Collaborative Politics?

With the Presidential race well underway...and my recent spots on "collaboration". I would also like to point out that I sincerely believe that ALL of the presidential candidates are in this race with good intentions. They really want to do something good for this country. The difference lies in the steps they want to take to get us there. And the real lack of collaboration that exists in politics today. Like many organizations...our public office holders seem to favor the "competitive" culture. However, like many, if not most politicians, lawyers, doctors, police, and other public servants, I think that people are inherently good and choose their path in life to try to do good things. True, some people are in their profession for selfish reasons.

Likewise, you and I may have some primary goals of "paying the bills", "buying toys", etc, but there is likely some rationale to the line of work that we choose…that we go to work with the intention of wanting not only to personally succeed but to see our companies succeed and those around us do the same. And in our personal lives we choose to do things that we each may agree or disagree with, but again…the belief that I hold is that 'we' are good people. And we surround ourselves with good people!

So, I mention this because I don’t believe that many democrats or republicans have evil, devious, or conspiratorial plans (maybe a wee bit in all their cases!)…I simply disagree with some the beliefs and strategies that our politicians hold. And I will always vote with and for those candidates who are most aligned to my personal beliefs and morals.

Collaboration

Collaboration improves performance in most things that we do. This is true of sports teams and equally true of businesses and organizations. Cooperation, not competition, is the way to gain the most significant advantage for your 'team'. Alfie Kohn provides a simple explanation for us to realize this; trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things.

Recently, I recalled this focus for collaboration while I have been discussing the best strategy for approaching "Configuration Management" (one of the key disciplines described by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library - ITIL). Configuration Management is all about 'collaboration'. It is dependent on the cooperation of most members of any IT organization if it is to succeed. When IT people realize that they are successful when others succeed, then the entire organzation begins to rally around each others accomplishements. This is really the distinction between Leadership and management.

"Internal Customer" Service

I was in a small fender-bender a week or so ago. Minor damage and no injuries. It was during that first big snowfall. I was on my way home from my Aunts' house with my three older boys in the back seat.

We came up to a stop sign and I applied the brakes...but, go figure, I was not able to stop. We slid right through the intersection and into the side of a minivan. One driver and no passengers in that car...luckily, and all was ok with her except for the large dent in her van door.

Anyways, that's not the story...

The story is...

I visited a Progressive Claims site (one of those new-fangled Concierge places!) earlier this week to get an estimate on the damage to my car.

As a 12 year employee of the insurance company and a customer for nearly as long, I never had the need for claims services during that time. I traveled to quite a few branches across the country as an employee, but never as a customer. This was a unique experience.

The "Concierge" branch that I visited is relatively nice, unlike "Earl's Corner Garage". I pulled my car under the canopy, walked inside to immediate service, gave them my keys and then had coffee/read magazines while an estimate on the damage was completed. I was told it would take about 30-45 minutes (and I was on my lunch break so I was really hoping for less time on this errand) but it ended up taking just under 30 minutes. Overall, it was not a bad experience. My only real complaint is the lame selection of magazines.

But, I am still getting to the point of my story...

Within the first five (5) minutes of waiting (and reading an old copy of Ladies Home Journal), two of the claims reps that were about 10 feet away from me at their workstations were COMPLAINING ABOUT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY! Interestingly, it seems that it happens quite often. I have often been in a store or talking with friends or even at home, and
people often seem to gripe about technology, their computer, or the program that they are trying to use.

And, quite often, those people that know me as an "IT Professional" seem to think that I can actually fix their problems. I always hear the phrase that goes something like; "...darn machine, hey, you work with computers....right!?".

Well, sure I work with computers...I use one every day, but I don't know how to fix them! And seriously, it's been a long time since I programmed a phone system, configured a router, punched-down a voice circuit, or de-bugged an application. As an IT person, I really lack any current technological skills, unless you need some "IT strategery". But that's a story (or two) for another time.

Back to the clams branch visit...

so, while one of the claims reps is complaining about the "same problem" that she has reported to the service desk a couple times, I am casually flipping through "HighLights Magazine for Kids" - trying to resolve the hidden pictures - and partially eaves-dropping.

I'm really not sure what the employee's complaint was about. It had something to do with "that thing that keeps failing" and the program that "never works the right way" and may be related to "you know...this window over here that has the same problem that she explained the last
time she called the help desk". The claims rep that she was talking with suggested that she should simply call the help desk and tell them about it. The problem-plagued girl responded with; "they'll just re-install the software and never fix the problem because they really
don't know the issue, even after I have explained it a thousand times!"

However, at the tail end of her complaint, I overheard her make a comment that might have some real value. She said; "It would be great if the help desk had a place where we could actually GO...WITH our computer...and SHOW them the problem that we are experiencing."

While seemingly impractical and cost-prohibitive at first glance...I think she may have
a good idea. We do this for our external "customers" all the time, but the IT departments don't REALLY treat their internal customers the same way. Here I am, sitting in a "concierge site", with coffee and magazines (again, lame selection, but better than no magazines) after
clearly pointing out the issues with my car, and somebody was looking at it while I waited. Seems like a good way to treat customers. And, I was not asked if I tried to "push the bumper back out to fix it?" Nor did I hear; "did you try turning the car off and back on again?"

So, I wonder if the Progressive IT department (or any IT service desk) could apply the concierge principle to how they operate. You could allow employees with computer problems to "stop by the help desk" or perhaps a house-call would be appropriate. One good computer-guy could make a trip to a claims branch and likely have more than one customer complaint to deal with in a single visit. A well-rounded, multi-disciplined tech-guy could resolve client and infrastructure problems at the same time. Or, with today's technology that allows "remote viewing of your desktop", the troubleshooter can sit at his/her desk and see the computer remotely. The first reply to a customer should be "please tell me and show me what problems you are having"...not..."did you try rebooting?"

And, sincerely listening to the customer about the technical issues that are causing a disruption in day-to-day work is important. Maybe there is something that is unique to the situation that can't be resolved with a reload of a x.ini or y.dll file.

Luckily, this particular claims rep wasn't the person servicing my car, otherwise I would have heard; "hold on a minute, we're having problems with these stupid computers and I just lost all your information that I typed-in a second ago!%^&*).

I'll start working on my "internal customer service approach" back at work and perhaps try to implement a better approach for the rest of IT.

Day 1 - First Blog

You're only as good as Google says you are...or so says Money Magazine.
So here I am. Setting up a weblog and a domain (scottallenwilliams.com).
More to follow.