{"id":822,"date":"2014-10-30T06:19:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T10:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/?p=822"},"modified":"2014-10-29T21:36:44","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T01:36:44","slug":"education-and-empathy-it-is-about-more-than-technical-skills-episode-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/2014\/10\/education-and-empathy-it-is-about-more-than-technical-skills-episode-63\/","title":{"rendered":"Education and empathy: IT is about more than technical skills &#8211; Episode 63"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_823\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-823\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-823\" src=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Whitney-Carnes-1000x600-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"Whitney Carnes\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-823\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Whitney Carnes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This week we talk with Whitney Carnes about how IT departments\u00a0can connect with their\u00a0users and\u00a0about running a managed service provider that works\u00a0with small business. Whitney is the president of Serenity Computer Consulting, an MSP in Dallas and Atlanta. Recorded live at SpiceWorld in Austin.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5535\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-822-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thinking about your users &#8211; overcoming us vs them mentality<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;IT really needs to remember that their whole reason for being there is to make sure that\u00a0the users can do\u00a0their jobs.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Does the IT architecture group remember this?\u00a0John later wrote about <a href=\"http:\/\/tinyletter.com\/techreckoning\/letters\/the-third-way\">tri-modal IT in his TechReckoning newsletter<\/a><\/li>\n<li>What can IT do to improve their image<\/li>\n<li>Communication: Chuck Hollis on <a href=\"http:\/\/chucksblog.emc.com\/chucks_blog\/2011\/11\/why-it-groups-will-invest-in-marketing.html\">why IT needs a marketing function<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0This ties in with education: for example, eliminating jargon and explaining what&#8217;s going on underneath\n<ul>\n<li>(We didn&#8217;t talk about this, but as I&#8217;m typing up these show notes, I&#8217;m reminded of Jeff Sussna saying that <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.ingineering.it\/post\/72964480807\/empathy-the-essence-of-devops\">DevOps is basically about\u00a0empathy<\/a>. Maybe IT is too.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The black arts of IT troubleshooting<\/li>\n<li>The 2014 MSP market: ranges from strategic advisor to help desk provider.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The neat thing about IT is that you can go in so many directions.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>IT can&#8217;t solve everything, but it can fix your email signature\u00a0&#8211; IT therapy<\/li>\n<li>IT requires a lot more than just technical skills.\u00a0IT training covers the technical skills, but doesn&#8217;t cover how to run an IT function or help people.<\/li>\n<li>Bad IT is a corporate hygiene issue &#8211; doing it doesn&#8217;t count as a plus, but if you don&#8217;t do it (corporate body odor), it can turn people away.\u00a0Investment as a productivity tool<\/li>\n<li>Free and cheap tools &#8211; often the &#8220;enterprise&#8221; tool is useless and expensive<\/li>\n<li>Speaking both the language of technology and of people<\/li>\n<li>Know what you don&#8217;t know &#8211; know when to bring in a specialist<\/li>\n<li>Sales teams often mistarget the smaller business market with enterprise solutions<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.serenityco.com\">http:\/\/www.serenityco.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/whitneycarnes\">@whitneycarnes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/community.spiceworks.com\/people\/whitneycarnes\">http:\/\/community.spiceworks.com\/people\/whitneycarnes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thanks again to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.servermonkey.com\">ServerMonkey.com<\/a> for letting us use their space for this session!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5534\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-822-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/?powerpress_pinw=822-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week we talk with Whitney Carnes about how IT departments\u00a0can connect with their\u00a0users and\u00a0about running a managed service provider that works\u00a0with small business. Whitney is the president of Serenity Computer Consulting, an MSP in Dallas and Atlanta. Recorded live at SpiceWorld in Austin. &nbsp; &nbsp; Thinking about your users&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/2014\/10\/education-and-empathy-it-is-about-more-than-technical-skills-episode-63\/\">Read All Show Notes<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Education and empathy: IT is about more than technical skills &#8211; Episode 63<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5536\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-822-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/?powerpress_pinw=822-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/geek_whisperers\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Geek-Whisperers-Whitney-Carnes-Ep-63.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions\/826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geek-whisperers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}