The Role of IT in the Enterprise by Google CIO Ben Fried

I read an interview of Google’s CIO Ben Fried.  He has a very interesting view of IT in an organization.  Essentially, it came down to 2 things:

  1. Do something different – Quit doing the same old thing.  Nobody cares that their email works or that their internet connection is fast or that accounting batch finished 30 seconds sooner than it did yesterday.  Find something unique that is going to help users do their job more efficiently and give your organization a strategic advantage and go with it.
  2. Give users what they want – Employees work more efficiently when they use the technology that they are comfortable with.  It doesn’t matter if 50% of the company uses Windows, 20% use Mac and 30% use Linux.  If they are more efficient then IT is doing their job.

via CIO Insight

linkedin The Role of IT in the Enterprise by Google CIO Ben Friedshare save 171 16 The Role of IT in the Enterprise by Google CIO Ben Fried

Do You Have Unproductive Time?

At work we have a timesheet that salaried employees have to fill out for their “unproductive” time.  That includes vacation, sick leave, etc. 

Really?  How often are “unproductive” when taking a day off?  For me, I’m usually taking the day off so I can get some things done.  Even when the vacation is a “vacation”, I still wouldn’t say that I was “unproductive”.  It’s not like you take the day off to sit in front of the TV all day.  Ok, maybe some of you do, but I don’t.

Anyway, I think the whole idea of a company keeping track of “unproductive” time is extremely ridiculous because as far as I can tell none of my time is unproductive.

image thumb1 Do You Have Unproductive Time?

linkedin Do You Have Unproductive Time?share save 171 16 Do You Have Unproductive Time?

Me to a “T”

I had a friend of mine point out an article that he thought talked about “what real IT guys (like all of us) want in the workplace and what leads to genuine teams.”  Thanks, Bob.

He was right!  It’s almost perfect. 

The article, The Unspoken Truth About Managing Geeks, is written by Jeff Ello, IT Manager at Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.

I’ve always said that in almost every sense an organizations IT department is different.  Yeah, I know “they all say that”.  However, with IT groups, it’s true.  As Ello points out, “It’s all about respect”.

Anyway, I could recite the whole article but that is usually frowned upon.  I just wanted to point out that I really liked it.

So, if you want to know anything about managing or even tolerating a Geek, go read it.

linkedin Me to a “T”share save 171 16 Me to a “T”

10 things your IT guy wants you to know

The following was found at Think Smarter.  It’s just about perfect:

image5 10 things your IT guy wants you to know

  1. If you ask me technical questions please don’t argue with me because you don’t like my answer. If you think you know more about the topic, why ask? And if I’m arguing with you…it’s because I am positive that I am correct, otherwise I’d just say "I don’t know" or give you some tips on where to look it up, I don’t have the time to just argue for the sake of it.
  2. Starting a conversation by insulting yourself (i.e. "I’m such an idiot") will not make me laugh, or feel sorry for you; all it will do is remind me that yes, you are an idiot and that I am going to hate having to talk to you. Trust me; you don’t want to start a call that way.
  3. I am ok with you making mistakes, fixing them is my job. I am not ok with you lying to me about a mistake you made. It makes it much harder to resolve and thus makes my job more difficult. Be honest and we can get the problem resolved and continue on with our business.
  4. There is no magic "Fix it" button. Everything takes some amount of work to fix, and not everything is worth fixing or even possible to fix. If I say that you just need to re-do a document that you accidentally deleted 2 months ago, please don’t get mad at me. I’m not ignoring your problem, and it’s not that I don’t like you, I just cant always fix everything.
  5. Not everything you ask me to do is "urgent". In fact, by marking things as "urgent" every time, you almost ensure that I treat none of it as a priority.
  6. You are not the only one who needs help, and you usually don’t have the most urgent issue. Give me some time to get to your problem, it will get fixed.
  7. Emailing me several times about the same issue in the same day is not only unnecessary, it’s highly annoying. Emails will stay until I delete them, I won’t delete them until I’m done with them. I will typically respond as soon as I have a useful update. If it is an urgent issue, let me know (see number 5).
  8. Yes, I prefer email over telephone calls. It has nothing to do with being friendly, it’s about efficiency. It is much faster and easier for me to list out a set of questions that I need you to answer than it is for me to call and ask you them one by one. You can find the answers at your leisure and while I’m waiting I can work on other problems.
  9. Yes, I seem blunt and rude. It’s not that I mean to, I just don’t have the time to sugar coat things for you. I assume we are both adults and can handle the reality of a problem. If you did something wrong, I will tell you. I don’t care that it was a mistake, because it really makes no difference to me. Don’t take it personal, I just don’t want it to happen again.
  10. And finally, yes, I can read your email, I can see what web pages you look at while you are at work, yes, I can access every file on your work computer, and I can tell if you are chatting with people on an instant messenger or chat room (and can also read what you are typing). But no, I don’t do it. It’s unethical, I’m busy, and in all reality you aren’t all that interesting. So unless I am instructed to specifically monitor or investigate your actions, I don’t. There really are much more interesting things on the internet than you.
linkedin 10 things your IT guy wants you to knowshare save 171 16 10 things your IT guy wants you to know