Post #2 in The Series: IT is from Mars, Business is from Venus

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“Any marriage counselor will tell you there are two sides to every story. And that can be OK—as long as each side understands the other. But marriages suffer when the two sides can’t find ways to communicate and resolve their misunderstandings.

In many companies, the relationship between IT and business leaders is a very troubled marriage indeed. Miscommunication is rife, leaving executives struggling to figure out what’s working for the company, what’s not, and how to improve the situation. Can a marriage like this be saved?

It can, when IT and business executives have a clearer understanding of the needs of both sides, how they work and the challenges they face. That means business leaders and IT executives talking with each other about their operations and about how IT can help the company fulfill its goals, instead of talking past each other about how one side or the other is preventing that from happening.”

The text above is from Dr. George Westerman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which first appeared in an April 2012 edition of The Wall Street Journal. It caught my eye because similar dynamics are at play between IT vendors, such as Intertech, and our business clients and their managers. The article went on to detail four areas where IT and non-IT executives often fail to understand each other clearly, and how transparency can help. My next four posts will explore those areas, leading with Dr. Westerman’s take and then providing my own from the vendor-client perspective.