Mar 2010
Finding ada
Wed Mar 24 2010 Filed in: Women in tech | Art
I'm working on drawing chapter 20. In particular, a crucial scene in your basic adventure story. The odds are against our heroine, all her friends have walked away, her enemies have already beaten her down, and what she has sworn to defend has been lost. And now she has to make a choice - accept things the way they are, that she needs to accept that she'll lose this one. Or push on alone, knowing it will only bring her more misery and pain. And it is in this moment that Heidi will make her vow to make a final stand for what she believe is right. It's a little corny and standard pulp adventure stuff, but there are people, real people, I know who have done this. And paid for it. But nonetheless, they are heroes. Heroines, actually.
Thirteen years ago at a Seattle financial institution, I was part of a team of network engineers that would in a few short years grow ten-fold in size. The IT group was unusual in that there were many women in tech leadership roles. Many of the tech staff was female as well the IT director as well as the CIO. They were "old school", from the days of COBOL and DEC systems, which brought with it an intimidating blaze of technical knowledge and demanding exactitude.
Executive management had decided to expand service offerings using a "clicks and mortar" strategy which meant adding Internet "branches" instead of physical ones. This was the mid-90s and our entire organization was currently running on terminals connected to big iron boxes. In addition to the massive infrastructure upgrade needed, we were looking at a very steep learning curve for the users.
This kind of growth is a challenge, especially at the leadership level. Strong IT operations is about hygiene. It's never glamorous and always first to blamed and have its budget cut. In my time as a tech professional, I've encountered many ineffective IT operations leaders. They were technically weak and more often, also weak in fortitude in protecting their people and the stability of the system.
Our leaders stuck to their guns, pushing for infrastructure building with an emphasis on security and stability despite the tremendous pressure for new gizmos and flashy toys. They made people define what
they needed, not what they wanted, and they held staff and vendors accountable for their actions and promises. In fact, I'd never seen higher standards and low tolerance of weak ethics during in a banking
atmosphere in my entire career.
In the end, we learned just how necessary this was. Their efforts supported tremendous growth, far beyond what was proposed by the executive team. The new infrastructure and the team weathered internet
banking, an explosion of new remote sites, business partners, and very sophisticated apps.
Were they rewarded and honored for this? Of course now. Once the foundation was built and apps began to roll, they were herded out the door to be replaced by yes men (I mean that figuratively and literally). They were seen as too pessimistic, too negative and too slow in getting things done. Based on what I've seen in my career, sometimes an organization needs someone to take the unpopular stance
and get things done, keep things on track. And that person needs not only to be smart, knowledgeable and they need personal courage to stand up for their convictions.. But one thing I've learned, that person does not need to be a man.
It's the spirit of those two women that inspired me as I drew on this sketch, which I call "Heidi defies the universe." You know she'll win.
Thirteen years ago at a Seattle financial institution, I was part of a team of network engineers that would in a few short years grow ten-fold in size. The IT group was unusual in that there were many women in tech leadership roles. Many of the tech staff was female as well the IT director as well as the CIO. They were "old school", from the days of COBOL and DEC systems, which brought with it an intimidating blaze of technical knowledge and demanding exactitude.
Executive management had decided to expand service offerings using a "clicks and mortar" strategy which meant adding Internet "branches" instead of physical ones. This was the mid-90s and our entire organization was currently running on terminals connected to big iron boxes. In addition to the massive infrastructure upgrade needed, we were looking at a very steep learning curve for the users.
This kind of growth is a challenge, especially at the leadership level. Strong IT operations is about hygiene. It's never glamorous and always first to blamed and have its budget cut. In my time as a tech professional, I've encountered many ineffective IT operations leaders. They were technically weak and more often, also weak in fortitude in protecting their people and the stability of the system.
Our leaders stuck to their guns, pushing for infrastructure building with an emphasis on security and stability despite the tremendous pressure for new gizmos and flashy toys. They made people define what
they needed, not what they wanted, and they held staff and vendors accountable for their actions and promises. In fact, I'd never seen higher standards and low tolerance of weak ethics during in a banking
atmosphere in my entire career.
In the end, we learned just how necessary this was. Their efforts supported tremendous growth, far beyond what was proposed by the executive team. The new infrastructure and the team weathered internet
banking, an explosion of new remote sites, business partners, and very sophisticated apps.
Were they rewarded and honored for this? Of course now. Once the foundation was built and apps began to roll, they were herded out the door to be replaced by yes men (I mean that figuratively and literally). They were seen as too pessimistic, too negative and too slow in getting things done. Based on what I've seen in my career, sometimes an organization needs someone to take the unpopular stance
and get things done, keep things on track. And that person needs not only to be smart, knowledgeable and they need personal courage to stand up for their convictions.. But one thing I've learned, that person does not need to be a man.
It's the spirit of those two women that inspired me as I drew on this sketch, which I call "Heidi defies the universe." You know she'll win.
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