re-interpret my assumptions to fit the “real” world of my geeks sometimes. And when my assumptions are wrong? Let’s just say that my ego takes a long, cold walk back to reality.

Dear Geeks:

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(Before anyone gets excited, this is not intended for or aimed at any specific geek or non-geek who has ever worked for, around, or with me. It was originally inspired by this and this, although it isn’t the same format. Thank you.)

An open letter to geeks, from a geek leader:

I like you. I like working with geeks. You’re intelligent, have odd senses of humor, are creative, and usually shower. I chose to move into geek-dom, and, once here, decided to stay. Eventually, I became a leader. I know some of you don’t quite understand why I would want to do that, but perhaps you can attribute it to a management gene or being dropped on my head as a child (or maybe hitting a house with my head going 20 mph when I was in 2nd grade, but I digress).

But here’s the thing: I still think you should know some stuff.

  1. I’m human. I make mistakes. Shocker, I know. Do me a favor and tell me, rather than letting me look like an idiot, okay?
  2. I experience political pressure. Which, in turn, sometimes makes me tell you to do things you think are stupid. And sometimes I can’t even explain why. Please ask, though. See #1 for the reason you should ask.
  3. If we don’t work in an IT/software company, please learn how to talk non-geek to the, well, non-geeks. Actually, this applies even if we do work in an IT/software company.
  4. You have this job in order to provide value to the shareholders of the company. Either you make the stuff or do the work that makes money, or you support the people who do. Shockingly, very few companies will pay you to just sit around and be geeky.
  5. My top priority is to run the department according to #4. That’s why I have the job. They don’t pay me to just sit around and be management-y.
  6. I want to have fun. I want to be a team. But #s 4 and 5 have to come first. Doing both at the same time is optimal, but sometimes we won’t have fun. I know it sucks.
  7. I care more about you as a human than as a geek or a cog in some corporate machine. Does this sound counter to #s 4, 5, and 6? Yup. It’s a balancing act. See #1 for why I mess it up sometimes.
  8. My job as a manager is to enable you to do your job. Your job is to accomplish the goals I set as a manager and the goals of the company. In my world, you and I work for each other.
  9. But I’m still a manager. If I excuse myself during off-color conversations, it’s because I’m trying to be appropriate. Especially since we’re probably different genders.
  10. The way this all works is that we all act like adults. You do what I ask you to do without my telling you how to do it, and you ask me for help or push back when it seems odd, strange, or impossible. We communicate. We don’t kvetch about each other without first discussing the problem face-to-face (or at least phone-to-phone if we’re a remote team).

I think we can all figure this out, really. It’s a matter of respect and priorities.

Sincerely,
Jenn

P.S., It’s okay to shoot the flying monkey into my office. Just be warned that I’m easily startled and might shriek…

On Misery

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Ever notice that a lot of geeks seem pretty miserable? You know, down-in-the dumps, put-upon, generally grouchy? Well, according to this article, 1/4 of geeks in small and mid-size businesses have suffered verbal or physical abuse at work, many work hours outside business hours (uh, duh!), and some are looking to leave the field. While I’ve never seen physical abuse, I’ve heard some pretty impressively horrifying help desk calls, where the geek technician is personally insulted for problems that he or she did nothing to cause.

And while I understand that users are frustrated beyond belief when they can’t do their jobs due to technology, it’s definitely demoralizing to hear someone say, “gee, IT has a problem AGAIN.” Well, yeah. We hate it, too. And none of us wants to have a problem AGAIN. And we’re not perfect. And we’re sorry. AGAIN. (And one or more of us have probably pulled an all-nighter or three to fix it. AGAIN.)

So I don’t wonder that geeks are miserable.

However, I don’t actually think it’s all externally motivated misery. Oh, there’s reason enough to sit around and be miserable, but I think there’s a better way to deal with it.

No, it’s not to drink heavily. Honest!

If you’re a miserable geek, I challenge you to ask yourself the question, “What would it take to make me happy?” And then answer it. Honestly.

I did that myself this past week, and was shocked by my answer. There were really only two things: make one change at work, and see friends more often. That’s it. Oh, sure, I’ll be happier with more stable systems, a laptop that actually works, and all sorts of other things; but really, there were only two things that I could think of that would change my attitude radically.

So I ask you, gentle geek and non-geek readers. What would it take to make you happy?

On Training

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My first technology job was as a computer training specialist for a health and human services company. I was terrible. I’ve been under the impression for the past decade or so that I was terrible because I dislike telling people how to do something more than once.

Turns out that I was wrong.

I was a terrible trainer because I designed, built, and taught my classes around the way I personally like to learn: If you briefly show me all of the features of something, I’ll figure out the optimal way for me to use it on my own. Don’t tell me how to do every little thing methodically–I’ll get bored and pissy.

Many geeks are exactly like this, making it fairly easy for me to teach fellow geeks (see above about the not like telling folks how to do something more than once). Unfortunately for me as a trainer, this is not exactly like normal human behavior. Normal humans (and I realize I’m wildly over-generalizing) seem to want to actually know the best or recommended way to do things, and they’d like step-by-step instructions.

Woah; shocker.

This is exactly what the all of the wonderful trainers who have worked in my departments have done. They figure out the best way to do a task (or the best way for our users to do a task) and design, built, and teach their classes accordingly. Everyone they have trained has loved them and has gone back for more classes or individual help time and time again.

