Nice article in CIO Magazine: Ten Survival Tactics for Your First Year on the Job. Tips include:
- First six months: Ease the easy pain
- Second six months: Set your agenda
- Restructure the IT organization (no matter what)
- Change behaviors without asking permission
- Hit the helpdesk
- Ask the business for advice (and write down what people say
Restructuring the I.T. dept is essential. Technology options continue to develop and change so fast that, no matter how well the dept has worked in the past, standing still is not an option. I.T. helps enable change in the organisation. To be successful means the I.T. dept must be the most flexible of all to change.
I like ‘change behaviours without asking permission’. When it comes to people-oriented technologies – collaboration, communication etc. – change has to come from bottom-up, not top-down. Letting people do stuff their own way, rather than imposing ‘process’ on them, is the best way to guarantee acceptance and adoption of new systems.
Hit the help desk could be re-written as ‘hit the call centre’ and applied to the CEO position too!
And finally, the whole point of an I.T. dept is to provide technologies that enable the business to do ‘stuff’ better. Asking the business for advice will find opportunities for I.T. to assist with business goals, and that it was I.T. depts should be doing in the 21st Century.
Full article is here:
Ten Survival Tactics for Your First Year on the Job
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