CHAPTER 15: SOME FINGERS POINT AND SOME HANDS CLAP

The change management meeting had gone well, right up to the point where the fourth of six business change requests had been denied. Meredith played her part as the aggrieved party quite well, despite the fact that the business had tried to push them out into production as emergency changes two days earlier. The rationale for the emergency was the potential loss of revenue if the latest fix to Mountain Top was not enabled in time. But the reality had been that they hadn’t even considered working through the change management process until Brad’s team refused to co-operate.

The developers had apparently been told by their leader, that if any of them went outside the change management process, regardless of who asked them, they would be summarily fired and walked out the door that day. I had also been told that Brad had given his teams a similar message, although with a much more colorful and scatological description of the hurt that he would rain down on them if they even thought about ignoring change management process.

It seemed Jessica had been true to her word, and made it very clear to her directs that as long as she was CIO, the penalty for deviating from the established change management process would be terminal. And with the constant reinforcing support from the change advisory board members, even Chester seemed to have grown a tiny bit less apprehensive about declining change requests.

Things did seem to be falling into place, and based on the preliminary data I was seeing, our incidents due to changes were declining. With continued hard work and co-operation, not to mention a tiny bit of luck, we’d be able to give Jessica that noticeable decline in change related incidents.

But when that fourth change request was denied at the meeting, all it took was a single message from Meredith to Jason to have us all standing outside the office of Sully, the CEO, a few hours later. It had originally been set-up as just Jessica, Jason and Sully. But Jessica had insisted I be there. Ramesh, with his well-hewn corporate survival instincts, found he had a family medical crisis and was able to wriggle out. Jason was there of course, as was Meredith.

I found it ironic that the four of us were standing outside Sully’s office. We knew each other well and worked together on a day-to-day basis. We chatted about upcoming items we needed to co-operate on. Jason even shared most of the few jokes he knew that could be told in an office environment. But no one mentioned, or even hinted, at the issue that had brought us here. I just couldn’t do it. After this, I wasn’t sure I could go back to working with Meredith or Jason again. They were doing the wrong thing for the company and the employees, and I was not about to be their friend.

As I sat there watching them mingle, I remembered a time when I watched attorneys outside a courtroom prior to a trial. They were friendly, making plans for lunch the next day, and sharing information about upcoming cases. But once in the courtroom they became total competitors, doing anything within the bounds of legal protocol to win for their client. Afterwards, I saw them outside just as friendly as they had been before the trial.

At first I thought they had simply compartmentalized their lives, but when I overheard them giving each other notes and compliments on the way they advocated for their clients during the trial, I realized it was more than that. They had, either through training or through inclination, learned how to be fact-based in their working relationship. When the facts of their individual roles required them to be adversaries, they were. When the facts of their individual roles allowed them to be allies, they were. But in the long run, they were willing to set aside their differences and work together for the good of the entire process.

I realized that was how I needed to be. No matter what the issue, it was about the facts. People’s roles change. Circumstances change. And sometimes we are bound to be in conflict. But that doesn’t change the underlying relationships we all build. I could not be successful in IT, or anywhere else in business, if I took situational opposition personally. And those people that did, would eventually become isolated, trusting only themselves and no one else.

I supposed that made me open to suffering at the hands of people who made everything personal and could never get beyond. But I also knew that no one of us can ever be as strong as all of us.

Exactly 20 minutes late, the door to Sully’s office opened and three people, whose photographs I recognized from the annual report, walked out. They were senior members of the board; old men wearing very expensive suits and walking with that calm measured pace of those who were used to others getting out of their way. Each had been a highly successful executive, or investor, in their day. Now they spent their retirement advising others on how to best operate. Their conversation was full of light banter, back slapping and polite laughter. It was not about the company or business issues. It was all about promises to get together after the next board meeting to spend the day sailing on another board member’s boat. Everyone was all smiles and firm handshakes. I wondered if the same conversation inside had been just as genial.

None of them acknowledged us as we stood silently and watched Sully walk them down the hall toward the elevator. He returned a few minutes later. He held up his hand to us and quietly said, “Give me a moment, please,” before stepping into his office and closing the door behind him.

