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Category Based List On The Other Hand Geek Gap
Category Based List On The Other Hand Geek Gap
Infotainment
The McKinsey Quarterly
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 I just finished a good book The Geek Gap: Why Business And Technology Professionals Don't Understand Each Other And Why They Need Each Other to Survive, by Bill Pfleging and Minda Zetlin. Well-written book: "suits" and "geeks" speak different vocabularies and in the communication gap, the business suffers.
But this got me thinking, what is more detrimental to the business is when geeks start acting like suits, and vice versa. In these transformations of thought and behavior the end is lost and means becomes the primary focus.  Plenty of times as a change enabler I have seen that a simple request from Business goes in a bureaucratic loop of business case, approvals, PMO, database team, GUI team - all for a simple inclusion of an email alert triggered by an event. This could be ITs way of seeming important for the overall organization. Most of us have been to Steering Committee meetings and we realize the time and effort spent by "geeks" in doing those presentations may well have been used in finishing the very issues they want highlighted. All the fancy templates that most companies have in their repositories and insist on being used is sheer waste of time. Simplicity has gone out the window. The only template they ought to have is one with bold words that say "KISS" (keep it simple, stupid)
 On the other side, when "Business" turns "Geek" it is almost comical. An email with a one liner on the requirement throws one off into a huge ambiguous black hole. On clarification they sound just like "geeks" and say but isn't it very clear of what was requested. I want the system to make coffee - how difficult is that to understand? And isn't it understood that by coffee I meant Raspberry Truffle Cappuccino Frappe. In their defense they feel they had written a very techy-geeky email which should make sense to any "geek"!
So maybe there will be a happy medium where all sides focus on just the means to an end and a better business solution. About the author: Sonal Vaidya Sonal Vaidya founder of the 'Technology Management Portal' has vast experience in the information technology having served in product management, enterprise development, project management and team development roles. Sonal has also held key positions with global leaders in industries like Finance, Insurance, Utilities, Media, Publishing.
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Comments (4)
IT should "wear suits" insofar as adopting business goals and understanding the big picture.
However, we all too easily easily get lost in process, forgetting the goal.
We can create process to hide behind costly, inefficient, slow IT delivery. We say “we followed the process”, instead of working to reach the point of being able to say “I partnered with you, exceeded your expectations, helped you get your objectives met, and contributed to the company goals”.
Funny thing is the Geek has his nose buried in the detail and the Suit almost ALWAYS has to look into the future, with a rather 'big picture' lens that will help him continuously chase revenue or worry about costs.
And the truth is that the org needs both!
But in the end, if neither appreciate that fact, the common phrase of "the gap between business and IT" that we keep talking about, oftentimes has to be rephrased to either "There is a Business between the gap and the IT" or "There is IT beween the gap and business"!
I must read that book now!!