I have written previously about how polarity management needs to be a core competency of Information Technology Professionals.

Information Technology (IT) Management (ITM) requires polarity management to balance the needs of users as well as those of the stakeholders who pay for new and upgraded IT systems. Most users really don’t care what their IT systems cost. They desire ease of use, performance, individualism, and aesthetic. The parties responsible for resourcing IT systems, on the other hand, usually value cost efficiency, standardization, simplicity, and longevity. Both of these parties have requirements that are desirable, admirable, and valuable. Unfortunately perfecting providing for either group is impossible and mutually exclusive. Hence the definition of a polarity requiring management vice a problem deserving a solution.

My point is not that one of these attributes is more important, desirable, or better than the other. I see a lot of IT Departments that are obviously aligned much more in favor of one than the other. Most of them don’t even realize that they have slowly drifted there over time with the best of intentions. As you look at your work sites or organizations, which rings more true? Are the IT Departments running themselves ragged trying to meet everyone’s individual hardware and software needs? Or, is the Help Desk more closely regarded as a plane of hell by the employees? Is there an “us vs. them” mentality present? Is the CIO constantly trying to explain to the other C-Level execs why he is spending so much money or is he constantly touting new cost savings measures? Are the questions on the user questionnaires so bland as to elicit no input or suggestively brutal? Does everyone have the same machine on their desk or is there a mix of brands, colors, and sizes? Are users constantly logging into publicly available web based services to “get work done” or are they using local applications?

A great book that describes the proper frame of reference is Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems by Dr. Barry Johnson.

The Learning Exchange has a great summary of Polarity Management:

“Polarity Management is powerful tool that leverages the best of apparent opposites resulting in win-win solutions. Many challenges are not problems that can be solved with either/or solutions. Rather, they are dilemmas or polarities to be managed. Polarity mapping provides a complete picture of the interdependent opposing forces that often create gridlock. Working with the upsides of both poles, predictions can be made for the types of change that will result from any strategy.” (link )

Polarity Map

Polarity Map

You should think of user needs and system resourcers as trying to move the positive poles of two magnets near each other. There is a stable resistance point where they will stay, but if they are forced any more closer they deflect and end up ruining any hopes of stability. Like the author says, there is no such thing as being only in the state of inhaling or exhaling, you need to always be in the perfect balance as you manage the breathing polarity.

I think that IT Departments fall into this predicament for all the right reasons by either thinking of themselves only as customer service agents (i.e. Help Desks) or utility providers. Obviously, you need to strike the right balance for your organization. If users run the place, you will lose cost controls, create unnecessary security risks, and be constantly fighting configuration management challenges. Of course, if money is the only metric, your users might as well not have computers if the ones provided don’t meet their needs for production and support that is not, well, supportive, might as well not exist. My overall comment, is mainly, that as a leader, you often need to frame issues correctly for your teams, supervisors, and users in order to begin to manage them correctly. The issue of user needs vs. corporate needs is a polarity to be managed — not a problem that can be solved. The sooner that all parties come to agreement on that and start seeing the challenge for what it is, is the sooner that your information technology systems begin to be contributors to your competitive differentiation and stop being hurdles to both your corporate bottom line and users desires.

Do you think that I characterized this challenge of the IT Department correctly? Do you know of any case studies showing success? How does your organization balance this issue?

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for July 24, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: polaritymanagement.com

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