Trudy Walsh wrote in the 13 June 2006 online Government Leader Staff about (retired) Gen Dale Meyerrose's visit to an automobile company when he was CIO for part of the US Federal Government:

Too often, the IT department sets itself up as different and apart from the rest of the organization. "I think that hurts IT," Meyerrose said. "The things that drive and control our business are no different than what drives and controls other organizations. Technology is the least of it, in my view."

As an example, Meyerrose described a tour he took of the robotics area of a car company. His guide was a software engineer with "Coke-bottle glasses and hair like Einstein's," he said.

"He was wearing a hat that said, 'I build trucks.' I asked him what he did and he said, 'I build trucks.' I said, 'I got that, but what do you really do?' He said, 'I build trucks.' All the geeks in the plant were wearing hats or smocks that said 'I build trucks.'"

Although they were software engineers, they identified strongly with the organization's mission.

That's Shared Vision!

(cf. FifthDisciplinarians (2000-09-10), ...) - ^z - 2015-08-24