Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1294
September 23, 2016
The New Book “Thinkingare” Introduction Chapter 1 “Out of Box” Thinking Minds
Creativity has often been analogized as “thinking outside of the box.”
Out-of-Box thinking implies a certain level of creativity or unconventional problem solving. “The box” is the mental construct made up of personal or environmental components that one operates within. Most often, the box is your safety net and your comfort zone. So thinking outside “the box” means doing something outside of the confines of the construct. It’s easy for things in the box to turn stale and stagnant, great things don’t happen inside your comfort zone or in a box. Fundamentally, the “box” is also the set of “rules” that you are abiding by at any moment in time, by breaking down those old rules, you mind is set free to create the new ideas that arising from identifying and challenging assumptions and then generating more possibilities.
Shape a new box of thinking: More precisely, “Out-of-Box” thinking is about continuing to break down the outdated old box, and shape the new box thinking to discover alternatives and solve complex problems with creativity and collaboration. “Out-of-Box” Thinking is really just shaping a bigger box, a new box with more room for thinking. In today’s competitive environment, what was outside of box yesterday may not be today. Out thinking has to continuously evolve, adapt, and prepare for changes. Look around, look above and look deeper. For real creativity, take a look outside your industry, far outside, if you have to, pull the whole team out of the box. That’s when the real ideas work. Keep creativity flowing. There is no such things as too much outside the box thinking, but it’s also important to shape the newer box to stay focused.
Original Thinkers: Original Thinkers are those who come up with conclusions and solutions for problems with their own unique brain processes. Nearly all thoughts come from some sort of internal or external stimulus. Thus, the seeds of original thinking could come from the unoriginal input, but it is the dot-connecting capability to synthesize the unoriginal input into a unique output that makes one an original thinker. It is not easy to recognize “original thinkers,” and it becomes more difficult as most modern people are too busy to even think and observe. Understanding how we think is the first stage of understanding our creative style - how we approach and solve problems and embrace opportunities. Originality is as valuable as authenticity. Be true to your own personality or character. Having the courage to use your own intelligence is, therefore the touchstone of enlightenment.
Creativity is about thinking beyond conventional wisdom: Creativity is a thinking process to create novel ideas. It is a specific way some human brains process information that results in unusual combinations of ideas, metaphors, applications, procedures, insights, and sometimes things. Creativity appears to require two styles of thinking: “associative,” and analytic: the first seems to be more perceptually based, related to the “aha” phenomenon, and can be below conscious awareness, the second is more cognitively based and entails a more working through of the products of the associative process. Creativity in the human sense is not due to connecting of two shallow pools of knowledge, but the ability to dig deeper, to make in-depth connections and build on those connections.
There are many other “flavors” of out-of-box thinking listed in chapter 1 of “Thinkingaire.” Human potential is limitless, and the best way to go on discovering what we are capable of doing is by following our intuition, insight, and imagination, while at the same time keeping our feet firmly on the ground. There is no limit to human potential.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Out-of-Box thinking implies a certain level of creativity or unconventional problem solving. “The box” is the mental construct made up of personal or environmental components that one operates within. Most often, the box is your safety net and your comfort zone. So thinking outside “the box” means doing something outside of the confines of the construct. It’s easy for things in the box to turn stale and stagnant, great things don’t happen inside your comfort zone or in a box. Fundamentally, the “box” is also the set of “rules” that you are abiding by at any moment in time, by breaking down those old rules, you mind is set free to create the new ideas that arising from identifying and challenging assumptions and then generating more possibilities.
Shape a new box of thinking: More precisely, “Out-of-Box” thinking is about continuing to break down the outdated old box, and shape the new box thinking to discover alternatives and solve complex problems with creativity and collaboration. “Out-of-Box” Thinking is really just shaping a bigger box, a new box with more room for thinking. In today’s competitive environment, what was outside of box yesterday may not be today. Out thinking has to continuously evolve, adapt, and prepare for changes. Look around, look above and look deeper. For real creativity, take a look outside your industry, far outside, if you have to, pull the whole team out of the box. That’s when the real ideas work. Keep creativity flowing. There is no such things as too much outside the box thinking, but it’s also important to shape the newer box to stay focused.
Original Thinkers: Original Thinkers are those who come up with conclusions and solutions for problems with their own unique brain processes. Nearly all thoughts come from some sort of internal or external stimulus. Thus, the seeds of original thinking could come from the unoriginal input, but it is the dot-connecting capability to synthesize the unoriginal input into a unique output that makes one an original thinker. It is not easy to recognize “original thinkers,” and it becomes more difficult as most modern people are too busy to even think and observe. Understanding how we think is the first stage of understanding our creative style - how we approach and solve problems and embrace opportunities. Originality is as valuable as authenticity. Be true to your own personality or character. Having the courage to use your own intelligence is, therefore the touchstone of enlightenment.
Creativity is about thinking beyond conventional wisdom: Creativity is a thinking process to create novel ideas. It is a specific way some human brains process information that results in unusual combinations of ideas, metaphors, applications, procedures, insights, and sometimes things. Creativity appears to require two styles of thinking: “associative,” and analytic: the first seems to be more perceptually based, related to the “aha” phenomenon, and can be below conscious awareness, the second is more cognitively based and entails a more working through of the products of the associative process. Creativity in the human sense is not due to connecting of two shallow pools of knowledge, but the ability to dig deeper, to make in-depth connections and build on those connections.
There are many other “flavors” of out-of-box thinking listed in chapter 1 of “Thinkingaire.” Human potential is limitless, and the best way to go on discovering what we are capable of doing is by following our intuition, insight, and imagination, while at the same time keeping our feet firmly on the ground. There is no limit to human potential.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
CIOs as “Chief Innovation Officer”: Taking a Systematic Approach to Run an Innovative IT
Digital is the age of innovation. Doing more with innovation is the mantra for any forward-looking organizations. Though every executive should make their voice heard on this front, have an opportunity and responsibility to participate in the innovation dialog and to come up with innovative ideas, CIOs generally have greater opportunities to stand out, and take leadership in driving innovation across their companies. Because most of the functions can make process innovation within their division, IT, on the other hand, has much more of an opportunity to enable incremental top-line and bottom-line value across the business, not just within IT, but across the functional border because it is in the unique position to oversee business processes underneath, also foresee the latest technological trend, capture information-based business insight to either delight customers or catalyze business growth. In practice, how to take a systematic approach to run an innovative IT?
Be innovative from the business's lens: To run an innovative IT, it’s critical to listen, comprehend and understand the people and the business they are part of, before embarking on any new way of thinking to know where you have come from, enables you to move to a new place even quicker. LISTEN to your clients, stakeholders, vendors, partners and staff. IT has a great opportunity here to become an innovation engine and lead the business transformation. Be careful, you do not want to come across as having a solution looking for a problem. Rather than wait for the business to tell IT what they want, IT needs to proactively work with the business and partners upon the great new digital technologies which can change the business. Running a proactive and innovative IT is about making changes when people want things to stay the same, making data-based rational decisions when others rush to take gut-feeling decisions and responding quickly when others are slow. With the emergent digital technologies and consumerization of IT, and the whole consumerization of IT movement has largely focused on IT getting its arms around the trend and 'managing' it. The other key factor for IT leaders is being keen about exploring new technologies and new markets. Make new rules like open doors, no fears to propose something completely new in loud among team members. That has the added benefit of steering business toward things IT recommends to use. The institutional trust, support, power, and autonomy make IT leaders’ vision a reality.
Be innovative from outside-in via capturing customer insight: Digital is the age of customers. focusing on customer needs should be an easier path to grow the innovation fruit. It’s important for IT to be more innovative from an outside-in customer’s lens. If you're going to innovate without knowledge of "evident customer needs," then "the things that you are good at may distract you to build something which can really increase customer value and help business success for the long term. Customer inquiries are not just support related, but can foster new and better ways the application can perform and optimize every touch point of customer experience. Through catching customer insight and understanding their need, IT can reinvent itself as a customer champ and see it as an opportunity to reboot IT mentality as the innovation engine. Businesses also love to see IT getting deeply immersed in the new apps, devices, and solutions and make internal customers more productive, collaborative and smart.
