Keith Brooks presented at Social Connections 13 in Philadelphia on breaking unwritten rules to help users. He discussed how unwritten rules exist due to factors like fear, past experiences, and lack of documentation. Brooks explained that while breaking rules can cause issues like not getting a new laptop or compromising security, goals and justifying needs to IT are important. He advised working with IT by reducing tickets, providing documentation, and training in order to help both users and IT metrics. Brooks concluded by saying there should be no blame in collaborative organizations and to plan with IT by leveraging metrics and goals.

1. Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018
13
Breaking the
Rules to Help Your Users
Keith Brooks, B2B Whisperer
keith@b2bwhisperer.com
@lotusevangelist

2. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist 2

3. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
Who is Keith Brooks?
My 4th time Presenting at Social Connections
CIO
IBM Redbooks Thought Leader
Candy Corn Lover
Collaboration Transformations
Pinball Addict
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4. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
Why do Unwritten Rules Exist?
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• Fear
• Past Experience
• Legends
• Lack of Documentation / Direction
• Lack of Time
• Denial

5. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
You did
WHAT?
HOW!
https://pixabay.com/en/maki-lemur-lemur-monkey-scared-2627589/
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6. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
You Lose Some
• New Laptop – Not going to happen
• Bad Security – Still Going To Happen
• Service Now Data – You Don’t Care?
• Who Owns These Processes? – Might
be dead before they know or tell me
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7. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
Goals Are Important
• Tie your need to a corporate goal
• Everyone should have the end
goal in mind
• Just like kitchen remodeling
takes time and planning, you
need the right people and ask
the right questions
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8. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
https://pixabay.com/en/baby-2956997/
Thinking of
all the
Possibilities
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9. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
How You Envision Your IT Sees Your Request
https://pixabay.com/en/body-of-water-no-person-nature-3272180/
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10. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
How IT Views Your Request
https://pixabay.com/en/nuclear-weapons-test-nuclear-weapon-67557/
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11. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
https://pixabay.com/en/bar-local-cong-ireland-irish-pub-209148/
IT is enough to lead one to drink…
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12. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
But IT Works for YOU
• Don’t be put off by their defenses
• YOU are the customer
• Ask why are they inhibiting usage
• Propose that they experience their solution
• Justify your need so they can for their boss
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13. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
https://pixabay.com/en/call-center-phone-service-help-1015274/
Help Them,
Help Their
Metrics!
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14. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
How? By Reducing Help Desk Tickets
• Do your homework first
• Plan the basic configuration settings
• Set quotas that make sense
• Provide documentation a user can understand
• Security should make sense
• Training, Training, Training
BAD CAPTCHA
https://organicweb.com.au/10042/internet/recaptcha-gone-mad/
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15. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
https://pixabay.com/en/win-word-scrabble-letters-wooden-1820037/
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16. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
You Win Some
• Change the Processes
• Configuration Optimization – Halfsies
• Training – lol – Do It Anyway
• Monitoring Services and Servers
• Archiving vs Copying vs Synching
• External Partners Support
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17. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
One Last Thing
• There is no finger pointing or blaming
in a collaborative organization
• Plan ahead WITH IT so they can agree
• Metrics and Goals rule, leverage them
• When you need help, ask for it
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18. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
Keith Brooks
@lotusevangelist
keith@b2bwhisperer.com
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20. Social Connections 13 Philadelphia, April 26-27 2018@lotusevangelist
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