Nothing New Under the Sun

 

Let’s see if you’ve heard this before in your office.

“Business people don’t understand anything about technology!”

“Why can’t IT deliver faster?”

“Leadership needs to share their vision!”

“IT just needs to do what they’re told, they don’t understand the business!”

And this gem of a conversation:

Business: “When is my project going to get done? I need to know what to plan for the marketing email.”

IT: “We need to define your requirements to get a date. What exactly do you need?”

Business: “How can I plan what I’ll need if I don’t know when I’ll get it?”

IT: “How can I tell when you’ll get it if I don’t know what you want us to build?”

The truth is that we all have the same basic challenges when it comes to projects. The struggle between clear requirements and value statements, accurate estimates and completion dates is ongoing.

Every company I’ve worked for (which I admit is not many comparatively) has had these issues, these discussions. And every company I’ve worked for has argued at some point that the conventional wisdom of the industry works great for everyone else, but “we’re special, we’re different, we’ll need to try something new.”

Months (maybe years) go by, consultants are consulted, in-house resources spin up special cross-functional analysis teams, leadership weighs in… and in the end everyone comes to the consensus that the conventional wisdom really is the way to go – maybe they should have just started there and made a few tweaks to align with organizational specifics.

So why can’t we learn from the best practices of others?

I don’t have an answer here – but I do know that in every case that I’ve experienced, there is an individual or a small group of people pushing for the quick and simple approach from the beginning.

Often they’re too low level to be heard, which is to the detriment of the company. Leadership teams are great, but they’re pretty far removed from the actual work that keeps things going. The further down an org chart you get, the more likely you are to find small, practical solutions to real problems.

Some blogs offer advice or answers – this one raises questions.

• How do you make yourself heard, when you know your approach or idea has merit?
• How do you influence, regardless of your role or position?

When I find myself in this position, I try to remember: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead