Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1302

The Monthly Insight: Five Big “WHY”s in Change Management Aug. 2016

Change is inevitable, organizational change has become a common practice within an organization, but too often changes are made as a reaction to outer impulses, crisis, and demands. This is the bureaucracy’s way of meeting the challenges. People, process, technology, WHAT are important factors in Change Management, and pitfalls to avoid, in order to improve the success rate of change initiatives?
    Five Big “WHY”s in Change Management Change Management Starts with Big Why: Change is everywhere and it happens every moment in the workplace, but, unfortunately, people rarely recognize that; or sometimes change is for its own sake, so how to manage change by starting with Big WHY?
Why Does Change Have to be Comprehensible?  Change is inevitable, but more than two-thirds of change effort fail to achieve the expected results. Too often top management says they need to change or selects a set of numbers relative to goals and then unleashes a fancy name program on the organization and says "Change”! So it's no surprise that won't work. But why does change have to be comprehensible, and how to make change sustainable?
Why is Successful Change so Difficult? The phrase "The only constant changes" refers to the obvious fact that we see all around us which is that things are constantly changing. The pace of change is accelerated in every vertical sector, and even every corner of the world, however, 70% of change management projects failed, why change, or more precisely, successful change is so difficult??
Three Big “WHY”s in Change Management: Change is the most significant characteristics of the digital age, and it’s multifaceted. The change also becomes an important business capability, not just an ongoing project or a one-time business initiative. “Change Management” is an overarching term that encompasses extensive planning, communication, discovery, creativity, measurement, etc. But the first step first, you need to figure out what are the very reasons and what are the ultimate goals for changes? What are the big WHY questions you should ponder in order to manage change more seamlessly?
WHY Is It So Hard to Measure Change ? Change is the only constant, and Change Management is one of the most important business initiatives for leading organizations forward. However, most companies do not understand the value that change management provides. In most cases, many managers do not understand how to qualify or quantify how change management adds to the bottom line. It seems self-evident that there needs to be some way to 'measure' change, whether quantitative or qualitative, anecdotal or empirical. Otherwise, how can the proposed change be justified? If certain 'important' change is immeasurable. But how can you know whether there is a benefit that is worth the cost (in resources or peoples' time and effort)? How can you know if the enterprise is at least headed in the 'right' direction? How can you get people on board? What kind of change do companies want to measure? Why? Or for whom?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking; 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 your voice, deepen your digital footprints, and match your way for human progression.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

“Digitizing Board- The multifaceted Aspects of Digital Ready Board” Book Introduction Chapter 6 "Governance Champion" Board

Governance is like the steer-wheel (governance is “steer” in Greece), to ensure organizations running in the right direction and head to the destination.

The purpose of the board of directors is to direct and monitor the organization. This purpose is generally known as “corporate governance.” Governance is the structure and processes of authority, responsibility, and accountability in a business or organization. The ability of boards to oversee and advise management so as to ensure the best fit between short-term profitability and long-term sustainability. While “corporate governance” can be modeled in general terms, and while certain aspects of corporate governance are heavily regulated in some jurisdictions, there is no standard model for it because the context for corporate governance includes a wide range of circumstances and capabilities which are subject to constant variability. So Boards need to develop a good sense of the appropriate scope of decisions, and what is pertinent to its role versus what is really the purview of management.
Governance disciple enables better decisions: Corporate governance is not about maximization, but about optimization. Governance is a sophisticated process that if well executed, will lead to better decisions. It will allow not only to protect the existing value but also to create new value for its shareholders. It is important to emphasize that governance is fundamentally about having a systematic approach to making decisions within the corporate entity. The boards play crucial roles in oversight of assessment - gauging conditions and choices; oversight of appropriation - matching priorities and resources; and oversight of accountability -scoring activity and net results.
Governance is a “framework” of policies and processes: It enables the Board to govern and report to shareholders and stakeholders. Governance is first followed by risk management as delegation flows from the board down to the rest of the organization. Governance is the framework, and risk management is the mechanism. The two go hand-in-hand. They really can not exist exclusive of each other. The business framework of “rules of engagement” are set out by the members of the board, stakeholders and investors that drive business strategy, business value, corporate responsibility and managed risk. Governance is all about conformance and performance. It means to conform to regulation and performing well to achieve business goals.
Don’t just see governance as constraints, but rather an opportunity: Effective governance facilitates the successful functioning of an organization while ensuring there are adequate controls in place to operate responsibly in accordance with its values but not to the extent of restricting the aspiration to achieve its vision through an ambitious mission. It helps to manage collaborative results and best practices that view the organizational objectives holistically and with the correct strategy lens or focus. Governance is indeed about how well an organization is being run and if set up right, it should effectively oversee the achievement of the vision, mission, and objectives.
Governance is like the steer-wheel (governance is “steer” in Greece), to ensure organizations running in the right direction and head to the destination. Corporate governance has a great impact on corporate performance. Good governance must create excellent performance, especially for the long-term business growth. The companies which have great performance must also have good governance structure and behavior as well. And GRC is about collaboration and harmony, not only a new organizational structure. And keep in mind about the rule #1 of governance: Prevention is superior to fixing. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

