Blissful Ignorance is Not Acceptable

A perfect example of a non-profit with little respect for itself as a business is one that I have consulted with lately. Out of neglect, pride, politics, and favoritism, the non-profit has boxed itself into a nightmare. Years of neglecting their IT infrastructure and personnel has left them with what is probably the worst patchwork of computers I have ever seen. Inventory has been non-existent, therefore there is much suspicion that the sole technology person has stolen hardware. Procedures have never been in place, nor documentation, so solutions to problems are haphazard and quite often illogical. Many resources have been created in-house to save money but as a result very little has been done well and staff spend more time learning quirks of systems than just doing the work. Backups? No one even knows if there are backups. With so little oversight and concern by administration, the technology person has made himself indispensable by making all systems dependent on him.

There is so much distrust of this technology person (I hesitate to call him a manager) that the organization is afraid to fire him. I advised calling in a consulting group with experience in this situation. With so much ignorance of the physical circumstance of their network, no one but the technology person would know admin passwords for their systems.

I blame management for a situation like this. Blissful ignorance is not an acceptable managerial technique. Whether one belittles the tech by treating him like a plumber or fears him for being a rocket scientist, administrators need to have some control, some knowledge, some proactive goal for their IT department. It is business imperative to have an IT initiative. Letting one individual run amok and bring your organization to its knees is unacceptable and unnecessary.