Using IT to improve your workplace culture

I was involved in a workshop with a group of professionals the other day when the question came up, "What are the barriers to success for your group?" Pen in hand, I anxiously awaited their list of IT-related needs that keep them from achieving work Nirvana.

You know what I found? The majority of the barriers to success for this group were not things that IT could fix via a new application or piece of hardware, but instead were related to management and workplace culture. While this group may or may not be a microcosm for any organisation, I felt their thoughts were worth mentioning. See how many of these describe your work group:

1. Too many meetings (about nothing): This complaint focused on the overabundance of meetings the group members had to attend and the fact that many of the meetings were informational in nature and required no participation, other than to breathe. Add to this, that many of them felt that they were the "wrong" person to attend the meeting and it should have been someone with decision-making authority.
2. Meeting disrespect: Meetings starting late because no one can show up on time, people answering mobile phones during meetings or — equally as bad — checking messages on their Blackberry. Plus, there's the obligatory, painful PowerPoint presentation that could have been communicated in a couple of paragraphs but instead has been thrust upon the group as an hour-long presentation.
3. Spam: Not from the outside, but from within their own organisation. Aside from personal spam such as chain letters, jokes etc., which are forbidden, but seem to make the rounds anyway, there are the dozens of public service announcements that seem to come from on high regarding blood drives, celebrations, press releases, charity campaigns etc.
4. Instant messaging: Once touted as an efficient way to get in touch with someone (since the email you sent is buried in the thousands of spam messages, and people, for some reason, have forgotten how to use their phone), IM for many has involved into "How next can you break my concentration?"
5. Email: One person mentioned said that if he died, he couldn't catch up with his email backlog in the next life! (Lots of grinning and agreement followed that comment.) The group felt that much of the "legitimate" email they receive is redundant or unnecessary.
6. Inability of management to make a decision: This was a major pet peeve for the group and one that seemed to be a show stopper for whatever they were working on.

There were a few more that were listed that were specific to their businesses, but these were the main barriers to success. And while I said earlier that these problems could not be fixed with a technology solution, the majority of them are IT-related. It just so happens that several of these problems stem from the results of technology and the problems that can arise from their use/misuse.