It is my hope to be able to share a few of the lessons I have learned in the application of information technologies to solve business issues. Personally, I have “come up through the ranks” of technology, holding roles responsible for software development and infrastructure engineering. While both were challenging, I found my passion lay in solving business problems through the judicious application of technology.
One of the greatest lessons I have learned however, is that management is about the art of storytelling. That is not to say the fabrication of information, nor the omission of material facts. More, it is the art of relating solutions in a form best understood by the audience.
I can remember recently a meeting with a CEO of a home healthcare company who had a passion for Autocross racing. We were talking about moving her business to the next level, taking a number of independent systems with a high degree of redundancy and many manual steps – a record was entered a minimum of 4 times – to a fully integrated business system. Now, one area that was a bit complex was the association of a Content Management System (CMS) theme; to a node of content; to a custom module.
I explained it in this fashion:
Sarah, let’s consider a CMS theme like you would an artist’s rendition of a new gas station. It will have certain design elements, like gas pumps, awnings, signs, etc. and will show cars at the pumps as well as parked for their drivers to go inside. This is your theme. When the gas station is built, it will look generally like the rendition. However, the cars coming to the station may be significantly different from the cars in the sketch. The sketch could have been all exotic cars like a Lotus, or Lamborghini, while the reality is there may be a pickup or two parked at a pump. Likewise, your web site theme is similar to the artist sketch. The cars are like the nodes, and how the nodes look is only partially dependent on the theme – the cars need gas, the node needs a framework for display.
Likewise, each car has an engine powering it. That engine might be the stock motor from the manufacturer, or it might be like your RX-8, and be highly modified for racing. When you look at the car parked at the pump, there is little difference. But the driver can certainly tell as they drive away. This is the difference between nodes created with the default modules, and nodes created with our custom modules.
So a highly complex set of technology concepts – which she could mostly not care about, beyond what do they do for her and what they cost – were translated into something she could understand. This story allowed us to move beyond the technical minutia and refocus on the business opportunities that the new system would bring.
I look to make this an interactive community. I welcome and encourage comments, feedback, and suggestions for future articles. As a bit of an aside, I might from time to time choose to stand up on my soapbox and go into a bit of a rant. When I do, I will make sure to preface the title with On a Soapbox.
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