“Digitizing Board- The multifaceted Aspects of Digital Ready Board” Chapter 6 Book Introduction

The purpose of the board of directors is to direct and monitor the organization. This purpose is generally known as “corporate governance.” Governance is the structure and processes of authority, responsibility, and accountability in a business or organization. The ability of boards to oversee and advise management so as to ensure the best fit between short-term profitability and long-term sustainability. While “corporate governance” can be modeled in general terms, and while certain aspects of corporate governance are heavily regulated in some jurisdictions, there is no standard model for it because the context for corporate governance includes a wide range of circumstances and capabilities which are subject to constant variability. So Boards need to develop a good sense of the appropriate scope of decisions, and what are pertinent to its role versus what is really the purview of management.
Governance disciple enables better decisions: Corporate governance is not about maximization, but about optimization. Governance is a sophisticated process that if well executed, will lead to better decisions. It will allow not only to protect the existing value but also to create new value for its shareholders. It is important to emphasize that governance is fundamentally about having a systematic approach to making decisions within the corporate entity. The boards play crucial roles in oversight of assessment - gauging conditions and choices; oversight of appropriation - matching priorities and resources; and oversight of accountability -scoring activity and net results.
Governance is a “framework” of policies and processes: It enables the Board to govern and report to shareholders and stakeholders. Governance is first followed by risk management as delegation flows from the board down to the rest of the organization. Governance is the framework, and risk management is the mechanism. The two go hand-in-hand. They really can not exist exclusive of each other. The business framework of “rules of engagement” are set out by the members of the board, stakeholders and investors that drive business strategy, business value, corporate responsibility and managed risk. Governance is all about conformance and performance. It means to conform to regulation and performing well to achieve business goals.
Don’t just see governance as constraints, but rather an opportunity: Effective governance facilitates the successful functioning of an organization while ensuring there are adequate controls in place to operate responsibly in accordance with its values but not to the extent of restricting the aspiration to achieve its vision through an ambitious mission. It helps to manage collaborative results and best practices that view the organizational objectives holistically and with the correct strategy lens or focus. Governance is indeed about how well an organization is being run and if set up right, it should effectively oversee the achievement of the vision, mission, and objectives.
Governance is like the steer-wheel (governance is “steer” in Greece), to ensure organizations running in the right direction and head to the destination. Corporate governance has a great impact on corporate performance. Good governance must create excellent performance, especially for the long-term business growth. The companies which have great performance must also have good governance structure and behavior as well. And GRC is about collaboration and harmony, not only a new organizational structure. And keep in mind about the rule #1 of governance: Prevention is superior to fixing. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

“CIO Maser” Book Tuning XXXXXXXXV: Three Best Practices to Run a Frictionless Digital IT

Focus on being a solution-driven organization, innovation engine, and run IT as a business.

