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Suits say: Geeks expect us to understand as much as they do about technology. Geeks are bad with people.
Geeks say: Suits refuse to learn anything about and don’t value technology. All suits care about is money.
Business professionals (suits) and technology workers (geeks) fail to connect In too many companies. While both groups have no trouble following the lingo of their own specialties, when they have to communicate with each other, neither side fully understands – or wants to understand – the other. Instead, they say, "Why can’t you make yourself clear?" "Why don’t you say what you mean?" And that’s a big problem in an increasingly technology-dependent business environment where success depends on the smooth integration of both business savvy and technological expertise.
Suits say: Geeks don’t understand anything about business. Geeks can never seem to meet deadlines or stay within budgets.
Geeks say: Suits resist innovation. Suits value image over substance.
Bill Pfleging – a respected computer and Web consultant – and Minda Zetlin – a veteran business writer – explore in this insightful, witty, and very instructive book, the culture clash that pervades nearly every business-technology interaction. The Geek Gap provides members of both camps with a practical guide to working together effectively. Using many real-world examples, the authors vividly illustrate the consequences in time, money, careers, and even lives when these separate cultures fail to communicate.
Pfleging and Zetlin provide practical solutions for building trust between business and computer professionals as well as valuable tips so that geeks and suits can understand each other, communicate in what amounts to be a foreign language, and get what they need in order to do their jobs effectively. The authors profile companies and individual executives who have successfully bridged the gap by conducting events that bring the two groups together, switching jobs from one area to the other, creating whole new careers as "go-betweens," and much, much more!
As the first book to directly address issues of communication and understanding between business and technology people, The Geek Gap – in identifying this problem and providing numerous practical and workable solutions – is an indispensable guide for all.
Bill Pfleging is a computer and Web consultant who writes a regular column for the Woodstock (NY) Times. With computer experience going back to the early 1970s at IBM, he has also worked for Tripod.com and Lycos Network.
Minda Zetlin is a longtime business writer whose work has appeared in Crain’s New York Business, Success!, Management Review, and other publications. She is also the author of Telecommuting for Dummies and the coauthor of The Asia Guide to Freelance Writing.
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