Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1308
August 12, 2016
“CIO Master” Book Tunning XXXXXXXV: Three Aspects in Running a Hybrid IT and Digital Organization
The challenge is having a harmonized vision about overall IT management philosophy, capabilities, structure, and maturities in a digital organization.
We live in the world with both “old” and “new,” embracing digital is inevitable as that is now part of the reality. In order to lead change and drive digital transformation, IT should combine the old way to do things, and the new way to explore, the next practices and the best practices, take the balance of traditional hierarchy and flatter structure; keep the lights on,” and “doing more with innovation.” Either from management, technology or talent perspective, Is HYBRID the right way to move forward with the right speed?
Being hybrid means to take "BALANCE" as a management philosophy: In order to make a solid digital transformation, there are many seemly paradoxical, but indeed coherent elements in running a high-effective IT today; for example, stability and agility; standardization and innovation, management and governance, leading from front and running a back office IT. The BALANCE is important in regards to making a strategic decision that delivers the real sustainable competitive advantage for an organization. Logic and rationalism keep business on track, but standard businesses are not viable. Businesses must perform well compared to their peers to be successful in the long run, innovation is key to being differentiated. Hence, it's critical in building a creative working environment to encourage innovation but also strike the right balance to keep tuning operational excellence, with the goal to run a high-effective and high-agile IT organization today.
The hybrid IT capabilities work best to fit most organizations: Often, centralized or decentralized IT capabilities are the perpetual dilemma to optimize IT as a business enabler. Paradoxically, there is no one structure fits all, and it’s not a black or white decision; centralizing and standardizing what makes sense enables flexibility without chaos. Set guidelines to centralize what makes sense from a decision-making perspective - strategy formulation, common and shared services like economies of scale and unification across the business, risk/disaster management. It relates much to who makes IT decisions and If done right, that you can get the best of both worlds is the best approach. The management effectiveness and IT capabilities always depends on several factors like the firm’s culture, strategy, IT budget, standards, architecture, engineering, even governance to a certain extent, and overall IT maturity and so on.
A hybrid organizational structure to enhance cross-functional communication and collaboration: It’s a hybrid, networked, extended digital working environment. Hierarchical structures will be slowly but steadily transcended to interconnected, network structures. Look at all the elements, including the human element, as an integrated system and functions as an organic living cells. The emergent organizational models will integrate with social process models with both structured and unstructured social processes. The latest enterprise digital computing technologies enable seamless virtual platforms, enhance physical organization structures, empower workforce brainstorming via sharing the thoughts and ideas, engage customers and partners to voice concerns and feedbacks, and encourage the broader conversation and interaction within its business ecosystem and social value chain which include systems, processes, policies, culture, work climates, customers, an integration of across global business, social and political systems....
While technology provides new frontiers for work systems, there are also challenges with issues of human 'connectivity.' The challenge is having a harmonized vision about overall IT management philosophy, capabilities, structure, and maturities in a digital organization, and develop the best and next practices in running IT as a business enabler and digital engine, with ultimate goals to bring high-performing business result.
CIO Master Order Link on Amazon CIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & Noble CIO Master Order Link On IBooks “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection III “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection II “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection I, Slideshare Presentation “CIO Master” Book Preview Conclusion Running IT as Digital Transformer “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 9 IT Agility “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 8 Three "P"s in Running Digital IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 7 IT Innovation Management “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 6 Digital Strategy-Execution Continuum "CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 5 Thirteen Digital Flavored IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 4 CIO as Talent Master Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 3 “CIOs as Change Agent” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 2 “CIOs as Digital Visionary” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 1 “Twelve Digital CIO Personas” Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Book Preview
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
We live in the world with both “old” and “new,” embracing digital is inevitable as that is now part of the reality. In order to lead change and drive digital transformation, IT should combine the old way to do things, and the new way to explore, the next practices and the best practices, take the balance of traditional hierarchy and flatter structure; keep the lights on,” and “doing more with innovation.” Either from management, technology or talent perspective, Is HYBRID the right way to move forward with the right speed?
