IT often finds it difficult to communicate with non-IT management who must review, approve and support major IT initiatives. Moreover, IT often fails to achieve full benefit from an information technology investment. When IT explains how to use technology in terms that the users do not understand, users will not use it properly.
What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate
Communication often fails when IT staff use technical language that is either not understood by non-technical staff (for example, ITIL) or is ambiguous (such as Web 2.0). To compound the problem, IT brings forward issues in terms that have meaning for IT, but which have little relevance to the business. For example, consider a situation in which IT proposes to invest in improved network capability. If IT describes a need to reduce latency this will either not be understood or will mean little to non-IT staff. The business will happily participate, however, in a discussion of ways to improve the quality of conversations on IP phones.
IT Loves Jargon and TLA (Three-Letter Acronyms)
IT makes presentations, writes documentation and provides ongoing user help. Whenever the vocabulary used is not familiar to the audience, however, there is a barrier to understanding. Non-IT audiences can be confused when confronted by terms such as fiber-channel and blades. Even apparently common words, such as uploading, can be confusing for many people. While inappropriate use of jargon is not unique to IT, IT is a major culprit. In a British survey of general managers, carried out by ATC, 42% identified IT as the worst culprit, with sales and lawyers in second and third place with 20% and 16% respectively.
Reduce Jargon
The use of jargon has at least three negative outcomes:
- The audience stops listening – When confused, people stop concentrating on subsequent messages. Proposals to management will not get the right attention, and may get rejected because the approvers don’t understand. In training, staff will not learn what they are supposed to learn.
- The audience may misunderstand but not admit to it – Staff may be embarrassed to ask questions in training, and may then misuse or underuse equipment or software. Productivity opportunties will be lost and the help desk will have extra work.
- The audience may become skeptical of the message – Audiences often believe that those who use jargon are purposely confusing them to hide a problem or are pumping up the importance of the message. Credibility is lost and will be difficult to recover.
Consider the Audience’s Point-of-View
IT is proud of its technology and its specifications. However, the audience typically has little interest or familiarity with the technology. They care about how the technology will affect the way things are done. Financial managers pay attention to cost and risk. Business managers listen to information on process change and improvement. Whenever the point-of-view is not relevant to the audience, even jargon-free material generates confusion.
For example, consider how IT should describe the projected installation of a new Storage Area Network. For a non-IT audience, IT should communicate how the system will support business growth, will eliminate data losses and will cost less. The business does not care about iSCSI connections, RAID and the difference to direct-attached storage. Even an IT application group, while conversant with the technical terms, may be more interested in how the new storage system will allow quicker addition of storage capacity at peak periods.
Recommendations
1. When communicating with non-IT staff actively eliminate IT jargon. They will listen more and hear better.
2. Use tools to identify jargon in written material. There are free tools, such as Bullfighter that identify the amount of jargon within MSWord documents.
3. When explaining ideas to a non-IT audience, recognize what’s important to them.
- Describe benefits in business not technical terms.
- Quantify value.
- Describe performance in business terms not technical terms.
4. Improve IT staff understanding of the business perspective.
- Establish training programs.
- Align analysts and maintenance staff with their customers.
- Encourage business certification for IT staff.
5. Reduce the use of jargon even within IT. The IT community is diverse. Jargon, such as iSCSI or MPLS, which is familiar to a data center or infrastructure team, may not be familiar to an application team.
Bottom Line
IT professionals are comfortable with computer terminology; users of the technology are not. The use of unfamiliar jargon by IT can result in management rejecting good proposals or in staff losing productivity. Improve communication with the business by discussing IT in terms that are meaningful to them.
