InformationWeek

March 30, 1999

Your letters to my print column and this E-mail forum ask some serious questions about managing information technology in today's world. Since today's world is essentially absurd, my serious responses may sometimes sound a little whimsical, and my occasional whimsical ones, serious. In any case, if you want to participate, write to me at lovelace@home.com. I'll respond to those letters that I can. I reserve the right to edit for size and content. Just sign your E-mail the way you want it to appear online.

Dear Herb:
Just finished reading your article "The Joys of Travel." Our feelings are very similar regarding the "pleasures" of business travel. While I'm not doing much travel now, I spent three or four years traveling from the Midwest to Europe two or three times a year for 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 weeks each time. When people would tell me how awed they are by my opportunity to travel overseas, I tell them that I saw the inside of a plane, the inside of an airport (with police in military fatigues carrying automatic weapons), the inside on a taxi, the inside of an office, and the inside of a hotel. And even international restaurants end up looking and tasting all the same!

Thanks for your articles, I really enjoy them.
Jim W.

Dear Jim:
I can relate to what you are saying. When people ask me to compare European cities, I give long and learned discourses on the soaring walkways at Charles DeGaulle Airport as opposed to the sprawling vistas of the Amsterdam aerodrome, where it seems you can walk for kilometers to reach a gate. Spending so much time in airplanes divides us, I am afraid, from the rest of humanity. Only frequent travelers such as yourself can relate to the enthusiasm and excitement I show when talking about this great new wristwatch that I bought that shows different time zones and has a built-in alarm so that I can move my groggy body onto the next leg of my latest voyage.

You and I aren't the only people who feel strongly about being on the road so much. I was surprised by the number of letters I received about having to cope with business journeys all the time.

Dear Herb:
Just read your column on travel. One of the values of travel is that you can read on planes and NO ONE talks to you. And there is a ton of stuff to read.

Of course, you know that seeing InformationWeek arrive always makes me ask: "What has happened to the poor guy THIS week?"

Regards,
Cliff

Dear Cliff:
While I appreciate your empathy, I cannot agree with your assessment that sitting on an airplane gives you unfettered time to read. Most of the time, we passengers nod at each other politely and, as you state, retreat into our own private worlds. Unfortunately, this respect for an individual's personal cosmos is not universally observed.

As I write this comment on your letter, I am enjoying the fact that the woman in the seat next to me has finally decided to watch the movie rather than tell me about her family, her job, and her opinions of the food in business class. And let me share with you, the trip back from Europe, even on a modern jet plane, takes a long, long, time.

Dear Herb:
"The Joys of Travel" was probably the best article in the magazine. I didn't know about avoiding being seated near the bulkhead. Guess I should have figured it out. By the way, I sat next to that same sales manager--wasn't he a joy? But that was better than sitting next to the very large person who had never taken a bath in his life.

Les M.

Dear Les:
Try to take the upbeat viewpoint. View your experience as penitence for you last or next sin.

Dear Herb:
I enjoyed your recent column on traveling--it really resonated with me.

I'm in my mid-30's, have been an IT consultant for more than five years (15 years total in IT), and have always planned to stop traveling when my kids hit school age. OK, now my first child is in kindergarten and I'm going to be missing his first play.

I'm just trying to figure out how to do this without going crazy. I love consulting--except for the travel. I love the pressure, the high expectations, the project-based nature of the work. I'm afraid that I'd go crazy in some MIS department.

I've always gotten my jobs through my network, but that's not been too helpful so far. I was thinking of a good recruiter, but can I trust them to help me find a job in a company where IT is a crucial component of the business?

Any good general advice?

Thanks,
Cliff

Dear Cliff:
Before I get to your question about recruiters, I hope you don't mind me making a comment about missing your child's first play in kindergarten. Been there, done that. Learned something. Years later, I could not remember what was so important about the meeting that was worth missing the play; never forgot wishing I had the memory of sitting in the audience with the other proud parents.

