Working in many companies as an IT consultant allows me to see a broader spectrum of policies, business justifications and processes than many of the clients I work with, especially if they have been with their company for many years. One of the more vexing notions that continue to surface in different forms is making decisions based on the logic of the herd concept. Or put another way, let’s pretend we are lemmings! Many years ago it was “No one got fired for buying from IBM” and after that “No one got fired for hiring Andersen Consulting” and there are more permutations of this phrase than time allows to list.
A recent iteration is “No one got fired for banning IM”. There was an article in www.networkworld.com December 1, 2008 issue that covered this topic with a touch of humor and angst, written by Andreas Antonopoulos.
Conducting business entails risk. Does not matter what type business you participate in. Instant Messaging (IM) and various chat capabilities available to companies internally and externally are nothing more than extensions of using a phone or sending e-mail (really fast!!). Those forms of communications are not banned and are seen as integral communication methods. IM is just a variation of those methods. It is often easier for security groups within companies to just say “NO” than to develop creative methods to support the business.
Most companies I have worked in allow users Administrative privileges for their Widows laptops. Even though that is a really bad idea and allows everyone to load software they bring in from home, they do not trust them to conduct business over IM.
E-mail seems to be the preferred method of communication for teams regardless of how widely dispersed they might be to one another. Although distance sometimes has nothing to do with the preference of using e-mail versus just talking. I have worked with staff that were separated by short (<five feet high) work space partitions and insisted on sending a constant stream of e-mails to one another versus just standing up or going to get a cup of coffee together! E-mail is a poor substitute for the personal interaction of carrying on a conversation, but if you must then at least review the set of guidelines below.
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Be clear, concise, and informative. Use a short descriptive subject line that actually pertains to the body of your e-mail. Something that would grab the readers’ attention: “QA Testing Identifies show stopper – project in jeopardy of Completion”. OK, who said subject lines had to be two words. Mixing uppercase and lowercase letters is perfectly fine in a business setting. Leaving the subject line blank means either you are too lazy to summarize your thoughts or everyone should just know your e-mails are important because they come from you!
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What is important? What is the primary message you want to convey? That primary message should be within the first couple of lines of the e-mail, as most people tend to skim messages and not read everything thoroughly. If you have not answered “who, what, when, where, why, or how” within the first couple of lines, you probably have lost the reader. And then again, if your e-mail does NOT have anything that pertains to the point made above, then why are you sending it in the first place?
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Proofread. Automatic spell checkers in e-mail messaging systems are great, but they don’t catch improperly used words or analyze sentence structure or content. If the e-mail has to be longer than this blog, then do it in a word processing document so you can go back later and re-read and proof. You will be amazed at how many grammatical goofs you catch when you take the time. E-mails reflect you. If they read like they were composed by someone with low intellectual capabilities, you might be leaving an incorrect impression.
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Cultural difference and time zones. Teams today are made up of people from the around the world and might actually work in a different time zone than the sender. This time difference might be as little as 1 hour to as much as 12 hours. Cultural differences and the inability for the reader to pick up the phone and discuss means you should avoid acronyms, abbreviations, slang and local jargon. Rely on simple vocabulary and conventional syntax. If in doubt, err on the side of formality and avoid attempting humor in the beginning. Time differences can work in your favor. If you want an action taken by someone hours away, then give them the information they need so they can work on the action at the beginning of their day.
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Avoid “REPLY ALL”. Send your e-mail out to people that have a vested interest or that are actually assigned to do something. Determine who must receive the message and who can survive without it. E-mail replies might get strung together to the point that you have lost track of the original intention of the e-mail. At some point, it is a good method to summarize the e-mail as a form of a status or action plan and then send again if necessary. It is my contention that e-mails that survive for weeks with just a massive string of replies means you should probably hold a conference call, summarize, develop an action plan and move on!
Technorati
In today’s economy, businesses face enormous hurdles no matter what their particular business endeavor. Competition from larger, more established firms, globalization, the looming potential for technological obsolescence and the need to keep costs under control can make management of most companies an extreme challenge. Focusing on the core business can be difficult especially when growth – and success – force management to shift its attention from the market and ‘getting ahead’ to the company’s own, internal structures. A strategic tool for CEOs is business process outsourcing. Through the process of outsourcing, analysts say, companies can regain focus on their particular business, become more efficient and even rival the systems and control level of larger companies in outsourced processes and most importantly focus their efforts on the value-added functions of their business. According to many respected reports, it certainly can help a company’s bottom line. However, there are many factors to consider before venturing into the burgeoning world of outsourcing.
Mistakes typically made with outsourcing
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Trying to outsource a function that has high costs, minimal processes, and is causing considerable management angst; at least try to take the excess costs out before you outsource. Don’t give someone else your savings margin.
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Not developing a business case and strategy on what to outsource, thereby making it difficult to assess cost and process improvement proposals from vendors.
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Not establishing a method of performance measurement upfront during the contract phase.
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Failing to consider the long-term relationship dynamics.
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Not planning upfront how the relationship might end.
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Failing to understand and manage this new organization dynamic.
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Failure to explicitly define boundaries, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Never outsource one piece at a time without a master plan.
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Outsourcing imposes discipline on your organization. Adapting to the rigorous processes required by an outsourcer may be difficult in some corporate cultures.
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New laws will essentially make security breaches at your outsourcer equivalent to security breaches at your own company.
Standard Conflict Management Practices and Tools
Outsourcing customers and providers usually enter into agreements with optimistic intentions and expectations. Customer executives look forward to quality service, new thinking, extraordinary responsiveness, and a vendor that shows both a partner-like caring about the customer’s success and an intuitive understanding of the business. Making outsourcing relationships work takes a lot more than good faith and committed people, and too few such arrangements actually come anywhere near reaching their desired goals. Even with the best of intentions, relationships can end up in with diminishing returns for both parties.
Once in this downward spiral, customers and vendors are headed down the spiral to failure. Both seem to get stuck in negative perceptions and behaviors.Technorati
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