As a seriously non-technical person working in an IT consulting firm, I regularly get the opportunity to swivel my head around when a colleague is talking and ask the question, "What in #@!*#! are you talking about?" Because these folks are pretty tolerant, they'll usually take pity on me and explain. How often do you get the opportunity to be the good samaritan? Probably more often than you'd think. This month, we'll talk about why it isn't just kindness that should be motivating you to avoid geekspeak.
In With the In Crowd
Every profession has its own jargon and IT is no different. In fact, IT has different dialects and it's a rare individual who is fluent in all of them. The infrastructure people speak one language, with variations for telephony. Programmers speak another, with idioms related to their expertise in mainframe operating systems or client/server applications. Internet types mix hardware, software and marketing into a lingua franca that is evolving at the pace of e-time itself.
The value of vernacular among peers is obvious. It's the first way we judge knowledge and ability. It's shorthand that helps us cut to the chase. And it permits private jokes and tells us if someone belongs to our group - is one of us. So, this private language also tells outsiders that they aren't part of the group. "What," you say, "does this matter to me? I get along great with the people in my department and what do I care about the people in my company who don't understand technology? They think we're all dorks anyway and laugh at Dilbert even if they really don't get it."
The reason why you should care is that the balance of IT power in many companies is changing. It may not be perceptible yet, but it's only a matter of time. Pun intended. Once the Y2K issue stops being the 800-pound gorilla in a lot of companies, we're all going to see a change in way IT is managed.
Whether or not you want to believe it, business needs will be driving IT. CIOs are moving into the executive suite and CEOs are beginning to look to IT as the engine for profitability and competitive advantage. While this could be source of the respect we always thought we deserved, it doesn't sound much like the way we usually talk, does it? Pretty soon, it will.
The Internet is Coming ... The Internet is Coming
Yes, I know it's already here. But the CEO didn't, though it's starting to dawn on him. And as soon as his major competitors start to create a web-based business presence or some little startup threatens to eat his lunch by undercutting price and/or delivery speed on his flagship product, he's going to pay attention in a hurry. He's going to want an eBusiness strategy yesterday and he's going to expect you to create it.
Trust me, he's not interested in hearing about XML, TCP/IP, or RAID arrays. He wants to know how the IT department is going to give the enterprise the appropriate competitive position in this new channel and insure continuing profitability. It's IT's problem to design an enterprise-wide, effective solution that meets current business needs, anticipates how these needs will change and supports the future, connects to legacy systems for data and costs as little as possible. Oh, and by the way, make sure it's totally up and running by the end of the quarter.
Whether or not you've gotten this kind of directive, it's probably coming in one way or another. I can imagine the cubicle complaints already. "This is ridiculous/impossible." "They never understand what miracles they're asking for." "There's no way we can get this done, we're right in the middle of (fill in your own projects here) and we'll never get everything finished now." Yada, Yada. This is absolutely correct - however, it is of no consequence. You're going to have to do it anyway.
Effective design for these new systems and applications depends on evolving business needs. And this is why geekspeak can be the enemy.
Business Communications 101
If it gets in the way of communicating with the business side of the enterprise, that is. Business types tend not to speak IT. Those that try are often met with the same contempt that the French are noted to exhibit for those who dare to attempt their language. For the most part, IT professionals have not learned to speak business. Thus, what we have here is a failure to communicate.
IT professionals already have the reputation of being territorial and difficult by virtue of preferring to be left alone to do their own work. Think about how we refer to the folks in the rest of the business. We call them users. Consider the implications of that name outside the IT world. What is a user? A manipulator, a player. How often do IT types really mean that inference? More than occasionally, I think.
We know best about the care and feeding of our systems. We tend to resent intrusion into our domain. This attitude stemmed from the mainframe days, when our expertise was absolutely necessary. But times are changing. Client/server was the beginning and the internet has turbocharged the pace of change. Every day, there are new product/service offerings from vendors large and small to automate nearly anything imaginable. It's almost impossible to keep up.
Off-the-shelf solutions benefit the enterprise. A lot. As long as they support real business needs. The folks at IBM, Microsoft, Big 5 consulting firms and most others understand this. Most of their marketing strategies are predicated on leveraging these customizable relationships. They're not selling to the IT department as much. Instead, they're selling to line of business directors and managers and the focus of control for decisionmaking is moving away from IT. The IT folks just get called in as support. And if you can't help calculate the ROI (return on investment), then stay out of the way until we need you to plug all the stuff together.
Enlightened Self-Interest
It's in your best interest to jump all over this opportunity...and it really is an opportunity. Learn the business side and you'll be able to expand your own horizons. Upward mobility in IT is going to be less and less about the nuts and bolts of technology and more about exploiting technological capabilities for improved cycle time, inventory turns and mass customization. These are the kind of terms you're going to need to be able to toss around in the future.
Cultivate some friends from business units and try to understand what motivates them. Listen to what they have to say about their competitors and developments within the industry. Start to think about how technology can help. Remember that it's about information technology and real competitive advantage comes from exploiting that information.
Bear in mind that you'll be lucky to be able to use words like bandwidth or scalability in these conversations, though teaching these concepts to business types is useful. They don't really care about cool technologies and technical elegance is for your enjoyment, not theirs. It's all about what your solutions can do for the business. And ultimately, that's what it's all about for IT too.
More...
Start reading the business strategy articles in your IT publications if you don't already. Recognize that the same factors that promote companies as viable investment possibilities affect your employer as well. Think about the increasing importance of business and consider the possibility of including it in your personal training plan. Write to me at jamie@jobcircle.com if there's anything you'd like to add.
I've been getting a lot of correspondence from readers about picking a career direction. Starting in June, I'll be writing about it. Look for What's My Career Anyway? next month.
Enjoy this article? Read more of JobCircle.com's Career Coach articles.
Jamie Fabian spent more than 15 years as a human resources executive before changing careers to become a senior project manager for a growing IT consulting company. Now in management consulting for a large Pharma company, Jamie would like to be seen as a hybrid of Tom Peters, Tom Jackson, and Tom Wolfe, but spends too much time working, driving carpool and watching mindless TV to write more than this column. You can contact Jamie with questions and comments at jamie@jobcircle.com.
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