Being hybrid means to take "BALANCE" as a management philosophy: In order to make a solid digital transformation, there are many seemly paradoxical, but indeed coherent elements in running a high-effective IT today; for example, stability and agility; standardization and innovation, management and governance, leading from front and running a back office IT. The BALANCE is important in regards to making a strategic decision that delivers the real sustainable competitive advantage for an organization. Logic and rationalism keep business on track, but standard businesses are not viable. Businesses must perform well compared to their peers to be successful in the long run, innovation is key to being differentiated. Hence, it's critical in building a creative working environment to encourage innovation but also strike the right balance to keep tuning operational excellence, with the goal to run a high-effective and high-agile IT organization today.
The hybrid IT capabilities work best to fit most organizations: Often, centralized or decentralized IT capabilities are the perpetual dilemma to optimize IT as a business enabler. Paradoxically, there is no one structure fits all, and it’s not a black or white decision; centralizing and standardizing what makes sense enables flexibility without chaos. Set guidelines to centralize what makes sense from a decision-making perspective - strategy formulation, common and shared services like economies of scale and unification across the business, risk/disaster management. It relates much to who makes IT decisions and If done right, that you can get the best of both worlds is the best approach. The management effectiveness and IT capabilities always depends on several factors like the firm’s culture, strategy, IT budget, standards, architecture, engineering, even governance to a certain extent, and overall IT maturity and so on.
A hybrid organizational structure to enhance cross-functional communication and collaboration: It’s a hybrid, networked, extended digital working environment. Hierarchical structures will be slowly but steadily transcended to interconnected, network structures. Look at all the elements, including the human element, as an integrated system and functions as an organic living cells. The emergent organizational models will integrate with social process models with both structured and unstructured social processes. The latest enterprise digital computing technologies enable seamless virtual platforms, enhance physical organization structures, empower workforce brainstorming via sharing the thoughts and ideas, engage customers and partners to voice concerns and feedbacks, and encourage the broader conversation and interaction within its business ecosystem and social value chain which include systems, processes, policies, culture, work climates, customers, an integration of across global business, social and political systems....
While technology provides new frontiers for work systems, there are also challenges with issues of human 'connectivity.' The challenge is having a harmonized vision about overall IT management philosophy, capabilities, structure, and maturities in a digital organization, and develop the best and next practices in running IT as a business enabler and digital engine, with ultimate goals to bring high-performing business result.
CIO Master Order Link on Amazon CIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & Noble CIO Master Order Link On IBooks “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection III “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection II “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection I, Slideshare Presentation “CIO Master” Book Preview Conclusion Running IT as Digital Transformer “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 9 IT Agility “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 8 Three "P"s in Running Digital IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 7 IT Innovation Management “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 6 Digital Strategy-Execution Continuum "CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 5 Thirteen Digital Flavored IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 4 CIO as Talent Master Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 3 “CIOs as Change Agent” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 2 “CIOs as Digital Visionary” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 1 “Twelve Digital CIO Personas” Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Book Preview
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
“CIO Master” Book Tunning: Three Aspects in Running a Hybrid IT and Digital Organization
We live in the world with both “old” and “new,” embracing digital is inevitable as that is now part of the reality. In order to lead change and drive digital transformation, IT should combine the next practices and the best practices, take the balance of traditional hierarchy and flatter structure; keep the lights on,” and “doing more with innovation.” Either from management, technology or talent perspective, Is HYBRID the right way to move forward with the right speed?
Being hybrid means to take BALANCE as a management philosophy: In order to make a solid digital transformation, there are many seemly paradoxical, but indeed coherent elements in running a high-effective IT today; for example, stability and agility; standardization and innovation, management and governance, leading at front and running a back office IT. The balance is important in regards to making a strategic decision that delivers the real sustainable competitive advantage for an organization. Logic and rationalism keep business on track, but standard businesses are not viable. Businesses must perform well compared to their peers to be successful in the long run, hence, building a creative working environment to encourage innovation, but also keep tuning operational excellence are all important in running a high-effective and high-agile IT organization today.
