IT Training & IT Cuts

In these days of government and corporate cost-cutting, with IT seen as good for cutting, where does IT Training stand?

And a key question:
How much money and thought is put into (a) good quality IT training & education, compared with (b) the general level of success & satisfaction with IT?

Is there a correlation?

One thing is sure. According to surveys of senior management about IT success, and of users about IT satisfaction, it's evident that IT as a whole isn't working (which makes it easier to justify the cost cuts).

Assuming for the moment that there is a correlation - that if IT Training were bigger and better then so would IT success & satisfaction as a whole be bigger & better -

- let's look at some reasons why IT Training might not be working -

• IT Training needs to become more education oriented, in giving The Why.
  

The difference between training and education:
- Training gives you the what and the how.
- Education gives you the what and the why.

So when point & click skills are taught, are they taught within the context of the tasks, internal customers, the business processess, the organisation's context and needs, and the external customer's expectations?

But in any case, point & click skills are not where it's at:

• IT Training needs to be less hands-on point & click skills, and more about being IT Savvy;
  how to make it work
  - for people, the organisation, and customers.
  

A further issue is that most IT training tends to be of the sheep-dip type (as does most training in organisations), with little or no follow-through. And yet:

• IT training would be more effective if it were staged over weeks, rather than a day or two, with the longer calendar time giving superior loop learning
  
  
• IT Training would also be more effective with follow-up mentoring, for example by lead-users.

Lastly, IT training tends to be treated like an orphan; considered last and grudgingly. In fact the effective use of technology is only as good as the training and education in using the technology. Therefore:

• IT Training & Education needs to be a priority rather than an afterthought.
  

After all, if good quality education is a key factor in lifting up the prosperity of a nation, then surely it must be for organisations, in the success & satisfaction achieved with IT.

The IT Crowd: It's in the Mind

The IT Crowd is a clever and funny award-winning television sitcom by Graham Lineham. It presents the characters in a small IT department fumbling their nerdish way through corporate life.


But is there any truth in The IT Crowd?

If there is, and if The IT Crowd is a true reflection of how the IT function and IT people are generally viewed in organisations, then it’s their own fault, isn’t it?

IT people are nerds who can hardly put two words together, have very little emotional intelligence, never keep their promises, are lost in their own little world, are always trying to confuse you with techno-speak, soak up too much resource, take forever to do anything, never listen to you, never give you what you want, do not understand the business, and are of little use beyond their role as Help Desk mechanics.

Best keep them in the basement “lurking below ground”, or better yet get rid of them and give the job to a remote site in India or the Philippines, which will resolve the problem and cut IT costs (which of course is the main priority).

And yet, in real organisations:

• How can we get closer to our external customers?
• How do we conquer Information Overload?
• How do we get value from Information?
• How can we get Data we can rely on?
• How do we get real value from IT?
• How do we get what we really need from IT?
• How do we reduce IT stress?

In a recent conversation with a senior manager, the notion was that IT is a “tool”. Another manager said that IT needs to start giving “users” what they want. Both of these notions miss the big picture.

Coming back to the original question:

Is there any truth in The IT Crowd? To what extent does The IT Crowd reflect the way IT is generally viewed in organisations?

The closer it is to reality (that The IT Crowd really does reflect the way IT is viewed in an organisation), the less likely that IT will benefit (a) the organisation, (b) the people who are part of it, or (c) their present and potential customers.

In comparison with “it’s their own fault” above, here are some ideas to consider. They're not very ‘sexy’, they do not provide any quick fix, and none of them involve the latest killer app.

• IT is not just a “tool”. It's a strategic lever.
• You don’t have “users”. You have (internal) customers.
• It's not what customers want. It's what they really need.
• IT is everyone’s responsibility.
• Information Value not techlology, is what IT is really all about.
• Data quality begins and ends with the internal customer/user.
• First make effective use of the technology you already have.
• Make IT training effective; don't let it be an orphan.
• There are no IT Projects; only Business Projects.
• It’s not Them that's the problem. Us-and-Them is the problem

Here’s the main point: it all begins in the mind.

Success & satisfaction with IT
is first and foremost about how we think about IT.