Businesses are transforming from an industrial era with knowledge scarcity to the digital era with information abundance. Technology plays a pivotal role in such a paradigm shift, and the information is penetrating into every core process of the organization. Companies that lacked the skills to manage information technology effectively suffered compared with competitors that had mastered those skills. Besides setting digital principles to follow through, which best/next practices should IT leaders develop and practice for running a frictionless digital IT?Contextual understanding practice : Traditional IT organizations were run as a siloed support center, an order taker, and a help desk, CIOs are technology geeks or tactical managers who don’t understand the business side of story comprehensively. However, hyperconnectivity and interdependence are the digital nature of the business these days. In order to improve IT maturity, IT leaders have to a gain a contextual understanding of the business. Because IT initiatives are unlike others as they are always enterprise-wide, and IT oversees business processes which underpin digital capabilities. Thus, the contextual understanding of business helps IT leaders to treat every IT project as the business initiative. When it comes to collecting the business requirements, IT needs to take the traceability path of where the requirements come from, and IT requirements need to be functionally structured to serve each functionality the enterprise needs, and it often requires multiple organizations to produce the overall functionality/capability required. IT management should practice contextual understand via knowing where all the functional boundaries are and it requires a holistic perspective and ability.

Continuous Optimization Practice: IT oversees business processes which underpin organizational capabilities. A CIO must also be able to develop and optimize the IT operational function within itself. It is one thing to have the IT resource aligned with the business strategies/ objectives, When a CIO is able to position and maintain the IT organization to ensure it addresses both "IT Effectiveness" and "IT Efficiency," they have earned their stripes. In addition, all of IT spending must be looked at through an investment lens, provide a framework for thoughtful and informed decision-making. Etc. Thoughtful cost cutting and investment with an eye towards the future is the signal of a well-run company. Mistakes are made when the all-in value of a business line is not taken into consideration when making budget decisions. There are few business units that are as deeply embedded into each corporate function as IT. Hence, IT has to leverage knowledge to uncover hidden value via continuous cost optimization practices , not only within IT but benefit the entire organization. Cross-functional Collaboration Practices: Silos are inevitable in every structured organization, the functional silos in traditional organizations at the industrial age intend to achieve the certain level of business efficiency. Silos have caused some obvious issues, Silos are a method of containment and storage: bounded groups or insular tribes are evidence of silos, and silos are reservoirs for homogeneous thinking, limiting the organization's creativity and innovation. Silo thinking leads internal competitions with ignorance of the fact that the business as a whole should be superior to the sum of pieces. It is the responsibility of the leaders to initiate his or her team to break the silos and realize the common goals or strategy which are far more important than the personal and departmental goals. There are negative conflicts when the organization has little collaborative competency; and when they integrate, there is more potential to innovate and create value, more so when the collaborative competency of the organization is strong. Fostering collaboration is the key to creating a seamless organization when in pursuit of a strategy.

Either setting digital principles or developing the best and next practices, IT leaders should remember that IT is about the Information, and focus on being a solution-driven organization, innovation engine, and run IT as a business, rigorously identify and pursue business value, the business will ultimately benefit from it. If IT leaders are tuned into their business and their organization, they can be successful in any economic climate.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