As far as trusting recruiters, I think that they are like other people. There are some that are primarily interested in the money they make for placing you in a job and care only that you stay long enough that they don't have to return the fee. Other recruiters (and I like to think the majority) have professional pride in making the proper match between a company and a prospective employee.

While the quality of the recruiter is important, ultimately you will have to trust your own judgment. Ask lots of questions when you meet the people in the company and seek examples of how IT is used and viewed in the corporate structure. If you're being pursued for the position, as opposed to being delighted that you might get this new job, don't hesitate to ask to meet with a key user. If you get a blank stare and a shudder, you have all the information you need about the company.

Dear Herb:
I enjoyed your insightful and completely accurate piece on the benefits of being a frequent traveler ("Oh, so how tough can it be, in First Class?"). It turns out that I don't get to read InformationWeek (or anything besides technical tomes) except when I am flying. So I loved the irony.

It reminds me quite a bit of the response I get when I tell folks that my wife and I spent our Peace Corps duty in the Caribbean (Oh, how tough could THAT be?!). Some paradise: A country with a per capita income of $300 per year, 100% humidity, average year-round temperature of 90 degrees or better, infrequent water, electricity, and fresh food (except for breadfruit and mangoes), monthly bouts of mosquito-borne dengue fever. Yeah, a Sandals Resort it wasn't.

But, travel does have its moments (usually under the influence of a double vodka martini), and I would have to say, that I would miss it if I stopped traveling completely. My weekly round-trip to NYC from Salt Lake City is too much. But a monthly trip, when I can compare the etched outlines of a twilight Manhattan (from the Jersey side, where I stay) to the etched relief of the Wasatch Mountains, is enough variety to keep me sane (and not succumb to the insular culture of Salt Lake).

Thanks for the insights. And, I promise not to chat you up as much next time I sit next to you in First Class. I'm the guy with that huge stack of InformationWeek magazines--hey, I gotta catch up on my reading.

Pete H.

Dear Pete:
Thanks for sharing your comments with us. I must admit that there are moments that I, too, would not want to miss. For me, it's seeing the crooked little streets of Paris or London, and the untouched beauty of the Rocky Mountains from the air, but most of all, the looks of joy on the faces of a grandmother and her grandchildren as they embrace as we all disembark from our plane.

Dear Herb:
I am probably breaking the first of your 10 rules of success by making my question a long one. Please bear with me.

Having persuaded our intranet team to be more proactive in developing site content, interactive applications, and all the good stuff, I find myself, as the project leader for application development, inundated with requests. The MIS director is happy, since it means we have an alive user base; The intranet manager is beside himself with joy since his fledgling effort has come of age.

I love it when I make everyone happy. But, given my staff shortage, I have limits on what I can deliver. Since I was the original crusader (never again), I cannot now be seen as shirking my responsibilities. At the same time, I have a good development process that I don't want to throw away in order to churn out applications by the dozen. Any suggestions?

Regards,
Nursing A Self-inflicted Injury

Dear Nursing:
Welcome to the "too much success can make upset your stomach" syndrome. Most of us are thrilled whenever someone listens to us, adopts our ideas, and we see real change occur in a company as a result of our initiatives. The problem comes when we are expected to support the new environment with the same resources that held the old one together.

You are correct in not wanting to risk quality by trashing your development process just to increase the amount of applications you can build. Instead, I would suggest that the solution to healing that self-inflicted injury from which you suffer is getting your enthusiastic users to support your obtaining the resources necessary to implement their vision. Start off by asking people to describe what benefits they see from the implementation of their ideas. Then work with them to prioritize the projects: which ones should be done immediately; which ones would they be willing to have delayed. If life is normal, you will probably find a reluctance by most people to see their pet proposals wait.

Set up a meeting with your boss and the key users so that everyone can see the value of getting the staff to increase the amount of work that you can do. With the support of your boss and the user community, work your way up the chain of command until finally the decision is made as to what is best for the company. No matter what the outcome, you should feel less pain than you do now.

Herbert W. Lovelace is CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. Herb practices his day job under an alias and has changed the names of colleagues to protect the guilty.