A hybrid IT capabilities works best to fit most organizations: Often, centralized or decentralized IT capabilities are the perpetual dilemma to optimize IT as a business enabler. Paradoxically, there is no one structure fits all, and it’s not a black or white decision; centralizing and standardizing what makes sense enables flexibility without chaos. The guidelines include, centralize what makes sense from a decision-making perspective - strategy formulation, common and shared services like economies of scale and unification across the business, risk/disaster management. It relates much to who makes IT decisions and If done right, that you can get the best of both worlds is the best approach. The management effectiveness always depends on several factors like the firm’s culture, strategy, IT budget, standards, architecture, engineering, even governance to a certain extent, and overall IT maturity and so on.
A hybrid organizational structure to enhance cross-functional communication and collaboration: It’s a hybrid, networked, extended digital working environment. Hierarchical structures will be slowly but steadily transcended to the interconnected, network structure. Look at all the elements, including the human element, as an integrated system and functions as an organic living cells. The emergent organizational models will integrate with social process models with both structured and unstructured social processes. The latest enterprise digital computing technologies enable seamless virtual platforms, enhance physical organization structures, empower workforce sharing the thoughts and ideas, engage customers and partners to voice concerns and feedbacks, and encourage the broader conversation and interaction within its business ecosystem and social value chain which include systems, processes, policies, culture, work climates, customers, an integration of across global business, social and political systems....
While technology provides new frontiers for work systems, there are also challenges with issues of human 'connectivity.' The challenge is having a harmonized vision about overall IT management philosophy, capabilities, structure, and maturities in an IT organization, and develop the best and next practices in running IT as a business enabler and digital engine with the ultimate goal to bring high-performing result.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
August 11, 2016
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 8/12/2016
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. 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” 8/12/2016Three Dimensions of IT Digital Transformation DIT plays a more significant role in the digital transformation of the organization, It has to accelerate its speed and amplify its impact from a silo function to an integral strategic partner, from a support desk to an innovation engine, and from an order taker to a strategy co-maker. Unfortunately, more than two-thirds of changes and business transformations fail to achieve the expectation. Running IT as a change organization, how can CIOs drive such a multidimensional digital transformation effortlessly?A Dynamic Board with Digital Fit BoDs LAs always, the spirit comes from the top, leadership is a key success factor for any organization's success. With many organizations and the society as a whole reach the inflection point of digital transformation, modern corporate boards as a top governance body play a crucial role in setting business culture tones and driving organizations’ digital transformation. Due to the complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility of digital age, the directorship in any organization must have the ability to guide, inspire and motivate a group of people toward accomplishing shared visions and goal. But how to identify the digital fit BoDs and how to build a dynamic board to adapt to the rapid changes?
To Celebrate the 3000th Blog Posting of “Future of CIO” with 1.5 Million Worldwide Views: Blogging is to pursue the digital communication way for envisioning, brainstorming, sharing, debating, and making a continuous delivery for practicing thought leadership and spurring innovation. It’s not just about writing, but about thinking. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here comes the 3000th blog posting of the "Future of CIO." if writing a book is 1% of inspiration plus 99% of perspiration, and then creating & producing blogs takes 5% (inspiration + creativity) plus 95% of (dedication + perseverance).
Apply Discipline to Innovation: Innovation is how to transform novel ideas to achieve their business values. Innovation management has overall very low success rate. Innovations in the digital era are coming at seemingly much fast space, with changes and potential disruptions, and therefore, innovation management also becomes more complex and dynamic. Innovation is not serendipitous, how to apply discipline to innovation for improving its success rate?
