Getting Technical

The best IT crews have people who are passionate about tech. The best managers appreciate their crew's love of tech and keep an eye out for ways to foster that. (Nontechnical managers usually don't realize how much they profit from individuals' pursuit of technical passions on their own time.)

One programming crew I worked with gave one employee time each Monday to prepare a presentation on technical issues for Tuesday. Tuesday morning was spent eating sweet rolls and discussing a concept related to programming. For a very low cost, the company increased both community and skill, to say nothing of goodwill. This type of thing is a little trickier to expand to a more diverse IT department but can be worthwhile even then.

Books on coding techniques, design philosophies and other esoteric topics can give programmers the opportunity to debate that they might not otherwise have. Having been the sole programmer on more than one IT team, I can vouch for the loneliness of wrestling with interesting technical issues that nobody around me understood. Programmers can introvert heavily when involved in some heavy problem, and having common books to refer to can spur discussion and reverse that tendency.

For other techs, you can get a similar effect by having gadgets, devices and little things that may or may not immediately impact the job. One of my bosses in a seasonal business very cleverly spent the off-season encouraging investigation of all gadgets and software that might impact the business positively. If you have a mixed team, techs and programmers may be able to combine their talents on a device in a way that turns an idle interest into a revolutionary asset.