Coming Back to the Heart: Part 1

Four years ago I took a job away from patient care with the noble ideas that

• I had some skills to share and 
• the organization I work for desperately needed these skills.

I used to be a computer programmer. I grew up in software companies and my native tongue is the language of software development. I became frustrated with the industry after about 15 years and it became apparent I wasn't going to change the world with my work in that industry.

So I went to nursing school, with the humble idea of helping someone.

I did help someone. I took a major salary cut for work one on one with real people in a hospital setting, helping them get through the scary and dangerous world of the hospital. It was rewarding, most of the time. And it was less hours - rare overtime (because nursing overtime was "expensive." Ha!)

Then situations changed such that my old position acquired a new boss.  I gave her a try but, I just didn't mesh with her management style. Soon, it was clear to me: one of us had to go - and she was a very popular lady in the organization, so it wasn't going to be her.

There was an opportunity in informatics. It was a normal salaried position 5-days per week. Informatics is something like a business analyst position, except you concentrate on clinical data, not business data.

Applying for the job was difficult because I knew what could happen to me. But as an end user with software experience, I could tell my company did not know how to run a successful software support organization. I did know how. So maybe I could make a difference.

I was terrified that I would end up facing the same frustrations that caused me to turn my back on the software industry 15 years ago. It was a heartbreaking experience. I thought long and hard about going this route.

Nevertheless, I applied and they hired me. And here is what I found.

• I found an organization that did not feel it was necessary to document their systems and decisions.
• I found an organization that had no formal change control process.
• I found an organization that had no way of moving maintenance requests forward. 
• ...that had no equitable method to prioritize requests.
• Their informal prioritization method was "how powerful is the person complaining?" and "how loud are they screaming?" 
• ...that thought that exclusive knowledge in a single person was a robust organizational model for support. 
• ...that did not value its people, therefore they did not need skilled management.
• ...that had no naming conventions, guidelines, or standards and no data dictionary.
• ...that believed that software usability problems lie with the user
• They couldn't even tell the user RTFM. There was no M to read.
• So the answer must be "user, you must be stupid."

OMG, did they need help! Unfortunately, this was not my group, it was the IT group we were supposed to work with.

The only problem is that no one wants someone outside the organization to point out their problems, even if you're right, and even if you have a solution.

Next installation in this series: Corporate values.