Miss Manners Meets MIS

Computerworld - There was a time when women wore ties. Not anymore. That stays in the '80s. The style-savvy instructor uses her pointer to illustrate various fashion faux pas. "Never, ever wear white socks with black shoes," she states emphatically.
"Apparently, I need a little help," jokes Todd Thompson, a third-year MIT graduate chemistry student, gazing down at his black shoes and white socks. "And my belt doesn't exactly match my shoes."
Chances are, Thompson's belt/shoes combo won't make or break his career. And many of the courses offered at MIT's annual Charm School - created in 1993 as a way for the school to poke fun at its reputation as a haven for brainy nerds - are clearly just for laughs. But as today's corporations push for ever-improving customer service and expect IT professionals to spend increasing amounts of time with end users and external customers, MIT's daylong program has evolved to offer students some practical lessons in social skills that are likely to come in handy as they enter the job market.
"I think they should mandate Charm School," says Thompson. "They should add a personal hygiene booth."
MIT's Charm School is one of a growing number of programs that, while presented in a lighthearted fashion, are geared toward raising future IT workers' awareness of the need to hone their soft skills, such as communicating with users and working on a team. At several Philadelphia-area colleges and high schools, for instance, workers from Lockheed Martin Corp. teach business etiquette courses to students (see story). And as IT becomes ever more closely aligned with core business strategies, even technology veterans are lining up for social development courses. Workers at Woburn, Mass.-based Genuity Inc. and Boston-based Fidelity Investments, for example, have taken "Teaching Techies to Talk," a program offered by New Castle, N.H.-based Loyalty Factor LLC.
"There really is a need for it," says Calvin Sun, principal of Paoli, Pa.-based consultancy Calvin Sun & Associates, which has taught IT charm school classes at companies such as Philadelphia Gas Works, Triton PCS and Potomac Electric Power Co. Just last month, he taught the classes at NStar, a Boston-based energy distributor whose CIO has been focused on making the IT division more customer-centric since he was hired last fall after a series of high-profile and controversial blackouts (see story).
"IT people have to deal with nontechnical people all the time . . . [and] they either use jargon and totally confuse the person, or they talk down to the person and insult their intelligence,"