“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time” - attributed to John Lydgate

Lately, I’ve been part of a team working to pursue changes to our IT organization and to the services that we provide to students, faculty, staff, and administrators on our campus. During one recent meeting, a participant commented on the need to improve the reputation of our organization and on how dissatisfied people are with our services. Although it probably shouldn't have, this caught me off guard and I found myself feeling angry and disrespected. This experience inspired me to write today about the challenge of meeting the expectations of a large and diverse set of customers with limited IT resources. I’m sure this challenge is all too familiar to most people working in IT!

First, let me say that I probably shouldn’t have taken that remark as personally as I did. The person who made it has less experience here than I do, and has recognized in other comments that most people you talk with on campus express appreciation for the quality of the people in our organization, for how hard they work, and for the challenge we face in meeting the needs of the campus with the resources we have available. While I probably shouldn’t have let this comment bother me as much as it did, I am glad on one level that I did take it personally. This is that I did so because I care a lot about the people on our team and about the good work they do for our campus.

At a later meeting, the person who made that comment apologized to the group for not remembering to honor all the work that has gone into improving our services in recent years, and the progress we've made. The team had a good conversation about these issues and about the importance of remembering to honor the past while working together to make a better future. I'm grateful that we are building trust and can discuss issues like these openly.

As with so many other products and services, IT services will not satisfy every user all of the time. I wish they could! I’d propose that our goal should be to satisfy most people, most of the time, by working to understand their changing needs and working to ensure we can respond to those effectively within a reasonable period of time. In the process, we will likely satisfy all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but those will be fortunate side-effects of our main efforts.

No matter how hard we work, or how well we communicate and prepare, there will be times when we fail to satisfy those we serve. At these times, it will be even more important that we communicate to understand where we are falling short, set reasonable expectations of what we can deliver, and learn how we can change our approach to improve in the future.

There will also be times when we need to recognize that our limitations, in resources, scope of support, or other areas, mean we will not be able to provide all that is desired. At these times, communication will be even more important. We need honest conversations with those we serve about the limitations we face and about their priorities so that we can direct limited resources where they will provide the most benefit. We need to communicate with our customers and employees to set expectations as clearly as possible so that staff can take satisfaction from meeting these and customers can participate in setting priorities.

We also need to engage with our managers, and senior executives, as we work to align the priorities of our customers with the strategic goals of the organization. The more clearly we can understand the operational challenges we face, the better prepared we are to plan together to meet them. The better we can document unmet needs, and provide data to describe the scale and scope of these, the more effectively we can advocate for change that will allow us to address them. Sometimes, this will take the form of better understanding and communication, and priorities that make wiser use of resources. If we can make a strong enough case for the value of IT in meeting these needs, it can also lead to a greater investment of resources for this purpose.

Ultimately, the extent to which we satisfy those we serve will depend on our response to their needs. This includes quick responses to their requests that let us understand what is needed and set clear expectations as to what we will deliver. It includes honest communication about how soon we will be able to fulfill each request, and about any challenges we face in meeting their requirements. It also includes advocating effectively for those we serve and participating in negotiating priorities to help secure results that provide the greatest benefit.

As we do our best to please as many as we can, John Lydgate’s words remind us that it has been well known for over 550 years that we will not please everyone. Most often those we please will not make a point of telling us so. This is as it should be. They are receiving the service we’ve asked them to expect. Very often those we displease will tell others and they may tell us as well.  I think it is important that we keep this in mind as we evaluate the work of IT staff, and communicate with them about the service we provide and the reputation we earn together.

Over the years, we’ve engaged faculty to conduct a series of surveys to measure people's use of, and satisfaction with, IT services on our campus, and the results have consistently shown that most were satisfied, or very satisfied, with these services. It’s been a few years since the last survey and we are preparing to conduct a new baseline survey very soon. I’ll be very interested to see what that reveals. I am confident that the vast majority of my colleagues working in IT at our university are dedicated to providing the best service they can. With good data on the results of our efforts, we can work together to help ensure we please as many as we can. We can also help ensure that the hard work of these good people earns them the honor and respect they deserve.

I’m sure we’ll have an open and honest conversation about the results of this survey. I know none of us want to prove the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln’s famous paraphrase of Lydgate when he is reported to have said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”. I'm sure none of us really want to fool anyone, especially ourselves!

In the end, we’ll do our best to please, and satisfy, those we serve when we work with them as partners and colleagues in mutual understanding. Whenever I think of this opportunity, I remember a very wonderful old sign that hung behind the counter at our favorite Italian delicatessen. It read:

“If we fail to please you, please tell us. If we do please you, please tell others!”