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4 Alternatives to War Rooms

Belinda Yung-Rubke

As Toxic War Rooms — a recent research paper from Seattle Pacific University — points out, War Rooms may not work as well as advertised, if at all.

Start with Part 1 of this blog: War Rooms for IT - More Harm Than Good?

So what’s the alternative? Is it even possible to build teams that can work together effectively to solve problems in highly charged, ever changing environments? According to the research, the answer is yes. Here’s how:

1. Give IT teams the ability to see the big picture

Individuals need to understand the whole system and their own place in it. This is called a "shared mental model". To get them out of their silos, they need a common monitoring system that shows how the individual elements of the whole interact with one another.

2. Provide ongoing feedback

If everyone is seeing the same data, they're in a better position to see how their own actions affect both the overall system as well as subsystems. Ongoing, shared feedback is essential to building teams that are more agile, self-adaptive and continuously improve their performance.

3. Establish trust

It is important to ensure that everyone understands and shares the same mission, vision and goals. Every group has conflict, but having an effective mechanism for resolving that conflict will have a direct impact on problem solving. Tools like the shared mental model and ongoing feedback with commonly accepted data make it easier for groups to get past personality conflicts and focus on the task at hand.

4. Reward team performance

By establishing a reward system that is based on the performance of the entire system, rather than individual domains and responsibilities, can promote better team collaboration. Metrics and diagnostic tools that focus on the entire system can reinforce the shared vision and shared responsibility for the only thing really matters: the customer experience.

Belinda Yung-Rubke is Director of Field Marketing for Fluke Networks.

Related Links:

www.flukenetworks.com

Click here to read the full paper from Seattle Pacific University

Click here to read Part 1 of this blog: War Rooms for IT - More Harm Than Good?

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4 Alternatives to War Rooms

Belinda Yung-Rubke

As Toxic War Rooms — a recent research paper from Seattle Pacific University — points out, War Rooms may not work as well as advertised, if at all.

Start with Part 1 of this blog: War Rooms for IT - More Harm Than Good?

So what’s the alternative? Is it even possible to build teams that can work together effectively to solve problems in highly charged, ever changing environments? According to the research, the answer is yes. Here’s how:

1. Give IT teams the ability to see the big picture

Individuals need to understand the whole system and their own place in it. This is called a "shared mental model". To get them out of their silos, they need a common monitoring system that shows how the individual elements of the whole interact with one another.

2. Provide ongoing feedback

If everyone is seeing the same data, they're in a better position to see how their own actions affect both the overall system as well as subsystems. Ongoing, shared feedback is essential to building teams that are more agile, self-adaptive and continuously improve their performance.

3. Establish trust

It is important to ensure that everyone understands and shares the same mission, vision and goals. Every group has conflict, but having an effective mechanism for resolving that conflict will have a direct impact on problem solving. Tools like the shared mental model and ongoing feedback with commonly accepted data make it easier for groups to get past personality conflicts and focus on the task at hand.

4. Reward team performance

By establishing a reward system that is based on the performance of the entire system, rather than individual domains and responsibilities, can promote better team collaboration. Metrics and diagnostic tools that focus on the entire system can reinforce the shared vision and shared responsibility for the only thing really matters: the customer experience.

Belinda Yung-Rubke is Director of Field Marketing for Fluke Networks.

Related Links:

www.flukenetworks.com

Click here to read the full paper from Seattle Pacific University

Click here to read Part 1 of this blog: War Rooms for IT - More Harm Than Good?

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...