“CIO Maser” Book Tuning: Three Best Practices to Run a Frictionless Digital IT

Business are transforming from an  industrial era with knowledge scarcity to the information-abundant digital era, technology plays a pivotal role in such a paradigm shift, and the information is penetrating into every core process of the organization; companies that lacked the skills to manage information technology effectively suffered compared with competitors that had mastered those skills. Besides setting good principles to follow, which best/next practices should IT leaders develop and practice for running a frictionless digital IT?Contextual Understanding Practice : Traditional IT organizations were run as a siloed support center, an order taker, and a help desk, CIOs are technology geeks or tactical managers who don’t understand the business side of story comprehensively. However, hyperconnectivity and interdependence are the digital nature of the business these days. In order to improve IT maturity, IT leaders have to a gain a contextual understanding about the business. Because IT initiatives are unlike others as they are always enterprise-wide, and IT oversights business processes, underpin digital capabilities. Every IT project is the business initiative. When it comes to collecting the business requirements, IT needs to take the traceability path of where the requirements come from, and IT requirements need to be functionally structured to serve each functionality the enterprise needs, and it often requires multiple organizations to produce the overall functionality/capability required. IT management should practice contextual understand via knowing where all the functional boundaries are and it requires a holistic perspective and ability.
Continuous Optimization Practice: IT oversees business processes which underpins organizational capabilities. A CIO must also be able to develop and optimize the IT operational function within itself. It is one thing to have the IT resource aligned with the business strategies/ objectives, and then IT can improve its effectiveness and efficiency. When a CIO is able to position and maintain the IT organization to ensure it addresses both "IT Effectiveness" and "IT Efficiency," they have earned their stripes. In addition, all of IT spending must be looked at through an investment lens, provide a framework for thoughtful and informed decision-making. Etc.  Thoughtful cost cutting and investment with an eye towards the future is the signal of a well-run company. Mistakes are made when the all-in value of a business line  is not taken into consideration when making budget decisions. There are few business units that are as deeply embedded into each corporate function as IT. Use this knowledge to uncover hidden value via continuous cost optimization practices , not only within IT but benefit the entire organization. Cross-functional Collaboration Practices: Silos are inevitable in every structured organization, the functional silos in traditional organizations at the industrial age intend to achieve the certain level of business efficiency. Silos have caused some obvious issues, Silos are a method of containment and storage: bounded groups or insular tribes are evidence of silos, and silos are reservoirs for homogeneous thinking, limiting the organization's creativity and innovation. Silo thinking leads internal competitions with ignorance of the fact that the business as a whole should be superior to the sum of pieces.  It is the responsibility of the leaders to initiate his or her team to break the silos to realize the common goals or strategy which are far more important than the personal and departmental goals. There are negative conflicts when the organization has little collaborative competency; and when they integrate, there is more potential to innovate and create value, more so when the collaborative competency of the organization is strong. Fostering collaboration is the key to creating a seamless organization when in pursuit of a strategy.
Either setting digital principles or developing the best and next practices. IT leaders should remember that IT is about the Information, and focus on being a solution-driven organization, innovation engine, and running it as a business, rigorously identify & pursue business value, the business will ultimately benefit. If IT leaders are tuned into their business and their organization, they can be successful in any economic climate.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

The CIO’s Digital Agenda: Running a Balanced Digital IT Aug. 2016

IT leaders need to bridge the chasm between “the old’ way to do things and the new way to manage and strike the right balance to achieve business efficiency, effectiveness, and agility.

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?

Running a Balanced Digital IT  A Balanced IT : The emerging digital technologies such as Cloud, Mobile, Social, and Analytics bring new opportunity to run IT organization faster and agiler. For many legacy organizations, how does IT support the existing environment while deploying innovative, "value generating" initiatives? Or to put simply, what are the effective ways to meet these challenge? And how to run a balanced IT to both keeping the light on and accelerating digital transformation?
Running a Balanced IT Portfolio? To reinvent IT management and maximize IT value, IT needs to become the strategic partner of the business, and it’s important to map and translate business strategy into technology projects, fundamentally every IT project should be business initiatives. Because IT is a key enabler of business capabilities underpinned by IT-glued business processes. Therefore, in order to implement strategy successfully, it is important to manage a balanced IT project portfolio to achieve business efficiency, effectiveness, and agility?

Three Digital Balances IT Needs to Strike?  IT is a system which has an emergent property of individual human beings making sense of experiences in time and place. IT system makes interactions with the environment to collecting, storing, processing and delivering information, and ensure the right people getting the right information at the right time to make the right decision. IT organization plays a significant role in both keeping the business bottom line and contributing to the top line business growth; setting the standard for risk management, as well as leveraging the latest tools and platforms to enable innovation; IT is also crucial to fix the handy, urgent business problems, as well as digitizing the touch points of customer experience for the business’s long-term transformation. In practices, there are three digital balances IT needs to strike in order to improve its efficiency, effectiveness, agility, and maturity.