The Cause and Effect of Poor Leadership: Leadership debate is never ending. the leadership impact for the business is just like the light on the road when you drive in the dark. What’s the cause and effect of poor leadership? What’s the biggest negative or most serious impact on employees when leadership is poor?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
Change Management Success is not Accidental, but a Capability
Change is inevitable, and the speed of change is increasing. Unfortunately, more than two-thirds of Change Management fail to achieve expectations. Also, too often changes are made as a reaction to outer impulses, crisis, and demands. This is the bureaucracy’s way of meeting the challenges.It means only very few businesses can manage change effectively. So is Change Management success accidental, how to beat the odds in managing changes as an ongoing capability? One of the major barriers to successful change is the lack of a change plan: Change is more than a goal, it must be accompanied with well thought out execution plans. Change management is the overarching umbrella that encompasses extensive planning, outreach, communications, the discovery of concerns, objections, potential points of failure, addressing fears and resistance, developing a shared vision, communicating valid and compelling reasons for cooperation. Well planned Change Management with comprehensible understanding will greatly reduce and practically eliminate the fear of change that derails good or even great intentions, and have a better opportunity to achieve expectations. In practice, working in cooperation with a change manager, schedule your change activities as part of the planning - this will ensure that the cart is never before the horse, and there is sufficient time to prepare the stakeholders. Aiming is critical -- meaning execution planning. Change Management involves process and people with following formula:Process = Goal +Management + Procedures + Training + MetricsPeople = Leadership + Vision +Development + Innovation + Motivation
Take the logical scenario to build Change Management capability, nd manage change life cycle:
(1) Develop the initial value proposition and determine demand and estimated pipeline (2) Assess current state capability in change management (people, process, technology) (3) Develop the target state change management capability, and identify the gaps (4) Establish change management capability leadership principles and practices (5) Source appropriate skills to deliver desired capability (internal / market / partners) (6) Establish change management team and enable them with detailed methodology, tools, products, services against value proposition identified (7) Organizational Change Management capability can be built into the organizational culture. The approach would require the following: a) Germinating (Seeding) a culture of change- Shared vision and values- leadership as a role model; b) Clarity and transparency in communications (strategic initiatives) thereby nipping uncertainty, ambiguity and doubt which reduces resistance when implementing change. c) Continuous engagement through formal and informal methods. d) Train employees across all levels as change agents / managers with leaders being enablers and facilitators. (8) Identify change agents within the business; educate champions and establish these as a key element for change management (9) Get early wins to demonstrate value, sustain the change for the long term.
Quantitative measures do play a valuable part in assessing, measuring, and quantifying Change Management: There are two things to take into account: Perhaps the difficulty in measuring change management is that the very thing we are measuring is changing. How do you design metrics to measure what changes and how these changes are measured? What is the relevant metrics and how can they be quantified and validated? Oftentimes, the organization may not have the systems and structures in place prior to implementation to actually monitor and track the change. Difficulties to measure change are a reflection of (1) lack of planning and (2) lack of clarity. if you know what your change is expected to bring then you'll know what to measure before the change is implemented.
The real key to change management is the internal process humans go through in transition. Change is external; the transition is internal. When companies learn how to tap into and pay attention to employees' transition process, they'll have a richer perspective of where they are along the successful change management curve. Change Management requires a plan and strategy as well, change is not for its own sake, a clear vision, a systematic thinking and effective communication, the logical processes and exemplified change leadership are all the key success factors to overcome the challenges and manage changes smoothly. The speed of change is accelerating. Managing change is no longer a one-time initiative, and Change Management turns to be strategically important in today’s digital organizations.
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Digital IT Tuning: How Responsive Could IT Be
Digital is all about change with continuous disruptions and exponential information flow, a responsive IT means a lot of things for the business’s digital transformation: speed, innovation, agility, ambidexterity, modernization, intelligence, value creation, and maturity, etc. How responsive could IT be in order to ride the learning curves, keep the pace of change, and accelerate digital transformation of the business?
