Frustration common between technology, nontechnology folks

I love my webmaster for all the magical things she does. Like when I send her an e-mail saying, "I want to start a blog but can you make it easy for me to figure out?" and she writes back: "No problem." But then problems do begin. She starts saying things like, "Check out the thread functionality and note how the child posts are indented below the parent posts." Huh? Parents and children and threads? I thought I was talking about careers.

I dial my webmaster's phone number and say, "Can you say that in English?"

We could have been on the edge of entering the Geek Gap — the inability of "corporate and technology leaders to communicate effectively or work together for the common good," as defined by Bill Pfleging and Minda Zetlin, authors of "The Geek Gap" (Prometheus Books). This, unfortunately, is where most of these conversations between technology person and nontechnology person head.

"Talk to any business person about the technology people he or she deals with, and you'll likely hear lots of frustration," say the authors. But wait, the technology person has an opinion, too. "Talk to any technology person about his or her business colleagues, and you'll hear the exact same sentiment," they say. Who's got the problem?

The problem is "geeks and suits each see what they do in a different light. They have different priorities, different agendas, different criteria for defining success, and different views of how the world works," the authors say.

This is costing businesses a heap of money. Researchers at the Standish Group say only 34 percent of all information technology projects in the United States are successful.

The rest fail completely or are seriously late, substantially over budget or both, costing businesses about $55 billion in 2003.

It comes down to three issues: Geeks and suits don't communicate well, don't respect each other and don't trust each other, they say.

The two groups also are fundamentally different. Geeks are primarily problem-solvers. Suits are primarily people influencers. They not only use different words, but they use words differently. And geeks are interested in process, while suits are interested in product. Geeks see good technology as a thing of beauty. To suits, it's a tool to help them accomplish goals.

The solution is to close the geek gap, say the authors. Although every workplace is different, they offer such solutions as avoiding policies that separate geeks and suits.

Indeed, most companies I've seen function exactly as they describe with geeks working "away from everyone else, on a separate floor or in a different building" only appearing when needed to solve a technology problem or get an assignment.

They also discuss getting geeks involved in projects from the start, keeping them in the business loop, even encouraging the two groups to trade jobs for a trial run.

I have written before about the shrinking number of jobs for the traditional role of the information technology professional, but the growing need for technological skills and even that of a hybrid professional — someone with technology and business skills. The authors see the same trend, predicting technologists and their business colleagues will stand on equal footing because both "possess expertise needed for their companies' survival" and more appreciation for what each other does.

Reach Andrea Kay at andrea@andreakay.com.