Stairway to Heaven- Towards a Great IT Culture

By: Romi Mahajan, Director, KKM Group

People outside of IT tend to have skewed perceptions of IT Culture. Many believe that IT Professionals are insular and dismissive and are “a breed apart” from “the rest of us.” Though not an uncommon belief about any set of people who are competent in STEM, the perceptions of IT Culture tend to be unfair and even pernicious.

A thought experiment might be in order. Imagine your own profession and how you think about your “tribe.” Then imagine how others might perceive you. As a marketer I know that many believe that I am at best a clever speaker and at worst a money spender and resource exhauster without proper accountability to revenue and profit. My experience suggests that marketers are generally lambasted by others but my own perceptions of my tribe are different; sure, there are some marketers who aren’t particularly useful to the business, but there are countless others who work hard and smart to get results and feel very connected to outcomes.

I believe IT Pros are unfairly cast in a negative light and for this, there is no excuse.

All said and done, however, and at the risk of victim-blaming, I want to suggest that IT Pros need to work hard to build and broadcast the nature of their culture and contributions. When assaulted with the idea that they are insular, IT Pros out to suggest clearly that in fact they listen to and engage internal “customers” all the time. When accused of a command and control attitude, IT Pros ought to remind their accusers that for every case of lock down and “governance,” there are likely multiple cases of enablement and empowerment that the rest of us take for granted. When told that they are too far from the business, IT Pros ought to remind everyone that in modern organizations, “the business” and “IT” are converging and that the latter enables the former.

Perhaps to a hammer everything looks like a nail and therefore to a marketer, culture problems often seem to be solvable in marketing terms. I’m eager to know what Information Week readers think about IT Culture. I’m even more eager to hear their views on how best to convey to non-IT people what the IT Department is all about and what drives IT Professionals to do what they do, often in environments of thanklessness and distrust.