• Global Infrastructure Architect...
• Manager - ICT
• SENIOR IT OFFICER
• Senior Project Manager - Global...
• **Ask Yourself This Question, Is...

There is no failure - only feedback

Caroline New, Information Age

17/04/2007 15:05:37

One of the most exciting, but potentially daunting aspects of working with technology, is the opportunity to push the boundaries of what it can do and how it can be applied.

The ACS tagline "ICT Professionals Shaping Our Future" promotes the idea of ICT professionals as visionaries who see possibilities that others do not and then create or apply technology to bring them into reality.

While not forgetting that in the vast majority of cases there are real business challenges requiring practical solutions, the successful practice of ICT requires advanced capabilities in lateral thinking, creativity, innovation and judicious experimentation. Then add a healthy dose of perseverance and optimism for handling the inevitable setbacks. Because when you challenge the status quo and advocate change, as ICT professionals inexorably must, success is far from automatic.

Challenges are a fact of life

As professionals, a commitment to ethics and professional conduct can go a long way toward mitigating risk. However, we all face situations where our best efforts are not enough to deliver the results we seek.

Perhaps a major contract goes to a competitor, a change in government regulations has a negative impact on the business, or a project is delayed by bugs or other technical challenges.

ICT professionals face these challenges every day. Your ability to dust yourself off, reaffirm your commitment to your outcome and persevere in the face of scepticism or even ridicule separates a leader from the rest.

When Thomas Edison developed the incandescent light bulb for household use, it took over 10,000 attempts before he achieved the kind of long-lasting, reliable performance that made electrical lighting safe, practical and affordable.

A few months before making the final breakthrough, he was asked why he continued to throw good money after bad. Edison denied that he had failed, saying that he now knew 10,000 ways not to make light bulbs and was that much closer to achieving his goal.

Meaning determines reality

Like every leader in business and in life, Edison understood that we give our own meaning to each situation and circumstance. While this generally happens at an unconscious level and is determined by our existing beliefs and values, we can choose at any time to change the meaning we give something to make it serve us better.

Let me illustrate: someone throwing a chair through a window would be considered by most people to be a vandal deserving of condemnation.

Add a few flames, billowing smoke and a room full of terrified children and our villain quickly transforms into a quick-thinking hero worthy of the highest commendation.

Sure, the context changes the meaning completely, but this is the case in every situation. There are always multiple perspectives, contexts and points of view, and in order to be completely effective, ICT professionals must look for and address them all.

Every day we're faced with "chair out the window" scenarios where the smoke and flames are not immediately apparent, but most people won't bother looking for them and so miss out on opportunities to act.

1  2   - Next