If you think there's a wall between your IT staff and your user population, realize that you're not alone. Many IT leaders are dealing with the issue and it's going to take more than a few "meeting of the minds" to move past the hurdles. A good starting point is understanding what the 'enemy' sees...in this case, the user's point of view. The second step, and maybe most important, is realizing how IT is perceived by that population. As a recent column about the issue illustrates, the key is listening, communicating and then taking action to break the cycle of poor interaction between users and IT.

For more on understanding the perception of IT:
- check out this column at CIO magazine

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