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Mistakes happen– that’s life.  How you fix it, that’s business

How many times have you just wished someone would give you a button to push? When something breaks, when things don’t work, when all is lost, just a button to push and suddenly it all is back in operation. This idea has been around for a long time. In fact a lot of marketing has been done to give people the sense that, “When it breaks–we will fix it”. As if to say, we will be the buttons to push. Isn’t this what an auto club offers? Fire Insurance? The warranty on your computer?

Everyone wants a button to push, because a button relieves the pressure. It takes the responsibility away and provides a result. Some buttons are used to speed things up; calling the President or CEO of a company to lodge a complaint, rather than going through normal channels. Other buttons act as a yield or stop sign; reprimanding a subordinate for unprofessional behavior.

In the world of IT, everyone wants a button to do his or her work. This may sound like a vision for all IT professionals to aspire to, but it is actually a common case of “delegation by way of association”. The assumption that an IT pro works on computers is often taken a step too far and the IT Pro becomes responsible for any job that involves a computer. This may seem overly simplistic, but it is very common.

An employee at ABC Company is signing a customer up for their service and the computer locks up. She needs a button to push fast, so she calls the IT department and they send someone to look at, or talk her through a course of repair. That makes sense and never steps over the boundaries of button pushing. Everyone has a clear role to perform and they each do their task without demanding more from others.

The problems occur when the mentality becomes less demarked and anyone with a computer related title is expected to do everything computer related. For example, the Marketing department is asked to examine the sales strategy in a certain region. Immediately they flood the IT department with requests for reports, charts, mailing labels and spread sheets. The IT department will naturally want to help, but at what point is the marketing department expected to take the information and analyze it? If the marketing staff is less than knowledgeable they will divert as much responsibility to the IT department to avoid exposure. Thus any question on their progress is redirected to, “waiting on IT to provide that data”. See how convenient that is?

You can’t allow this to happen in a company. The results are catastrophic. Soon the IT department is doing a little of everyone’s work and none of their own. Job descriptions are out of alignment, support is not tracked, and people no longer appreciate your help, they expect it, it’s your job because you have been doing it!

Be careful in building buttons to push. If you over simplify a process, you will only build the users dependence on you and they will only resent your inability to make the button easier to reach. If you have technically challenged users consider training them before you enable them to have the convenience of click and go solutions. Eventually the need will change and your button will be useless. Look at your keyboard and see how many buttons you never use, yet there they are.

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