Communication from End-User
to IT
How many IT groups have faced the issue of working overtime to get some new application or server ready for use—only to find everyone is unhappy with the results? Why is that? The IT group’s goal is to improve the experience and efficiency of the firm’s staff through technology. Yet, there so often seems to be an adversarial relationship between the end-user and IT. Several factors are involved, but let’s focus on one of the most potent ones: communication.
Cutting through the noise
Ineffective communication can result in many difficult issues and even occasionally happens in the face of seemingly successful meetings and planning. Why? Everyone in your firm is busy with his or her own concerns. With so much going on and so much information bombarding each of us every day, we naturally filter out what’s important to getting the job done out from the other noise.
Even though you have all your stakeholders helping to plan and find problems with your new CRM deployment, for example, the engagement level of the participants varies. As you approach the time for releasing your application, the engagement level of everyone begins to increase—i.e., it starts to directly affect each job.
This is the point when the project hits the proverbial fan. The number of complaints increases. Your team members start telling you about contingencies you didn’t know about, even though they could have told you months ago. You have to spend time after the project fixing these unforeseen problems, and management starts to utter the seven-letter F-word, “failure.”
These kinds of problems can actually help stimulate effective communication. Focus on the following to overcome the “busy-ness” of your project participants, stakeholders and end-users.
Examine current processes to engage your people
Principle: Assume your end-users and project team members aren’t listening when you discuss a project because—in a sense—they aren’t. They’re worried about audits they need to examine, calls they need to make, contracts they need to close, mailers they have to put together, etc.
Application: Don’t ask your end-users to consider what new or improved technology will do for them. Instead, ask them what they do in the current process. Even ask them about the last action they took in the process. Ask about the funniest problem they ran into or the most frustrating. Ask about things they like and don’t like about the current process. Don’t try to get them to think about what might be in weeks or months, or their eyes will glaze over under the weight of their other responsibilities.
Prepare your people for changes early
Principle: People don’t like change, especially when they aren’t expecting it and don’t have control over it. On the other hand, your end-users probably have this strange notion that new software will make their jobs easier without changing anything. It will just be “better.” Even if they know differently, this is how most will think about it initially. They’re optimistic, but when things turn out to be different—they get frustrated.
Application: Make sure stakeholders take what they learn back to their coworkers and talk about it. Everyone needs to know what’s going on. Start rumors about what will change when the new system comes out. Whenever you are talking about current processes with someone and you realize that something will change, say something. Prepare end-users and be sure to let them know that there will be bumps. Disrupt their optimism a little. Make them complain early.
Discuss the plan with managers from start to finish
Principle: Again, even though your managers and managing partners should know (and probably do), they probably get frustrated when the project doesn’t work on the first day. They are optimistic that the new system will fix all the firm’s problems. They are not naïve, but they are human: they just want everyone’s job to be easier, so that’s what they expect from you on launch day.
Application: Make sure your partners and managers know that things won’t work on launch day. You hope they will, but there are going to be issues. Use sports analogies. It is cliché, but almost everyone can relate to them: e.g., every football team makes adjustments on the field even after watching the tape of the opponents and preparing for them all week. You had a good idea what problems you’d be facing, but you’re no more all-knowing than anyone else.
Many projects appear to fail at first and then recover. Why is that? It is the result of a failed understanding of the process—due to failed communication. This is both a failure to engage your staff to find problems early and a failure to communicate appropriate expectations.
As an IT coordinator or even just a help-desk technician, it’s your job to effectively communicate to resolve these problems. Avoid project failure by working to engage your people in the process, preparing your people with realistic expectations and communicating your entire plan to management.
