Matt Sharp, Director of Operations and Technology, Packard Foundation
Last week, when I started as Visiting Scholar at the Packard Foundation, I sat down to use the computer in my office to write a blog post. It was a bit of a culture shock using a computer that was part of an organization's IT system after being my own IT department for many years. As I tried to recreate my social media dashboard on my desktop, I realized that I couldn't simply install all the plug-ins and software I needed to be efficient.
Luckily, the IT department at the Packard Foundation is very helpful and progressive IT department. I had a meeting with Matt Sharp, IT Director, who told me that he has a bet going that I would ask for 72 things to be installed by the end of my nine months! (We're up to six!)
I learned from Matt more about how IT department's policies and challenges. As Matt explained it, "We have to get people across a river of scorpions without getting stung." Which was a great metaphor for explaining why there is standardization in the system and administrative controls. He also talked about how they test new hardware and software so it works with the existing system and doesn't prevent people from getting their work done.
I shared with him some of the tools that I use for blogging, Twitter, and other social media tasks that would require downloading and installing (non-standard) software onto my desktop. In order for me complete the installation, I'd need administrator access which required calling the Help Desk. So, as to make this efficient as possible, we set up a batch process.
Mary Watson, IT Manager
Mary Watson, IT Manager, gave me my orientation to the different IT, phone, and security systems at Packard. She offered me a helpful list of tips and Outlook 2007 cheat sheets, the Foundation's email/calendar or productivity system. Almost two years ago, I gave up Outlook cold turkey, went into rehab, and switched to gmail, so now I will be using both systems to manage different portions of my work. It was easy for me to pick up Outlook again, like riding a bicycle -- and this will be an opportunity to be "bi-lingual" in my productivity software usage. I'm also really grateful that this is very responsive IT Help Desk who have answered all my questions!
Working with your IT department is a question of social media readiness identified in the above quiz from Joel Postman, author of "Social Corp." This is a question mostly for larger nonprofits with IT departments or support.
This experience has given me so new insights about balancing the needs/concerns of the IT Department with the social media strategists needs for specific tools.
My takeaways:
- A good working relationship with your IT department is essential for success: The most important factor affecting success of your ability to implement social media programs is the relationship you established with the IT department. Taking the time to get to know the folks in the IT department and the policies and concerns is critical. Don't take a us vs them approach.
- Engage with IT Department on the Front End: If you can sit down and discuss mutual needs/concerns on the front end, you won't end up in a reactionary situation where there has been a violation of IT policy. Also, sometimes it isn't necessarily a black and white situation of you can't or can do x. Look at your discussion at a creative problem solving opportunity.
- Be open to alternatives: Try to be as open-minded as possible and listen to alternatives to your IT department might propose. With technology, there is always more than one way to do
For those of you who are doing social media from within a nonprofit organization that has an IT department what have you found works to get support for social media tactical implementation?
Resources:
Adam Christensen, The Impact of Corporate Culture on Social Media
Brian Kelly, IT Departments: Help or Hindrance for Web 2.0
Beth,
Thanks for the post. Its great to know about your experiences @ Packard Foundation.
I am a web solutions provider dealing with web 2.0 implementations in Non Profits and just to add one small note to the points that you have mentioned...the best way I found to make the IT department really support a social media cause is to excite them with a Technology related challenge. They have a huge online community and with something like a Techsoup they can be just the catalyst that a campaign would need. Ill post a story on my blog which may provide and insight on this.
Thanks again !! and by any chance does Mary Watson @ Packard has Jane for a middle name ;)
Posted by: Sumit Roy | March 31, 2009 at 03:04 AM
Beth - it sounds like Matt has the requisite open attitude that I think separates a true technologist from the average IT Gatekeeper. But, if I were there -- skeptic that I am -- I'd put it to test: is the willingness to make 72 exceptions to the IT rules extended equally to existing staff and visiting dignitaries, such as yourself? In the IT world I live in - Chief Technologist to 150-500 person orgs since about 1995 -- such an open attitude from IT is unusual.