Encourage innovation via building a risk-tolerance culture: There is no innovation without risk taking. But it’s important to fail fast and fail forward. It’s important to build a risk-tolerance culture and open up an opportunity for people to stretch and try new things will, in the end, generate many more returns than were ever thought possible! There is nothing wrong that the business expects ROI, and most of the radical innovations are not low hanging fruits you can reap quickly, often you need to take calculated risks and make a wise innovation. Innovation strategy is a critical component of the business strategy, have the commitment from the senior executives to engage in dialogue (formal and informal) to derive a viable business strategy that is enabled/driven by IT would be good. To take a systematic innovation approach, you should build a balanced innovation portfolio which includes incremental innovations, evolutionary innovation, and breakthrough innovations and manage risk effectively. Once it plays the innovation game, IT matures beyond being a cost center and acts more like a business partner, or business within a business, because its value proposition can be backed up with the hard number and soft impact.
Either disrupt or being disrupted. IT is at an inflection point to lead the organizational level digital transformation. IT is the key element of business innovation, either for catching customer delight or achieving business optimization or even bringing up the breakthrough growth opportunity. IT innovation capabilities directly impact how it helps the business gain competitive advantage and capture upcoming trend to compete for the future.
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September 22, 2016
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 9/23/ 2016
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.5 million page views with 3100+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight about digital leadership, IT Management, and Talent Management.
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 9/23/2016The New Released Book "THINKINGAIRE - 100 Game-Changing Digital Mindsets to Compete for the Future" Preview: Slideshare: We have moved into the new digital age when information is abundant and where creativity becomes a baseline competence. The race of human against machine is ongoing. The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and the pace of information technology is so rapid that no one can rest on a static mindset, past accomplishments, or the wishful thought that everything is perfect the way it is. Indeed, mindset is far more important than talent. Talent can always be developed by those who keep growth in mind. From talent management perspective, are mindful leaders or workers simply found in nature or nurtured? How do human beings think? Where do you draw the line about which aspect of human activity is conscious thought and which is mere reflex? How do you differentiate between well thought-out reflex and simple physiological reflex? Further, what happens when the basic needs are fulfilled? Do we stop thinking? What is the philosophy of mindfulness?
Running IT as Digital Change Agent: Digital transformation is a journey. Literally, the transformation is to radically change the nature of something. Digital transformation is a radical change of the business via its underlying business processes, invisible business culture or emergent new business model, etc. In a business scope, there are some of the “significant bits and bytes of information” needed to make cognitive connections when evaluating a new market, new technology or any business growth opportunity. Hence, IT plays a critical role in exploring such an “art of impossible,” and should be run as a digital Change Agent.
Three Digital Tilts for Talent Management Innovation People are always the most valuable asset in any business in the past, today, and future. The focal point for talent management does shift from managing people as cost & resource to asset and human capital. In essence, the business is running by people (employees) for the people (customers), and digital is the age of people. The question is how to develop, assess and motivate your people, and put the right people in the right position with the right capability to solve the right problems? There are three modern tilts for talent management and performance management innovation. The CIO’s Situational Leadership for IT Digital Transformation? Many IT organizations are on the inflection point for digital transformation, to transform from a cost center to a growth engine, from a back office function to a digital brain front yard, and from a help desk to an innovation hub. CIOs are wearing multiple hats, practice situational leadership to bridge the industrial age with the Digital Era, to focus on information management, process optimization, business innovation, and overall organizational maturity. Many think IT is shifting from a static function which is often controlling or even lagging behind the changes to a people-centric changing organization. Here are a couple of leadership and management roles CIOs need to balance well for improving IT efficiency, effectiveness, and agility?
The CIO's Digital Agenda: Running IT as a Digital Brain of the Organization Sep. 2016: TModern CIOs have many personas and face great challenges. It is not sufficient to only keep the light on. Regardless of which industry or the nature of organization you are in, being a digital leader will need to master the art of creating unique, differentiating value from piles of commoditized technologies. Digital transformation starts with mind shift, business value has to be driven, indicated and understood at all levels of the organization. This is accomplished by establishing strong interdependent relationships, the shared vision, and wisdom. But more specifically, what are the digital-savvy CIOs doing to make business information savvy in running IT as a digital brain of the organization? Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three Challenging Aspects of Performance Indicators
KPI is not a number, it's a story...
You can only manage what you measure, Performance measures and Key Performance Indicator management is not a simple task though, approximately there’re more than ten thousand KPIs around today, a bit overwhelming, let's not forget that there is a "K" in KPI for a reason: Why do you select the certain set of performance measures? What’re the most challenging aspects of working with KPIs? How to leverage the right set of performance indicators in measuring whether the organization is functioning well or dysfunctional? Which management metrics shall you apply to measure organizational overall health and maturity? Who and what tools are being applied to measure if an organization is healthy or sick? Proactive or reactive? Intelligent or dumb? Customer-centric or operational driven? And what are those challenging aspects of performance measurement?
Selecting the Right performance indicators and KPIs: Selecting the right KPIs is one of the most important steps in measurement, because this process includes to answer why you are choosing that, how you will use them and whether you have enough resources to manage data. If you think through properly, the rest will just fall in their rightful places. Generally speaking, KPIs should be set according to the strategic strengths of the company, what resources the company has, in which it can fully utilize. But certainly, you shouldn't select a KPI when you don't have the mechanism to collect data. If KPIs would be set as per the resources available, it would be realistic, smart and hence achievable. This would make it easier to evaluate the results against the KPIs. So if the KPI selection has been effectively carried out, all the remaining aspects would fall in place.
Root cause analysis & insight generation: The other most challenging aspect of KPI is to determining or understanding what root causes would be contributory in influencing the KPI before they are being selected. KPIs being used could have several ramifications, especially when conducting a Root Cause Analysis. The selection of KPIs also needs to help insight generation: Can you capture the business insight from the set of KPIs, do they measure the right things at the right way; do they follow the SMART principles in order to get the critical things measured, or do they not only just to measure data, but also convey the information-based business insight which can help business leaders to make optimal business decisions.
Decision-Making based on KPI Results: The performance measurement is not for its own sake, it is to enable the business management make better decisions. Once the KPIs are selected and finalized, decision-making based on the results of the KPIs is of utmost importance. If the decisions are not made correctly, it will lead to KPI calculation & presentation only, but will not contribute or help in improving the business result. KPIs drive behavior, very often organizations fail to define the outcome of the KPIs. Therefore, remaking decisions constantly based on KPI result is also very challenging.
Keep in mind, measurement are not just numbers, but stories. The problem with measurement is that more often, metric is very subjective. That is, from a scientific methods perspective, there is no way to run a real experiment to try one process against another. Each organization is different, but this will not stop an organization from measuring components of things that are measurable,Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
You can only manage what you measure, Performance measures and Key Performance Indicator management is not a simple task though, approximately there’re more than ten thousand KPIs around today, a bit overwhelming, let's not forget that there is a "K" in KPI for a reason: Why do you select the certain set of performance measures? What’re the most challenging aspects of working with KPIs? How to leverage the right set of performance indicators in measuring whether the organization is functioning well or dysfunctional? Which management metrics shall you apply to measure organizational overall health and maturity? Who and what tools are being applied to measure if an organization is healthy or sick? Proactive or reactive? Intelligent or dumb? Customer-centric or operational driven? And what are those challenging aspects of performance measurement?
Selecting the Right performance indicators and KPIs: Selecting the right KPIs is one of the most important steps in measurement, because this process includes to answer why you are choosing that, how you will use them and whether you have enough resources to manage data. If you think through properly, the rest will just fall in their rightful places. Generally speaking, KPIs should be set according to the strategic strengths of the company, what resources the company has, in which it can fully utilize. But certainly, you shouldn't select a KPI when you don't have the mechanism to collect data. If KPIs would be set as per the resources available, it would be realistic, smart and hence achievable. This would make it easier to evaluate the results against the KPIs. So if the KPI selection has been effectively carried out, all the remaining aspects would fall in place.
Root cause analysis & insight generation: The other most challenging aspect of KPI is to determining or understanding what root causes would be contributory in influencing the KPI before they are being selected. KPIs being used could have several ramifications, especially when conducting a Root Cause Analysis. The selection of KPIs also needs to help insight generation: Can you capture the business insight from the set of KPIs, do they measure the right things at the right way; do they follow the SMART principles in order to get the critical things measured, or do they not only just to measure data, but also convey the information-based business insight which can help business leaders to make optimal business decisions.
Decision-Making based on KPI Results: The performance measurement is not for its own sake, it is to enable the business management make better decisions. Once the KPIs are selected and finalized, decision-making based on the results of the KPIs is of utmost importance. If the decisions are not made correctly, it will lead to KPI calculation & presentation only, but will not contribute or help in improving the business result. KPIs drive behavior, very often organizations fail to define the outcome of the KPIs. Therefore, remaking decisions constantly based on KPI result is also very challenging. Keep in mind, measurement are not just numbers, but stories. The problem with measurement is that more often, metric is very subjective. That is, from a scientific methods perspective, there is no way to run a real experiment to try one process against another. Each organization is different, but this will not stop an organization from measuring components of things that are measurable,Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The New Book "THINKINGAIRE" Twelve- Chapter Introduction
“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” - Norman Vincent Peale
We have moved into the new digital age when information is abundant and where creativity becomes a baseline competence. The race of human against machine is ongoing. The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and the pace of information technology is so rapid that no one can rest on a static mindset, past accomplishments, or the wishful thought that everything is perfect the way it is. Indeed, mindset is far more important than talent. Talent can always be developed by those who keep growth in mind. From talent management perspective, are mindful leaders or workers simply found in nature or nurtured? How do human beings think? Where do you draw the line about which aspect of human activity is conscious thought and which is mere reflex? How do you differentiate between well thought-out reflex and simple physiological reflex? Further, what happens when the basic needs are fulfilled? Do we stop thinking? What is the philosophy of mindfulness?
The term digital " THINKINGAIRES" we advocate in this book refers to the talented digital leaders and professionals who continue to create new ideas, to practice thought leadership, and to bring the world both content richness and context intelligence. They are the “IMAGINEERS” who can always come up with the fresh perspectives and think differently; they are the “VISIONEERS” who can digest, analyze and synthesize information and knowledge, to visualize the future clearly; they are the ENTREPRENEURS or INTRAPRENEURS who are creative in thinking about the alternative way to do things, and they are the “CHANGE AGENTS” who can create synergies from people, capability and the digital ecosystem that are greater than the sum of their parts. “THINKINGAIRE” is the guidebook to help digital leaders and professionals understand and cultivate digital thinking mindsets to compete for the future.
The purpose of this book “Thinkingaire” is not to study the brain from a neurologist’s perspective, but to summarize the different thought processes from the digital management viewpoint, to help digital leaders and professionals cross-industry, cross-generation and cross-culture shape the 100 sets of game-changing digital minds to compete for the future. Chapter 1 “Out of Box” Thinking Minds: We live now in the “Big Data” digital era: What happens when our brain faces dealing with the overwhelming explosive data? Raw data is the lowest grade of ore. It requires massive filtering, sorting, condensing and refining before it can be put to usage. By peeling back layer after layer, individuals and organizations can discover why they think, feel and operate the way they do. Once they find where a particular belief originated, it’s easier to realize that beliefs can change. By changing their thinking, they change the beliefs and change the emotions leading to different decisions, different outcomes, and become more self-aware and self-improving persons, with the digital mind. Everyone has the ability to change their mindsets. Because every person has degrees of both open and closed mindsets in different contexts. Tied into this is the degree of resistance to change. Knowledge is the key to changing mindsets, biases, prejudices. We are all works in progress; learning, growing and changing.
Chapter 2 Systems Minds: Systems Thinking (ST) provides the more holistic way to view problems. Systems Thinking provides better and more accurate understanding of the overall situation, better defining the problems and how you should go about solving them and in what sequence. Systems Thinking provides a structured process and consideration of the range of options. The application of Systems Thinking in a structured and systematic process allow a more complete and holistic approach to being taken. The main emphasis is in doing "better pre-work" –such as defining the situation and the "success criteria." Taking consideration of a range of options — rather than the more traditional "jump to a solution" problem-solving method. Systems Thinking seeks to observe the organization from outside-in. It encourages the observer to see himself/herself as part of the system. To put it simply, Systems Thinking is to understand the relationship between the parts and the whole: it is an outside-in perspective of interconnectivity and interdependence in a system.
Chapter 3 Hybrid Minds: The Digital Era is the hybrid era: the physical world is blurring with virtual world; the work life is blurring with personal life, and the hard disciplines such as science and engineering are blurring with soft disciplines such as art and philosophy, etc. And to dig into the mind level, the Hybrid Thinking can combine different thinking patterns in order to analyze and synthesize for effective problem-solving. Hybrid Thinking is a set of interdisciplinary and integrative thinking processes we will need to solve many of today’s complex problems, which require strategic consideration, systems intelligence, innovative approaches, cross-cultural and cross-generational perspectives, and multi-dimensional cognition. In this chapter, we will introduce a variety of types of Hybrid Thinking that can be used in solving complex problems and making tough decisions.
Chapter 4 Agile Minds: Agile is the state of mind. "agility" is a philosophy of managing complexity and unpredictability through empiricism. Agility is the ability to adapt to the changes. Agile minds see the world through the lens of three “I”s: Interaction, Improvement and Innovation. Agile is a new, radical style of leadership. Instead of command-and-control, agile focuses on team collaboration, independence and autonomy. It's an entirely different mindset for many organizations: trying to 'do agile' instead of 'be agile' will lead to failure. It is crucial for successful adoption of a better way of working that the people in the organization begin to first embrace the values and principles relating to the agile mindset, and then they look at the set of practices which will work for them at the level they are at.
Chapter 5 Intellectual Minds: Intelligence has been defined in several ways. First intelligence is a cognitive process involving rational and abstract thinking. Second, it is goal-directed and purposeful, which means that all intelligent activities are planned to reach a self-determined goal. Finally, it involves social competence, to help individuals adjust to their environmental surroundings. Intelligence is the word we use to describe the potential ability. Intelligence is the capacity to understand and apply wisdom to the knowledge you are exposed to. There are as many different ways to characterize intelligence as there are different types and forms of information impinging on our senses. Our intelligence concerning any given type of information is a function of our capacity to recognize and interpret patterns, and our consequent ability to use the perceived information.
Chapter 6 High- EQ Minds: Emotional Intelligence in its simplest form is being aware of our emotions and managing them to get best out of the situation. It’s also about trying to understand other emotions and be empathetic. EQ becomes more critical for leading in today’s digital dynamic with its characteristics of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. But how can we dig deeper into a high EQ mindset? Is Emotional Intelligence fundamentally inherent, hardwired? Can it be trained to some extent? Or is it circumstantial? A high EQ mind drives digital thinking to keep you motivated: Emotional Intelligence has tremendous relevance in today's world. High EQ drives a positive mindset and keeps you motivated about life. It allows you to maintain your composure whatever be the situation, whether you are being glorified or vilified. Not reacting too emotionally when he or she receives strong praise, nor gets extremely dejected about anything. It is a hallmark of a leader with supreme EQ.
Chapter 7 Paradoxical Minds: The paradox is a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. The paradox is also like the two sides of the coin, they are not just opposite, but also complementary, to make it a whole. At a silo, perhaps you only see or understand one side, believe it is right, and then assume the other side must be wrong. But if you stand at the right angle to see the both sides, you know even they are different, but both hold part of truth in it. Digital now just like the new window, provides a multidimensional view to see things and the world differently. Therefore, digital is the age of empathy. Acceptance is the key - acceptance of others as they are, without prejudice or destructive criticism, acceptance of self as an indefatigable spirit, acceptance that paradoxes are two sides of the same coin and that complexities are the spice of life.
Chapter 8 Progressive Minds: Most often, progress is not a universal truth, but a relative truth. What happens is that we think that progress is being made, but then we don’t see progress, because your type of progress may not be a progress at all to someone else. Every endeavor has benefited some but not all mankind, which makes the progress that is accomplished relative and not absolute. From the business perspective, the progress made through a silo mind can only benefit the individual function. However, progress at an organizational level ensures the business as a whole is superior to the sum of its pieces. Real societal progress is made through the work of progressive minds, which can sustain a balance of diversified viewpoints, creativity, and discipline; opportunity and risk; individualism and teamwork; democracy and unification; science and art; spirit and reality; intuition and analytics. Through such an ongoing, dynamic balance of viewpoint and disciplines, human progress can be sustained and the world can move forward with solid speed.
Chapter 9 Metaphorical Minds: As Einstein wisely put, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Through communicating problems with words clearly to other minds, and reframing the question with new levels of thinking, the fresh mind with a cognitive difference can perhaps solve the problem seamlessly. Psychologically, creative, metaphorical and poetic impulses and language congeal over time into systems of thought that take on a quality of being permanently true, through being institutionalized, systematized, and professionalized.
Chapter 10 Professional Minds: Generally speaking, a profession is any type of work that needs special training or particular skill, often one that is respected because it involves a high level of education. To dig even deeper, there is a set of professional mindsets which get trained and sharpened can uplift digital progress and improve both business and societal maturity. On the other side, the unprofessional mindset has less to do with the profession itself, but more about the lack of wisdom and make a negative influence in the workplace. And it has some common symptoms and out-of-dated thought processes.
