Hero or Villain: Which Is Your IT Team?

Unlike a lot of my peers, I was never into comics as a kid. Sure, I watched the old school Batman TV show and was into some nerdy stuff, like math and gadgets, but to be honest, I started my IT career as a closet non-nerd. 

When I started leading IT teams, I realized that just being nerd-ish was not going to scale and so like any good IT Director, I spent hours watching the Marvel movies in chronological order and binging sci-fi series to make sure I had at least a baseline, if unimpressive, amount of nerd cred. 

What I realized on this journey is that a career in IT has a ton of parallels with those of comic book superheroes. Exceptional IT, in particular, is a rare accomplishment and truly requires a hero’s journey to arrive at. The analogies are endless. Think about it: mild mannered folks doing extraordinary, heroic things every day, often without praise or understanding from the people they seek to save the day for. That could easily describe a day in the life of both Superman and your favorite IT technician. 

Pretty cool, huh? IT professionals are superheroes. Sweet! End of story! 

Not so fast, Batman.

In this blog @Why asks: how do we know for sure our IT org isn’t just another misguided group of villains using our superpowers to undo, rather than save, the end users we aspire to help? #service #ITSM #comics Share on X

Reality Check

Most of us take for granted when we see a superhero film that Batman is good, and Joker is bad. One similarity between heroes and villains, perhaps the most impactful one, however, is the one most of us overlook. That similarity: When they look in the mirror, both villains and superheroes see themselves as the heroes in the story. 

Thanos. The Joker. Even that cigarette smoking man from the X-Files each saw a hero when they looked in the mirror. But the citizens of earth, the “end users” of the narrative, saw them as the opposite. That cautionary tale should have every IT leader stopping dead in her tracks to reflect on this conundrum: How do we know for sure our IT org isn’t just another misguided group of villains using our superpowers to undo, rather than save, the end users we aspire to help? 

While it’s nice to think of ourselves as the heroes of the enterprise, we’ll need to be a lot more scientific about coming to that conclusion, especially since humans are notoriously bad at self awareness. And before you say “no worries, I’m super self aware!”- it should be noted that this is what pretty much everyone thinks as well. A recent study, for instance, revealed that 76 percent of Americans feel they are good drivers, while in the same study 93 percent admitted unsafe behavior on the road. If you’re an IT leader, your self awareness when it comes to how the business perceives you is statistically even less accurate. 

76% of Americans consider themselves good drivers, yet the same study finds 93% admit to unsafe behavior on the road. If you’re an IT leader, your self awareness when it comes to how the business perceives you is statistically even less accurate,… Share on X

Self Awareness: A Necessary Superpower for IT 

Research from Vanson Bourne, McKinsey and others have revealed a truth that is a little tough to swallow for a lot of us in Enterprise IT. IT departments, the data clearly shows, are perceived as villains rather than heroes at most companies by the business they support. More problematic? The data reveals what many end users have known for decades: IT teams, as a general rule, have a much higher opinion of their services than the end users who use those services. In other words, IT has grown out of touch, and there’s a big disconnect between how we see our value add, and how our customers see it. 

This problem is uniquely dangerous for IT and other enterprise services like facilities or HR, by the nature of our roles as support organizations in the enterprise. Other departments have built-in systems for becoming self aware whether they like it or not. Think about it.  If you’re a Sales leader who thinks her team is amazing, but you aren’t selling enough, you’ll be forced to fix that problem or be replaced by someone who can. Sales metrics define success in terms of the company’s bottom line, unlike most IT teams whose metrics have more to do with IT efficiency than business outcomes. 

Then, there’s the fact that most IT teams really have no external competition. In spite of how powerless it sometimes feels to be in IT, we have a true monopoly on our end users. If I don’t like Uber, I can start using Lyft. An employee, on the other hand, can’t just say “I’m going to start using a different IT helpdesk, this one sucks.” Nope. In fact, if there were an alternative to their IT team, most of us would be out of business. The Vanson Bourne Study shows that most employees choose to avoid IT if at all possible, rather than speak up about the needs that aren’t being met. This in turn just lowers ticket counts and gives IT teams all the more reason to think they’re killing it, perpetuating the illusion that we’re the heroes in the enterprise. 

Teams that evolve to world class, empathetic IT experience deliverers also spend less money and save time. If you’re someone who values excellence, come join the revolution says @Why. #ITSM #servicedesk Share on X

Three Steps to Saving the Day and Your Team’s Reputation

I’ve guided several IT teams through the transformation from villains to heroes, and I can tell you the payoff is well worth the struggle. When you change that reputation by following the steps below, the things your IT team has longed for like respect, autonomy, and even more budget inevitably come your way. Emails complaining about IT are replaced by messages from every exec praising the massive turnaround and value add your org is bringing to the business. 

The best part, though, is being able to give your team careers in which they’re truly respected, appreciated, and seen as successful and valuable by the business they support. 

Spoiler alert: teams that evolve to world class, empathetic IT experience deliverers also spend less money and save time. If you’re someone who values excellence, come join the revolution! 

1 – Find a metric that matters

Do you really know how your IT team is viewed by the workforce who relies on you to do their jobs? The only way to know for sure is to have an accurate, reliable north star metric that measures the experience of interacting with IT from an end user, or customer perspective. Most IT metrics measure IT efficiency, but are not correlated with increased experience.

Pro tip: if the metric isn’t something that resonates with folks outside of IT, as well as at all levels of your organization, it lacks meaning and buy-in, so go find another one. And no, your old CSAT survey does not count!

If your metric doesn't resonate with folks outside of IT, as well as at all levels of your organization, it lacks meaning and buy-in, so go find another one says @Why. #ITSM #servicedesk Share on X

2 – Strategize with, not for, your stakeholders

It might sound like semantics, but IT teams that are focused on building a great experience for their customers are destined to fall short. When you build your strategy with your partners in the business, the end result is 10x better for everyone. The following are a few tips to get you started. 

• Involve your key stakeholders in every decision you make that will affect them, literally from day one of every project. 
• Require every proposal from your managers to include an analysis of the resulting impact to the business and what the experience will really be. 
• Finally, test everything with real end users who are not in IT. Most failures in IT could have been easily avoided with frequent, aggressive testing. 

3 – Arrive at a unified, shared strategy

Once you have a north star metric that is meaningful to everyone, and are collecting feedback and testing early and often, the final step is unifying your team around a shared mission. Instead of a vision statement full of buzzwords and acronyms, your north star metric can define and measure success empirically and clearly so your team is on the same page. Keep it down to a third grade level. A simple, clear, and intuitive strategy will allow everyone to get on board and save costly misunderstandings or assumptions about what your teams’ priorities should be. 

This is the gist of it. I’ll be writing more about these steps in future blogs.

Final Inspirational Thoughts from Real Superheroes

I’ll leave you with two closing thoughts to guide you on your way. 

First, being a hero isn’t the easy path. As Superman said:

“The ‘Amazing’ can only be created by facing fear, risk, and failure during the process.”

But while transforming IT seems daunting if not impossible before you start, if you’re willing to face the truth head on, you can make it a reality. As Wonder Woman said:

“You are stronger than you believe. You have greater powers than you know.” 

Now go make it happen!