Coach-Referee-Player?

I referee soccer.    On the surface, the game seems quite simple, but it is actually a dynamic system.   The system has some corollaries for the system underlying an IT organization.   There are three classes of participants in soccer - players, coaches and referees.    Together three roles form a complete system that produces and manages work.   The product of a professional soccer game is enjoyment for spectators.  

In an IT organization, we have one team comprised of the development organization and another, the infrastructure and operations organization.   Together, they produce a product that enables the business.   While we all look for ways to ensure that the two IT teams work together, they naturally compete for opportunities to change the production environment, they compete for budget, and they have some conflicting process goals.   Each of the IT teams has players.  (Have you ever watched a soccer game of young players where almost all players move together around and with the ball?   Lots of legs trying to kick it all at the same time?   There is an interesting analogy for an immature IT organization and a topic for a future email.)

I think the most fascinating part of an IT organization is how it is organized to support coaching and refereeing.   In most sports, the two roles are thought of as being in conflict.   In soccer, this should not be the case.   It does depend on the maturity of the coaches and referees.   The role of the referee in soccer is to maximize the opportunity for game flow.   The referee can exercise control to do this, but highly ranked and certified referees are taught to exercise control to the minimum extent possible.   Referees are given the latitude to do this through the laws of the game.   In soccer, a foul is only a foul if it is one in the opinion of the referee.    Depending on the maturity and skills of the players, and their desire to keep the game moving, a referee may decide that a foul in one game is not a foul in another.   Increased control is used to offset activities that will by nature decrease flow – time wasting activities, unfair and dangerous acts.   Because the role of the referee is to optimize the throughput of the entire system, I think it naturally becomes the role of the IT leader.   How do you optimize throughput of your organization?

The role of the soccer coach is to optimize the effectiveness of the team through selection of players, and encouragement to improve individual and coordinated team skills.   An IT coach for a development organization should be focused on the “set pieces” that support efficient development -- the application development methodology, documentation standards, etc.   An IT coach for the infrastructure and operations team would focus on ITSM processes.   What set pieces do you use to increase team efficiency?

Unquestionably, the most difficult role in IT would be the leader of a small IT organization.   The game does not change.   There are still requirements for development, operations, security, throughput, data management, player development, financial management, etc.   But in many organizations, this leader must wear the hat of player, coach and referee.   If an IT leader is comfortable and capable of wearing all these hats, they are incredibly unique and likely only fit in small organizations.   The solution for others is to work to move toward the roles of coach or referee, giving up the role of player rapidly and leveraging outsourcing to allow themselves to focus on the management roles.  

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this subject and happy to discuss how T3 Dynamics can help you with outsourcing of enterprise systems monitoring.