What you know is that access to new technology and the ability to experiment with it are required ingredients for significant breakthroughs, like a successful fundraising campaign on a tool like Twitter. What an IT Director knows is that standardization is key to survival. As technology scales, and you support hundreds of desktops, instead of just a handful, the more alike those desktops are, the easier they are to manage. It's the same equation that allows a McDonald's to serve 50 people in the time that it takes a fine French restaurant to serve two people.
So there's a tricky balance to be maintained between keeping things automated and manageable, and supporting innovation. In about 1999, InfoWorld did a report that concluded that 75% of all IT Departments were reviled by their primary constituents. The typical techie -- and I hate to generalize like this, but I've seen it over and over -- is far more focused on managing the technology than mining it for mission-focused results. They're resistant to making exceptions (although they all do, of course - if the CEO wants that Outlook add-on, are you going to say no?). With all of the demands on IT, and the small staffs non-profits hire to support it, it can easily feel like the only way to manage it is to contain it.
My take is that standardization and automation are, of course, required, but flexibility is just as important. If IT is going to be an enabling force in our organizations, we have to encourage and support experimentation. Earlier in my career, I had an IT Director that I reported to (and eventually replaced) tell me "We only support Wordperfect. If they use a spreadsheet or database, it will only confuse them - they can do all of that in tables". She was sure that the only way that she could support technology was by restricting the use of it. My take is, if you teach someone three programs, they can pick up the fourth on their own. More to the point, if you are a technology limiter, and don't let your users out of the boxes that you provide for them, you'll get what you're looking for - a user base that does the minimum with technology. If you are, instead, an enabler -- someone who values innovative use (and that means understanding that innovation can come from anywhere, not just the people who sign your paycheck), then you'll have a user base that is appreciative enough of technology to largely support themselves. For most technology directors, this sounds like chaos theory, of course.
So, what I say -- and I know that you'll appreciate this -- is that, for a CIO/IT Director, a key metric is the ROI on flexibility. We need to standardize, but we can't contain it, not if we truly want technology to be a factor in our organizational success and advancement.
There's a lot more to this -- many orgs take these problems even further, when management actually appreciates things like web filters and locked down desktops removing the threat of HR abuses, effectively putting IT in the role of the organizational schoolmarm, another deadly inhibitor of innovation. I could (and might someday) write a book about it. :)
Posted by: Peter Campbell | March 31, 2009 at 07:53 AM
Hi Beth,
Interesting post - as a SaaS vendor, we are oftentimes in the position of trying to blend the competing needs of IT and end-users. We have found that having a strong senior-level advocate from another department - sometimes the VP of HR, the COO, etc. - helps in making IT more comfortable with social media tools.
For non-profits in particular, we offer free use of our software, so IT departments are less hesitant because there's no cost involved.
Posted by: Carrie Young, Socialcast Client Development | March 31, 2009 at 03:12 PM
OK, this thought is related but might not be exactly what you were looking for, but here goes.
One of the biggest moves our IT/Network side of the house made recently was to drastically change the filters on websense. We were blocking basically everything that could be seen as a time waster or just wasnt a part of people's work. These filters and websense were originally added because bandwidth was so expensive and we had very little of it. People attempting to use our business software were not able to complete transactions for members in a timely fashion because the bandwidth was clogged.
We improved our bandwidth, but still have limitations and struggles with it. So we lowered some of the websense filters to allow Facebook, LinkedIn and a bunch of other sites. We still block most streaming media though.
We decided it was a management issue, not a technology issue to keep people productive and using technology appropriately now. Too many people needed some of these tools to do their work to continue blocking it.
These changes have brought numerous challenges of abuse, questions and people finding new clever ways to subvert our websense filters, but why punish everyone for a few people's abuse?
Anyway just my sort of related thought. Why does the Technology team have to become the enforcers to replace lack of management?
Posted by: Steve Heye | April 06, 2009 at 07:56 AM
Thank you for this interesting & informative post about the at-times conflicting needs between end-users & IT. Liked the part about how the IT dept showed a willingness to listen & work with end-users. Having said that, I can only wish for an IT dept that's as open & flexible as the one at Packard.
Posted by: JChang | May 28, 2009 at 11:42 AM