Every new year presents the opportunity to review the prior year, assess the status quo, and set new goals and objectives for the future. While the list of possible resolutions is endless, there are common personal resolutions that many people make every year. These common personal resolutions can also provide a framework for setting business resolutions for your department in the year ahead. Here is my take on how you can use the personal resolutions to improve your IT department in 2001.

Watch the Weight and Tone Up

Weight, in this case, refers to staff size, resource allocation, and infrastructure. Is your staff lean and mean or fat and happy? If the latter is the case, can you retrain or reallocate your staff to other areas, such as technical support, training, mentoring, or project management? And, do your employees hold positions that maximize their personal skill sets, strengths, and goals? Do you have systems or applications that should be outsourced or eliminated, so that your staff can use its core competencies for the maximum benefit of the company?

Toning up, in this case, refers to keeping your staff “fit” with respect to the latest technologies, techniques, and best practices. Does your plan for the upcoming year provide your staff with sufficient growth, so that they remain challenged and productive? Have you budgeted sufficient resources to permit your staff to attend conferences, training courses, and seminars to improve their skills and productivity? Have you identified key employees for grooming for management positions, and is a program in place to provide their training? Last, will you be challenging employees with the right kind of projects so that they can continue to develop their skills and careers during the year?

Stop Smoking

Smoking is but one of many destructive personal habits. Perhaps your department has self- destructive habits as well. Has your department become too bureaucratic or too unresponsive to management, customer, or user needs? Have users expressed resistance to submitting new project requests or dissatisfaction with the request process? You can survey your user community to determine whether your department has sabotaging policies, procedures, or bureaucracy. Are projects taking too long to complete? Has your department taken on too many projects, bogging down progress and creating the impression of inefficiency? Learn to say no to those time-consuming, low-value projects that don’t

provide substantial tangible benefits and that prevent your staff from focusing on the important initiatives and priorities.

Volunteer

For your department, volunteer service can provide great public relations benefits, both within and outside the organization. And, a volunteer project can teach teamwork and project management skills with a non-mission-critical project. In the year ahead, consider whether your team could work on a volunteer project with your community, perhaps in conjunction with a school, college, or secular organization (such as the American Cancer Society). Undertaking an appropriate volunteer project will demonstrate charismatic, responsible leadership that will earn the respect of your peers, your company, and your employees.

Spend More Time with Family

In these hectic times, management and employees alike strive for more quality time with their families, aging relatives, and for personal pursuits. Does your department have the necessary resources, infrastructure, and policies in place to accommodate these needs? For example, do you have flex- and comp-time policies, or do you support telecommuting? Are you scheduling project deadlines that take into account your employees’ needs to spend quality time with their loved ones? Getting 100 projects done in the new year may not be very impressive if it results in 100 percent staff turnover.

Invest for the Future

Your department can invest in the future by creating unpaid internships and mentor programs for students interested in careers in business and technology. Investment can also be made in existing employees by creating entry-level, transfer positions. Perhaps there are some power users in the organization that would make great trainers, first-level technical support technicians, or project managers. And, be sure to invest in your existing employees by providing opportunities for them to be mentors or get company-paid training and experience in areas outside their typical job duties. Try to give each employee at least one task every quarter that forces them to learn skills outside their normal areas of responsibility.

Take Up a New Sport

Does your department have any regularly scheduled morale and teamwork building activities, such as a department softball team, bowling team, volleyball team, or another group participation activity? Use your knowledge of your staff’s unique personalities, abilities, and talents to find a way for them to build team skills in a voluntary recreational context.

Keeping the Resolutions

So, now that you’ve made your business resolutions, how do you keep them? It’s simple: Conduct a staff meeting and publish the resolutions. Ask for your staff’s input and participation regarding how your department will implement the resolutions. Develop an action plan, and delegate parts of the various resolutions to your staff, such as identifying a list of volunteer or teamwork activities your department will pursue in the new year. Ask your staff to help you achieve these resolutions, and, in the process, you’ll probably be helping them achieve theirs.

Happy New Year!