IT Clones or People? (Part 5 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

An army is a set of soldiers that are taught to follow orders, stay in line and do their job. Soldiers are pushed to loose their identity, hide personality, and fit in.

Special Ops teams though are chosen for their special talents. They are carefully selected to build a balanced team.  Each member is encouraged to be an individual but act as a unit.


But who gets selected for the Special Ops team? Is it solely based on skills, qualifications, experiences, certifications, etc? No, I would have to venture that there is more to it than what you know and what you can do, it is also who you are and how well you fit in with the team.

Think about all of the best army movies, superhero teams and even in person teams you know. Is the team a group of clones like stormtroopers that always get along? Or is it a team of individuals that can lead to some disagreement, difference of opinion but believe in a similar cause?

Obviously I am exaggerating this, but one of the things that we stressed in our tech team interviews is personality and how it will mix with the team. I have seen many managers that look to hire almost exact replicas of themselves.  They look to find someone they can get along with. But many of the most successful IT departments I have seen are composed of many differing opinions and personalities.

So the only thing that I would add to the chapter by James L. Weinberg and Cassie Scarano called Finding and Keeping the right people is to be purposeful about personality. This would include some exploration of the commitment to the mission that you work on. The chapter does offer a very comprehensive structure to follow in hiring, plus numerous easy to implement tips. Much of which was new learning to me, I will have to reread this one a few more times.

The part I really liked was how much they talked about what you should do before you even begin looking. Too often I see a rush to fill a quick staff need, rather than think through what the long term role that is needed.  I have seen so many job descriptions that stress an immediate need for technical expertise.  But what I have learned is that often it is easier to teach the technical skills than it is to find a team member.

Getting the right IT staff is not talked about enough. The success of IT Alignment depends on the staff more than the tools. How can IT have a solid relationship with the org if the IT team isnt purposeful in creating it's team to focus on relationships and mission?

FUNNY (TO ME) RANDOM THOUGHT: Often technology is thought of as just a set of tools. Isnt hiring staff only for tech skills treating them like a tool?

Over 11 weeks I am doing a themed series of blog posts. Each week I will write about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 5th chapter by James L. Weinberg and Cassie Scarano called Finding and Keeping the Right People. You should totally buy the book. (In case you are wondering, I am volunteering to do this, I am not getting paid or in any other way reimbursed for this. I just love NTEN and their events.)

Flickr photos by The U.S. Army and by Official Star Wars Blog

IT/Fin Dev Relationship, ONTC slides, NTEN guest blog

I have been pretty busy at work and at home but found a smidgen of time to do a few little things to possible help the greater good or inspire some thoughts.  So I thought I would share those here, in case both of my readers were interested.

First, John Merritt and I had a great time presenting during the Online Nonprofit Technology Conference for NTEN. We broke down our thoughts about how to approach IT Alignment based on a typical org chart.  After all an org chart does tell you a lot about how IT is viewed in your org. As we went through the slides we took turns sharing examples of how we approached each part of the org, plus highlighted successes and failures in those efforts.  Thanks to the awesome staff at NTEN for including us!  So here is that presentation:

IT Alignment (org chart style)

View more presentations from Steve Heye.

But that's not all folks.

NTEN Blog Guest Post!

I was also invited to write a guest post for the NTEN blog, how cool is that!?!? They gave me free reign on topic but set a word limit.  Lucky for them I was a little focused that day and didnt end up talking about flying monkeys improve air quality or how lightsabres are awesome hedge clippers. Rather I stayed on topic and talked about IT Alignment, but I did completely ignore their suggested word limit!  CLICK HERE TO READ THIS AMAZING POST! (ok over did it there)

IT Guy to Fundraisers: Partner With Us


I was asked by Fundraising Success to write an article based on my planned participation in the ONTC.  So I decided to have a little fun with the friendly people over in Financial Development.  They can be so serious about raising all that money and stuff. Well anyway, you can read that article by clicking here, no maybe here, no wait here.


I will get back to the 11 part series next week, but at this rate I wont even finish this year.

