Transforming IT Culture: How to Use Social Intelligence, Human Factors, and Collaboration to Create an IT Department That Outperforms

by Frank Wander

Practical, proven guidance for transforming the culture of any IT department As more and more jobs are outsourced, and the economy continues to struggle, people are looking for an alternative to the greed-driven, selfish leadership that has resulted in corporations where the workers are treated as interchangeable parts. This book shows how the human factors can be used to unlock higher returns on human capital such that workers are no longer interchangeable parts, but assets that are cared about and grown. Refreshingly innovative, Transforming IT Culture shows how neuroscientific and psychological research can be applied in the IT workplace to unleash a vast pool of untapped potential.

Written by an expert on IT culture transformation Considers the widespread "cultural blindness" in business today, and how it can be addressed Draws on the author's repeated success transforming IT divisions across major corporations by applying the human factors Explains why social intelligence, human factors, and collaboration are the source of harmony, shared learning, mutual respect, and value creation Employees want positive change in business, something to stop the downward spiral we are on, both financially and emotionally. Transforming IT Culture shows how the essential ingredient to any high performing IT department is a culture where employees are valued and managed to their strengths. Using the Information Technology profession as a lens through which we can understand knowledge worker productivity and how to seriously improve it, this important new book reveals why Collaborative Social Systems are essential to every organization.

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction

229 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Dewayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every organization is either at the beginning, in the middle, or just coming out of an Information Technology (IT) transformation. This book is written to help the IT leader at all levels assist their respective organization with this change. The core message is that IT has a failed past thanks to toxic behaviors and practices by management from prior eras of Corporate America built for the industrial manufacturing work environments. The companies that drive their transformation with a focus on redesigning their IT to leverage social intelligence practices and techniques that maximizes human behavior for the most creative outcome are bound to be successful helping their organization increase IT performance. In short, IT is a people business that requires leadership skills that foster an environment to delicately handle the nature of that work by people as opposed performance by machines.

This book is full of great quotes and lessons to help you through this organizational challenge. It's designed best for a slow read and used as reference material based on where you are at in the transformation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've learned so much from the book about running an IT department that is emotionally intelligent and respectful. I've used much of the ideas shared to help turn around dysfunctional or un-focused teams and helped them reach a place of not only technical excellence (letting them fully exercise their considerable talents) but delivering excellent customer service. A respected, happy, empowered team is a productive team. This is one of the first books I recommend to those interested in IT management along with Phoenix Project.

[Scott Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iliked this book a lot. It’s labeled as a part of a “CIO Series,” but that’s really a mislabel. It’s for anyone working with software developers who has to navigate a distinct company culture. It’s especially geared for those who want to mold that culture for good. Software development is a tricky industry. Good people are hard to find, and they often don’t have a stereotypical personality – especially if they’re really talented. Yet as we all know, emotional intelligence remains invaluable in the workplace.

What are a worker and an employer to do? How are we to deal with co-workers – especially leaders – who put up roadblocks of negativity? How can we ensure that a division’s culture promotes effective knowledge work? Frank Wander explores how these human factors affect productivity. He forcefully argues that software development is unlike factory work. Its workplace cannot be modeled as a system of replaceable cogs. Instead, it’s inherently driven by creative forces and intellect unleashed through workplace happiness. Keeping workers’ loyalty pays huge dividends for a business because knowledge workers retain the expertise and efficiencies that can’t be easily replaced.

I’m not a CIO and don’t really aspire to that professional title. I write software and desire to be a better employee to those around me. I read this book to make the people around me better. This book gave me more confidence that I can contribute through the all-too-human values I appreciate, regardless of what people around me say. Despite usually being done alone in front of a screen, software development is, at its root, a social activity. Making use of those effects can bring life to a division and help them outperform in the marketplace. Reading this book can help an employee identify the little things to make her/his own work of writing software better. By unleashing productive creativity, it can build software – and a company – one human interaction at a time.

[Rao Tetali · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched book with a practical bent and ideas presented in this book are relevant at all levels of an organization (individual team members, team leaders, managers, all the way up to CIO).

Talks about human factors, toxic behaviors, pro-social behaviors, servant leaders and calls for collaboration between business and IT.

Overall, a very interesting book on how to transform culture in business IT organizations (business and IT are conjoined in most industries) for post-industrial era.

For detailed review, see my review at http://raotetali.blogspot.com/2014/01...

[Joe Sabado · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because it looks at Information technology (IT) as a social organization (collaboration, culture, emotional intelligence, trust, etc), a concept that is sometimes ignored or disregarded in general discussions about IT.