This week`s column takes a slight departure from my regular take (read, rant) on The Internet And All. This is primarily due to the fact that I`ve been hanging out with some really cool folks this past week. Of course, some of this hanging out was carried out under the guise of interviews, but hey - it was a means to an end.
The common threads uniting these people can be summed up in a few words. Passion. Enthusiasm. Commitment.
Basheera Khan, Journalist, ITWeb
These people all work in the IT industry, in various sectors and at different levels within their specific enterprises. They all perform roles vital to the successful running of the business. I`ve spent time with marketers and managers, big chiefs and developers. All of them are intensely focused on working hard, and equally focused on playing harder, as the Americanism goes.
This playing harder takes many forms; for some, it involves dancing through the night under the influence of recreational pharmaceuticals, for others, a yearly trip to somewhere strange and new. Still others find their centres in meditation, or in immersing themselves in local culture.
The common threads uniting these people can be summed up in a few words. Passion. Enthusiasm. Commitment. Above all, the desire to succeed, and the ability to retain one`s sense of humour, regardless of the hand Fate has dealt in the meanwhile.
It occurs to me that this is the fiery force that propels our industry onward and upward, and I applaud and admire every single one of these amazing people. Here`s looking at you, kids.
Just a job
Understandably, there are those who don`t quite feel the same way as I do; they, like many others, merely work here. I have a feeling these are the ones responsible for seeing that the really stupid suggestions are the ones that make it through to implementation phase in a number of projects.
Okay, maybe that`s a bit harsh. No, I retract that - it`s not harsh enough. The tragedy lies in the irony that the primary thrust of this misdirection manifests itself in a company`s communications team.
A good communications team can succeed in making every individual within an organisation aware of their goals and more importantly, an accurate measure of the distance to the goalposts. They can light the fires of productivity, and keep them well stoked throughout the duration of a project. They know how to bank these fires when necessary, and when to squirt lighter fluid into the mix, just to keep things interesting.
A poor communications team struggles to get even the kindling going; they waste vast numbers of matches on firelighters that just don`t take, and more often than not end up singing their eyebrows when they try too hard to get a spark.
This isn`t to say that companies with poor communications teams produce an inferior product; on the contrary, it is merely the quality of responsiveness and interest in optimum performance in their people that is affected.
Human capital is any enterprise`s most precious asset. The manner in which internal communications is handled within any enterprise has a direct effect on the mindset and productivity of its staff. This week I doff my hat to those companies who have managed to brighten their halls with the perfect blaze. Those who haven`t need no derision at all; no doubt they`ve already managed to disappoint their people with every damp squib in the book.
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