All Posts by Bob Lewis

|In: Leadership|Last Updated:

Back in graduate school, in my electric-fish-research phase, my advisor won a National Geographic grant that took the two of us to Gabon. One of the terms of the grant was that National Geographic had first right of refusal for any photographs we took.

At the time I fancied myself a professional-grade photographer, and so it was that we each sent in the best we’d taken while on the trip. My photos were crisp, well-composed, and attractive.

National Geo’s response: “While your photographs are technically well executed, here at National Geographic we like to have a bit of life in the ones we use.”

But you aren’t reading Keep the Joint Running for tips on taking better pictures, let alone getting the tips from someone whose photos earned a rejection slip.

So instead (drumroll) … here are some tips on IT management that are derived from parallels drawn from what I’ve learned about that subject. Some are more of a stretch than others, so I’m including some recent photos to keep your attention.

Tip#1: Know the current state

Green heron at rest

When shooting (for example) a green heron, capture it at rest while you can. Motion is harder; don’t miss the shot altogether.

When figuring out your IT management priorities, make sure you understand your department’s current state – “at rest,” so to speak – before you start making plans for motion … for change where change might be needed.

Tip#2: Notice motion

It’s doing something. Not sure what …

Capturing motion makes for better photos. Recognizing motion in your organization gives you a chance to reinforce that you value initiative right away, when it occurs. Even if what you’re seeing is just random movement, you can still take advantage of it as an object lesson in what you want to see.

Tip#3: Listen

It’s talking! Are you listening?

Observation is an important tool in your toolkit – so much so that for many managers one of their top priorities right now is figuring out how to engage in “management by calling around” with remote employees, for whom management by walking around doesn’t work.

But beyond observation, pay attention when employees take the initiative to vocalize in your general direction. When the sound is coming from a green heron it might be trying to let you know you’re getting on its nerves.

When your employees are making sounds in your general direction they just might let you know something important about what’s getting on their nerves, even if it isn’t you.

You just have to pay attention.

Tip#4: Give your subject some space

Wait! I didn’t get the shot yet!

When photographing an interesting subject (in this case a great blue heron) it’s tempting to go for the close up. But that can backfire – you get the motion National Geographic likes, but at the risk that what it you’re trying to capture in motion doesn’t want to stick around while you take more photos of it.

When managing IT you might be tempted to get the results you need by overseeing the work that’s getting done too closely. Not every IT professional will sit still for managers who get too close, either. They’ll call it micromanagement and even if they’re wrong they’re right, because there are no precise metrics for identifying micromanagement.

Only gripes when it’s perceived.

Bob’s last word: There’s a near-iron-clad law of avian photography – birds have a remarkably precise ability to know the exact focal length of the lens you’re shooting photos with, and the exasperating habit of perching just beyond what that focal length will support.

It isn’t all about the lens. But the right lens sure does help.

Great glass does make a big difference. But patience can make an even greater difference.

With your employees, providing the best tools of the trade is the parallel to shooting photos with the right equipment. It can make a big difference in employee performance.

But as with photography, when it comes to encouraging the best performance, patience counts for even more.

Bob’s sales pitch: It’s time for you to hop over to CIO.com again to read the next article in my “IT 101” series. This time the subject is technical architecture. And if you don’t mind, take the time to let me know what you think of the series so far.

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|In: Strategy and Tactics|Last Updated:

The formula for persuasion consists of three straightforward steps: (1) sell the opportunity or problem; (2) collaborate in designing a solution; (3) formulate a plausible plan for implementing the solution that resolves, or at least ameliorates the problem or, in the case of an opportunity, successfully exploits it.

Political case in point (oh, don’t be that way – what follows won’t be tribal and will be relevant to leading in business situations): Here in Minneapolis we’re soon going to vote on amendments to the city charter. The most controversial is an attempt to address the clear and apparent deficiencies in how policing happens in our city.

What makes it controversial (and interesting from a KJR perspective) is how its proponents have failed to follow the principles of persuasion.

Sell the problem? As its proponents point out and its opponents don’t contest is that policing in Minneapolis needs to change. There’s broad consensus on the problem. Consider it sold.

Solution? It’s pretty vague – so vague that the courts have ruled that it can’t be on the ballot in its current form, on the grounds that voters can’t tell, based on the text of the amendment, what they’d be voting for or against.

Plan? Even the proposal’s proponents agree that there is no plan. Their plan is to figure out the plan once the proposal passes. Regrettably, if the proposal passes it would, by law, take effect 30 days later, which, given the vagueness of the solution, is an unlikely outcome.

Imagine you see the need for a change in how your company does business. For our hypothetical we’ll imagine you see severe inefficiencies in how it handles “non-strategic sourcing” (general purchasing, in case you aren’t FBC (Fully Buzzword Compliant)), along with many purchasers paying more than they should for the merchandise they need.

And so, frustrated with the status quo, you form a committee which does what committees do, and produce a proposal. Its explanation of what’s wrong right now is specific and compelling. Its solution, though … centralize non-strategic sourcing … is lacking in specifics.

But it’s the plan, which is to start work on a plan once the Executive Leadership Team (ELT in case you aren’t FBC) gives you the go-ahead, is what results in admiring guffaws at the excellent satire you presented to lighten the load created by so many of the other dreary proposals the ELT has to wade through, replete as they are with detailed financial and process optimization analyses, and fine-grained Gantt charts that illustrate their implementation roadmaps.

Which is to say the ELT laughs you out of the room before you even managed to explain you’re following Agile principles.

To be fair to all parties, your approach isn’t quite as absurd as it seems. While miniscule in scope compared to disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department, replacing it with a Department of Public Safety that might include policing functions should that turn out to be desirable … while miniscule in comparison, centralizing non-strategic sourcing in a large enterprise is no small task. Designing all of it in detail before implementing any of it would exemplify Waterfall at its worst, with lots of opportunity for blind alleys and into-a-corner painting.

And so, chastened, bloodied but unbowed, you read up on Agile and discover Agile isn’t what you’ve done. So you fire up the old word processor and write up a truly Agile approach, which is to say you explain the opportunity much as you’ve already done, but then ask for only enough funding and staff time to: draw up an Epic-level account of what the solution would entail; and describe a set of Agile business change methods that:

  • Rank lines of business from simplest to most complex …
  • Charter and create a “minimum viable product” centralized purchasing department …
  • Transition the simplest line of business to centralized purchasing …
  • Rinse and repeat until all lines of business have been transitioned to centralized purchasing, or, in a few cases, left alone on the grounds that the costs and disruption of transitioning them exceed the benefits.

Bob’s last word: If you’re really clever, you’ll figure out how to set this up so you can quantify the benefits of each line-of-business transition so they pay for the next transition.

Bob’s sales pitch: Want more about how to organize business change? Read (and share) a copy of Bare Bones Change Management).

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