{"id":12703,"date":"2015-03-11T12:21:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T12:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.greenpages.com\/?p=4905"},"modified":"2015-03-11T12:21:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T12:21:07","slug":"7-habits-of-highly-effective-it-departments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/7-habits-of-highly-effective-it-departments\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Habits of Highly Effective IT Departments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Guest post from Azmi Jafarey. Azmi was named 2013 CIO of the year by Boston Business Journal and Mass High Tech.\u00a0You can <a title=\"cio\" href=\"http:\/\/hitechcio.com\/\" >hear more from Azmi on his blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.greenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Azmi-CIO-Headshot.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-4906\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.greenpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Azmi-CIO-Headshot.png\" alt=\"IT Department\" width=\"136\" height=\"110\" \/><\/a>How many business books do you know that 26 years later can claim to be fully relevant? Stephen Covey\u2019s \u201c7 Habits of Highly Effective People\u201d remains just such a potent landmark. Re-reading it, I was struck by how useful the 7 habits can be for IT Departments.\u00a0 Here is how to fit the habits into behaviors that lead to success for IT and the business. <span id=\"more-4905\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1. Be Proactive<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Anticipate what your network and systems may do, and plan for it. This is a broad call to arms \u2013 preparing for malware threats, doing back-ups, having an automated system for managing patches, doing capacity planning, knowing your baseline behaviors to detect anomalies, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. Begin with the End in Mind<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don\u2019t just start projects \u2013 have targets with timelines and plans to hit them. Work backwards from business deliverables. The vectors of tasks should all add up to the resultant value you are after.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. Put First Things First<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don\u2019t guess \u2013 develop plans, use checklists, test. Brush up on your <a title=\"project management\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.greenpages.com\/miscellaneous-it\/5-tips-effective-communication-stakeholders\/\" >project management<\/a> and take the time to approach new projects in the right sequence of first getting and understanding the business requirements, then looking at timing needs, available skills sets and dollars, and then commencing with your planning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. Think Win-Win<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Business and IT have to be true partners working jointly towards competitive advantage for the business. This means that IT has to have a deep understanding of business goals and business processes. The business has to be cognizant of IT\u2019s limitations and policy needs such as those around security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>5. Seek First to Understand and Then To Be Understood<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The role of IT is to <a title=\"business outcomes\" href=\"http:\/\/response.greenpages.com\/ebookEvolutionOfITDepartment102013_Blog\" >enable business outcomes<\/a>. Thus, the first thing is for IT to understand what the business objectives are for a project, and then to understand the specific business requirements. Technology comes much later \u2013 and there the task of IT is to have the business understand exactly what they will be getting, how it will function and what the limitations are. Establish this to-and-fro and you have the basis for fruitful collaboration and results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6. Synergize<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Covey is clear about the benefits of positive teamwork \u2013 and IT should be, too. What is important is for the team work not only to exist within IT but to extend to the business. Shared ownership, supplemented with collaborative problem solving and clear communications, develops the IT-Business synergy that translates to results and competitive advantage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>7. Sharpen the Saw<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is the old adage of the woodcutter who says that he is too busy cutting down trees to sharpen the saw. Stop! Sharpen the saw. We are in an age of technological acceleration. The quality of your decisions is a direct function of how much you know. For IT this means vigilance, reading, training and trying as the pre-requisites for success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Clarity and commitment are what the 7 habits are all about.\u00a0 Follow them and you have effective IT!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?a=sRdRYF8aDY8:Dc6aWVXx1CY:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?a=sRdRYF8aDY8:Dc6aWVXx1CY:-BTjWOF_DHI\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?i=sRdRYF8aDY8:Dc6aWVXx1CY:-BTjWOF_DHI\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?a=sRdRYF8aDY8:Dc6aWVXx1CY:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?i=sRdRYF8aDY8:Dc6aWVXx1CY:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?a=sRdRYF8aDY8:Dc6aWVXx1CY:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/JourneyToTheCloud?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/JourneyToTheCloud\/~4\/sRdRYF8aDY8\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest post from Azmi Jafarey. Azmi was named 2013 CIO of the year by Boston Business Journal and Mass High Tech.&nbsp;You can hear more from Azmi on his blog. How many business books do you know that 26 years later can claim to be fully relevant? Stephen Covey&rsquo;s &ldquo;7 Habits of Highly Effective People&rdquo; remains&hellip;<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.greenpages.com\/featured\/7-habits-highly-effective-it-departments\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-it-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12778,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12703\/revisions\/12778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}