The Human Element of IT

IT is often referred as the modern vehicle for enabling infrastructures supporting economies and societies. From the revolutionary Microsoft and Apple to Google days, men and women have revolutionised and pushed the boundaries of the IT industry. This article is linked to the human aspect that drives IT and an observation on the increasing focus on social collaboration.

Information Technology was founded by brilliant mathematicians and physicians who drove formulas to expand the use of electric pulses, commonly translated to our digital 0 and 1 in geek terms. I remember from my early days how I often found IT to mimic biological life, from the way the electric pulse represents the heartbeat to fuzzy networks mimicking the human brain. When we talked about the central processing unit, we often talked about concepts of transport through buses, queuing concepts like round robin, etc. We even have Agile principles like Scrum that is based on the rugby game and apply the gamification concepts.

With that being said, it saddens me when corporates and businesses assume that IT is just a no-nonsense, emotion-free place with no say in the future and profitability of businesses. It has been proven by companies like Google that IT can be a profit-making partner as well as a good strategic partner in decision making and revenue generating. In a fast-paced world of connectivity and innovation, it has become critical to drive closer alignment of strategic objectives across an organisation. Traditionally, the IT community was assumed to be the ones facing computer screens all day long. But today, as a strategic partner in business, IT should be empowered and should have a say throughout the whole business landscape.

With the ever evolving ways of working in IT and businesses, we are now striving for decoupled yet tightly aligned engagements. The latest buzz word when it comes to teamwork and people is the Collaborative Quotient. It all started with the observation that Intellectual Quotient does not guarantee the success of people’s integration in social groups. Emotional Quotient was then created and it quantified people’s emotional maturity, which later evolved to Social Quotient and now Collaborative Quotient. For me, the E.Q and S.Q is our human element which dictates how apt we are in sharing and caring in the workplace within the professional boundaries. With the global problem of staff disengagement, it is critical to be part of the culture shift, which has proven to have a positive impact on productivity or throughput. By ensuring that we take care of ‘What’s In IT for Everyone’, we then drive business continuity and long term profitability.

From my experience as an IT Consultant, I have seen the importance of respecting the human element, nurturing the creative dreams and personal goals of the people behind the architectural landscape of IT. This was consistently the differentiator between successful or sustainable projects/businesses and failed/short lived ones. Of course, the human element has its flaws, namely Ego, Greed, Arrogance, Ignorance, amongst many. In fact, in Security, we were initially taught that humans are the weakest link of the chain until recently. Gartner researchers are now challenging our mindset and recommending that we should actually invest in humans so that they become our strongest line of defence.

To conclude, there are some paradoxal thoughts in this article and it is representative of the era that we live in. For me, it is all about the balancing act. I can choose to see the world as grey or multi-coloured. Or I can choose to see the glass half-full or half-empty. What’s your choice?