Running a highly responsive IT means IT needs to be proactive, not reactive: It is the way to run a digital IT and an overall digital organization. However, in most organizations, IT is setting back and waiting for the request. Many CIOs graduate from IT management where their job was to maintain. The transition from a maintenance mindset to a value creation mindset is a stretch for some. IT has to be configured in a way to understand the business and set the processes and build dynamic capabilities to meet the business and market need in a continuous delivery mode. IT has to be a strategic advisor to business for proactively understanding the business challenges and work collaboratively to deliver business solutions and maximize revenues. The value of IT shouldn’t be measured via the internal operational IT lenses, but via the business lens, and customers’ perspective. Running a highly responsive IT needs to get support from front desks to boardrooms, digital thinking means new learning attitude, from the business side, it means to show the constructive dissatisfaction, understands the risks, but also grasp the growth opportunities. It takes positive thinking as well as enterprise-wide supporting to unleash the potential of IT and bring higher than expected business performance as the ultimate goal.
The level of IT responsiveness depends on how well CIOs can balance real technology needs against the risk tolerance of the enterprise: A CIO needs to first understand their business and industry, then evaluate technology based on the value or competitive advantage it brings to the business, and the potential risks -Is the technology proven or is it so new that it presents undue risk to the organization? Usually, IT is accountable for potential risks, that's why CIOs feel cautious of new technology trends. Many CIOs prefer to be fast followers to see how the technology actually stands up and learning from other’s failure lessens or success stories. So there’s always a compromise to make, and balance to strike. The goal is to be fast enough and taking calculated risks for capturing business opportunities, but be cautious of risks and pitfalls on the way.
IT has to not only improve its own speed and responsiveness but also overall organizational agility: Often the business partners perceive IT as a controller and slow to change, The type of speed issues (such as IT slow to change) comes from gaps created between IT and the rest of the company. When there is no willingness to serve users and on the other way round, no appetite from users to involve IT, the gaps get bigger and negative behaviors may get introduced. It often seems like there is a bad case of not being able to see the forest because of the trees. In order to bridge gaps, CIOs have to recognize pros and cons and propose concrete activities for improvement. Due to the unique position to oversight business processes, IT needs to play an important role in not just running a highly responsive IT, but building up an agile enterprises which can succeed in combining two distinct but interconnected elements— strategic responsiveness and organizational flexibility, with the combination of an innovative culture that promotes responsiveness throughout the company. CxOs will accept CIOs as an ally only if he/she is performing proactive contribution to acquiring goals.
To run a highly responsive and highly effective IT, IT management must get a feeler of the business view. IT must be measured through business viewpoint. That should help in trying new technologies as a business enabler. Secondly is the CIO's ability to "sell" the business value at the C-Level. It’s not a matter of being reactive or responsive. It is not a matter of being fear or brave. It is a matter to add value to the business or not. And IT needs to reinvent itself, to become a business catalyst, rather than just a supporting function.
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August 10, 2016
The Monthly “Dot Connections” to Accelerate Digital Innovation Aug. 2016
Digital is the age of creativity and innovation, and creativity is all about connecting the dots.
The effects of an increasingly digitalized world are now reaching into every corner of businesses and every aspect of organizations. Digital is the age of creativity and innovation, creativity is the most wanted trait for digital leaders and professionals today, and innovation is the light every organization is pursuing. Creativity is all about connecting the dots. Which dots shall you connect to accelerate digital transformation?
The “Dot Connections” to Accelerate Digital InnovationIntuition vs. Creativity: Change is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "substitution of one for another," and transformation is defined as "to CHANGE the character or form." The definition of transformation in the dictionary is, "to change (something) completely," so it’s much more than renewal, its rebirth. It makes sense to use the complexity of the shift required to differentiate between change and transformation. The biggest challenge with any large scale transformation program is – do the senior leaders truly understand the time and impact on the organization and do they have the intestinal fortitude to hold up to corrections? What is difficult about the concept of managing one or more changes as a means of accomplishing a managed transformation?Innovation & Simplicity? Innovation is the light every forward-looking organization is pursuing now; however, very few companies can well articulate their innovation process. Effective innovation requires a suitable process as part of the wider holistic 'system' for innovation, encompassing other key aspects such as culture, leadership, and strategy, but how to follow the simplicity principle when managing innovation. The following five quotes may bring certain insight.Knowledge vs. Imagination Business strategy, goals, and objectives are all relevant and important concepts in business management, usually the goals and objectives are set to achieve business strategy step by step in a measurable way. According to businessdictionary. com, “business goal is an observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe. The objective is a specific result that a person or system aims to achieve within a time frame and with available resources.Creativity vs. Innovation ? Creativity is infused with an inner cohesion and comes from a vision of uniqueness. Creativity needs a problem, and a creative person needs a purpose; Innovation is to reinvent business, but not to reinvent the wheels. Innovation is about reinventing the business direction and purpose at any time. It defines strategy, profitability, and relevance at any given time. If you do not, you become commoditized and just like so many others who offer the same product or service. Innovation allows one to stand out and above the rest.Creativity vs. Consciousness: All living beings are creative and we, humans, like to think that we are the most creative beings of all, not too sure about that. But speaking of humans, our creativity fluctuates, seems to disappear at times, get blocked, or sparkle in abundance and flow out of us some other times. So what’s the correlation between creativity and consciousness??
