Having a great relationship with your IT dept

It's great fun. Sitting with your cilleagues and opining how the world would be sweetness and light if only the IT crowd knew what they were doing. The cms is slow, and those new feature we hanker for are just not coming, in fact you have no idea when you last got anything useful out of them. And while you mention it, when was the last time those awful people last came to talk to us!

But while your relationship is the pits you are missing out on a potential partner who could help you achieve your goals.

Whoever it was who said that looking in the mirror was a great way to start solving a problem may have been on to something. If you think those things about your IT crowd then what do you think they think of you?

My team has a relationship with the it people that has its ups and downs, but we are always working to improve it.

1. My top advice would be to keep talking. Not jsut once a year, set up a monthly session where you keep track of progress, discuss plans, identify issues - you know the sort of thing.

2. Be open. If you do start talking then you may notice the it people want to talk about different things than you do. Of course you need to separate your accountabilities clearly, but let them get involved.

3. Move up the food chain. Some of you may have had some bad experiences with the IT team in the past, but i have consistently found that the people at the top of the IT organisation aren't actually planning for you to have a poor experience. If you have an opportunity to get more value from it then most CIOs will be champing at the bit to help.

4. You may have to change too. Acknowledge that you may be part of the problem - and get over it.

By sharing ownership and actively involving the IT team in your intranet you are bound to move further, faster than you can without them.

Comment below on the quality of your IT relationship.