I have to think more about this. And, when I deal with users, I need to learn NOT to say, “You can do it this way, or this way, or this way, or that way.” Instead, I need to say, “There are many different ways to do this, but the best way is to…” and go through it step-by-step. My favorite way to teach? Heck, no. But I’m a big fan of effective, and I believe that this will help me communicate more effectively with non-geeks.

On My Values

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My values as an IT Director and as a human being:

  1. Everyone is equally deserving of my respect (until they do something pretty extreme to lose it). My staff, my co-w0rkers, the end-users at my firm, my family, complete strangers across the world, and absolutely everyone is a valuable person to me. My references to “geeks” or “users” are not meant to be condescending in any way.
  2. I shoot straight. I value complete honesty, and hold myself to that standard. What I say is what I mean; there is pretty much never a hidden meaning. One drawback is that I might not “get” that others read negative meaning into my statements.
  3. I work hard. I am an incredibly driven person. If I don’t pay attention, I will work myself until I am absolutely sick. Do you see a tweet at 10:12 AM? Chances are that I took 30 seconds to tweet between tasks, but since I’ll work through lunch and far into the evening, I hope you don’t begrudge me that 30 seconds. Do you see a blog post at 10:13 AM? Well, chances are that I wrote it at some obscene hour in the middle of the night and set it to post during business hours so that more people would see it.
  4. I take care of my staff. I rarely ask anyone to work harder than I push myself, and I usually have much more sense when it comes to their sanity or health than I do with my own. I also consider it to be part of my job to get to know who they are inside and outside of work. Maybe you’ll come across a non-work conversation once in a while, but as I mention in my post On Geek Socialization, this is a good thing for the team and the firm’s IT service.
  5. I care about the customers. I have my job so that I can provide the best service possible to the end-users at my firm. I call them “users”, not to be condescending, but because that is the common term used in IT, and this is a blog for and about leaders of geeks.
  6. My family is important to me. I almost always put work first, but I’ve learned that there are certain things I need to do in order to keep my family speaking to me and keep myself sane.
  7. Laughter is important. I like to have fun at work. Heaven knows, we all spend enough hours there… I go into more detail in my post On Humor.
  8. I have feelings. Yes, they get hurt sometimes. Especially since I’m a generally positive person, and I greatly dislike it when people misinterpret things that I do and say as hurtful. I get stressed sometimes. I make mistakes. I’m human. I try to apologize and move on.

As a blogger, I should mention that none of the geeks mentioned in any post on this blog is a real geek. Do you think you see one of my staff here? Sorry, but you’re wrong. Maybe something might resemble something one of them did one time, but it could just as easily be based on a news article or anecdote from a colleague.

On Good Management

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Recently, I was reading an Inc magazine column by Joel Spolsky on Servant Leadership. The first page of the article made sense to me. Other than thinking, “Yuck–toilet cleaning,” and then, “Okay; way too much info on bolts and plaster dust,” the first page made sense to me, because it talked about leading by example. Clicking over to page two, however, is where the article hit a couple of discordant notes.

First odd note: Joel pulled his CFO off of an important customer-facing project in order to hang blinds and demonstrate to his staff that it’s management’s job to help their employees get work done. Is that management’s job? Absolutely. Was pulling the CFO off a customer project in order to demonstrate a point a good idea? Not so much. In pulling the CFO, Joel told his staff, “What happens inside this office is more important than customers or making money.”

My problem with this is that it shows an inherent lack of balance. I firmly believe that staff, customers, and revenues need to all balance each other out in order to keep morale up, keep people working, keep customers happy, and stay in business. Is it tricky to maintain this balance? Yes. Does it look to me like Joel knows about and maintains this balance? Certainly not from his actions with the CFO.

Second odd note: You want to run your company like a research university? Really? The goals of a company (create value for the shareholders; don’t go under) are really not the same as the goals of a research university (education, research, scholarship). In a university, there’s also a wide divide between the “haves” (the research faculty) and the “have nots” (the administrative staff who “gets stuff done)–do you really want to create such a culture divide in a company. Especially in a start-up?

It’s hard enough sometimes to be part of the non-legal staff in a law firm (although my current firm’s attorneys do an excellent job of treating IT with respect and like human beings). Once upon a time, however, I was a medical secretary at a university. Let me tell you, the class divide was gigantic, and it was quite clear that I wasn’t empowered to do a thing other than file, schedule, answer phones, and gossip in the lunch room.

Once I got through those two giant issues in the article, I found myself wondering about Joel’s two management trainee examples. It looks, to me, like he was looking for lead engineers or architects, and probably missed true management potential. Good managers and leaders don’t necessarily have the greatest ideas; they just know how to enable others to get the job done Joel said this at the beginning of the column, but his management examples don’t support his statement. The “good” example was of someone who decided that his way was the best way,and dragged everyone along for the ride. Not my style. Effective sometimes, but also not servant leadership.

So I had to wonder about the “bad” trainee. Was he truly waiting for the title, or was he busy building relationships with the developers in order to get stuff done in the future? Was he not “thinking about new features we should develop” because he already identified that the developers already had great ideas? Was he working with the developers to flesh out the benefits of those ideas, thereby winning the developers’ trust behind the scenes? Was he building a stable foundation such that he could step into a true leadership role upon getting the title?

We may not know the answers to these questions, and each leader has a different style and idea of leadership and management. I can tell you, however, that I won’t be modeling my style on Joel Spolsky’s. I want to work for the business, inspire my team, and recognize good background work in my staff.