I’m buried in tech edits for Networking for System Administrators, but this bit explains why I wrote the book.
I’ve been in more than one IT organization where the various groups feel frustrated or full-out angry with one other. Conflicting priorities and overly rigid or excessively porous boundaries lead to conflict, which causes bad feelings or, worse, lots and lots of meetings where tortuous negotiations pile still more processes on everyone until all progress chokes on hideous paperwork.
Who’s responsible for fixing or, better still, preventing this mess?You are.
So is your coworker.
So is the person down the hall whom you’ve sworn an unbreakable blood oath of eternal vengeance against.
Managers cannot improve interpersonal reactions. Managers can impose formal structure and bad management can escalate feuds into open warfare, but even the best manager can’t make two clashing personalities work together without imposing structure.
When arguments keep looping over the same ground, it’s time to change the rules.