IT is not your friend and you are not our customer! =IT planning? (Part 4 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

(NOTE: please read the comments after the post, Peter has made some amazing observations and comments. As I thought, Peter is the master of this topic. Thx for the comments Peter, I should have had you just be a guest blogger. And now back to the original post.)

The goal of the IT department is not to make friends. Nor is it a good idea to follow the old thinking that staff in your organization are your customers. IT should act as a partner.

Whoa, slow down Steve, what does that have to do with the IT Planning and Prioritizing chapter by the brainiac Peter S. Campbell in the NTEN book, Managing Technology to Meet your Mission? Well, if you would be more patient, I will get there. I was trying to think what I could add to Peter’s chapter without just repeating his totally accurate and well thought out methodology. Because I cant compete with his knowledge on this topic.

However, I think an element that should be stressed when Peter talks about building that integrated plan that includes technology, is understanding how IT is seen by the org. We can write the best plans, set goals, define metrics and have all the best intentions, but if IT doesn’t have the relationships it needs they wont be acted on.

If you think of the staff in your organization as customers, then your ultimate goal would be to meet their needs working with the motto that the customer is right. In this approach you react to the requests and needs of your customers. Your role is to provide the solution, support or training that they tell you they need.

If you strive to have the friendliest, well liked relationship with the staff, then all you do is strive to make them happy. But sometimes we have to push back on some ideas in order to balance the needs of the full organization. We simply cannot make everyone happy all the time and be their BFF.

We have to act as a partner, we are all working toward the same mission. The relationship between IT can be a friendly one, but our allegiance should lie with the mission and strategic plan. As a partner we work with the other departments, not for them as customer implies.

So tying this all back to Peters “spot on” description about IT priorities and planning. Our ability to participate in the planning process and get invited to the table with access to provide input depends on the role we play. If we are simply taking orders, then the IT priorities will be subject to whimsical changes. If we are there to be their friends, will they heed our advice and expertise?

After saying all of that though, you would be mistaken in not reading Peter’s chapter and implementing the process he recommends. You may just want to be sure you keep the whole picture in mind and read the rest of the book too. The best laid plans….

Over 11 weeks I am doing a themed series of blog posts. Each week I will write about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 4th chapter about IT Planning and Prioritizing. You should totally buy the book. (In case you are wondering, I am volunteering to do this, I am not getting paid or in any other way reimbursed for this. I just love NTEN and their events.)

Flickr photos by kalandrakas and by Claudio Cicali and by LollyKnit

North or Be Eaten (quick diversion in form of book review)

(I know I am in the midst of an 11 post series about the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission but I needed a break from Technology. And what better way to hide from technology than to read a good, fantasy story?)

"Did the book get here yet?" For days that is all I heard from my 9 year old son and wife.  When they found out we were getting a copy of North or Be Eaten to read to do a book review they couldn't wait to get it. My son loved the first book and was anxious to see what happens next. He actually read North or Be Eaten before me.

You may ask, Steve, why do you like this book or what was it about? Well before I could tell you that I would need to explain that the biggest reason we looked forward to this book was because of the author, Andrew Peterson. As a Christian artist his soul and spirit shines through in the art (music, drawings or books) he creates which makes it genuine. These works of art are a part of him.  You can really see this in the Note to Parents on the Wingfeather website. My wife is a huge fan of his music, it is just so full of personality and raw emotion. And my family thinks the books are just plain old fun!

Andrew Peterson has a clever way of telling a suspenseful story while introducing the craziest characters and creatures in the book North or Be Eaten. The book was an easy read but was very compelling and kept my attention, which helped me forget about all the technology that fills my work week. This is the second book in the Wingfeather Saga and the second book Andrew has written. I do have to make one confession, the first book was a little tough to read in parts, there was a lot of jumping around. But that foundation of solid characters and setting that was set in the first book opens up the possibilities for a fantastic series of books that I cant wait to read!

Andrew's words create a world that is so believable and real that you begin to immerse yourself in it. Just with a few sentences he is able to paint a picture of the important elements of the scene and then let your imagination fill in the rest.  He also allows his characters to grow and change throughout the book.  You are able to connect and empathize with them as they meet continuous struggles. They make mistakes and even have some regrets from the past, plus have familiar family struggles.  Andrew also keeps the fantasy elements in check so that you are able to connect with it.