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. 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 effects of an increasingly digitalized world are now reaching into every corner of businesses and every aspect of organizations. Digital is the age of creativity and innovation, creativity is the most wanted trait for digital leaders and professionals today, and innovation is the light every organization is pursuing. Creativity is all about connecting the dots. Which dots shall you connect to accelerate digital transformation?
The “Dot Connections” to Accelerate Digital InnovationIntuition vs. Creativity: Change is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "substitution of one for another," and transformation is defined as "to CHANGE the character or form." The definition of transformation in the dictionary is, "to change (something) completely," so it’s much more than renewal, its rebirth. It makes sense to use the complexity of the shift required to differentiate between change and transformation. The biggest challenge with any large scale transformation program is – do the senior leaders truly understand the time and impact on the organization and do they have the intestinal fortitude to hold up to corrections? What is difficult about the concept of managing one or more changes as a means of accomplishing a managed transformation?Innovation & Simplicity? Innovation is the light every forward-looking organization is pursuing now; however, very few companies can well articulate their innovation process. Effective innovation requires a suitable process as part of the wider holistic 'system' for innovation, encompassing other key aspects such as culture, leadership, and strategy, but how to follow the simplicity principle when managing innovation. The following five quotes may bring certain insight.Knowledge vs. Imagination Business strategy, goals, and objectives are all relevant and important concepts in business management, usually the goals and objectives are set to achieve business strategy step by step in a measurable way. According to businessdictionary. com, “business goal is an observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe. The objective is a specific result that a person or system aims to achieve within a time frame and with available resources.Creativity vs. Innovation ? Creativity is infused with an inner cohesion and comes from a vision of uniqueness. Creativity needs a problem, and a creative person needs a purpose; Innovation is to reinvent business, but not to reinvent the wheels. Innovation is about reinventing the business direction and purpose at any time. It defines strategy, profitability, and relevance at any given time. If you do not, you become commoditized and just like so many others who offer the same product or service. Innovation allows one to stand out and above the rest.Creativity vs. Consciousness: All living beings are creative and we, humans, like to think that we are the most creative beings of all, not too sure about that. But speaking of humans, our creativity fluctuates, seems to disappear at times, get blocked, or sparkle in abundance and flow out of us some other times. So what’s the correlation between creativity and consciousness??
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. 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
"Leadership Master" Book Tuning IX: Independent Thinking as Differentiator of Authentic Leadership
Cookie Cutting approach often fails in leadership development, because authenticity can not be replicated.
Leadership is simple because it’s all about future and change. Leadership is complex because there are so many variables you have to leverage in identifying leadership authenticity and improving leadership effectiveness. If developing leadership is like growing a tree, then the root is the mindset. The deeper you can think, the more significant the leadership influence could be. Independent thinking is extremely important in the digital era in which information only clicks away, but the true insight has inundated with out of dated knowledge, and the real signal is mixed with a lot of noises. A leader without independent thinking is a lack of authenticity; a digital worker without independent thinking is a lack of creativity. Independent thinking is a differentiator of authentic leadership, but more specifically, how to think independently and innovatively?
