IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (70 page)
Read IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done Online
Authors: Bill Holtsnider,Brian D. Jaffe
Tags: #Business & Economics, #Information Management, #Computers, #Information Technology, #Enterprise Applications, #General, #Databases, #Networking
IT managers—and teachers, parents, and anyone in a supervisory role of any kind—are facing a crisis of attention. The ones being supervised (and you, of course) have a huge range of options from which to choose when looking for connections and/or distractions:
•
Instant messages (IM)
•
Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn)
•
Text messages
•
Blogs
•
Video sharing (YouTube)
•
Microblogs
(Twitter.com, Plurk.com, Yammer.com, Chatter.com)
•
Podcasts
•
Crowdsourcing
(Kluster.com, IdeaScale.com, Crowdcast.com)
•
Apps, gadgets, and widgets that can be installed on mobile devices
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Wikis
•
Mashups
•
RSS feeds
This list contains just
some
of the different connection types, and doesn't even cover the various devices that can be used with those connections. There will be another hot technology tomorrow. We'd list it, but we don't know what it is yet. The particular technology is not as important as how you react to it, how you take advantage of it, and how you integrate it into your work (and your life). And all these tools and technologies can be accessed with machines ranging from smart phones to tablets, so that people can stay connected 24/7/365, from anywhere on the planet (even on a plane in flight) as long as they have a wireless connection.
Another point to remember is that many technologies are hot for a while and then totally disappear. The technologies and products in this industry are very dynamic. New tools can build slowly and then burst into mainstream use. In 2009 Twitter's use exploded when Oprah Winfrey joined. That same year CNN and Ashton Kutcher competed to see who would be the first with a million followers, only to see Lady Gaga leave that number in the dust when she hit 10 million followers in 2011. Today's “new thing” can be as dated as rotary telephones in short order. The same is true regarding the competition within each space. Friendster practically invented social networking, but is now just a historical reference. Check out this fun article on forgotten tech products (dot matrix printers and After Dark (remember the flying toasters?) are on the list):
www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=114088
.
People instant message and check their Facebook page during meetings. They use their smart phones to find which restaurant has the best deal “right now.” They download podcasts for audio tours when they go to a museum. They post negative reviews about neighborhood merchants as they are walking out of the store. They text while driving. And reports are that all this behavior is only going to get more common (extranet.neverfailgroup.com/get/?fileID=17ff8c®=0&ws=1).
You can't know if this kind of behavior is going to get better or worse, but it is going to be more common. Perhaps one of the great indicators of the popularity of these solutions and products on our culture is how they become part of the language. When products and technologies become verbs (to “google", “IM", “text", etc.), it is clear that they are having an enormous impact.
Like most of the topics discussed in this book, there are definite benefits and challenges with this level of connectivity (see
Table 11.1
).
Table 11.1.
Benefits and Challenges of Connectivity
| Benefits | Challenges |
| “Velocity matters,” as Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, is famously quoted as saying. In many corporate situations, speed is of the essence. Instead of measuring cycles in months and years, some trends are now being measured day by day, and hour by hour. Getting e-mail alerts when a particular price has dropped—say the airfare to Disney World for that vacation you have been talking about—is an example of a significantly shorter sales cycle. You'll “pull the trigger” on that sale the minute the price drops below a certain point; you might even have the purchase made automatically based on that event. | Some processes do not improve with more speed. People-centric events, for example, are typically not made better by increasing the velocity. A new employee, for example, needs some time to get acclimated to his new surroundings (see Chapter 3, Staffing Your IT Team on page 65 ). Although they should feel challenged and motivated, everybody is going to take a certain amount of time to get used to their new surroundings. Demanding that people adjust in minutes instead of days may not always improve the situation. |
| Working online is the very essence of working “at the speed of thought” (as Bill Gates called his book). Most IT professionals have had the experience of thinking of an interesting and clever domain name—only to find out it was taken days ago. | It now takes—and will take in the future—an enormous amount of effort to find the proper balance to deal with the effects of all this connectivity. It has taken U.S. states a long time and a lot of energy and money to outlaw handheld cell phones and texting while driving; schools ban cell phones during classes; and employees are banned from bringing laptops to meetings. |
| Most business processes move better with faster information. If you order three laptops for new employees and only two machines are in stock with your vendor, you are better off finding that out when you're placing your order instead of when the partial shipment shows up. | Most people are not as good at multitasking as they think they are. |
| Offerings can be customized based on where you are. Using geo-location technology you can instantly see what restaurants and coupons are nearest you. | Too much information can be overwhelming. If you've ever researched a product online, such as a digital camera, the volume of information regarding features, specifications, reviews, models, resellers, and options can be numbing. |
| Get data about new technologies and new ideas fast. Who has not left a meeting, gone back to their computer, and Googled a key phrase they heard for the first time that morning? Not too long ago, that kind of information gathering took much more time and energy. | Many people are finding all these possibilities very hard to resist, and it can have negative impacts on their home and work lives. The word “addiction” is often used to describe some of these behaviors. |
