Tough and Competent

In an early AMPATH IT staff meeting, shortly after arriving in Kenya, the team expressed their desire to really "own" the IT operations.* Owning really means that they take full responsibility for the whole operations, everything.  The good, bad and the ugly (hopefully not to much bad and ugly).

* In the years prior to my arrival, most of the agenda and the direction had come from the USA.  The few guys here essentially followed, there was little room for them to lead.  

In the last year, the AMPATH IT team has really begun to improve professionally. I have been hammering home the idea of responsibility and ownership.   It has been an interesting road travelled only because some things that I would take for granted in the USA are sort of new for the guys here.*  I am asking the team to be more innovative, creative, critical, and responsible.

Progress is happening and I can see improvement, but there are things that still bother me.  We do not communicate as effectively as we should and this really creates problems.  The infrastructure team took on a project and their performance left a lot to be desired.  There was a real "Cool Hand Luke" problem on this project, you know "failure to communicate".  There were constant delays that lead to major levels of frustration.  Most of it could have been managed through the simple act of sending an email or picking up a phone.  The end result was that the clients were unhappy and our reputation really suffered.

I am not sure why it is tough for some of the team to communicate.  I am trying to understand and find a way improve in this area.  I am working with the guys to better keep on top of things, to inform our end-users on progress and when issues arise.  I would really like to see our commitment to excellence improve.

Recently, I have challenged our team to do better in all areas of their work.  I borrowed some from the book Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz.  Kranz was a long time Flight Director at NASA and played an important roll in getting the Apollo 13 crew back home safely.  I was inspired by words he gave to the NASA team in the wake of the Apollo 1 tragedy.*

* The words are better know as the Kranz Dictum.  

Kranz called for the team at NASA to be "tough and competent" and I have challenged our team to be be just that.  So adapting a bit from Kranz, I informed the team that by tough "we are accountable for what we do or what we fail to do.  We will never compromise our responsibilities.  Every time we walk into [AMAPTH] we will know what we stand for."  As for competent, "we never take anything for granted.  We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. We will drive to be perfect."*

* I don't expect us to be perfect, in so far as we never make mistakes.  But our level of server, should be close to perfect.  Our end-users should never have reason to wonder what we are doing. 

I really want our guys to step up and to exemplify professionalism in IT.