"There are some parts that really FREAK YOU OUT, but it is so good." says my 9 year old son. I asked him if it was scary though. He said "It isnt scary, but there are some bad things that happen. But it's not like they were that bad." When he was reading its like he just climbed right into the book and pushed play.  Its like Andrew says on his website, "Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to show how beautiful is the prick of light."

Well those are my thoughts, so go get the book now!

ROI - what can I say Beth is a genius (Part 3 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

Let’s play a game.

Sure what is the game called?

I don’t know, it doesn’t have a name.

So you start to play the game, but as you play the game you and your friends make up the rules as you go. “You can only step on the yellow bricks” or “you cant get me when I’m touching the house”. Some rules work, some seem to ruin the game. But no one ever seems to win either, the game just sorta ends when Mom yells time for dinner.

Mom asks, what were you kids playing? The answer of course, “nothing”.

That nothing means more when it isn’t a game anymore. As kids we didn’t need to set goals or have to measure the success of our game. We just want to have fun. We look back at it and ask, “was that fun and should we play again? And if we play again what do we change?”

I get the feeling that many people approach some of their technology projects in the same way. They decide they want to try something, but they don’t set goals, don’t know the rules and aren’t really sure when they are done. So even though the technology may have worked and stuff got done, they aren’t really sure what they did.

Beth Kanter reigns supreme when it comes to measuring the ROI of a project, especially social media. Anything in the post I probably learned from Beth. OK, yeah, not probably, I did learn it from Beth. Her work on listening, metrics, and ROI is the best and most respected that I have seen in the nonprofit sector. So when it came time for me to write a blog entry about her chapter in the NTEN book, I was worried about what I could add to an expert like that. But then I remembered something Beth had talked about that didn’t seem to be as obvious in the book as I had expected.

It is a simple concept, ROI is best measured when the goals and metrics are established before you start.

However, as my pastor says simple is not the same as easy.

I cant tell you the number of times that as a project is finishing or in the middle of it, we get asked about the outcomes or the ROI. So we go back, dig through the data (if we have any) to look for evidence. But this evidence gathering should not be like hide and seek, where everything is hiding and you don’t know what you are looking for. It should be like a scavenger hunt, where you have a list before you start and gather the pieces as you go.

But why is it important to set the goals and ROI first. Can’t we just experiment and see what happens? Well for some things yes, you can. Beth does a great job in the chapter giving advice on how to decide how deep the ROI analysis should be. But measuring a project when it is done doesn’t determine if you accomplished your goal in the most effective way. You end up reporting outcomes, not reporting if you met your goals.

“What gets measured gets done” that is what a colleague of mine used to say all the time. So let me try to explain my thoughts on establishing ROI before you start in a different way.

Many organizations spend time at the end of the year reporting statistics of # of people served, communities impacted, new programs launched, etc. So if you budget and year end reporting are your only tools to measure success then the goal of your organization drifts away from accomplishing the mission and begins to be driven by meeting the numbers. So if you only measure the fiscal amounts and the number of people served, then that is everyone’s focus.

Metrics has to include tangible and intangible goals that are set and tied to ROI metrics before the efforts are started. Otherwise what will you review to gage progress? Yes, the results and outcomes may be very different and even much better than the metrics, which is awesome. So then you may have to adjust your metrics, but at least you have them to adjust.

Anyway, again those are my random but slightly related thoughts. So lets not set our ROI to make a real difference and stop making up the rules as we go.

Here are some of my favorite posts from Beth on ROI:

ROI - Fun read - Good ideas - makes ya think

ROI (Results on Insights): Nonprofit Examples of How Listening Returns Value

SXSW: Social Media Nonprofit ROI Poetry Slam - Slides, Links, and Poems (long)

Over 11 weeks I am doing a themed series of blog posts. Each week I will write about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 3rd chapter about ROI). Also dont forget that NTEN is also running an AWESOME 2 day online conference! You should totally buy the book and sign up. (In case you are wondering, I am volunteering to do this, I am not getting paid or in any other way reimbursed for this. I just love NTEN and their events.)

