U-Blog 4

Mistakes = Ignorance

Reading the IT’s top 5 mistakes some new insights dawned upon me and made me look at my job as an IT professional differently especially in this era with economic troubles.
I never looked at the IT professional needing to provide good training to produce productivity that will allow the top management to see how important your technical improvements are and it is an investment rather than a cost.

Training is very important it is needed to prevent the needless hassle to keep IT from doing their job and prevents everyone else’s as well. In the article it talks about spending 10-13% of entire budget on training. I never realized that it would be that high. But now that I look at it with Windows, being the main work platform, switching from XP, Vista, and future release Windows 7 the need for smooth transition will be vital. It’s hard enough for IT people to learn the new stuff but need for employees will also be just as important. They produce the income, while IT produces the ability to perform jobs.

After reading the section titled “Mistake No. 1: You didn’t plan for training upfront” I got the impression that this section is misleading. This section talks about the need to provide training in order to cover the basics so “silly” question don’t hassle the IT people. Even if the employees do get the basic training they will also need the more advanced stuff to fulfill the reason for the upgrades in the first place. This whole section is showing the company it’s their responsibility to train employees not IT. So I don’t see how this is a top 5 “IT’s” training mistake.

My response to the “Mistake No.2: You’re out of tune with your audience” section:
They make an excellent point about how IT people, even though they know their area, may not be the best to teach about it. Because being at a “mastery” level can cause the professional to forget what it’s like to not know the curtain area and might explain subjects too complexly. As a result the IT people may not explain enough because they know the audience may become lost in all the terms. Answer provide actual teachers to train the employees.

“Mistake No. 4: You’re training out of business context” evaluation summary:”
I liked this section, it emphasized the need for the IT to know how and the business worked to provide the need instructions for the employee to improve performance in the workplace. The IT can use the structure of the environment to see where areas need improvements in technology. IT can provide better services and functionality ability. Recognizing the needs of the employees will greatly improve prove IT’s importance and investments.

These are my 3 favorite out of the 5. The last one I truthfully didn’t see what was so bad about it. Maybe I’m reading it wrong.

Everyone I talk to believes IT people are hard to talk to. In a lot of cases I guess that’s true. But the way I see it, it is one sided. Maybe the people seeking help don’t try to get to the level which they won’t need help. So even though the IT are trying to learn the other part of the equation, the “employees” do not and expect to be waited on hand and foot.

Do you believe IT is the one to blame or is it the company not providing the enough training?