Chapter 11 Anti-Digital Mindsets: Digital Transformation requires mindshift. In addition to the set point changing, transformation requires first shifting mindsets, and then building new capabilities & skills, reinforcing and embedding new practices and reflexes. From the perspective of the industrial age, the problem lies with the Taylorism mindset of scientific management, where everything can be controlled. Thus, to bring order into the world of complexity means pushing harder on the process. The problems with those thought processes are “status quo’ type of thinking, authoritarian behavior, and bureaucratic decision-making.
Chapter 12 Mind vs. Mind: People are different, not because we look different, but more crucially, we think differently. The variety of thought makes the world diversified, innovative, and sophisticated. When we use our different perspectives to complement each other’s thinking we can overcome common challenges facing humankind, but when we misunderstand each other, it causes chaos, conflict, and even man-made disaster. The brain is only an organic computer that creates energy or an operating system called the mind. The mind then creates programs we call our thoughts. We can change our thoughts just as we can change applications on a computer. It’s hard to say when we can make an ‘apple to apple’ comparison of mind vs. mind. The truth is that each of us is a complex blend of contrasts - positive and negative; intuitive and logical with imperfect judgment. We all want to believe that our judgment is perfect, yet none of us can claim to be a perfect character. But we can always learn about complementary thinking from other minds.
We live now in the “Big Data” digital era: What happens when our brain faces dealing with the overwhelming explosive data? Raw data is the lowest grade of ore. It requires massive filtering, sorting, condensing and refining before it can be put to usage. By peeling back layer after layer, individuals and organizations can discover why they think, feel and operate the way they do. Once they find where a particular belief originated, it’s easier to realize that beliefs can change. By changing their thinking, they change the beliefs and change the emotions leading to different decisions, different outcomes, and become more self-aware and self-improving persons, with the digital mind. Everyone has the ability to change their mindsets. Because every person has degrees of both open and closed mindsets in different contexts. Tied into this is the degree of resistance to change. Knowledge is the key to changing mindsets, biases, prejudices. We are all works in progress; learning, growing and changing.
Thinkingaire Self Assessment Checklist
Thinkingaires are digital leaders or professionals who have the full set of high-mature digital minds with multidimensional digital intelligence. They can envision further, perceive insightfully, and understand things profoundly via different angles. Their digital minds keep flowing, keep growing, hyperconnected and highly competitive.
Make an objective assessment of your digital mindset maturity: We discuss 100 game-changing digital mindsets in this book. Add one score for each digital mind you have (See the figure xxx on the “Conclusion” part of this book), and deduct one score for each anti-digital mind listed on the Thinkingaire Chapter 11 figure xxx. Sum them up, to calculate your total Thinkingaire score. If your score is 85 or above, you are high-mature digital leaders or professionals with mind fit. If your score is below 85, you need to work harder, or more precisely “think harder,” to cultivate a healthy thinking habit, and keep digital fit at the mindset level. If your score is far below 50, perhaps you do need “debug” your mindset, practice digital thinking with a sense of urgency, and make radical mind shift.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
We have moved into the new digital age when information is abundant and where creativity becomes a baseline competence. The race of human against machine is ongoing. The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and the pace of information technology is so rapid that no one can rest on a static mindset, past accomplishments, or the wishful thought that everything is perfect the way it is. Indeed, mindset is far more important than talent. Talent can always be developed by those who keep growth in mind. From talent management perspective, are mindful leaders or workers simply found in nature or nurtured? How do human beings think? Where do you draw the line about which aspect of human activity is conscious thought and which is mere reflex? How do you differentiate between well thought-out reflex and simple physiological reflex? Further, what happens when the basic needs are fulfilled? Do we stop thinking? What is the philosophy of mindfulness?The term digital " THINKINGAIRES" we advocate in this book refers to the talented digital leaders and professionals who continue to create new ideas, to practice thought leadership, and to bring the world both content richness and context intelligence. They are the “IMAGINEERS” who can always come up with the fresh perspectives and think differently; they are the “VISIONEERS” who can digest, analyze and synthesize information and knowledge, to visualize the future clearly; they are the ENTREPRENEURS or INTRAPRENEURS who are creative in thinking about the alternative way to do things, and they are the “CHANGE AGENTS” who can create synergies from people, capability and the digital ecosystem that are greater than the sum of their parts. “THINKINGAIRE” is the guidebook to help digital leaders and professionals understand and cultivate digital thinking mindsets to compete for the future.
The purpose of this book “Thinkingaire” is not to study the brain from a neurologist’s perspective, but to summarize the different thought processes from the digital management viewpoint, to help digital leaders and professionals cross-industry, cross-generation and cross-culture shape the 100 sets of game-changing digital minds to compete for the future. Chapter 1 “Out of Box” Thinking Minds: We live now in the “Big Data” digital era: What happens when our brain faces dealing with the overwhelming explosive data? Raw data is the lowest grade of ore. It requires massive filtering, sorting, condensing and refining before it can be put to usage. By peeling back layer after layer, individuals and organizations can discover why they think, feel and operate the way they do. Once they find where a particular belief originated, it’s easier to realize that beliefs can change. By changing their thinking, they change the beliefs and change the emotions leading to different decisions, different outcomes, and become more self-aware and self-improving persons, with the digital mind. Everyone has the ability to change their mindsets. Because every person has degrees of both open and closed mindsets in different contexts. Tied into this is the degree of resistance to change. Knowledge is the key to changing mindsets, biases, prejudices. We are all works in progress; learning, growing and changing.
Chapter 2 Systems Minds: Systems Thinking (ST) provides the more holistic way to view problems. Systems Thinking provides better and more accurate understanding of the overall situation, better defining the problems and how you should go about solving them and in what sequence. Systems Thinking provides a structured process and consideration of the range of options. The application of Systems Thinking in a structured and systematic process allow a more complete and holistic approach to being taken. The main emphasis is in doing "better pre-work" –such as defining the situation and the "success criteria." Taking consideration of a range of options — rather than the more traditional "jump to a solution" problem-solving method. Systems Thinking seeks to observe the organization from outside-in. It encourages the observer to see himself/herself as part of the system. To put it simply, Systems Thinking is to understand the relationship between the parts and the whole: it is an outside-in perspective of interconnectivity and interdependence in a system.
Chapter 3 Hybrid Minds: The Digital Era is the hybrid era: the physical world is blurring with virtual world; the work life is blurring with personal life, and the hard disciplines such as science and engineering are blurring with soft disciplines such as art and philosophy, etc. And to dig into the mind level, the Hybrid Thinking can combine different thinking patterns in order to analyze and synthesize for effective problem-solving. Hybrid Thinking is a set of interdisciplinary and integrative thinking processes we will need to solve many of today’s complex problems, which require strategic consideration, systems intelligence, innovative approaches, cross-cultural and cross-generational perspectives, and multi-dimensional cognition. In this chapter, we will introduce a variety of types of Hybrid Thinking that can be used in solving complex problems and making tough decisions.
Chapter 4 Agile Minds: Agile is the state of mind. "agility" is a philosophy of managing complexity and unpredictability through empiricism. Agility is the ability to adapt to the changes. Agile minds see the world through the lens of three “I”s: Interaction, Improvement and Innovation. Agile is a new, radical style of leadership. Instead of command-and-control, agile focuses on team collaboration, independence and autonomy. It's an entirely different mindset for many organizations: trying to 'do agile' instead of 'be agile' will lead to failure. It is crucial for successful adoption of a better way of working that the people in the organization begin to first embrace the values and principles relating to the agile mindset, and then they look at the set of practices which will work for them at the level they are at.
Chapter 5 Intellectual Minds: Intelligence has been defined in several ways. First intelligence is a cognitive process involving rational and abstract thinking. Second, it is goal-directed and purposeful, which means that all intelligent activities are planned to reach a self-determined goal. Finally, it involves social competence, to help individuals adjust to their environmental surroundings. Intelligence is the word we use to describe the potential ability. Intelligence is the capacity to understand and apply wisdom to the knowledge you are exposed to. There are as many different ways to characterize intelligence as there are different types and forms of information impinging on our senses. Our intelligence concerning any given type of information is a function of our capacity to recognize and interpret patterns, and our consequent ability to use the perceived information.
