Technical skills are not enough

If you are as old as me you will be able to remember Spangles, Black Jacks, Quatermass and little holes in paper tape – ah the good old days! I got my first job in IT in 1973 repairing those machines that produced and deciphered the paper tape used for batch input to larger computers. We didn’t know we were working in IT of course - they invented that abbreviation some time later - it was called Data Processing at that time. Computers, in those days, were monolithic things with enormous banks of electrical relays and wiring looms that looked like your granny’s knitting. They resided in specially protected environments – just about the only place a mere mortal could find air-conditioning in the workplace. How times have changed! There is more computing power in a modern car than was present on the Apollo Lunar Lander – that was in 1969 of course.

In those days, and for a long period afterward, certainly well into the 1980s, there was a skills shortage within the IT industry. If you knew something about computers, you could easily get a fairly senior job in an IT company because most of the people working there didn’t know the first thing about computers. I know because I managed to become Group Marketing Technical Manager at Apricot Computers

The skills shortage back then was a technical skills shortage, naturally. Nobody had too much technical knowledge. There was hardly any technical literature available at the time; there were no accreditation schemes from the major vendors; and training courses were few and far between. I remember running Apricot’s hardware training course which taught the workings of the Apricot computer right down to chip level. But, by today’s training standards, we were complete amateurs. There were no course notes; no exercises; none of the pretty normal things you would simply take for granted on a modern IT training course. Having said that, we did give them coffee and biscuits, and of course a decent lunch, so some things have not changed.

Why am I doing all this reminiscing?

Well, I believe that this situation went a good way toward shaping the power structures within the IT support departments of the 1990s. The fact was that people with good technical skills were so difficult to find in the 1980s that when we were able to find them, we just employed them. We didn’t pay too much attention to "Soft Skills" back then – we were simply grateful to be able to find the gurus. Do you remember that term - they were often called gurus. This naturally implied that there was something mystic about what they were doing.

Our gurus occupied positions of power within our organisations, even if they had no real organisational power – and this situation persisted well into the 1990s. Such individuals might communicate their displeasure at some mere mortal who had dared to leave a floppy disk on top of the drive for a few minutes. Magnetic fields caused by the drive, they would tell us using a somewhat superior tone of voice, can erase or corrupt our valuable data. They would also regularly issue their decrees about issues such as the unacceptability of humans daring to eat or drink any substance within a five mile radius of the company monolith.

Do you remember them?

They got us going; they built our IT departments; they installed our infrastructure; they left us the Year 2000 Bug; and we are grateful to them (no really, I mean it) but their time is past. They are the dinosaurs of modern business. They became big and powerful and, finally, they are dying out because they have failed to adapt to the demands of the modern workplace. They have failed to acquire the new skills that are now being rated as of paramount importance by many modern organisations.

The description above does not, of course, apply to all computer people of the period. You and I are obvious exceptions; and I’m sure you could name others too. But I am convinced that you will recognise the stereotype. The reason you recognise it, of course, is that there were so many of them about - and it is no real wonder! For very many years we have considered it important to teach Soft Skills to people in all sorts of key positions within our companies but for some reason, we left the techies to their own devices. Somehow, we seemed to expect them to develop their people skills without any formal training. But things are gradually changing within our industry. At last, Soft Skills are being formally recognised within IT.

We have seen the introduction of initiatives such as ITIL^® Service Management and also Microsoft’s MSF Practitioner endorsement, alongside the ever-growing use of Project Management methodologies in IT. These initiatives formally recognise the important role of Soft Skills within IT departments. It seems the skills shortage problem we faced back in the early days of computing has its modern counterpart. Today, we expect our computer people to have the relevant technical skills. What differentiates the modern IT professional from his/her predecessors is the ability to better understand the needs of the customer, the ability to communicate effectively and the ability to work together in teams.

So now technical skills really are not enough!

We have all become computer literate to some extent - even my mum can surf the web and that is truly saying something! We have managed to demystify the little boxes that managed to intimidate previous generations of our business colleagues. Personal Computers have truly become the commodities that Apple Computers had forecast. That does not mean to say that technical skills are not important of course. They remain vitally important to every modern organisation; but they simply are no longer enough to ensure real success within our industry.

Project Management and ITIL knowledge go some way to filling the skills gap, but these are still very much process and procedure based systems that still require that managers communicate effectively, motivate, inspire and lead to succeed. It is these skills that will ensure that an IT department is not just a place that allows staff to work on PCs but one that can actively contribute profit to an organisation and move a company forward.

So what can you do about it?

Anyone who has attended either a Project Management course or an ITIL Service Management course or who is in a position of authority in the IT industry will benefit from the following courses:

• Managing People Effectively
• Time Management - Improving Personal Effectiveness
• Supporting IT Users Effectively

Managing People Effectively is a 3-Day course which develops an understanding of what is involved in managing a department or team, in a proactive way.

Time Management - Improving Personal Effectiveness is a 1-Day course which covers the 5 Key Principles of effective Time Management and help to develop specific, practical skills for proactively managing interactions and developing relationships with colleagues.

Supporting IT Users Effectively is a 2-Day course which is concerned with problem solving, communicating effectively and developing excellent customer service skills.