Further evidence was published today supporting the business case for developing appropriate soft skills in IT teams. Bob Jones (IDG) states that without developing appropriate communication and networking skills departments will struggle with staff retention and succession planning (see when soft becomes hard for IT - Fiona Bates).
However, implementing change and upskilling staff to develop, implement and review skills sets requires a thorough understanding of what the business needs, what is currently in place and a plan to ensure that implementation becomes entrenched in the culture of the department.
Plan, audit, implement, review - by following each stage and spending time developing an appropriate strategy for your staff will ensure that skills are used, changes implemented and informal learning becomes ingrained in the departmental culture.
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Further to my comment to your 17th June article, I think this posting resonates well with that.
With the change to business technology rather that Information Technology, there is certainly a need for everyone to have a common language. Educating the people in this common language is critical (defining that language even more so!). That is the first step. Commonality of understanding. I once worked at an very large company where every couple of months someone "from the business" gave a presentation to the entire IT department (about 250 people). These sessions were dreaded by both the presenter and the audience. Why ? because the audience didn't understand what the business person was talking about and the presenter didn't understand any of the (usually misguided) questions asked by IT.
The issue though is akin to "The Emperors new clothes". The audience would never dare to ask for clarification because they assumed everyone understood except them.
Getting to my point, (hurrah you shout !) - Developing an inquisitve, embarassment free, culture is vital training. Knowing how to ask a question and not being afraid of asking it is critical for mutual business / IT understanding. I know it's a cliche but embedding the culture of "there's no such thing as stupid question, only a stupid answer" is key. So that is a great softskill to have from day one - and that applies most of all to the heads of IT.
Your article also mentioned a process for developing these skills. I'd go a little further and suggest that it's not a point-to-point process, but a lifecycle. It nevers ends. The output from the review is fed into the next planning cycle. For without this approach the implication is that it is a one off exercise and therefore does not include a capacity for continuous improvement. A cyclical approach addresses this.
Once again, it's just my personal opinion.
Finally, I must say it is reassuring to see that someone is addressing the need to develope soft skills in IT as I try to develope ways of communicating the business value of IT. Keep up the good work.
Dave.
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