A bunch of years ago, my father was wheeled in for back surgery that they said would take about three hours. Not wanting to hang out in the surgery waiting room, I wandered down to the cafeteria and grabbed some lunch and read a book. I went upstairs and back to the waiting room about two and a half hours later – just in case they finished early.
Pretty much what I imagine it looked like in the OR. It could also have been a cave with sticks - how do I know?
Four hours after I got back upstairs, a nurse came out to tell me that they were wrapping up and everything went well. Incredulous, I asked why on earth it had taken six and a half hours instead of the three they said. She looked confused and said it only took two hours – then looked at her notes and said, “oh – we had to put your Dad back in the staging area for a few hours because an emergency came up that the neurosurgeon was needed for. Sorry.”
I was both relieved and incredibly upset – I had been sweating bullets for hours, for absolutely no reason.
Some years later, my dad needed very serious heart surgery. They said it would take about four to five hours. Every hour a nurse came out and told me how it was going. About four hours in, they came out and told me that they were having “some trouble” getting his heart to start back up, but that they’d keep me updated. They answered my questions and summarized for me what the steps were ahead. About a half hour later they told me he was doing well and I could see him in an hour. Despite the drama, I felt informed and in the know. And even though the situation was serious, I felt like the medical team cared and were on my side.
In a vacuum, this is a weird story to tell in a blog called the Transformational Technologist, but I want to spend some time here because I think this is a really good example of a problem that we face all the time in IT. And I mean all the time.
In the first example, everything was fine but I was panicked because no one was communicating any status updates or process information to me at all. They just left me to flap in the breeze. I was nerved up and assumed the worst, when in actuality if someone had kept me abreast of what’s going on I would have chilled out and taken a walk or something. In the second example - which was much more serious - I was kept informed and while I was obviously nervous (okay, flat out scared) I knew what was happening and felt like the doctors had it under control. The communication is what made the difference. And that’s my point today – great communication can make even a terrible event seem less terrible, but bad communication can make a great event seem like a failure.
When an issue arises, we often are back in our cubes or offices toiling away with the technology – beating on something trying to get it to work. I’ve even heard people say that they’re “doing CPR” on an app to get it back running. In so many ways, when we’re in our cubes trying to bring something back online we’re in the operating theater. We’re behind the curtain doing the skilled craft that we have chosen to be our profession.
But there are people out in the proverbial waiting room who have no idea what’s going on. They don’t want to know exactly what we’re doing and could care less about how we’re reviewing routing tables or aligning dilithium crystals. But they do want to know what is happening; they want to know what the status is and they want to know what they can expect. People don’t like surprises – if you don’t believe that, just watch what happens when a public company has a surprise in the stock market. The Street hates surprises.
Pictured: People talking. Do this. Do it often.
So, what does that mean for us in IT? It’s up to us as the “IT doctors” to make sure that we are delivering regular communication to our stakeholders and customers. This can be anything from something as complex and formal as a project status report to something informal as an email or IM that is short and to the point. For example, you could say “I’m still working on that replication issue – I’m going to try to seed the data in the remote site today and I’ll check back in with the results later.” The important thing is that you give timely - and frequent - information to the people depending on what you do.
This is something that I work with my team on all the time. You simply cannot overcommunicate with customers. When I first assumed responsibility for IT services, the first change I made was to ensure that every ticket was updated by a technician every day – even if there was no change in the status. Our customer satisfaction went up considerably in just the first few months because people stopped feeling like any IT issues fell into a black box.
Aside from communicating often, you need to make sure that your updates and messages are appropriate for your audience. If you’re reporting out to another technical team, maybe you can dump some more details - but if you’re working on a project that the VP of lending at your bank is waiting on, don’t kill them with jargon and TLAs. Just tell them what they can expect. On the other hand, if you’re communicating to a highly technical engineering group, don’t just say you’re working on “network issues.” Be precise when appropriate and simple when needed – but always be clear.
I don’t feel like I need to beat this particular idea to death for you. You can do a lot for your reputation with the business you serve by not just being great at the technology but by also being great at communicating what is happening and making people feel like you’re a valued member of the team who keeps everyone updated. If you’re an IT engineer – this is a major differentiator if you do this without needing to be prompted or reminded. Work it into your calendar by scheduling some time every day to just provide information and communication to anyone and everyone focused on your work.
It won’t be long before your customers are communicating with your boss about how much they appreciate you – and that’s always fun to read.
Okay, time for some reflection on your part:
When’s the last time someone’s lack of communication or status updates left you feeling anxious or unprepared?
Are you communicating enough with your customers? Are you using clear, jargon-free language?
How can you work this into your daily routine?