| Find out what others are saying about a product. Online communities and reviews have feedback from others who are using the product and can report on the good and bad of it, as well as the vendor. Not only can you find out the lowest airfare, but you can also find out which seats on the plane are favored and/or hated. Many companies (e.g., Amazon, Dell) collect and share user feedback about their products with 1–5 star ratings. | Too much information can be as big a problem as too little information. Not only are many people uninterested in what their Facebook connections or Twitter followers had for breakfast, or that they were stuck in traffic going to work, but there are more and more stories about people getting in trouble as a result of what they shared. |
| Unprecedented levels of association—both professional and personal are available. The person who is looking at their Facebook page in a meeting may be reading a “post on his wall” from an old high school classmate. However, she might also be reading an e-mail from a colleague at another firm telling her about some bad experiences with a technology solution you're considering implementing, which means your implementation could avoid a major pitfall. | An innocuous posting can go viral and wreak havoc on a company's reputation. In 2009 musician David Carroll posted a song he wrote on YouTube on his 9-month experience trying to get reimbursed by United Airlines for a broken guitar. The story went viral, received over 10 million hits on You Tube, and was covered by national media outlets. Shortly after the video was posted, United reimbursed Carroll (which he donated to charity). Had their customer service team been more forgiving initially, United could've avoided untold amounts of negative publicity. |
| Effective methods of staying in touch, particularly across geographic and time boundaries, are now common. (The Web has expedited a 24-hour “follow-the-sun” work cycle, for example: software code written in the United States is modified or enhanced overseas while U.S. programmers are sleeping. Then the process starts again the next day.) | IM-ing about innocent activities such as the planned department lunch is often the lead-in for extended, sidetracking “conversations.” Whether it is at the water cooler or the computer, a little chit chat is harmless and often helps people enjoy their workday more, but too much can be too much. |
| A valuable way to develop and maintain contacts, find people with similar interests, and “stay in touch.” (Social networking sites for professionals such as LinkedIn have become the Rotary Club breakfasts of the 21st century.) | The concept of downtime is rapidly disappearing. Leaving the laptop at home when leaving for vacation is no longer a method for “getting away,” because the smart phone (with email) gets to go on the trip. |
| Easy to tap the knowledge base of your network by simply posting a question to the online community. (Google searches often return answers to tough questions that are posted on user forums.) | People spend more time building their network or Facebook page rather than actually maintaining their relationships. This action could impact interpersonal skills and leave people wondering about all your free time. |
| Multitasking at work is now common, and productivity (in some areas) has increased radically. You can check your e-mail while at lunch and download the latest sales figures while waiting for the elevator. | With all the noise, getting workers to focus on the tasks at hand is much harder. It requires skill to learn what is a critical phone call and what is a trivial IM or vice versa. |
| Enhanced career growth opportunities by being more connected, more informed, and more visible. Obscure positions in unheard of companies are now available for the dedicated job searcher. | With networking sites, you may be judged by the company you keep. Being “friended” on Facebook does not mean the same thing as being “connected” on LinkedIn. The two, though, are trying to crowd into each other's territory. |
| GoToMeeting, Webex, and videoconferencing tools have transformed the meeting experience radically. Attendees from around the globe can participate in large conferences or staff meetings at the click of a mouse and for minimal or no expense. | Risks of having your non-work activities being seen and judged by your boss and co-workers. Do you want your alcohol-induced karaoke contest entry on YouTube or family vacation pictures on Facebook seen by your work colleagues? |
Benefits and Challenges of Connectivity
Dealing with a Lot More Empowered Users
Regardless of where they are on the food chain—be they the CEO or her less than computer-literate marketing advisor—everyone in the organization suddenly has a lot more computing power at their fingertips. That is, like many things in this book (and in life), both the good news and the bad news.
Smart phones have the power of computers built just a few years ago, handhelds have the power and mobility only dreamed of by laptop designers just a few product design cycles in the past.
Employees now want the freedom to access data, install applications, and to do whatever they feel will help them get their job done better and faster. Instead of looking at reports, employees may ask for the raw data so that they can analyze it themselves, and possibly (if not likely) find trends or present them in a manner that no one has seen before. More and more they want the tools so that they can do it themselves. And, they may not even want to use the tools you provide, because they read a review about, or a colleague mentioned, a tool that is “far better.” But they then come back to you to figure out how to make that tool operate within your environment.
Wisdom of Crowds
An important point that should not be lost in this discussion is the “wisdom of crowds.” James Surowiecki's bestselling book
The Wisdom of Crowds
is subtitled: “Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations.” The concept is simple and counterintuitive: “groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them.” In fact, this concept, along with the capabilities of new technologies, has led to the coining of the term “crowdsourcing,” which refers to taking advantage of the online community to solve problems. Trying to figure out the best way to integrate two applications? Instead of doing days or weeks of research, you may be able to get the best answer much faster by simply “asking the world.” Want to find out if a product or technology really works as advertised? Before investing the time to set up your own trial, see what others think.
The rise of all these technologies is no less than the “trickling down” of that insight: groups are often (although not always) smarter than one person. This is one reason for the popularity of product reviews in online communities.
According to Facebook, over one billion pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on their site each week (
www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
). As of December, 2011, Facebook had 800 million users with 75 of those outside the United States—these are not numbers that can be ignored.
