“You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you might find you get what you need” - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

“Tell Me What You Want (And I’ll Give You What You Need”) - Patrick Simmons

Today I am looking back at our Thanksgiving celebrations with family and friends and feeling very grateful for all the special people in my life and for the time we spend together. These dear ones have helped shape who I am. They, and the memory of dear ones who have passed on, continue to shape who I become as I grow forward in this life. I’ve had an informal list of “people I’d like to be when I grow up” and so many of my loved ones are part of that list. When I live up to their inner beauty as people, I am truly at my best.

When our loved ones in Canada celebrated Thanksgiving in October, I wrote an entire essay reflecting on all I am thankful for, so I will take a different direction today. As I think about Thanksgiving, I am aware of how often our gratitude for what we have leads us to think about what we want and what we need. When we are fortunate, we find that all our most significant needs are met and that we also grateful to have much of what we want in our lives.

Throughout my career in IT, I’ve often found myself thinking about this idea of what we want and what we need as I’ve worked to deliver the technology and services requested by the people we serve. There are always limits to what we can provide whether those are financial, technical, security, or capacity challenges. Very often, the conversations we have about budgets, priorities, and service come back to how we can listen to what is wanted and deliver what is needed.

The practice of systems analysis has always been a favorite part of this work for me and I am looking forward to doing more work of that nature in my new role beginning this week. Ultimately, this is a process of understanding what systems are in place to deliver needed services, and what capabilities and results are desired but not yet available, and creating an appropriate functional description of what is required. I enjoy the process of looking at systems to define and understand their component parts and then proposing functional requirements for needed changes.

Most enjoyable for me is the process of talking with those who use the system to understand what they want and need. These conversations can help us understand, and agree on, what is truly needed, what capabilities would be nice to have, and what features really don’t need to be pursued as a priority at the current time. My preference is to keep these conversations, and the requirements they help to create, at a functional level that focuses on what the desired results would look like and that doesn’t attempt to define how these results should be produced. It is also helpful to understand how soon the results are needed and how much the organization can afford to invest in achieving those results.

Once we have agreed on some initial set of functional requirements, we can approach the specific IT professionals who have the skills and experience to propose solutions and ask them to suggest how we can best meet these requirements. This is the beginning of a facilitated dialog between the users of the system and the IT staff proposing solutions. Through that process, the proposed design can be refined and this is where we really sort out what is truly needed. This is also where we learn how to improve our process for creating functional requirements. For example, when the IT staff say they wish they’d been approached earlier in the process, I know there’s room for improvement!

I see this whole process as an important aspect of customer service. It is a way for the IT team to really understand what the customers want and need. It is also an opportunity to help the customers understand the trade-offs between the time and money they can afford to invest and the capabilities that IT can deliver. IT needs to hear the voice of the customer and to provide useful information that helps inform the decisions customers make about what the want and need. When we are successful, we focus our resources on what really matters and create much greater value.

I’ve found this is as true in our personal lives as it is in the professional realm. When I was young, there were times when I wanted many things and often found myself frustrated trying to find some way to obtain and achieve all these. As I’ve grown, I’ve learned more about the wisdom of Thoreau’s advice that we should simplify our lives and expectations. When I focus on the fewer, truly important, aspects of my life, I can give more energy to these and my experience is much richer and more meaningful.

This is also very true in education as the faculty and advisors who help students pursue their goals and dreams listen to what these young, and not so young, people want to do with their lives and help them get what they need to prepare for each new step on their journeys. Much of our current focus on student success in higher education comes down to how we can more effectively help students choose the right course of study, pursue that coursework in a way that is most likely to result in successful learning, and take appropriate corrective steps when they encounter obstacles. I am particularly interested in how we can provide career counselling throughout this process to help ensure our students are on a path that will help them succeed, and make a difference, in their chosen fields. Even more important to me is that they receive a rich and balanced education that prepares them to live full and rewarding lives.

The two quotes I chose to head this week’s essay both ring true for me. I’ve always found the Doobie Brothers quote the more hopeful of the two and the Rolling Stones’ more pragmatic. I also think they work better together, just as we work better together to pursue our goals. Ultimately, I can’t often keep the promise of Patrick Simmon’s words to “give you what you need” by myself. If you can tell me clearly what you want, and you’re willing to try with me to get what you need, I believe we can get there together.