The phone lines on his assistant’s desk lit up, indicating he was making some calls. After about 15 minutes, he opened the door, face still full of smiles, and motioned for us all to come in. “Sorry for the delay.”

Sully’s office was large by company standards, but more importantly, he had a private conference room adjacent to it. That room had seats for 10. Sully stood between us and his desk, and gestured for us to proceed directly into his conference room.

After waiting for everyone to find their place and sit down, Sully took his place at the head of the table. His tone immediately changed.

“Why have you taken this time from me?” he asked with a scowl. “Why are you making me spend my time with you now, instead of letting me run the company?”

“You called this meeting,” said Jessica. “You wanted to talk about change management.”

“Technically correct,” said Sully. “But the reason I called the meeting is that like a bunch of children in the schoolyard, you can’t learn how to play together. But unlike the schoolyard, because you are incapable of working together, it negatively impacts the company, its customers and its stockholders.”

“Look,” he said in a loud directive voice that filled the room. “I hear what’s going on. People talk to me. I ask questions. This is not my first day on the job. We give funding to you for your IT team, with the expectation that it is going to be used to deliver projects the business needs … delivered on-time, on-budget and with the functionality they need. And all I’ve been getting lately are complaints … distractions I don’t need when I’m practically killing myself trying to get the Board of Directors to make some additional investments in the company.”

“Sully, my team does a lot of work to sustain the business … work that isn’t on your project list and is important to keeping the lights on and the business working.”

“Jessica, you are not hearing me. Every one of your CIO predecessors has used that same song and dance to justify why their organization has less financial discipline than an eight year old child does. Note that I say predecessors, those former CIOs who were unleashed to achieve even higher levels of success elsewhere. Fixing this comes with the territory of being CIO. It’s why you get paid the big bucks.”

“And you, Jason,” said Sully. “I hear your team likes to do it all.”

“We’re proud of the company, Sully, and we’ll do anything necessary to make it a success,” said Jason.

“Well then stop messing around in the IT space. Unless I’m mistaken, I pay you to sell products and services. You’re here to close deals that bring in revenue, not rack and stack hardware.”

“But if we don’t do it, IT will never meet our deadline. They have everything bottled up with their change management bureaucrats.”

“Sorry, that won’t fly,” said Sully. “I’ve seen the data. Given how many of the incidents are self-inflicted by your team’s actions and requests, I think they may not be tough enough. Instead of skulking around the data centre, spend some of that time doing a better job of planning your new programs. Hold IT accountable for delivering what you need on time, and in good working order, but always remember this. A failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on their part.”

Sully waved his finger at Jason. “If I hear any more about you thinking that you’re the VP of sales, marketing and IT, then I may set you free and start talking to all those eager-eyed and hungry sales executives the board keeps referring to me. Am I clear?”

Jason nodded and mumbled, ”Yes sir.”

“Look, your teams have made some great progress so far in reducing incidents and problems. You’ve got to keep working together to make it even better.”

Sully paused and looked around the room. “Any questions?”

No one spoke.

“Good,” said Sully as he picked up the receiver on his phone. “Now get out of here. I have to go move some mountains. This meeting is over. Good-bye.”

I was the last leaving Sully’s office, and as I closed his door I mumbled something, wondering how he knew so much about what had been going on with all the work we had done and the data we had found.

Sully’s administrative assistant, Tomisha, sat right outside his door. She’d worked for Sully for many years, and she always seemed to have a smile for me.

I’d followed Meredith’s advice and made sure I sent birthday cards to all of the administrative assistants in IT and corporate. And Tomisha’s had gone out about a month ago. I doubt that was why she was pleasant with me. She was probably just a nice person.

As I passed her desk, Tomisha stopped what she was doing, smiled and whispered, “Chester plays 18 holes of golf with Sully every weekend. Chester is a scratch golfer and Sully has a 10 handicap, but Chester always lets Sully win.”

I was smiling as I walked away and made a mental note to do something nice for Meredith; and Chester, too.