Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Enterprise Architecture: Stop Blaming India...
It is way too convenient for us American's to blame India for our troubles. We can too easily say that college kids no longer want to pursue IT degrees because of outsourcing to second-class countries such as India when reality is a little different.
If we were more honest with ourselves, we would probably acknowledge that we are the first generation that actually wants to keep our own children away from our profession. When I first entered IT, it was a joy and I looked forward to prospering. Nowadays, IT is less fun for all parties due to folks no longer understanding the difference between management and leadership along with the fact that IT is now populated with folks who work in IT but otherwise aren't IT professionals.
Remember the days when pretty much everyone in IT knew how to code? The ability to share ideas in this world was a joy and now with the decline of technical skills, conversations are now morphed into something more painful.
Ask yourself the question, how does your current boss compare to your first boss? I predict that the vast majority of folks will rate their current boss as a no talent ass clown. For those who will get it twisted, I will go on record and say that my current boss is the absolute best I have ever had. I will also say that the trend though from my first boss to where I am currently for the most part has been trending downward.
So, does your organization use process as a substitute for competence? Remember the Covey principle of seek first to understand, then to be understood? In days past, your boss used to know what it was like to be in your shoes. Now that those days are gone, we feel the pain as expressed not through technical excellence and demonstrated ability but through the lens of perception management. Generally speaking, we have substituted leadership with leadershit and somehow magically expect IT to operate at peak efficiency.
Since actually being competent in IT is no longer a requirement in order to be an IT professional, I wonder if I could encourage my two kids to leverage this thinking to taint other professions. Maybe my seven year old son could apply to be Police chief. After all, why should anyone care if he actually knows how to arrest the bad guys or even is old enough to drive. As long as he looks good in the uniform, all is well...
| | View blog reactionsIf we were more honest with ourselves, we would probably acknowledge that we are the first generation that actually wants to keep our own children away from our profession. When I first entered IT, it was a joy and I looked forward to prospering. Nowadays, IT is less fun for all parties due to folks no longer understanding the difference between management and leadership along with the fact that IT is now populated with folks who work in IT but otherwise aren't IT professionals.
Remember the days when pretty much everyone in IT knew how to code? The ability to share ideas in this world was a joy and now with the decline of technical skills, conversations are now morphed into something more painful.
Ask yourself the question, how does your current boss compare to your first boss? I predict that the vast majority of folks will rate their current boss as a no talent ass clown. For those who will get it twisted, I will go on record and say that my current boss is the absolute best I have ever had. I will also say that the trend though from my first boss to where I am currently for the most part has been trending downward.
So, does your organization use process as a substitute for competence? Remember the Covey principle of seek first to understand, then to be understood? In days past, your boss used to know what it was like to be in your shoes. Now that those days are gone, we feel the pain as expressed not through technical excellence and demonstrated ability but through the lens of perception management. Generally speaking, we have substituted leadership with leadershit and somehow magically expect IT to operate at peak efficiency.
Since actually being competent in IT is no longer a requirement in order to be an IT professional, I wonder if I could encourage my two kids to leverage this thinking to taint other professions. Maybe my seven year old son could apply to be Police chief. After all, why should anyone care if he actually knows how to arrest the bad guys or even is old enough to drive. As long as he looks good in the uniform, all is well...
