The IT department has often been my first stop in any new job. This is because I often do pretty niche jobs, which means I need a different tech setup to most of the organisation. This has variously delighted and haunted my IT colleagues.
In one job, I requested different permissions on my laptop so that I could update my special data science software more easily. This kind of software needs lots of little updates (often in the middle of my work) to keep functioning.
It’s kind of like staying at a hotel and asking housekeeping for a freshly laundered pillow frequently – but not every night – because it alleviates otherwise-debilitating neck pain. Faced with this request, IT has three options: send someone to give me a freshly laundered pillow frequently (but randomly) on short notice, give me the key to the pillow room or give me the keys to every room in the hotel in perpetuity. They chose the third option.
Why did IT give me the forever-master key to the metaphorical hotel? I would argue it’s because they probably thought the benefits outweighed the costs. This option gives me lots of flexibility to solve my own problems. I could try every pillow in the hotel (I didn’t), check if other people had different pillows to me (I didn’t, I don’t care) or go get a new pillow from the pillow room when I needed one (which I did). Choosing this option also benefits IT because they don’t have to answer my frequent, random emails and deliver each pillow. I also thought less emails were excellent because I’m impatient and urgent requests for a single freshly laundered pillow feel a bit ridiculous, even if there’s a sensible reason.
But this option has a cost: an unacceptably low level of cybersecurity. While I never went into anyone else’s metaphorical hotel room, it is best practice to not give out master keys to hotel guests at random.
In this instance, IT could choose this option because we hadn’t explained our preferences regarding cybersecurity, growth or much else. But even if you don’t explain your preferences, they will be revealed to you. Revealed preferences, the practice of identifying preferences through observation is generally the best measure of economic value thus loved by economists, and the worst way of managing tech thus hated by IT.
IT people viscerally hate learning about a client’s preferences via observation, in my experience. But it’s often challenging to get a clear statement of preferences from non-technical business leaders. So they make-do with the information they’re given and trudge along.
Some IT providers are able to bridge this tech-business communication gap. Consistently closing this communication gap across our economies will require more IT providers to have hard conversations with their non-technical bosses and clients. Those conversations will need to be a genuine two-way exchange to be useful, with investment on both sides.
So how do non-technical (or ‘accidental’) leaders figure out their preferences in IT? Right now, you have three options: do the hard translation work yourself, hire a consultant or fractional CTO to do it for you, or get a better MSP. At Lumenas, we’re building tools to make this work easier for all IT leaders, whether technical or accidental.
Let me know if you’ve got a story like mine or are worried you might be living one. I’d love to hear more about people’s challenges in managing IT so we can help solve them.
This piece was originally published on Linkedin here.