Is IT Leadership like Bicycling: All About Balance? Many IT organizations are on the way to the digital paradigm shift, from running a maintenance center  for keeping the business light on to reinvent IT as an innovation engine and value creator. There is a mixed bag of legacy technologies and emergent digital tools and apps to run an IT organization today. Therefore, IT leaders need to bridge the chasm between “the old’ way to do things and the new way to think and prioritize how to run a high-performing IT, as well as how to measure IT value via the business perspective. Is today’s IT leadership just like bicycling, all about balance.

Three Aspects of Digital Balance: Nature and human societies are a ‘complex adaptive system’ inhabiting interacting agents that adapt to each other and their environment. It is a nonlinear, dynamic and open system in a thermodynamic sense. Unlike closed equilibrium system, it hence spontaneously self-organizes; generates patterns, structures, and complexity; and above all, creates novelty over time. Either from nature or business perspectives, how to strike the great balance of such a complex and dynamic system, though.
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.5 million page views with 3000+ 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 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

The CIO’s Digital Agenda: Running a Hybrid Digital IT Aug. 2016

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?
Running a Balanced Digital IT  A Balanced IT : The emerging digital technologies such as Cloud, Mobile, Social, and Analytics bring new opportunity to run IT organization faster and agiler. For many legacy organizations, how does IT support the existing environment while deploying innovative, "value generating" initiatives? Or to put simply, what are the effective ways to meet these challenge? And how to run a balanced IT to both keeping the light on and accelerating digital transformation?Running a Balanced IT Portfolio? To reinvent IT management and maximize IT value, IT needs to become the strategic partner of the business, and it’s important to map and translate business strategy into technology projects, fundamentally every IT project should be business initiatives. Because IT is a key enabler of business capabilities underpinned by IT-glued business processes. Therefore, in order to implement strategy successfully, it is important to manage a balanced IT project portfolio to achieve business efficiency, effectiveness, and agility?
Three Digital Balances IT Needs to Strike?  IT is a system which has an emergent property of individual human beings making sense of experiences in time and place, IT system makes interactions with the environment to collecting, storing, processing and delivering information, and ensure the right people getting the right information at the right time to make the right decision. IT organization plays a significant role in both keeping the business bottom line and contributing to the top line business growth; setting the standard for risk management, as well as leveraging the latest tools and platforms to enable innovation; IT is also crucial to fix the handy, urgent business problems, as well as digitizing the touch points of customer experience for the business’s long-term transformation. In practices, there are three digital balances IT needs to strike in order to improve its efficiency, effectiveness, agility, and maturity.
Is IT Leadership like Bicycling: All About Balance? Many IT organizations are on the way to the digital paradigm shift, from running a maintenance center  for keeping the business light on to reinvent IT as an innovation engine and value creator. There is a mixed bag of legacy technologies and emergent digital tools and apps to run an IT organization today. Therefore, IT leaders need to bridge the chasm between “the old’ way to do things and the new way to think and prioritize how to run a high-performing IT, as well as how to measure IT value via the business perspective. Is today’s IT leadership just like bicycling, all about balance.
Three Aspects of Digital Balance: Nature and human societies are a ‘complex adaptive system’ inhabiting interacting agents that adapt to each other and their environment. It is a nonlinear, dynamic and open system in a thermodynamic sense. Unlike closed equilibrium system, it hence spontaneously self-organizes; generates patterns, structures, and complexity; and above all, creates novelty over time. Either from nature or business perspectives, how to strike the great balance of such a complex and dynamic system, though.
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.5 million page views with 3000+ 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 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