Old habits die hard (Part 2 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

When I get up in the morning I have a set of "rituals" that should occur in order without interuption if my day is going to go well. My rituals involve coffee, email, facebook, coffee, shower (usually) and a little more coffee. And within each one of those, there is another set of rituals and patterns, like how many times I stir my coffee, order I dry myself off after shower, emails I look forward to everyday, websites I check each morning for fun (like woot), etc.

Now many of you may argue with how, when or why I do these things and you may even be right in your arguements. And I would imagine that all of us have these rituals.

Tea is better!

Here are the statistics saying that more people around the world like Tea and that it has more possible nutrition value. Plus it comes in many unique flavors and has such deep historical roots. So you need to switch to Tea today.

Um, no thanks. I enjoy coffee.

It's HOT!

It is too hot oustside for coffee. Why not enjoy a cold beverage? Maybe a soda? Or maybe put some ice in your coffee.

Um, no thanks. I enjoy coffee.

Anyway, I could really get carried away with my examples here but let me actually try to make sense for a minute and relate this to technology.

Often we come up with so lots of good logic, real facts, deep arguements, relevant reasons and whatever to get people to change their technology use, but it doesnt always work. Why is that? Um, no thanks. I enjoy coffee. (sorry had to say it again). It is because we are dealing with people. And people are complex. Then put those people together working somewhere to fight for a cause or mission they beleive in and it just gets more complex.

It is no longer as simple as, would you like to try tea instead today? You are asking people to change behavior, leave a comfort zone and risk failure, all while doing a job that is part of who they are.

Dahna Goldstein starts of her chapter on Managing Technology Change in the Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission book with a joke:

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: just one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.

But that doesnt matter to me, I may never change these habits, rituals or patterns, because I am comfortable. It doesnt matter to me that there is a better razor, newer shampoo, coffee is bad for you, I cant buy everything on woot, there is a more effecient way to use my time, etc. Logic and reasoning are not my only motivators for my behavior, choices and ability to change.

One thing I have learned that works well and is reinforced by Dahna in the book is that you have to manage change on an ongoing basis, not for individual projects. As Dahna calls it, you need to work toward an adaptive organization.

I tend to get irritated when people ask, how can I convince my organization to start using social media or networking? Because often after you ask questions, they dont want to work on real change, they just want the cool tools. There is a lack of regular effort to build toward that adaptive organization. When you start to talk about it they dont want to talk about an integrated communication, fundraising, marketing strategy because their organization just doesnt work that way. Well my push back is then dont start something like social media until that starts to happen or else it wont be as succesful.

Dahna offers some awesome advice in the Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission book to begin to work on a culture change. To begin creating conditions for ongoing change she suggests nonprofit leaders should begin:

• Challenging assumptions and encouraging questions
• Encouraging experimentation
• Resisting complacency
• Decentralizing decision making

Dahna has obvious expertise and experience with this topic. Her chapter was fabulous.

Wrap it up

Managing change around technology is not a one time goal. It is all about a long term strategy to create an adaptive organization with real relationships across the organization. You can take steps alone, but the journey is easier together.

Over 11 weeks I am doing a themed series of blog posts. Each week I will write about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 2nd chapter about Managing Change leader for). Also dont forget that NTEN is also running an AWESOME 2 day online conference! You should totally buy the book and sign up. (In case you are wondering, I am volunteering to do this, I am not getting paid or in any other way reimbursed for this. I just love NTEN and their events.)

Coffee photo from scottfeldstein, light bulb from Crashmaster007 on Flickr

Aligning Tech with Mission (Part 1 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

Meeting the mission is why we are here right? Then why not let everyone within your organization work toward meeting the mission, rather than just making things work?

That may be over simplifying things, but hey I am writing this blog post so if you don’t like it write your own or leave a comment.

Over the next 11 weeks I am doing a themed series of blog posts. Each week I will write about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 1^st chapter about IT alignment (which I was the ring leader for). But rather than rehash what is in the chapter, I am adding a few things to it that compliment it very well. I want to talk about the role of the CEO and technology strategy. NTEN is also running an AWESOME 2 day online conference!

Lets start with Technology Strategy and how it gets created at a YMCA (you can adapt this to your org if you aren’t a YMCA). But rather than bore you with more words, flip through this presentation.

