Survey: People skills valued over those for IT

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Team Building

This is the sad fact of the matter. 20 or so years ago the great work of Deming involving Total Quality Management (TQM) which worked so well in Japan was implemented in the USA. We (I was a federally certified TQM consultant) gave it a great shot but the values in the USA just did not lend themselves to the methodology. The value of individualism in particular.

Today the most hated professional - more hated than car salesperson or lawyer - is the HMO administrator. I fault this team building people skills value over value for the skilled technologist - in this case the physician - as the reason.

Where there has yet to be a demonstrated cost savings for outsourcing core competency - and lets not pretend - a core competency of every business is IT - there may be successful collaborations in IT.

In situations where the team relationships are strong and folks really care about each other and the issue being addressed is an important one, collaboration appears good on paper. But I just am not getting it to work.

The two or three efforts I have been involved with have been hampered by budget constraints resulting in competition for budget at the project lead level followed by competition for jobs when a few are eliminated and folks just plane leaving the organization when they see that those who do not participate (the silent ones) get rewarded. The model just doesn't fit with their US accredited west coast schooling.

The outrage over doping today in our national pastime is meaningful. We in the USA love teams but individuals are expected to compete and compete fairly according to the rules. The competition fails when there is cheating; so does the over collaboration and what we have is compromise and not quality.

The USA is about individuals innovating and not about who you know on the team that can keep you there. Just read the paper today and know this to be true. Then think how the future will be when those now typing use voice to text message and video.

The folks with people skills (IE those well liked and rated so by survey) all lost their jobs when the house of perception fell and Enron and WorldCom. Perception is not reality. The patient either lives or dies at the HMO. IT is black and white that way.

Posted by: mighetto   Posted on: 12/14/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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