Using the content outlined below, which was a discussion post. Please create a short reply of less than 150 words that agrees with something they said and asks a question to further the discussion.

I had a mentor, seemingly ages ago, who put my job in IT (then MIS) into such succinct perspective for me that I have not forgotten it to this day. He said, "The role of an [IT] professional is to enable others to get their jobs done in the most efficient and productive way possible. Before you act, consider any impact your action may have on the person on the other side of the wire" (D'Souza, circa 1993). What he was really talking about is exactly what we are studying today - the people side of change management. As I read this week's materials, I found myself smiling and remembering my old colleague and friend.

Of the ten (yes, ten) principles presented, for this exercise I prefer to focus on those that I feel most closely align to my mentor's sentiments. Secondarily, these most closely resonate with my experiences as an IT technical professional, project manager, and executive.

Effective Sponsorship(1) & Culture(2)

I find the quote, "We could have told those IT idiots this wouldn't work in our organization" (Whitten, 2023) extremely convenient and typically bantered on the heels of a failed change management effort. I will suggest to my classmates that while the concepts presented in lecture this week are no doubt important for effective sponsorship, I would add another for critical thought. That is to draw a line in sponsorship between stakeholders and partners, and to be able to recognize the difference. For further clarification, when there is equal stake and accountability in an outcome, stakeholders can no longer be armchair quarterbacks after the fact, if you'll forgive the expression. The notion of "shared accountability" must be equally sponsored when the train begins to come off the track.

I would also challenge the notion that "If IT is both the sponsor and the project manager, then you are already in trouble" (Whitten, 2023). While I would agree that it is not optimal for any functional area to sponsor and lead, some of the most successful organizationally impacting projects I have worked on have had precisely this dynamic. I think it has more to do with the amount of organizational influence and credibility the IT department is afforded through its culture and structure. I have worked at organizations where IT has been an insulated subdivision of some other functional area (typically finance), and in those who recognize IT as the strategic partner they are in a modern, mature, and skilled organization. The former is where the IT departments typically lack the diversity of skills, organizational influence, top level sponsorship, and budget to see a complex project through to completion.

Resistance Management(3) & Communication(4)

My classmates' posts to date have done a magnificent job covering anything academic I would wish to say about communications, and I am positive that many more will offer this as one of the most critical principles. Combining communications with resistance management, I offer the following examples:

When Dr. Whitten (2023) used the example, "We tried that and it didn't work," I literally laughed out loud remembering some of the most influential people that I have heard that very statement come from. I would argue that such a conclusion almost always comes from resistance either financially or culturally eroding an organization's resolve to see a change through. In other words, it hurts less to quit.

The first example I will share is an IT executive of a multinational company. I had recently been recruited back to this organization after a brief career change into retail technologies management. Upon my return in 2003, we were discussing economies of scale in the data center through virtualization. He stopped me almost immediately and said, "We tried that, and we didn't like it." To which I replied, "If you didn't like it, then you didn't do it properly."

Next was a similar scenario in my current organization. My original charge when I was brought on board was to save or to scuttle a $3M/5-year project. The resistance to this technology caused the previous PM and IT manager to walk off the job in year four. Frankly, after analysis of the environment and the project's reputation I almost did not take the position. I fought to save their investment versus two vice presidents (one being the CIO) who were staunchly opposed to investing any more money in it.

Both projects suffered from having the wrong people at the helms - arguably of the project themselves - but also at the sponsorship level. In both cases, resistance management brought both back to the table and ultimately became success stories for their respective organizations. Unfortunately, the issue is compounded by generalized communications like, "We tried, and it didn't work" when coming from people of organizational influence and implied credibility due to their station. In these scenarios is where I find the need for the most responsible and informed communications, so we do not close the door on innovation simply because we lacked the will or resolve to find the right people to lead.