MaSSSoftech

Something out of the ordinary arrived on your desk today: an IT annual report brought by your internal information technology department.

Resist the temptation to throw it away. Instead, see it for what it is: a cry for help.

Your IT department wants you to know what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve got lined up. They want you to view IT as important and to devote more time to the department.

So what should you do with the report? Use it as a starting point for dialogue. Walk straight into the office of the highest level person you know in IT and do the following:

* Thank them and offer to talk about the report’s implications.

Ask them, “What do you want me to know? What’s going well and not so well? What are our opportunities and what do you want me to do differently?”

* Listen. Ask open-ended questions. Explore root causes. Try to see things from IT’s perspective, and then share what’s going on in your world.
* Agree on what your respective teams are going to do differently, document the decisions and plan of attack, and schedule a series of dialogues to gauge process and to maintain focus.

What you read won’t change your core beliefs or create a greater sense of obligation. Rather, the report will either confirm your existing convictions (e.g., IT is excelling) or conflict with your experiences (e.g., IT delivers on yesterday’s priorities). Executives who are involved with IT don’t need an annual report, and those who are disenchanted or disengaged won’t be moved by it. An annual report is the equivalent of corporate junk mail unless you see it for what it is, and act accordingly.

Susan Cramm is the founder and president of Valuedance and a recognized industry expert on information technology leadership and coaching.