“Digitizing Boardroom” Book Chapter 5: An IT Friendly Board

According to the variety of corporate board surveys, directors reported gaps in critical areas of board expertise, there were skill sets or areas of expertise missing or talent with cognitive difference insufficiently represented on their boards. Technology expertise was the most common missing or underrepresented ingredient on boards. Boards are recognizing there is a gap of technology expertise in the forward-look enterprise. Nowadays information is the lifeblood of the business, and technology is the disruptive force behind changes. Hence, it is strategic imperative to build an IT friendly and technology-savvy Board to understand the power of information and potential of technology, and CIOs as BoDs should play a crucial role in advocating and communicating IT effectively.
An IT friendly Board presents the spirit of collaboration: Digital leaders including BoDs today are typically technology literate, never underestimate the power of knowledge. They also show their understanding and interest in technology. The CIO’s role is to understand his or her audience and target appropriately. It is not enough for the CIO to provide technical solutions or worry about uptimes, The board needs CIOs to envision overarching digital transformation, and CIOs can bring value and direction to the board, be able to challenge and reinforce the overall company’s direction and ensure the business running in agility. The opportunity for CIOs to influence decisions is to identify where IT can influence (products, customers, information, etc.) and discussion strategy in the language of the business (competitive landscape, revenue, cost saving, and improved efficiency).
On IT vs. in IT: Boards should be informed on what benefit is being delivered by IT and aware of constraints and risks. The board is neither the programmer nor the implementer, but they should gain the strategic insight about IT. The board discussions may not be only centered around cost, but also on productivity improvement, business growth, talent strategy and GRC. It’s important to have “mainstream” media conveying the updated information and insight, to inform CXOs and BoDs about the benefits of strategic CIOs and value-added IT. Just like any other investment, if you can present IT portfolio in a manner similar to an investment portfolio, it makes conceptual sense to boards with ROIs, schedules, and risks. Because Boards have responsibilities for failed IT projects (under their duty of responsibility), making IT a profit center is one of the biggest challenges in boardrooms and most organizations today.
“WHERE WHEN and WHAT” would you expect IT to enter the Board conversation: With the speed of changing is accelerating, IT should proactively participate in big conversations through the right touch point and at the right time. IT needs to enter the board conversation at several points: Business strategy: IT strategy is an integral component of the business strategy, and IT is also a key enabler of future capability and a critical aspect of continuing business activity in organizations. Risk Management: Because market experience is of the unacceptably high risk of negative outcomes for IT-enabled and IT linked to change. IT is prominent in market disruptions which can result in major opportunity and risks.IT Oversight: IT projects frequently fail to deliver intended and appropriate business outcomes and IT failures frequently cause a significant negative business impact.
Digital transformation represents a break with the past, with a high level of impact and complexity. Given how applying IT is becoming so intrinsically important to so many different enterprises, An IT friendly board has to ensure management and governance are interdependent and complementary discipline what are both enabled by high mature digital IT, and a technology savvy Board will  welcomes IT leaders to share insight at the big table, and empower IT to drive change and digital transformation.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

