Oncall Group

Have you ever come across the story of ‘The Blind Ones and the Matter of the Elephant’? Sometimes IT can be like that!

In the story, a group of 6 blind men encounter an elephant for the first time. They each explore what they can, and then get back together to describe their ‘findings’ on the form and shape of the mighty beast.

One says, “An elephant is a large and rough thing, wide and broad like a rug.” He had been feeling the elephant’s ear. Another had reached the trunk, he says, “No, no, I know the real facts. An elephant is like a straight and hollow pipe, awful and destructive.”

The one who reached the tusk says, “It is like a heavy, smooth solid pipe.” The one who had felt the feet and legs says, “It is mighty and firm, like a pillar.”

“It is like a rope” says the one who reached the tail. One man had reached the elephant’s belly, “It is like a wall” he says.

IT has many parts. For many companies it can be ‘the elephant in the room’, often with the largest budget, or close to it, and yet not reaching its full potential.

Does anyone have the full picture? IT can look simple on the surface, but scratch a few centimeters down and it explodes in complexity. People have to specialise, and that often means they only get to see their own piece of the puzzle.

Data analytics is a great example from current times. The focus on Big Data needs skills in database, networks, infrastructure, user interfaces, monitoring social media, gathering the data, and of course skills in designing the analysis and interpreting the results.

And here comes the crunch. The analysis has to ‘do’ something for the business. What is IT for this business? What will help each department be more productive? What will sell more products, more service, make more profit? Very often the people with the answers to these questions are not in IT.

So what happens to the 6 blind men? It depends which version of the story you pick up. In some more pessimistic versions they argue forever, even become violent, and never agree. The more optimistic version has them all realising their own limitation and inability to see the whole picture – so they collaborate. They talk to each other (you might say they swap roles for a while, to see things from someone else’s point of view). Eventually they figure it out and learn the true form and shape of an elephant.