Re: Are You In A Bad Relationship? Get some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

As you know, Rob, the respect thing has been a big deal to me recently too.

The Smartest Guy I Know points out that there can be a bit of a class issue in business/IT relations. A lot of times the "business guys" are used to being deferred to, and the "IT guys" may come from a background where being told what to do was the norm. That's not an easy basis for mutual respect and cooperation.

Either IT more or less follows orders, which leads to predictably inadequate results, or they take a more assertive and equal role that may startle or offend executive leadership, which leads to conflict and bad feelings.

You know what would be an interesting topic? Authority. Where it comes from, what it's good for, when to ignore it, how to cope when it's used against you.

Re: Are You In A Bad Relationship? Get some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I think you're right, Mark that a lot of business leaders believe that IT should just follow orders and do what the business wants. The difficulty lies in the fact that the business sometimes doesn't know what they want or they don't express it adequately enough. There is also the knowledge gap where the business does not know enough about IT tools, technology, processes, etc. and so they don't know what to ask for. To go along with this, I've seen business people that don't want to manage IT projects or people because they don't feel they have the knowledge or skills in that area. It then comes down to "who's driving the bus?" and usually no one is, or if there is more than one driver there is no clear agreement on the destination. It needs to be a much more collaborative or partnership type of environment.

Overall, it's a terrible structure when IT just does what they are told and hard to get respect that way.

Authority is an interesting idea as it can really impact a project. Both negatively and positively. I'll give it some thought.