Give me back my Babelfish, give me that fish!
Posted by Sara Beth Duyck on Fri, Aug 13, 2010
By Steven Manos
If anyone has spent even a fraction of their week watching mindless television, you have likely seen McDonalds push to sell more filet of fish sandwiches thru a nauseating (yet hypnotic and catchy) ditty sung by a mounted fish. I, in fact, drive my 8 and 5 year olds absolutely insane with my repetitive rendition of this song on a seemingly daily basis.
I suppose it was no surprise then that I managed to tie this genius marketing gimmick to a conversation I had at last week’s Lee Tech on Tap event about the language chasm between data center operations and management. Now before you go shaking your head wondering what a four inch brick of delicious deep fried golden carp has to do with effectively managing a facility, let me explain.
In talking with a person who manages and runs a couple of considerably large facilities in the greater Chicago area (let’s call him, ‘Ron’), he stated that one of his biggest challenges was effectively communicating up the chain of command in order to successfully manage and continue improving his facilities. The comment that struck a chord with me was his statement that “we seem to be speaking completely different languages” when it comes to what I say/need and what they actually hear. A conversation that week in fact was a good example and went something like this:
Ron (Operations) Says: “We need to implement an energy management and monitoring system to better understand our environment”
Ron (Operations) Means: Energy costs and pending legislation are going to start driving significant costs in this area and I want to be prepared to give this info to you.
Management Hears: Operations wants to do some strange technical project to measure electricity and electrons. Those techie guys can’t get enough of those new fandangled flashy gadgets.
Management Does: Nothing.
Or, using the same example…
Management Hears: “Power stuff is a Real Estate problem, let them pay for it!”
Management Does: Nothing.
Better yet, same example…
Management Hears: We don’t see the power bill anyway, we are IT! Power is free, isn’t it?
Management Does: Nothing.
For operations professionals such as Ron, this can be frustrating to say the least. The problem Ron has is that he needs to change his language (no, not the colorful stuff he uses when he leaves management’s office). Ron needs to understand how management listens and tailor his message for maximum impact. “Techie” talk never works with management unless you are one of the blessed organizations that have a gifted management chain that can do this language conversion.
What Ron’s management team needs is a Babel fish. A Babel fish (for those of you who haven’t read the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) is a little yellow, leach-like fish that, when placed into the ear, becomes a universal translator of sorts and allows people that speak differing languages the ability to effectively communicate and understand one other. I suppose you can go one further and make up your own babel fish that can be used by Ron (operations) as well in order to give them the ability to allow Ops to talk in any language. Kind of a “reverse babel fish”, of sorts.
In any event, most organizations struggle to accurately communicate up and down the chain despite the fact that their ultimate goal of a well managed, efficient, stable and well run facility is the same. With Lee Technologies managing a large number of facilities across the U.S., Ron was in rapid fire question mode as to how we overcome this barrier with the senior management layer of our clients. While I won’t go into depth as to how we overcome this, I can tell you that no one on our staff resembles the picture above (outside of this one guy in sales) nor do we implant leach-like fish in our customers’ ears. However, at the risk of sounding too “salesy”, I do believe that those on our operations and maintenance team are required to come with a Babel fish (or reverse Babel fish) if you will, as an accessory when hired and this is what has propelled our company forward and makes our clients and their facilities successful.
In addition to trying to help McDonalds sell more fish, my point is that it’s imperative to have someone within these groups who can interpret language between layers. Whether that’s a company like ours, a current employee or a guppy-sized, wax covered talking parasite, effective communication and understanding is key in our world. By overcoming this barrier, necessary projects can be initiated, comfort and understanding will drive management decisions and operations will undoubtedly flourish and will be that much more effective.
Interested in your thoughts (once you get that song out of your head).
-SM
Photo credit: www.martinelli.co.uk