Three Inflection Points of Change Management

Change is inevitable. More and more organizations are at the strategic inflection point of the digital transformation. It is the broader and longer journey with many leaps and jumps, bumps and curves, perils and pitfalls on the way. One of the change mottoes is "never mistake motion for action." The successful businesses are the ones that have learned WHEN change is called for and decide WHAT to change, and HOW to change effectively. Do not let all these problems inherent in any change initiative, to get in the way of accepting the business facts that change is inevitable and needed in every business,  
Change reaches the inflection point when the disruption allows for "new" energy to flow and bring with it something that would not be born without it: The renowned metaphor of the caterpillar that becomes a butterfly demonstrates the digital transformation beautifully. As the caterpillar begins the process, it still has mobility and more than less its qualities of being a caterpillar. As the process continues "being a caterpillar" is disrupted, it hits the inflection point and the following parts of the process that produce the butterfly begin. The caterpillar becomes totally dysfunctional and can not be recognized as a caterpillar any longer, only then can the butterfly emerge. Most of the changes are complex processes. There is a learning curve behind them. 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. In practice, a mature organization is one that can quickly and safely assess all of the consequences of a possible change and devise effective plans to provide a combination approach for having both sense of urgency and overcoming change curve, to achieve and sustain those changes - and to do them continuously.
Change reaches the inflection point when change leaders master both the psychological and technical processes behind changes: While there is a need for inside out approach and outside in approach to change, it is critical to making personal transformation at the core of the change process. Any strategy and model have limited utility unless each individual decides to change, owns the process of change, and take the adventure into inner landscapes. No change can be forced, let it unfold. Having learning curve awareness means that we have to engage our sixth sense to decipher when to make the change, and to discern what to throw out and what to keep. A change management facilitator needs to be a "Non-Doer" as expressed in Tao. The challenge is to "Talk the Walk," rather than "Walk the Talk," in other words, practice first then share:
Change reaches inflection point when strategy management and change management go together cohesively: Change can be an opportunity, but at the end of the day, it needs to be all about moving the business numbers upwards. In the other words, strategy management and change management need to go hand in hand. Although we have to change with the "tide," we have to stand firm on our principles which would guide us in our decisions and how we relate to others. Top leadership team often “owns” and make the huge impact on business culture. Thus, leadership who listens well and provides ample room for the culture development and leadership who actively develop and advocate an authentic culture. Change is inevitable, but we must know how far to bend. Because we are not perfect and even our plans will need modification due to unforeseen obstacles. Further, if you want meaningful change in an organization, it will not really happen until you get buy-in and sponsorship from senior management. Without this, you will get chaos and some temporary change, but not change that moves the business forward. You will hit problems with the changes management when the project moves from the design phase to exploration. Different procedure and owners of processes are different.  But most important of all, you need to have a plan. Set out goals and work at them in a systematic way. Setting timelines, and sometimes resetting those timelines.
Many forward-looking organizations are at the inflection point of digital transformation. Businesses today need nothing less than a paradigm shift in their thinking about the fundamentals of how organizations work to build an authentic culture and an engaging workforce. It implies the full-scale changes in the way the business is conducted, such as mindset, talent, skills, capabilities, processes, technologies, with the goals to build a high-effective, high-responsive, high-intelligent and high mature digital organization.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

The CIO’s Digital Agenda: Running a Hybrid Digital IT Aug. 2016

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?
Running a Hybrid Digital IT  A Hybrid IT : IT plays a significant role in modern businesses today, touches almost every key business processes, especially with the trend of SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud), IT consumerization and internet of things. The effectiveness of IT can be derived best when overall IT Organization reflects on how the business is structured for responsibilities and accountabilities of key decision makers. In other ways, IT can not architect itself in isolation. So to effectively deliver IT capabilities, centralized, decentralized, or hybrid IT, which is the right way?
Running IT as Digital Catalyzer? IT is on the big shift to transform from a cost center to a business value creator, from a help desk to a growth engine; IT should devote more attention to what organizations really care about - managing information to capture insight and foresight, putting technology to business advantage. However, there is the gap between the aspirations of what IT could do to the business versus what the current IT “mentality” and capability within the respective IT department is capable of providing and enabling. How can IT close communication and capability gaps, and what is the focal point to run IT as the digital catalyzer and improve its effectiveness, agility, and innovativeness?
A Hybrid Organization?  With the fast pace of change and emerging digital technologies such as social, mobile and cloud, companies large or small are brainstorming the next generation of organizational design, how to take advantage of the new digital tools, how to improve productivity and enforce creativity & collaboration cross-enterprise ecosystems.
A Hybrid CIO? Nowadays information is the lifeblood, and technology is often the disruption behind the changes. CIO as an IT leader is also faced with significant skill shift; in order to transform IT from a cost center to a value generator; from the back-office support function to business’s innovation engine. Which IT leader should your organization pick: a logical CIO or a creative CIO; a strategic CIO or a tactic CIO? And as a modern CIO, what’re the most critical thinking traits to lead a digital IT organization.
Three Portmanteau Hybrid Words to Envision a Digital Organization: Organizations large or small are on the journey to digital transformation, it is not an overnight phenomenon, but a well-planning strategy with the step-wise approach. There are physical buildings and virtual, always-on working environment; there are next innovation practices and “always do things like this” best practices; there’s abundance of information but still the scarcity of insight. It is the hybrid business world full of options. Digital is the age of alternatives, here are three portmanteau hybrid words to convey the management principles in running a digital organization.
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