Chapter Three: With IT, sometimes getting technical

means going social

With Robert Lamb

IT projects often fail when an IT manager does not consider that the people affected
by IT efforts are likely to have conflicting concerns and priorities. Take George, for
example. He manages the IT Department in a medium-sized Midwest consulting firm.
After considerable expense and effort selecting and implementing an "improved"
project tracking system desired by the firm's managing partners, George found that
the company's field consultants failed to appreciate and use all its wonderfully
capable features. George had neglected to realize that, while the new system could
provide the partners with important information, it placed a considerable time
burden on its users and detracted from the consultants' billable client hours. The
result? After a lot of grief within the organization, this expensive new IT system
simply faded away.

An IT manager must take steps to consider the social side of IT issues because
failure to do so will hinder the success of your organization's projects and activities --
and maybe even your chances for advancement. There are several things to consider
if you want to avoid having your next IT project tripped up by social issues.

Information is the stuff of organizational power and politics: Information and

its control have long been a source of organizational power and politics.
Implementing new (or altering existing) information flow and processes will likely
change the balance of political power within a organization. For example,
implementing a new management information system which bypasses a key
manager who previously controlled the information will probably generate project
resistance in a variety of direct or subtle forms. During a technology assessment, IT
managers must also anticipate any resulting shifts in power and politics that may
occur. Don't hesitate to seek the opinion of others with whom you have a solid
working relationship. Questions like "Who will be affected if this project is
successful?" or "What's being replaced?" can help you anticipate looming trouble.
Also, note that the vendor who assures you their highly sophisticated new software
package is "just what your organization needs" is unlikely to mention the political
minefield which might await the implementation that your career may hinge on.

Organizational culture influences group choices: Culture is the "way things are
done here," while norms are typically more explicit behavioral guidelines. Individual
or shared values also strongly influence how employees act or work together in a
given situation. While some of these issues may be codified in organizational
documents such as a mission or values statement, more often they are unwritten,
and may even vary from one part of an organization to another. Mostly, they add a
lot of hidden complexity which can strongly influence your IT projects. New IT
managers and consultants are particularly advised to avoid rushing to implement
activities and projects without first gaining a basic understanding of these issues.
Proceeding on shallow organizational understanding and assumptions may limit
cooperation, so consider asking questions like; “Does the organization attach
importance to participation in project design and development? Is there a standard
of open communication about essential information changes? Is weekend time
sacred?” In short, when probing for technology requirements, the IT manager should
also take time to "ask around" and gain a better understanding of the underlying
informal ‘code’ of the social side. To get started in the right direction, try asking this
open-ended question of a cross-section of those who might be affected by your IT
changes; "What should I know about this situation that might help this project go
more smoothly or keep it out of trouble?"

Good 360 degree communication gets good results: With IT initiatives,

communication is key. Keeping your thoughts and actions close to the vest can both
damage your credibility and limit cooperation from others. While not everyone needs
to know every detail about a particular IT initiative, 360 degree communication can
sometimes spur that last elusive piece of critical information needed to ensure a
project's success. As an added bonus, spontaneous feedback is usually a keen
benefit of successful IT project communication and involvement. In the same vein,
an IT manager is well-served by creating formal methods and mechanisms to
routinely gather pre-project progress and post-project feedback. Failing to do so may
cause information critical to your next IT initiative to go unnoticed. For example,
many of the consultants who were affected by George's failed project tracking
system would have told him up front that it was too burdensome if he had simply
asked. Instead, George took his marching orders from the managing partners, failed
to do even minimal social side checking, and summarily walked the IT plank.

Remember the "Law of Minimum Critical Specification:" Most information

technologies can be designed to ‘at least work,’ and a large percentage can even be
made to work surprisingly well. Yet, even ‘working’ technologies are necessarily
incomplete and typically change and evolve over time. Furthermore, an
organization's social side is routinely in flux as well. Experienced IT managers will
recognize that their project efforts are often confounded on the technical side by
hard or software which fails to work as advertised, implementation glitches, time
crunches, technology that does not match requirements, incorrect specifications, and
so on. Similarly, on the social side, changing demands, altered political realities,
communication problems, new training requirements, and uncooperative users are
issues that also must be addressed. Thus, as an IT manager, you must learn to
thrive in an environment beset with both technology and social side challenges.
Uncertainty about technology is typically confronted by keeping technically current,
communicating with gusto, and not over-specifying every detail. One way to handle
uncertainty is to ensure "minimum critical specification," sometimes referred to as
Pareto's 80/20 rule. On the social side, there are several important points to keep in
mind; communicate well, involve others, be a "political player" and work to better
understand your social setting. Remember, awareness and acceptance of technical
and social side uncertainty can be your best prescription for success.

