Change management all about the people

Posted on by Jason

Technically, we assume that IT change is about IT, but it is really about change management for those affected within the organisation – what they do and how they do it.

There are four main ways of introducing IT change – incremental change; step change; a phased approach and a big bang approach. All of these different approaches need their own change management approach.

Incremental change is, perhaps, the easiest to introduce. The changes are small and part of a larger work plan. The downside to this approach is that change can be slow.

Step change is a marked and identifiable change – that is, a significant change that can easily be seen. As of this date, your old familiar software will now be a different software.

The big bang approach achieves fast change but carries inherent risk. Staff may not be completely on board, unanticipated glitches may occur and more training may need to be done (and done again).

Change management in IT is all about people, and needs to take into account the organisation, its culture, what you are changing and how you are changing it.

-Wanganui District Council information technology manager Jason Simons has worked around the world delivering IT solutions, including providing encrypted systems for governments, banks and corporates.

People are Amazing

Posted on by Jason
Our hearts go out to all those people and families who have been affected.
Photo by Mark Brimblecombe
Photo by Mark Brimblecombe
Our IT staff support an organisation of 300, who in turn support a community of 44,000.
In times of emergency, all focus is on the emergency response, and support of the community.
We are supporting those who support the people.
There are many small stories of the support which go on in the background which are never told.
  • Such as our Archives and Digitisation staff, who are now working the night shift in the emergency response centre.
  • Our system engineers who are relocating staff directly affected by the flooding and still continue to provide regular services.
  • Before the flood, engineers were in the middle of an Exchange 2013 migration, which still carries on. Because it has to.
  • Our DBA’s extracting all the people and telephone numbers of those rural households trapped by floods and land slides, so that they can be directly contacted for air lift of generators, medical and food supplies.
  • Our GIS (mapping) staff’s tireless response for the continuous flow of requests for customised maps showing affected areas, incidents, households, water flow paths…
  • And operational staff in non-customer facing roles, working from home so that their offices can be utilised for emergency response support staff.
And of course the direct support from our suppliers asking if they can do anything else at this time; telecommunications, Internet providers, hardware vendors, hosted and cloud service providers.  It all shows the strength of conviction and well meaning of fantastic business partnerships.
People are amazing.

Can IT influence culture and communication?

Posted on by Jason

Information Technology teams are not generally defined by their communication skills or their ability to effectively communicate across multiple layers of an organisation.

There is a singular “basement” culture which exists in IT that sets it apart from the rest of the organisation. So how is it that this isolated culture with a reputation for saying “no” can positively affect the rest of the organisation?

By insisting on a “yes” culture.

It’s really that simple – a business unit approaches your staff and identify a problem. Can we help? Yes! Can we see a solution? Yes! Can we implement this solution efficiently and within budget? Yes!

Whether we can immediately see a solution is irrelevant – there is a solution out there, we just need to find it. The staff member or business unit manager has gone away happy, ready to spread the word to disbelieving ears – the IT department said they would help!

The ideal situation for me is if I already have the solution in place, so when the business asks, my answer is not only “yes” but “we already have that capability. I’ll turn it on for you.”

By installing a yes culture in IT staff, from management through to the IT help desk, positive change can and will start to infect the rest of the organisation.

Imagine being the leader of an IT department that has the reputation within the organisation of saying yes, of getting things done, or overcoming problems and finding a solution, by being customer-centric, of being leading-edge.

Imagine being part of an organisation that takes on a yes culture, to the point where people want to work for you, customers appreciate you, staff enjoy working with you, and you improve the organisation’s productivity, because while you are busy saying yes, staff are busy finding creative and forward-thinking solutions to technical issues asked for by managers and front–line staff, and the changes are having a positive impact on work productivity and staff morale.

So can IT positively influence work culture? YES!