IT Guide for Seeing Through the Matrix

In my previous blog, I shared some research showing that it was time for a wake-up call in IT. Specifically, I reference several studies showing that while most IT teams see themselves as heroes of the enterprise, the businesses those same teams support see them more as villains, even if well-meaning ones. 

The good news is that an increasing number of IT teams have undergone transformations and aligned how they see themselves with how the business sees them. The results, not surprisingly, are more respect for IT, and happier, more productive employees. A good ol’ fashion win-win. The answer is straightforward, and the changes required are easier and less expensive than what you’re currently doing. The only hard part? Being willing to see things from your customer’s, or end user’s perspective. 

Take the Red Pill

Today, the epic heroes of the IT world don’t get that way by making a decision matrix. Rather, they get that way by making a matrix decision: choosing either the Red Pill or the Blue Pill. Take the red pill, and you’ll find out what employees really think of IT in your company. A very hard pill to swallow (sorry!), but a prerequisite to changing IT’s reputation. Take the blue pill, and you can be one of those IT teams that researchers find in blissful ignorance, feeling great about the job you’re doing, while your end users feel the exact opposite. 

The choice is a real one – but for true IT heroes, it’s not a choice at all. Heroes learn the truth and do something about it. If we look at the research, we see that most IT leaders choose the blue pill, content to feel great about their team’s work and assume without data that we’re the exception to the rule. This is an extremely human thing to do. A recent study showed that 76 percent of Americans think they are above average drivers, even though 93 percent in the same study admitted to unsafe behavior on the road. 

That’s fine for “normal” IT teams, but for the heroes among us who want to be a change for good in our organizations, how can you truly want to find out for sure whether you’re a villain or a hero? How do you take the red pill and see IT’s role and reputation for what it really is at your company? 

In this blog @Why asks if you're ready to see IT's role and reputation for what it really is at your company? Well… are you? #ITSM #servicedesk Share on X

What Is a Hero, Really?

A subtle nuance in superhero stories is that while both heroes and villains self-identify as doing the right thing, the decision of what that “right thing” is for humanity is arrived at in two different ways. The main difference: Villains project their world view on humanity, often removing mankind’s freedom for its own good, as defined by the villain of course. Heroes, on the other hand, fight for the freedom of their “end users” to work toward success as defined by those people themselves, not what the hero feels success should be. 

For IT teams, to be seen as heroes rather than villains, we have to avoid this trap and see our role and services from the business’s point of view. For us in IT, taking the red pill means forgetting everything we know, think, and believe about IT, so we can start to truly see ourselves as end users see us. 

Spoiler: your CSAT survey or first contact resolution reports won’t do the trick. 

Want to know what your end users really think of IT? Your CSAT survey or first contact resolution reports won’t do the trick, says @Why. #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

Everything You Know Is (Statistically) Wrong 

Before my career in IT, I earned a Master’s Degree in psychology and so I had a bit of a head start on measuring the experience of others objectively and scientifically. As an IT Director, when I was training my leadership team, I knew I couldn’t make all of my directs get advanced degrees in social science, but I still made it a point to teach them the most important thing I learned from graduate school and years of conducting experiments. 

Test every assumption, question every instinct, and encourage workers at all levels of your organization to do the same. 

Test every assumption, question every instinct, and encourage workers at all levels of your organization to do the same – @Why. #ITSM #servicedesk Share on X

For instance, in recent research from Vanson Bourne and McKinsey, it’s clear that regardless of what I *think* about the relationship my team has with the business it supports, that opinion is, statistically, almost certainly wrong. If science says that most IT teams are out of touch with how they’re really doing, for me to assume that I’m the exception to that rule without some really hard data backing that up is categorically unscientific unless I have some crystal clear data to base that decision on. 

Most IT teams in those studies, the ones that are proven to be out of touch, actually regularly deploy CSAT surveys, and measure myriad IT efficiency metrics. The science, however, has revealed over time that CSAT, continuous service improvement plans, and a large majority of IT efficiency metrics deployed in our industry aren’t correlated with business satisfaction with IT. 

First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a great metric for measuring how many tickets are closed in one contact. Use it appropriately, and it’s a powerful insight. Assume that it in any way reflects the experience your end users have with IT, and you’ll end up, albeit in good company, in the group of IT teams taking the blue pill, blissfully unaware of what the value your team provides to the business.

Science shows that over time that CSAT, continuous service improvement plans, and a large majority of IT efficiency metrics deployed in our industry aren’t correlated with business satisfaction with IT – @Why #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

Question, Like, Everything 

So how do you take the red pill as an IT professional? How do you see through the matrix and understand reality, what is really happening? The answer is simple. You do what so few of us take enough time to do in our industry. 

You stop. 

Stop doing what you’d planned for today and block an hour off on your calendar. Then, go find a conference room, a park bench or a cafe, close your 72 open browser tabs, and take a deep cleansing breath. Now, the fun part. 

Forget everything you know, and then start questioning everything. Every metric you measure. Every assumption in your next meeting. Is your CSAT survey 100% anonymous? If not, your data is likely to land somewhere between unreliable at best and misleading at worse. Have you done any scientific or mathematical testing to know if your CSAT is even accurate or reliable? Do you define success for your managers numerically, and if so, do those numbers directly reflect increased business outcomes in a demonstrable way? While you *might* be the unicorn (the exception to the research), you’re almost certainly not, statistically speaking. 

Have fun with this. Make it your culture. Empower your managers and techs to question everything. One of the biggest reasons that IT teams filled with talent will still underperform is that the procedures and metrics result in, as one of my managers used to say, intelligent employees being forced to “do the wrong thing on purpose.” And we wonder why morale is low in IT! 

One of the biggest reasons that IT teams filled with talent will still under perform is that the procedures and metrics result inntelligent employees being forced to 'do the wrong thing on purpose.' – @why #ServiceDesk #ITSM Share on X

The Takeaway

As a former psychotherapist with two degrees in psychology, I spent years in graduate school developing an expertise in metrics that measure experience, and how to analyze data definitions and meanings to ensure you know what you’re actually measuring when you collect data. 

This has been invaluable now that, as a speaker and author, I get to speak with a ton of IT leaders about their metrics and what those metrics actually measure. In these conversations, I’ve learned that most IT teams share two contradicting similarities when it comes to measuring end-user experience. First, they use many data points to drive their strategy, which is awesome. Less awesome is the second similarity, which is that much of that data they collect is inaccurate, unreliable, and often misleading in terms of meaning. Having a “data-driven” strategy is only helpful if good data is driving. 

Having a 'data-driven' strategy is only helpful if good data is driving – @Why #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

The unfortunate result of using bad data to drive strategy is that the majority of IT teams could, very literally, increase their end users’ IT customer experience by not using data at all. This isn’t just an anecdotal theory. McKinsey concluded as much in their 2019 study that showed over 70 percent of digital transformation projects fail completely. Why? Because there was a disconnect between what IT’s data said, and what the actual experience was. 

So question everything. Take the red pill. Before you know it, your projects will start succeeding more, your data will affect reality, and most importantly, you’ll know what to fix that really matters to the business you support. And once you start fixing it, in not too long a time, you’ll get the real payoff. Rather than avoiding seeing your true reflection, you’ll be able to look in the mirror and be proud of what you see.