Chai Wallah vs. Versatilist

Seth Godin’s blog on the Chai Wallah got my attention because it struck me that we in the Information Technology Group of Campus Crusade for Christ are trying to accomplish the exact same benefit he describes with exactly the opposite strategy.  Seth talks about the benefits of your success living and dying on the performance of just one task and how when you go all in, it focuses your attention and effort.  The example given is the Chai Wallah whose only job is to make tea.

In IT circles that could be interpreted as having an entire staff of specialist.  That line of thinking works great if you have enough specialized work to keep all those specialist busy.  It also works if you have enough specialist to address any need that may arise.  In India where there is a huge population and demand for Chai tea, the Chai Wallah is a great fit.  What is the resource pool of staff is small and the demand varied across a broad spectrum though?  What if that demand moves quickly and in high concentration across varied types of needs?  What if the true measure of success is not how skilled an individual is at one single task, but actually in the organization’s ability to focus it’s attention and effort on accomplishing a strategy that leads to missional success?

The Information Technology Group has focused on missional success.  As a result we have intentionally moved away from the Chai Wallah specialist and toward the IT Versatilist.

“Versatilists are able to apply a depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, equally at ease with technical issues as with business strategy.” - Gartner

Having a staff of versatilists who deeply understand our organization, it’s priorities, it’s processes, and it’s people allows us to have greater agility and to deliver more effective solutions.  It allows us to move our staff resources to the highest priorities of the organization rather than increasing staffing with large numbers of costly IT consultants because we don’t have enough staff with the necessary IT skill sets.

Interestingly though, the versatilist model also leads to greater success for the individual as well.  Because we are intentional about finding staff that posses specific versatilist character traits and we continually invest in their training and development,  our staff thrive in an environment where they get to solve a variety of interesting problems and work with a variety of leading edge technologies.  In addition, their broad technical and leadership experience enhances their advancement opportunities.

While I may enjoy having the Chai Wallah make my tea, I’d rather have our IT staff be Versatilists!