Strategic Plan (where is tech?)

View more presentations from Steve Heye.

Key Thought:

Is your IT department there to just fill orders or is it a part of your mission team?

But this is not a new thought, much of my thinking around this topic is summed up in this diagram that dates back to 1993.

Here is the quoted text that explains it (click here for full text):

Venkatraman ea argue in 1993 that the difficulty to realize value from IT investments is firstly due to the lack of alignment between the business and IT strategy of the organizations that are making investments, and secondly due to the lack of a dynamic administrative process to ensure continuous alignment between the business and IT domains.

They describe Four Dominant Alignment Perspectives towards the analytic alignment of Business and IT:

1. Strategy Execution: this perspective views the business strategy as the driver of both organization design choices and the logic of IS infrastructure (the classic, hierarchical view of strategic management). Top Management is strategy formulator, IS Management is strategy implementer. [Arrow 1]

2. Technology Potential: this perspective also views the business strategy as the driver, however involves the articulation of an IT strategy to support the chosen business strategy and the corresponding specification of the required IS infrastructure and processes. The top management should provide the technology vision to articulate the logic and choices pertaining to IT strategy that would best support the chosen business strategy, while the role of the IS manager should be that of the technology architect - who efficiently and effectively designs and implements the required IS infrastructure that is consistent with the external component of IT strategy (scope, competences and governance). [Arrow 2]

3. Competitive Potential: this alignment perspective is concerned with the exploitation of emerging IT capabilities to impact new products and services (i.e., business scope), influence the key attributes of strategy (distinctive competences), as well as develop new forms of relationships (i.e. business governance). Unlike the two previous perspectives that considered business strategy as given (or a constraint for organizational transformation), this perspective allows the modification of business strategy via emerging IT capabilities. The specific role of the top management to make this perspective succeed is that of the business visionary, who articulates how the emerging IT competences and functionality as well as changing governance patterns in the IT marketplace would impact the business strategy. The role of the IS manager, in contrast, is one of the catalyst, who identifies and interprets the trends in the IT environment to assist the business managers to understand the potential opportunities and threats from an IT perspective. [Arrow 3]

4. Service Level: This alignment perspective focuses on how to build world class IT/IS organization within an organization. In this perspective, the role of business strategy is indirect. This perspective is often viewed as necessary (but not sufficient) to ensure the effective use of IT resources and be responsive to the growing and fast-changing demands of the end-user population. The specific role of the top management to make this perspective succeed is that of the prioritizer, who articulates how best to allocate the scarce resources both within the organization as well as in the IT marketplace (in terms of joint ventures, licensing, minority equity investments, etc.). The role of the IS manager, in contrast, is one of business leadership, with the specific tasks of making the internai business succeed within the operating guidelines from the top management. [Arrow 4]

The idea is to think through where a technology strategy or project starts to how it is implemented. Does it start with a tool, then you look how to leverage it? Does it start with a business or technology need? Or is it tied to the overall strategy? I think each of these has there place, there are times where technology should drive the strategy or where technology should be asked to solve a single problem. BUT that should be balanced by allowing technology to participate in the mission strategy as well.

I blame the CEO. Oops did I say that outloud? If technology is not integrated into your mission and mission team, I blame the CEO. The CEO does not have to be involved in, completely understand or even totally support technology. But the CEO is ultimately responsible for three things: appointing correct IT leadership, giving needed authority to IT staff and providing a reasonable budget. Notice I didn’t say they have to love technology, nor do they need to have cutting edge tools or whatever…

Before I continue my rampage, watch this slideshow about the role of CEO and CIO. This slideshow was the end result of years of work of the IT Director and CEO building a relationship.

The CEO, IT & Mission

View more presentations from Steve Heye.

I hope the positive approach in that slideshow was better than my short attack paragraph on CEOs, which really wasn’t meant as an attack at all. I have met many CEOs that I like.

The point here is that the IT department can do everything in their power to help meet the mission but until they are aligned within the organization it wont be as effective.

If you enjoyed this, good, because there are 10 more posts coming about the remaining chapters in the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. NTEN is also running an AWESOME 2 day online conference! Sign up today.