Chapter 6 High- EQ Minds: Emotional Intelligence in its simplest form is being aware of our emotions and managing them to get best out of the situation. It’s also about trying to understand other emotions and be empathetic. EQ becomes more critical for leading in today’s digital dynamic with its characteristics of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. But how can we dig deeper into a high EQ mindset? Is Emotional Intelligence fundamentally inherent, hardwired? Can it be trained to some extent? Or is it circumstantial? A high EQ mind drives digital thinking to keep you motivated: Emotional Intelligence has tremendous relevance in today's world. High EQ drives a positive mindset and keeps you motivated about life. It allows you to maintain your composure whatever be the situation, whether you are being glorified or vilified. Not reacting too emotionally when he or she receives strong praise, nor gets extremely dejected about anything. It is a hallmark of a leader with supreme EQ.
Chapter 7 Paradoxical Minds: The paradox is a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. The paradox is also like the two sides of the coin, they are not just opposite, but also complementary, to make it a whole. At a silo, perhaps you only see or understand one side, believe it is right, and then assume the other side must be wrong. But if you stand at the right angle to see the both sides, you know even they are different, but both hold part of truth in it. Digital now just like the new window, provides a multidimensional view to see things and the world differently. Therefore, digital is the age of empathy. Acceptance is the key - acceptance of others as they are, without prejudice or destructive criticism, acceptance of self as an indefatigable spirit, acceptance that paradoxes are two sides of the same coin and that complexities are the spice of life.
Chapter 8 Progressive Minds: Most often, progress is not a universal truth, but a relative truth. What happens is that we think that progress is being made, but then we don’t see progress, because your type of progress may not be a progress at all to someone else. Every endeavor has benefited some but not all mankind, which makes the progress that is accomplished relative and not absolute. From the business perspective, the progress made through a silo mind can only benefit the individual function. However, progress at an organizational level ensures the business as a whole is superior to the sum of its pieces. Real societal progress is made through the work of progressive minds, which can sustain a balance of diversified viewpoints, creativity, and discipline; opportunity and risk; individualism and teamwork; democracy and unification; science and art; spirit and reality; intuition and analytics. Through such an ongoing, dynamic balance of viewpoint and disciplines, human progress can be sustained and the world can move forward with solid speed.
Chapter 9 Metaphorical Minds: As Einstein wisely put, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Through communicating problems with words clearly to other minds, and reframing the question with new levels of thinking, the fresh mind with a cognitive difference can perhaps solve the problem seamlessly. Psychologically, creative, metaphorical and poetic impulses and language congeal over time into systems of thought that take on a quality of being permanently true, through being institutionalized, systematized, and professionalized.
Chapter 10 Professional Minds: Generally speaking, a profession is any type of work that needs special training or particular skill, often one that is respected because it involves a high level of education. To dig even deeper, there is a set of professional mindsets which get trained and sharpened can uplift digital progress and improve both business and societal maturity. On the other side, the unprofessional mindset has less to do with the profession itself, but more about the lack of wisdom and make a negative influence in the workplace. And it has some common symptoms and out-of-dated thought processes.
Chapter 11 Anti-Digital Mindsets: Digital Transformation requires mindshift. In addition to the set point changing, transformation requires first shifting mindsets, and then building new capabilities & skills, reinforcing and embedding new practices and reflexes. From the perspective of the industrial age, the problem lies with the Taylorism mindset of scientific management, where everything can be controlled. Thus, to bring order into the world of complexity means pushing harder on the process. The problems with those thought processes are “status quo’ type of thinking, authoritarian behavior, and bureaucratic decision-making.
Chapter 12 Mind vs. Mind: People are different, not because we look different, but more crucially, we think differently. The variety of thought makes the world diversified, innovative, and sophisticated. When we use our different perspectives to complement each other’s thinking we can overcome common challenges facing humankind, but when we misunderstand each other, it causes chaos, conflict, and even man-made disaster. The brain is only an organic computer that creates energy or an operating system called the mind. The mind then creates programs we call our thoughts. We can change our thoughts just as we can change applications on a computer. It’s hard to say when we can make an ‘apple to apple’ comparison of mind vs. mind. The truth is that each of us is a complex blend of contrasts - positive and negative; intuitive and logical with imperfect judgment. We all want to believe that our judgment is perfect, yet none of us can claim to be a perfect character. But we can always learn about complementary thinking from other minds.
We live now in the “Big Data” digital era: What happens when our brain faces dealing with the overwhelming explosive data? Raw data is the lowest grade of ore. It requires massive filtering, sorting, condensing and refining before it can be put to usage. By peeling back layer after layer, individuals and organizations can discover why they think, feel and operate the way they do. Once they find where a particular belief originated, it’s easier to realize that beliefs can change. By changing their thinking, they change the beliefs and change the emotions leading to different decisions, different outcomes, and become more self-aware and self-improving persons, with the digital mind. Everyone has the ability to change their mindsets. Because every person has degrees of both open and closed mindsets in different contexts. Tied into this is the degree of resistance to change. Knowledge is the key to changing mindsets, biases, prejudices. We are all works in progress; learning, growing and changing.
Thinkingaire Self Assessment Checklist
Thinkingaires are digital leaders or professionals who have the full set of high-mature digital minds with multidimensional digital intelligence. They can envision further, perceive insightfully, and understand things profoundly via different angles. Their digital minds keep flowing, keep growing, hyperconnected and highly competitive.
Make an objective assessment of your digital mindset maturity: We discuss 100 game-changing digital mindsets in this book. Add one score for each digital mind you have (See the figure xxx on the “Conclusion” part of this book), and deduct one score for each anti-digital mind listed on the Thinkingaire Chapter 11 figure xxx. Sum them up, to calculate your total Thinkingaire score. If your score is 85 or above, you are high-mature digital leaders or professionals with mind fit. If your score is below 85, you need to work harder, or more precisely “think harder,” to cultivate a healthy thinking habit, and keep digital fit at the mindset level. If your score is far below 50, perhaps you do need “debug” your mindset, practice digital thinking with a sense of urgency, and make radical mind shift.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Digital CIOs as “Thinkingaire”: How to Master Multidimensional Digital Thinking Effortlessly
No wonder the CIO is one of the most paradoxical and sophisticated leadership roles, as he or she must master all sort of thinking, to be a digital “Thinkingaire.”
Due to the changing nature of IT with overwhelming information and fast growing digital technologies, IT becomes overcomplex with high velocity. The CIO is not a static management role, but a dynamic leadership role. Digital CIOs must wear multiple hats to play situational leadership, and the CIO’s responsibilities can be quite varied even with the same title or position. In order to lead effectively with broader vision and comprehensive strategy at the age of digital with "VUCA" characteristics, CIOs need to be the “Thinkingaire” who can master multidimensional digital thinking, and lead digital transformation effortlessly.
Strategic Thinking: CIOs need to be multidimensional thinkers to gain an in-depth understanding of both technology and business via different lenses, have a clear technological vision, and have genuine empathy with the users of technology and end customers as well. You must first be aware of new technology before you can learn to apply it to the business. So this is the prerequisite for CIO to become a technological visionary with strategic thinking, understand how to capture the digital technology trend and well apply the right technology to the business with a tailored solution. CIOs need to be a knowledgeable business strategist and specialized business generalist to co-create strategy, the focal point of digitalization strategy is part and parcel of an overall corporate strategy and then an IT strategy. They should be able to not just understand business objectives and priorities, but also be able to build the best strategy based on the circumstances that will allow the highest probability of success and controls risk, break these down and cascade them downstream to the IT team for step-wise implementation. Being strategic is about having problem-solving skills and technological understanding that give you the ability to invent new ways to create or manage information effectively to drive business growth.
Innovative thinking: Digital is the age of innovation. Innovation is another dimension to the mix in the CIO’s thinking lenses. An innovative CIOs would focus on the business growth and customer delight. An opportunity for the CIO to add a lot of value in the C-Suite is helping C-Level leaders understand the possibilities of how new technologies can enhance the creation or improvement of products and services while balancing the technical and business risks, the investment needed, timing, etc. Creativity is a higher level of thinking because it often imposes a higher cognitive load as you think 'harder' and consciously use different kinds of thought actions and thinking tools like association, perspective shifting, opposites etc. when you are wanting to come up with a creative solution to a challenge. Creativity is one of the most important thinking processes to connect the dots between IT and business, strategy and execution, management and governance, information, insight, and innovation as well.
Systems Thinking: Digital business ecosystem is hyper-connected with high velocity and interdependence. Systems Thinking is the thought process to understand the interconnectivity between parts and whole. This is particularly important for IT leaders to bridge IT-business gaps, improve business processes and optimize business capabilities. Systems Thinking needs to discover the interconnectivity and interdependence of the digital business ecosystem. Therefore, you need to be looking for something “hidden,” which is not always obvious, you don't just accidently find it, you structure the thinking process to discover the patterns, and always see the trees without missing the forest. Most originations create a sense of internal competition for the limited resource or functional performance rank. That can easily make the C-level participants lose sight of the end game, a CIO who masters Systems Thinking can well balance positive internal relationship via systematic information management; and also has some of the analytic and synthetic qualities that are commonly associated with successful executives. Being a System Thinker also means you need to have an open mind where most don't, most traditional thinking minds are clouded by past experiences and conventional wisdom, Systems Thinkers desire to listen to the different viewpoint and integrate them into a holistic perspective for improving leadership effectiveness and maturity.