Harmony means joint optimization: One core theme in IT is that activities and
projects typically involve multiple technical and organizational choices, all floating on
a sea of uncertainty. Joint optimization means you must take pains to understand
the organizational settings and issues into which an otherwise optimum technical
design will be implemented. The traditional method of IT system design is to
engineer the supposed ‘best system possible’ within a given budget, and then
proceed with implementation. Certainly George worked this way, just before the
train wreck. Unfortunately, IT lore is replete with similar sad tales of such
technology-driven projects. History clearly suggests that IT activity and project
success is most often achieved by jointly optimizing both technology and social
considerations. On the social side, that means adopting 360 degree communication,
early and ongoing user involvement, decision input plus matching design and
implementation to ultimate purposes and uses. For example, a fancy information
technology introduced into a medical setting clearly requires the input and blessing
of its medical staff -- particularly high-powered physicians -- or it should be expected
to fail, no matter how much the vendor assures you that staff will ‘love it.’

Organizations are unique, one size does not always fit all: On the surface,
there seems to be great value and economy in IT standardization. Indeed, quite
often there is. However, know that each organization (even sub-units of the same
organization) often has considerably unique qualities. Absolute necessity, though,
may dictate cross-organization or system conformity. However, policies, mission,
goals, staffing, required input or output variations, and a host of other differences
may mean implementation can suffer, that the technology can not be made to work,
or even that best efforts are rejected. As an IT manager, your task is to help
decision-makers make informed choices which account for reasonable and well-
considered organizational uniqueness. Conversely, take care to avoid responding to
uniqueness with multiple hard and software choices which may have insufficient
inter-operability and end up sending problems cascading throughout the overall
system. Above all, do not blindly copy IT innovation from elsewhere into your system
because it ‘worked so well there.’ This can become your personal Trojan Horse.
Again, this issue may be best addressed with 360 degree communication and
sufficient user involvement. In the end, however, dealing with unique issues may
come down to hard choices made by informed IT decision-makers.

System effectiveness and efficiency are related to user satisfaction: All things
considered, if an IT system's users are not satisfied, you are likely to discover that
any improvements you've made are under-utilized, used inappropriately, or even
subtly sabotaged. Users have even been known to revolt and use their political clout
to embarrass an unsuspecting IT manager. Again, communication with, and
involvement from, those who will be most affected by changing IT systems or
practices is important. When you involve users in an IT activity or project, ensure
that you have a method to gather ongoing improvement information about your
innovation in progress, in addition to a way to sample continuing satisfaction with
the process. It is possible to turn even initially skeptical users into vocal champions
of your future IT improvement initiatives via strong communication, involvement and
feedback efforts.
Planned change turns IT managers into winners: Your IT activities and projects
are almost always in combination with organizational social side changes to the
status quo. As an IT manager, your task is to ensure that these planned changes are
seen as generally appropriate versus seemingly random. Fortunately, with these tips,
and some personal innovation, IT managers can typically find ways to foster IT
initiatives to insurr their organization's planned change efforts are a winning
proposition for everyone.

IT managers work in a world of complex, never-ending technology improvement and

change. As a competent technologist, those challenges may be what drew you into
the field in the first place. As an IT manager, however, you have probably found
there's more to the job than just managing your technicians and technology. Both
the immediate and long-term health of your IT improvement initiatives are more
likely to prosper when you simultaneously consider both your technology and the
social side issues when bringing IT change to your organization.

Robert Lamb is a senior consultant with Booz, Allen, Hamilton currently working on US Air
Force Cryptographic Modernization projects. He has completed the MSITM at the on-line
TUI University.