Keynote address given at Campus LISA, UCSD, July 2014. Abstract: Technical professionals act as brokers in organizations, communicating across functional and organizational boundaries. As brokers, tech professionals straddle two worlds, and can leverage this space if they know how. This talk will focus on understanding the gap between the IT function and management and how to bridge that gap in order to increase respect for IT among management, and improve your relationship with management. The talk will also cover identifying your (or your team’s) role within the organization, effective communication with upper management, positioning yourself and your team to increase visibility, and becoming a strategic partner.

1. How to Speak “Manager”
Nicole Forsgren Velasquez, PhD
Professor of Accounting and MIS
@nicolefv
Jon M. Huntsman School of Business
Utah State University

3. The Gap
Business is
here
IT is here

4. IT focuses on technology
(micro)

5. Business focuses at a higher level
(macro)

6. We Are Here to Bridge The Gap

7. IT Professionals are Technical
Brokers
• We are the bridge
• Act as translator and interface between
communities
• Understanding this role is important
• Navigating business
• Addressing tensions

8. IT Professionals are Technical
Brokers
• As a technical broker, a large part of your role
is communication
• Technical audiences
• Business audiences
Technical
Professional
Business
Technical
Communities

9. Challenges: Visibility and Content
The business usually sees:
 Desktop Support
What you do is often beyond visibility of
business:
 Maintenance
 Infrastructure
 Innovation and automation
 The really hard stuff
 The stuff that matters most to the business

10. Talking to Tech
• Who is your audience?
• What language is
appropriate?
• e.g., security, desktop support, senior
/ junior
• How do you communicate
something to each?
• Technical
• Expertise

11. Talking to Business
• Who is your audience?
• How should this be
communicated?
• What language is appropriate?

12. Who is Business?
• Common ground:
• Need for funding
• Success measures
• Demonstrated value

13. Is IT Operations a Business?
• Delivering value to customers
• Internally focused: IT operations
• Business unit within a business
• Externally focused: technology firm
• IT operations might be the core business

14. Connecting the Two Sides
The Trusted Advisor
• Organizational leaders relying on IT advisors
• No surprises because IT is a player at the table
• IT can provide strategic direction at high levels
• IT as a service: Consultant? Custodial?

15. Positioning of IT Operations
• How are IT decisions made and
who makes them?
• Who else influences?
• What is the role of CIO in your organization?
• Who are your customers?
• How do they impact service delivery?
• What are your core competencies?
• How do they align with organizational needs?

16. Key: How Can IT Help
• What do you think organizational
leaders need from IT to make your
organization stronger?
• Regulation compliance
• Improved competitiveness in your industry
 Increased research funding
 Making and keeping customers
 Increased sales
• Increased internal efficiency
• Better use of technology to further mission

17. Building Bridges
• Professional connections
• Who in your organization
• How to develop the trusted
advisor relationship
• Trust
• Business value

18. Trust
• Trust comes from
• Perception of value
• Good communication
• Collaborative relationship

19. How to Create Trust
• Put connection before technical concepts
• Don’t pretend
• Focus on the customer’s perspective (who is your
audience)
• Face problems and unhappy customers head-on
• Listen
• Don’t pull your punches
• Document when it matters
• Nothing is too small if it’s important to the customer
• It isn’t a competition

20. Business Value
• Depend upon IT and type of business
• Internal – Organizational efficiency
• Productivity enhancements
• e.g., reducing complexity
• Complexity often takes 90% of internal
resources leaving little headroom for innovation
• Cost reduction
• Streamlining internal business practices

21. Business Value (cont.)
• External – Increases competitiveness in your
marketplace
• Increased profits
• Competitive advantage
• e.g., streamlined customer management
• Both internal and external

22. Value is Perception

23. Metrics
• Quantitative
• Throughput, turnover time, SLAs
• Qualitative
• Customer feedback surveys

24. Organizational Culture Matters
• Keep cultural differences in mind
• Corporate vs. government vs. university
• Different teams: Windows / Unix / Mac
• Different world view, depending where you “live”

25. Know Your Audience
• Put yourself in their shoes
• Communicate at the right level
• How much to communicate

26. Written Communication
• Email
• Basics: subject, structure
• Outage management
• Communication to customers
• Emails to organizational leaders
• Texting, social media
• Think professional, not Facebook

27. Face-to-Face
• Meetings
• Fixed duration
• Have a purpose
• State goals
• Stay on message
• Summarize
• Presentations
• Training
• Persuasive

28. The Elevator Pitch
“Very concise presentation of an idea covering all
of its critical aspects, and delivered within a few
minutes”
Useful even if you don’t have an
elevator
• Describe the value proposition in clear
language
• Written, verbal

29. The Collaborative Relationship
• Trusted advisor
• Being responsive to requests from above
• Being a solutions provider
• Be there when needed

30. Professional Maturity
Reactive Proactive
• Early in your career
• Not being able to forecast due to
lack of experience or vision
• Increases technical debt, or
cannot see it
• Comes with vision and maturity
• Solving issues before they
become bigger problems
• Thinking with an enterprise
mindset
• Reducing or eliminating
technical debt through good
practices and agility

31. How Do You Know When You’ve
Arrived?
• Organizational leaders ask your opinion before
spending $$ on IT solutions
• Leaders ask others to go through you for approval
before investing in IT
• You’re invited to be part of the organization’s
management team
• When you speak, leaders listen and respect your
opinions

32. Where to Begin
• Look at specifics of your organization
• Who are your core customers?
• What impact can IT operations have?
• What does business need from you?
• At what level can you personally make a
difference?
• Is there a point-person to connect with
organizational leaders?
• You
• Your boss?

33. Action Items
• Assess your organization before beginning
• Look for opportunities to increase visibility
• Sell these concepts to the rest of your team
• IT operations should look for opportunities to
engage organizational leaders on issues
impacted by IT

34. Thank you
Questions?
nicolefv@gmail.com
@nicolefv