Information is power and it depends whether that power is used for the good purpose of the organization. The CIO has a role to play in balancing, not just leveling the internal playing field. In order to change IT landscape with a strategic view, you must have passion and drive at the core along with these qualities--Genuinely curious about Information, be creative to experiment better solutions, and leverage Systems Thinking for balancing and capturing the big picture. No wonder the CIO is one of the most paradoxical and sophisticated leadership roles, as he or she must master all sort of thinking, to be a digital “ Thinkingaire .”
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Due to the changing nature of IT with overwhelming information and fast growing digital technologies, IT becomes overcomplex with high velocity. The CIO is not a static management role, but a dynamic leadership role. Digital CIOs must wear multiple hats to play situational leadership, and the CIO’s responsibilities can be quite varied even with the same title or position. In order to lead effectively with broader vision and comprehensive strategy at the age of digital with "VUCA" characteristics, CIOs need to be the “Thinkingaire” who can master multidimensional digital thinking, and lead digital transformation effortlessly.
Strategic Thinking: CIOs need to be multidimensional thinkers to gain an in-depth understanding of both technology and business via different lenses, have a clear technological vision, and have genuine empathy with the users of technology and end customers as well. You must first be aware of new technology before you can learn to apply it to the business. So this is the prerequisite for CIO to become a technological visionary with strategic thinking, understand how to capture the digital technology trend and well apply the right technology to the business with a tailored solution. CIOs need to be a knowledgeable business strategist and specialized business generalist to co-create strategy, the focal point of digitalization strategy is part and parcel of an overall corporate strategy and then an IT strategy. They should be able to not just understand business objectives and priorities, but also be able to build the best strategy based on the circumstances that will allow the highest probability of success and controls risk, break these down and cascade them downstream to the IT team for step-wise implementation. Being strategic is about having problem-solving skills and technological understanding that give you the ability to invent new ways to create or manage information effectively to drive business growth.
Innovative thinking: Digital is the age of innovation. Innovation is another dimension to the mix in the CIO’s thinking lenses. An innovative CIOs would focus on the business growth and customer delight. An opportunity for the CIO to add a lot of value in the C-Suite is helping C-Level leaders understand the possibilities of how new technologies can enhance the creation or improvement of products and services while balancing the technical and business risks, the investment needed, timing, etc. Creativity is a higher level of thinking because it often imposes a higher cognitive load as you think 'harder' and consciously use different kinds of thought actions and thinking tools like association, perspective shifting, opposites etc. when you are wanting to come up with a creative solution to a challenge. Creativity is one of the most important thinking processes to connect the dots between IT and business, strategy and execution, management and governance, information, insight, and innovation as well.
Systems Thinking: Digital business ecosystem is hyper-connected with high velocity and interdependence. Systems Thinking is the thought process to understand the interconnectivity between parts and whole. This is particularly important for IT leaders to bridge IT-business gaps, improve business processes and optimize business capabilities. Systems Thinking needs to discover the interconnectivity and interdependence of the digital business ecosystem. Therefore, you need to be looking for something “hidden,” which is not always obvious, you don't just accidently find it, you structure the thinking process to discover the patterns, and always see the trees without missing the forest. Most originations create a sense of internal competition for the limited resource or functional performance rank. That can easily make the C-level participants lose sight of the end game, a CIO who masters Systems Thinking can well balance positive internal relationship via systematic information management; and also has some of the analytic and synthetic qualities that are commonly associated with successful executives. Being a System Thinker also means you need to have an open mind where most don't, most traditional thinking minds are clouded by past experiences and conventional wisdom, Systems Thinkers desire to listen to the different viewpoint and integrate them into a holistic perspective for improving leadership effectiveness and maturity.
Information is power and it depends whether that power is used for the good purpose of the organization. The CIO has a role to play in balancing, not just leveling the internal playing field. In order to change IT landscape with a strategic view, you must have passion and drive at the core along with these qualities--Genuinely curious about Information, be creative to experiment better solutions, and leverage Systems Thinking for balancing and capturing the big picture. No wonder the CIO is one of the most paradoxical and sophisticated leadership roles, as he or she must master all sort of thinking, to be a digital “ Thinkingaire .”
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Digital CIOs as “Thinkingaire”: How to Master Digital Thinking Effortlessly
Due to the change nature of IT with overwhelming information and emergent digital technologies. The CIO is not a static management role, but a dynamic leadership role. Digital CIOs must wear many hats to play situational leadership, and the CIO’s responsibilities can be quite varied even with the same title or position. In order to lead effectively with broader vision and comprehensive strategy, CIOs need to be “Thinkingaire” who can master at multidimensional digital thinking,
Strategic Thinking: CIOs need to be multidimensional thinkers via different lenses. They have to gain in-depth understanding about both technology and business, have a clear technological vision, and have genuine empathy with the users of technology and end customers. . You must first be aware of new technology before you can learn to apply it to the business. So this is the prerequisite for CIO to become a technological visionary with strategic thinking, understand how to capture the digital technology trend and well apply the right technology to the business with a tailored solution. CIOs need to be a knowledgeable business strategist and specialized business generalist to co-create strategy, the focal point of digitalization strategy is part and parcel of an overall corporate strategy and then an IT strategy. They should be able to not just understand business objectives and priorities, but also be able to build the best strategy based on the circumstances that will allow the highest probability of success and controls risk, break these down and cascade them downstream to the IT team for step-wise implementation. Being strategic is about having problem-solving skills and technological understanding that give you the ability to invent new ways to create or manage information effectively to drive business growth.
Innovative thinking: Digital is the age of innovation. Innovation is another dimension to the mix in the CIO’s thinking lenses. An innovative CIOs would focus on the business growth and customer delight. An opportunity for the CIO to add a lot of value in the C-Suite is helping C-Level leaders understand the possibilities of how new technologies can enhance the creation or improvement of products and services while balancing the technical and business risks, the investment needed, timing, etc. Creativity is a higher level of thinking because it often imposes a higher cognitive load as you think 'harder' and consciously use different kinds of thought actions and thinking tools like association, perspective shifting, opposites etc., when you are wanting to come up with a creative solution to a challenge. Creativity is one of the most important thinking processes to connect the dots between IT and business, strategy and execution, management and governance, information, insight, and innovation as well.
Systems Thinking: Digital business ecosystem is hyperconnected with high velocity and interdependence. Systems Thinking is the thought process to understand the interconnectivity between parts and whole. This is particularly important for IT leaders in order to bridge IT-business gaps, improve business processes and optimize business capabilities. Systems Thinking needs to discover the interconnectivity and interdependence, therefore, you need to be looking for something “hidden,” which is not always obvious, you don't just accidently find it, you structure the thinking process to discover the patterns, and always see the trees without missing the forest. Most originations create a sense of internal competition for limited resource or functional performance rate. That can easily make the C-level participants lose sight of the end game, a CIO who masters at Systems Thinking can well balance positive internal relationship via systematic information management; and also has some of the analytic and synthetic qualities that are commonly associated with successful executives. Being a System Thinker also means you need to have an open mind where most don't, most traditional thinking minds are clouded by past experiences and conventional wisdom, Systems Thinkers desire to listen to the different viewpoint.
Information is power and it depends whether that power is used for good purpose of the organization. CIO has a role to play in balancing, not just leveling the internal playing field. In order to change IT landscape with a strategic view, you must have passion and drive at the core along with these qualities--Genuinely curious about Information, be creative to experiment better solutions, and leverage Systems Thinking for balancing and capturing the big picture. No wonder the CIO is one of the most paradoxical and sophisticated leadership roles, as he or she must master all sort of thinking, to be a “Thinkingaire.”
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
September 21, 2016
The CIO’s Digital Agenda: Running IT as a Change Agent with Full Speed Sep. 2016
For forward-looking and highly mature organizations, he IT department has become synonymous with the change department, in order to make effective changes, you have to know the underneath structure and processes of your business, because they underpin digital capabilities of the organization?
