Category Archives: The Job

Finding Team Success

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Every companies have different departments.1 Every departments have different goals and operating procedures. But to a customer, they don’t see these different departments – they only see one company.  So, it’s very important everyone in the company work as a team.  Finding the key for team work success can be summarized in the following steps:

  1. Prepare to succeed.
  2. State your positive intent.
  3. Describe the issue fairly.
  4. Facilitate the discussion.
  5. Gain agreement on next steps.

It comes down to persistence and positive thinking.  Refrain from blaming each other. Do understand what others are going through. Focus on helping the customer.

Most of all, follow through on the agreed next steps.  Nothing is more rewarding than a happy (and returning) customer!

  1. Some companies aptly call departments as “divisions”. [↩]

What’s Next in IT Jobs?

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The year is ending and it’s time to re-evaluate one’s career and direction in the next five years.  Doing the nuts and bolts of systems administration may not be as relevant anymore.  An article in Computer World UK noted:

So what should today’s IT employee do to protect his or her career? “Look for the skills the company is going to need five years from now, not now, and start building them,” advises Forrester’s Schadler. “These include vendor contract management, integration with the cloud, analytics, rich lightweight Internet workforce applications, mobile applications — these are all skills for the next decade,” he says.

IT executives are considering cloud computing. That’s where the game is at.  It’s going to be a slow shift, but it will surely happen.  Better be prepared than sorry.

Problem Solving And Deciding On A Solution

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Working in a team can be quite challenging. Deciding what to agree on for an outcome or goal is important for the success of a project. Some key actions to evaluate solutions and gain consensus on the decision to be implemented are:

  1. Describe the decision and how it will be made.
  2. Jointly establish decision-making guidelines.
  3. Jointly evaluate options against the guidelines.
  4. Gain agreement on the best alternative.

Keep it cool, civilized, and concise. Keep discussions on topic and on time. Most of all, communicate well!