When something goes wrong with your systems you have options:
- Hope it fixes itself and do something else while you wait
- Open a call with your helpdesk, your I.T. provider
- Ask someone in your organisation to help (your go-to expert or power user)
- Ask a techie in your organisation to help
- Google it and try to work it out for yourself
All have pros and cons both for you and your organisation.
Hoping it fixes itself
Leaving it to the I.T. gods might be an efficient use of your time but you learn nothing and your organisation learns nothing
Open a call with your helpdesk
You will have to explain the problem which will take some research on your part. You will need to work with the helpdesk person to resolve it. You learn something, your organisation doesn’t learn much about this incident.
Ask someone in your organisation to help
You might learn something about the problem if they are willing and available, you might not get a resolution. Your organisation loses the time of two people while you’re investigating.
Ask a techie in your organisation to help
You might learn something about the problem and the solution, you might get invaluable insights which help you the next time this happens, you might also not get a resolution. Your organisation loses the time of two people but gains some knowledge and you might have made a friend.
Google it and try and work it out for yourself
You might waste some time, you might learn something, you might fix it. You are making steps to own your own problems and perhaps some of the steps above won’t take so long now.
Next time you have a problem with your I.T. systems – try googling before you do anything else.
You might be surprised what you learn.