Running IT as a Change Agent with Full SpeedRunning IT as a Change Organization? The IT department has been left to run change projects. to have a good understanding from a strategic perspective of the organization (structure, processes, locations, drivers, objectives, goals, applications, data, technologies.). To be flexible you need to be able to change and you can't make effective change decisions if you don't know where you are. Fundamentally, change consists of one or more of the following, and IT is not only the superglue but also the integrator to weave all important change elements effortlessly and make change sustainable.
Running IT as Digital Change Agent? Digital transformation is a journey. Literally, the transformation is to radically change the nature of something. Digital transformation is a radical change of the business via its underlying business processes, invisible business culture or emergent new business model, etc. In a business scope, there are some of the “significant bits and bytes of information” needed to make cognitive connections when evaluating a new market, new technology or any business growth opportunity. Hence, IT plays a critical role in exploring such an “art of impossible,” and should be run as a digital Change Agent.
Accelerate Change with full Speed? IT is the foundation of data, information, and modern knowledge. The biggest misnomer regarding IT is that it is "just technology." Digital is about the rapidly change and continuous business flow, and IT becomes a changing organization to driving business transformation. How to fine tune IT to become a change agent and get the business digital ready.
Reinvent IT as a Business Accelerator? Most of IT organizations today are still being portrayed as the back-office cost center, to reimagine IT, it needs to shift from “T” driven to “I” - information focused business engine. Information is growing exponentially and it is humanly impossible to explore all of the "art" out there around a subject. In a business scope, there are some of the important bits and bytes of information needed when evaluating a new market, new technology or any business growth opportunity. Therefore, IT becomes more critical to explore such an “art of impossible,” but how to accelerate idea validation, doing more with innovation and build a unique set of business capabilities from IT management perspective.Three Core Capabilities of Digital IT? The purpose of CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT is to provide guidelines for building a framework to run a highly effective, highly innovative and highly mature digital IT organization. CIOs as IT leaders must be able to develop and optimize IT operational functions and build a set of necessary and differentiated capabilities to run multidimensional IT for creating multi-level business value. What are core capabilities of a digital IT and how to run IT as an enabler for the business strategies and objectives?
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.5 million page views with 3100+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
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Talent Management Strategic Practices : “Can you Cast the Brick to Attract Jades”
People are always the most invaluable asset in any organization. Talent management and human capital investment are strategic imperative for companies’ long term growth. Digital leaders should always ask themselves whether the workplace is healthy enough to attract the best and brightest. If any talent gaps existing, what’re the root causes behind it? And having the right person in the right position at the right time is always one of the biggest challenges facing any business. To apply one of the famous 36 stratagems in talent management: “ Can you cast the brick to attract Jades”? -Having something useful to attach something precious and extremely valuable?
Build alternative digital recruiting channels (the useful bricks) to innovate and recruit the best and the brightest for the future (the jade): Often, many organizations are not ready for the digital transformation yet, at least from the people management perspective. Project or short term needs are over considered than profile fit for the organization long term needs. Somehow most companies experience a sudden, immediate, instead of planned shortage of people with specific knowledge or skill that can be workable in a very quick period of time and want them for "yesterday." On this scenario usually, they hire the first person they are able to find that can join right away. Time, not quality is the main driver. But they lack the long term staff planning or the digital ready mindsets and talent solutions (the bricks) to put the right people (the jade) with the right capability in the right position to solve the right problems. Don’t be afraid to look above, below, and outside of the talent pools that you are seeing. Many great candidates can be recognized by wise eyes, otherwise, they would have likely been given a pass by an Automated HR System or overly rigid process, and outdated mindsets.
Design the tailored leadership development program or talent training program (the useful bricks) to attract talent (the jade) and keep people digital-fit: The other talent management dilemma is: What if you train the people, and then they left? Companies also seem to be averse to continuous training of their employees. As a result, the employees engagement is low, and the skill set shortage is the reality. It could be one of the main causes of the broken staffing management cycle. Develop your teams and their abilities so that they can do more for your organization. If you invest in you people, create a positive environment, and make a commitment to them, they are more likely to stay and make better contribution. It is important to create a culture of continuous learning for employees, so their knowledge and experience continue to grow.
Have open minded talent managers (like the useful bricks) to attract high potential candidates (the valuable jade): The role of talent managers & HR also becomes more strategic than ever. If each one of them hire people even brighter and smarter than themselves, the organization is brightened, if the opposite is true, the organization will dim down. An employee's "book value" can be viewed as a function of what investments have been made in them and how they bring high-than expectation value. Especially today, the speed of change is accelerated, what matters now is innovation and it takes open-minded talent managers and innovative approach to hire creative talent and building a creative workplace. A valuable employee is a self driven professional or a self-motivated leader who makes a positive impact on business culture; stays current in their profession; freely innovates, creates new efficient ways of working; mentors and coaches others. And the company gives him or her some responsibilities and how well an employee could perform to deliver these responsibilities, even beyond expectation, would be the true value of the employee. “Casting the brick to attract jades” is a metaphorical elaboration for “Attract-Hire-Retain-Train- Organize” talent manage life cycle. Be open minded, invest people as human capitals, have long term people strategy and planning, optimize talent management processes to get the business digital ready. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The New Released Book "THINKINGAIRE - 100 Game-Changing Digital Mindsets to Compete for the Future" Preview
“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” - Norman Vincent Peale
We have moved into the new digital age when information is abundant and where creativity becomes a baseline competence. The race of human against machine is ongoing. The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and the pace of information technology is so rapid that no one can rest on a static mindset, past accomplishments, or the wishful thought that everything is perfect the way it is. Indeed, mindset is far more important than talent. Talent can always be developed by those who keep growth in mind. From talent management perspective, are mindful leaders or workers simply found in nature or nurtured? How do human beings think? Where do you draw the line about which aspect of human activity is conscious thought and which is mere reflex? How do you differentiate between well thought-out reflex and simple physiological reflex? Further, what happens when the basic needs are fulfilled? Do we stop thinking? What is the philosophy of mindfulness?
The term digital " THINKINGAIRES" we advocate in this book refers to the talented digital leaders and professionals who continue to create new ideas, to practice thought leadership, and to bring the world both content richness and context intelligence. They are the “IMAGINEERS” who can always come up with the fresh perspectives and think differently; they are the “VISIONEERS” who can digest, analyze and synthesize information and knowledge, to visualize the future clearly; they are the ENTREPRENEURS or INTRAPRENEURS who are creative in thinking about the alternative way to do things, and they are the “CHANGE AGENTS” who can create synergies from people, capability and the digital ecosystem that are greater than the sum of their parts. “THINKINGAIRE” is the guidebook to help digital leaders and professionals understand and cultivate digital thinking mindsets to compete for the future:
“Out-of-Box” Thinking Minds: “Out-of-Box” is a shortened form, a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. Out-of -Box thinking implies a certain level of creativity or unconventional problem solving.
Systems Minds: Systems Thinking provides the holistic way to view problems, better and more accurate understanding of the overall situation via connecting parts and whole, better defining the problems and how you should go about solving them and in what sequence.
Hybrid Minds: Hybrid Thinking is a set of interdisciplinary and integrative thinking processes we will need to solve many of today’s complex problems, which require strategic consideration, systems intelligence, innovative approaches, cross-cultural and cross-generational perspectives, and multi-dimensional cognition.
Agile Minds: In a broader scope, "agility" is a philosophy of managing complexity and unpredictability through empiricism. Agility is the ability to adapt to the changes. Agile minds see the world through the lens of three “I”s Interaction, Improvement, and Innovation. Agile is a new, radical style of leadership.
Intellectual Minds: Intelligence is the capacity to understand and apply wisdom to the knowledge you are exposed to. There are as many different ways to characterize intelligence as there are different types and forms of information impinging on our senses.
High - EQ Minds: Emotional Intelligence in its simplest form is being aware of our emotions and managing them to get best out of the situation. It’s also about trying to understand other emotions and be empathetic.
Paradoxical Minds: The paradox is a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. The paradox is also like the two sides of the coin, they are not just opposite, but also complementary, to make it a whole.
Progressive Minds: Progress represents change. Without change, one cannot even stagnate; she or he will be on a backward journey. Progress itself is change, whether it comes from individual or group efforts or is induced by environmental and cultural, tangible or intangible forces.
Metaphorical Minds: Psychologically, creative, metaphorical and poetic impulses and language congeal over time into systems of thought that take on a quality of being permanently true, through being institutionalized, systematized, and professionalized.
Professional Minds: A professional mind goes beyond professions, but we can always learn more about the thought processes from varying professionals as well. It takes a decade to grow a tree, and it takes more than one generation to shape the right mindset.
