One of the biggest challenges I see in the IT world today is the inability for techies/analysts/managers to be able to make meaningful change happen in their organization.  The typical story goes something like this, in a moment of brilliant insight; you come up with an idea to make a meaningful impact at your company. That idea could be anything from adding workforce management software in the contact center to simply hiring a developer.

It wasn’t very long ago that I was shopping for a very specific product and learned that a specialty retail outlet had just what I needed. Three days later, I had an opening in my morning schedule, which made it possible for me to go and pick it up. I called the store to make sure that they were open, no answer…

I just finished watching John Kotter (Professor of Leadership, Emeritus Harvard Business School and author of an entire bookshelf full of books on change) talk about his new book Buy In. There are some takeaways for IT.

Why the fudge factor is eating process automation projects from the inside out.

In the last decade, the Business Process Improvement craze has overwhelmingly become an important directive from the C-Suite. Understandably so, the companies who are able to execute a successful business process improvement project have earned remarkable results… (Toyotay, GE, and Dell are some of the best-known examples of companies who successfully overcame the fudge factor). Can you?

How do you decide if implementing a Unified Communications (UC) solution will build on your organization’s core strategy or not? Drilling down even further, how do you determine what kind of system is the best strategic fit for the culture and strengths of your organization? Beyond that, how do you convince the CEO/CFO/Board that an investment in Unified Communications is a judicious way to build competitive differentiation?

So, you are most likely in a position of technological trust within your organization and have spent the better part of half a lifetime learning about technology… security, business process, technology management, reporting…. Seriously, Who cares? All that knowledge won’t mean a hill of beans if you can’t get the C-Suite to OWN your vision (believe me, I’ve tried walking down that road, it’s less painful having your coworker beat you up side the head with a two-by-four). Budgets are tight and executive face time is your opportunity to impact the future of your organization (not to mention yourself). You’ve likely got 10 – 20 minutes to sell your idea and that’s it.