Changing Companies

1
Changing Companies

• Chapter 5

2
Areas of Discussion

• The First Day
• The First Month
• Two IT Departments What Happens If Your Company
  Merges with Another?
• Additional Resources

3
The First Day

• Attributes
• Confidence
• Enthusiasm
• Experience
• Relaxed one notch down from interview

4
The First Day cont.

• Meeting the New Staff
• IT staff will be a healthy cross-section of
  technically brilliant people, socially challenges
  people, hard-working people, under-performers,
  and various combinations in between.
• You were hired to demonstrate leadership,
  professional maturity, management, and to provide
  direction.
• Talk to your staff. They will be judging what
  you say and how you say it.

5
The First Day cont.

• A Few Ideas for What to Say to Break the Ice
• Background
• Recent projects staff has just completed (do your
  homework)
• Upcoming projects
• What goals you have
• Why you are excited to be a part of this company
• My door is always open (if you truly mean it)

6
The First Day cont.

• Some Donts
• Dont talk too much about yourself
• Dont try to make them afraid of you or to make
  them love you. You want their respect.
• Dont say things you are not reasonably certain
  you can do.

7
The First Day cont.

• One-on-One Meetings
• Try to meet everyone on the staff
• Recognize lower ranks may be uncomfortable in
  talking with you openly and honestly
• Meet some of the lower ranks in groups

8
The First Day cont.

• What to Say to Those That Wanted Your Job and
  Didnt Get It
• Treat everyone with respect and professionalism
• Dont bring up the disappointment
• You may go ahead and let those individuals keep
  the responsibilities they had when filling in for
  you while the position was vacant.

9
The First Day cont.

• Establish a Relationship with Your Manager and
  Your Peers
• Two Key Factors to insure a successful
  relationship
• Knowing what your supervisor expects of you
• Earning your supervisors trust that those
  expectations will be met
• Learn about best ways to communicate with each
  other.

10
The First Day cont.

• Learning the Landscape Key Users and Key
  Applications/Systems
• How many locations does the company have?
• How many users are there at each location?
• How large is the technical environment (number of
  servers, amount of storage, number of
  applications)?
• Is it staffed 24/7? If not, how is after-hours
  support handled?

11
The First Day cont.

• Continued
• Is IT distributed or centralized?
• What do the wide- and local-area network
  topologies look like?
• Historically, where have the major problem spots
  been?
• Who are the key vendors and partners?
• Is there any documentation about policies and
  procedures and current projects?
• What are the high-level technology standards
  (messaging, development tools, database, storage,
  operating systems, etc.)?

12
The First Day cont.

• Continued
• Find the Key Meetings
• Be Realistic about Timetables for Fixing Problems

13
The First Month

• No Organization is Perfect
• Odd standards
• Inconsistencies in centralized/ decentralized
  policies
• Unusual job descriptions
• Certain corporate peculiarities
• Focus on these issues in your IT department and
  not the company as a whole

14
The First Month cont.

• Quietly Advertising What You Bring to the Table
• Not good form to try and impress people right
  away
• Let your results and actions speak for you
• Show professional courtesies and maturity

15
The First Month cont.

• Speak the language of your company and users
• Maintain positive attitude
• Maintain open and effective communications
• Show up to appointments on time
• Recognize the difference between moving mountains
  and molehills
• Ask insightful questions
• Try to convey a sense of perspective about time

16
The First Month cont.

• Return e-mail and voice-mail messages promptly
• Write professional and succinct e-mails and memos
• Take notes during meetings
• Deal with assigned task quickly and effectively
• Do some preliminary research before you start
  about organization, vendors, etc. (interview
  homework)
• Bring a fresh perspective
• Ask and listen

17
The First Month cont.

• Projects in Progress and Projects on the Horizon
• Learn about the project activity
• Helps to determine priorities of department and
  company

18
The First Month cont.

• Is the Status Quo Good Enough?
• You and your department should always strive to
  be better
• Better service
• Faster transactions
• More thorough documentation
• More up-time
• Better reliability
• Improved morale
• Fewer errors
• Processes with few steps
• Better communication with the user community

19
The First Month cont.

• People to Meet and Know
• Key user areas
• Senior executives
• Human resources
• Finance and accounting
• Procurement
• Legal
• Audit

20
The First Month cont.

• Quick Hello Meetings
• Meetings people 10 minutes or as long as an hour
• HR Issues
• Staff-- job, title, salary
• Staffcubicle or space
• Employees who feel they have been treated
  unfairly
• Issues of racial or sexual discrimination
• Staff who think their co-workers are slacking
• Individuals who feel they havent been recognized
  for efforts
• Employees who feel they should be farther along
  in career path
• Employees who dont get along

21
The First Month cont.

• Soon, later, and tomorrow When should you
  address issues
• Regardless of what happens, let them know you
  have heard them
• Budgeting
• Prepare
• Present
• Defend
• Making Those First Decisions
• 20 of what happens
• 80 of how you deal with it
• Decision need to be based on sound reasoning that
  can be defended later

22
Two IT DepartmentsWhat Happens If Your Company
Merges with Another?

• Brute force
• Leave them alone
• Phase integration

23
Summary Slide

• The First Day
• The First Month
• Two IT DepartmentsWhat Happens If Your Company
  Merges with Another?