The Yes Blog

I.T. That Adds Value with Gina Harris – MGW #7

GUEST: Gina Harris

Director of Information Technology at TalkingRain Beverage Company

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginatharris?trk=miniprofile-photo

http://www.talkingrain.com/

 

IT is just taking orders, fixing passwords, coding and explaining complex technical issues to those who don’t speak tech, right?  Not if you are Gina Harris, from Talking Rain.  IT is about viewing and treating people as change agents that require a whole business point of view.

 

Gina speaks to the necessity of fostering business knowledge as an IT professional in sales, negotiation, optimization of supply chain, assessing people’s brilliance and automating work-flow, vendor relations, and risk management.

 

Her advice, “Understand the business.  Look at it from a 50,000 ft view. Look at how we make money.  How we produce the goods we sell.  Find out what that is all about.  And then work down from the 40,000 ft, to the 30,000 ft, the 20,000 ft and understand who the players are. Who the influencers are?What the potential is to differentiate us from our competition.  Really, it is ‘know the business,’ once you know the business, the IT part is a lot easier.”

 

She shares that having a Learning Organization is essential to her company’s overall success.

 

How do you ensure you have a Learning Organization?

 

  1.    Empower your team with information.  Paint the picture of the problem, brainstorm, research and collaborate the solution together.
  2.    Soft skills are more important than your tech skills.
  3.     Ability to embrace change.
  4.    Being open minded
  5.     Initiative
  6.    Empathy
  7.    Self Awareness
  8.      Willing to Collaborate
  9.    Thick Skinned- Don’t take rejection personally, find out what you could do better.
  10.    Team Building
  11.     Have each other’s back
  12.    Humor
  13.     No one says, “this is not my job”
  14.    Speak to strengths and weaknesses
  15.    Give credit and appreciate people’s skills
  16.    Compassion & Empathy translates into Good Work
  17.     When you treat people well, give them feedback and look them in the eye on a regular basis, they will rally behind the leadership if they feel supported.

 

Thank you, Gina, for your transparent and informed advice on how to generate mighty good work as an IT pro and company wide.

 

Visit Mighty Good Work and The Yes Works at: www.TheYesWorks.com

 

Found out more great info from Gina in this article: http://food.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/the-business-value-of-it–nid-14037-cid-29.html

 

Theme music by: Miguel Juarez

 

Midshow break music by : Allan Loucks www.TinEar.com
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