Anti-Digital Mindsets: Digital Transformation requires mind shift. In addition to the set point changing, transformation requires first shifting mindsets, and then building new capabilities & skills, reinforcing and embedding new practices and reflexes.
Mind vs. Mind: It’s hard to say when we can make an ‘apple to apple’ comparison of mind vs. mind. The truth is that each of us is a complex blend of contrasts - positive and negative; intuitive and logical with imperfect judgment.
We live in an era where often the mind is lagging far behind the speed of the internet. It must be acknowledged that changing mindsets can be a very long process: it takes both vision and strategy. It occurs only through a dialogical process. It requires a devotion to fairness, correctness, truth, progress and solid respect for fundamental rights. Change happens when mindsets turn into mind flow. You have to start with creating an awareness of the need for mind shift. You must change the belief that causes the thought and creates the emotion. Once the belief has changed, the reaction will automatically change. Many neuroscientists believe the essence of who we are, the memory, the personality, the emotion, the thinking process, and even the consciousness lie in those brain patterns. The saying “necessity is the mother of invention” might give a clue as to what motivates us to think. When the neurons in the brain start clicking and connecting, the thought is created; thoughts piled upon the thought forms inside your mind; and when the mind keeps wondering and growing, it enlarges who we are; our brain is part of our body, but our mind strengthens us as a being. The mind is probably not the brain alone. It may also be a whole-body phenomenon, with inputs from the environment as well. The brain is to mind as the eye is to sight. The brain is the hardware and the mind is the software with the totality constantly in action, hardware plus software. To look for the mind strictly within the brain, seems then as silly as looking for the music between the strings of a piano. The mind is much more than an active brain. The brain is like the hands that make the bread; the mind has the knowledge of how to do it. The brain belongs to the body, the mind to the heart. So it’s quite sobering to think that the vast majority of these thoughts we have each day are unplanned and completely random. Everyone can take the time to listen to and create some space to realign what is important to each of us: What do we value? What is our purpose in life? We learn our beliefs and most are learned and ingrained in our minds at a very young age. Some of these beliefs are developed from misinterpretations of what we see, hear and experience. Too often, we operate on autopilot, with our thoughts, emotions and decisions coming from a subconscious level - accurate or not. Unfortunately, these learned beliefs oftentimes limit our minds, forming our biases, or blind us from seeing the other side of a coin.
The purpose of this book "THINKINGAIRE ” is not to study the brain from a neurologist’s perspective, but to summarize the different thought processes from the digital management viewpoint, to help digital leaders and professionals cross-industry, cross-generation and cross-culture shape the 100 sets of game-changing digital minds to compete for the future. "Thinkingaire" Slideshare Presentation Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
We have moved into the new digital age when information is abundant and where creativity becomes a baseline competence. The race of human against machine is ongoing. The knowledge life cycle is significantly shortened, and the pace of information technology is so rapid that no one can rest on a static mindset, past accomplishments, or the wishful thought that everything is perfect the way it is. Indeed, mindset is far more important than talent. Talent can always be developed by those who keep growth in mind. From talent management perspective, are mindful leaders or workers simply found in nature or nurtured? How do human beings think? Where do you draw the line about which aspect of human activity is conscious thought and which is mere reflex? How do you differentiate between well thought-out reflex and simple physiological reflex? Further, what happens when the basic needs are fulfilled? Do we stop thinking? What is the philosophy of mindfulness?
The term digital " THINKINGAIRES" we advocate in this book refers to the talented digital leaders and professionals who continue to create new ideas, to practice thought leadership, and to bring the world both content richness and context intelligence. They are the “IMAGINEERS” who can always come up with the fresh perspectives and think differently; they are the “VISIONEERS” who can digest, analyze and synthesize information and knowledge, to visualize the future clearly; they are the ENTREPRENEURS or INTRAPRENEURS who are creative in thinking about the alternative way to do things, and they are the “CHANGE AGENTS” who can create synergies from people, capability and the digital ecosystem that are greater than the sum of their parts. “THINKINGAIRE” is the guidebook to help digital leaders and professionals understand and cultivate digital thinking mindsets to compete for the future:
“Out-of-Box” Thinking Minds: “Out-of-Box” is a shortened form, a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. Out-of -Box thinking implies a certain level of creativity or unconventional problem solving.
Systems Minds: Systems Thinking provides the holistic way to view problems, better and more accurate understanding of the overall situation via connecting parts and whole, better defining the problems and how you should go about solving them and in what sequence.
Hybrid Minds: Hybrid Thinking is a set of interdisciplinary and integrative thinking processes we will need to solve many of today’s complex problems, which require strategic consideration, systems intelligence, innovative approaches, cross-cultural and cross-generational perspectives, and multi-dimensional cognition.
Agile Minds: In a broader scope, "agility" is a philosophy of managing complexity and unpredictability through empiricism. Agility is the ability to adapt to the changes. Agile minds see the world through the lens of three “I”s Interaction, Improvement, and Innovation. Agile is a new, radical style of leadership.
Intellectual Minds: Intelligence is the capacity to understand and apply wisdom to the knowledge you are exposed to. There are as many different ways to characterize intelligence as there are different types and forms of information impinging on our senses.
High - EQ Minds: Emotional Intelligence in its simplest form is being aware of our emotions and managing them to get best out of the situation. It’s also about trying to understand other emotions and be empathetic.
Paradoxical Minds: The paradox is a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. The paradox is also like the two sides of the coin, they are not just opposite, but also complementary, to make it a whole.
Progressive Minds: Progress represents change. Without change, one cannot even stagnate; she or he will be on a backward journey. Progress itself is change, whether it comes from individual or group efforts or is induced by environmental and cultural, tangible or intangible forces.
Metaphorical Minds: Psychologically, creative, metaphorical and poetic impulses and language congeal over time into systems of thought that take on a quality of being permanently true, through being institutionalized, systematized, and professionalized.
Professional Minds: A professional mind goes beyond professions, but we can always learn more about the thought processes from varying professionals as well. It takes a decade to grow a tree, and it takes more than one generation to shape the right mindset.
Anti-Digital Mindsets: Digital Transformation requires mind shift. In addition to the set point changing, transformation requires first shifting mindsets, and then building new capabilities & skills, reinforcing and embedding new practices and reflexes.
Mind vs. Mind: It’s hard to say when we can make an ‘apple to apple’ comparison of mind vs. mind. The truth is that each of us is a complex blend of contrasts - positive and negative; intuitive and logical with imperfect judgment.
We live in an era where often the mind is lagging far behind the speed of the internet. It must be acknowledged that changing mindsets can be a very long process: it takes both vision and strategy. It occurs only through a dialogical process. It requires a devotion to fairness, correctness, truth, progress and solid respect for fundamental rights. Change happens when mindsets turn into mind flow. You have to start with creating an awareness of the need for mind shift. You must change the belief that causes the thought and creates the emotion. Once the belief has changed, the reaction will automatically change. Many neuroscientists believe the essence of who we are, the memory, the personality, the emotion, the thinking process, and even the consciousness lie in those brain patterns. The saying “necessity is the mother of invention” might give a clue as to what motivates us to think. When the neurons in the brain start clicking and connecting, the thought is created; thoughts piled upon the thought forms inside your mind; and when the mind keeps wondering and growing, it enlarges who we are; our brain is part of our body, but our mind strengthens us as a being. The mind is probably not the brain alone. It may also be a whole-body phenomenon, with inputs from the environment as well. The brain is to mind as the eye is to sight. The brain is the hardware and the mind is the software with the totality constantly in action, hardware plus software. To look for the mind strictly within the brain, seems then as silly as looking for the music between the strings of a piano. The mind is much more than an active brain. The brain is like the hands that make the bread; the mind has the knowledge of how to do it. The brain belongs to the body, the mind to the heart. So it’s quite sobering to think that the vast majority of these thoughts we have each day are unplanned and completely random. Everyone can take the time to listen to and create some space to realign what is important to each of us: What do we value? What is our purpose in life? We learn our beliefs and most are learned and ingrained in our minds at a very young age. Some of these beliefs are developed from misinterpretations of what we see, hear and experience. Too often, we operate on autopilot, with our thoughts, emotions and decisions coming from a subconscious level - accurate or not. Unfortunately, these learned beliefs oftentimes limit our minds, forming our biases, or blind us from seeing the other side of a coin. The purpose of this book "THINKINGAIRE ” is not to study the brain from a neurologist’s perspective, but to summarize the different thought processes from the digital management viewpoint, to help digital leaders and professionals cross-industry, cross-generation and cross-culture shape the 100 sets of game-changing digital minds to compete for the future. "Thinkingaire" Slideshare Presentation Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