Practicing the real critical thinking in shaping independent thinking ability: Generally speaking, critical thinking is to make objective reasoning in order to form a judgment. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to learn for career and life. There is evidence that business professionals, managers/leaders who utilize critical thinking with an evidence-based approach to decision making do better than those that don't. Critical thinking indeed includes many thinking patterns, such as analytics, synthesis, deductive thinking, creative thinking, etc. And the anti-critical thinking symptoms include reflexive thinking, compliance, group thinking syndrome, half-brain thinking or even no thinking, etc. Learning Critical Thinking methods require the person acknowledge their own biases and prejudices before considering the information. From a biological point of view, one could consider the effort of critical thinking as training your mind to seek reason, or to reframe its approach to a conundrum in a certain way, it is the combined thinking skills for analyzing, evaluating, and producing coherent argumentation.Therefore, practicing the real critical thinking continually is a prerequisite to being an independent thinker.
Applying Creative thinking to connect the dots and think differently: Creativity is the high level of the thinking process and has interconnectivity with other thought processes such as critical thinking. Often, a creative person is an independent thinker who can think “out of the box,” and break down silo or conventional wisdom. A digital leader or professional must find ways to stimulate creativity, breakdown convention thinking patterns, be original and be yourself; practice creativity via trying to put two totally different things together to make something new, be adventurous and explore new possibilities. Being an independent thinker with creativity, perhaps more often than not, involves some level of discomfort and interdisciplinary transcendence, it’s how unusual dots getting connected and innate ideas getting sparked, and it also allows you to appreciate others’ great ideas, but not just follow others blindly. Keep your energy flows freely and be mindful all the time.
Independent thinking is not silo thinking, leverage Systems Thinking (ST) to understand the connectivity of parts and the whole: Digital means hyperconnectivity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Practicing independent thinking in the interdependent world should also leverage Systems Thinking. Everything has more than one side and you have to master them all, including assumptions. When trying to determine the macro environment and how the factors influence business strategy/plan one way or another, it is difficult to move away entirely from assumptions. What is powerful about Systems Thinking is that it’s concerned with wholes changes of the scope, thereby engendering new action systems as part of the process of creating cross-disciplined understanding. Hence, via leveraging ST, an independent thinker can also think and understand things in a more holistic way, not be extreme or binary sort of.
Either digital leaders or workers today must apply multi-intelligence properly and practice independent thinking all the time; it means to keep being yourself, practice real thinking, break down outdated rules or traditions, and improve leadership effectiveness and maturity.
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Leadership is simple because it’s all about future and change. Leadership is complex because there are so many variables you have to leverage in identifying leadership authenticity and improving leadership effectiveness. If developing leadership is like growing a tree, then the root is the mindset. The deeper you can think, the more significant the leadership influence could be. Independent thinking is extremely important in the digital era in which information only clicks away, but the true insight has inundated with out of dated knowledge, and the real signal is mixed with a lot of noises. A leader without independent thinking is a lack of authenticity; a digital worker without independent thinking is a lack of creativity. Independent thinking is a differentiator of authentic leadership, but more specifically, how to think independently and innovatively?
Practicing the real critical thinking in shaping independent thinking ability: Generally speaking, critical thinking is to make objective reasoning in order to form a judgment. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to learn for career and life. There is evidence that business professionals, managers/leaders who utilize critical thinking with an evidence-based approach to decision making do better than those that don't. Critical thinking indeed includes many thinking patterns, such as analytics, synthesis, deductive thinking, creative thinking, etc. And the anti-critical thinking symptoms include reflexive thinking, compliance, group thinking syndrome, half-brain thinking or even no thinking, etc. Learning Critical Thinking methods require the person acknowledge their own biases and prejudices before considering the information. From a biological point of view, one could consider the effort of critical thinking as training your mind to seek reason, or to reframe its approach to a conundrum in a certain way, it is the combined thinking skills for analyzing, evaluating, and producing coherent argumentation.Therefore, practicing the real critical thinking continually is a prerequisite to being an independent thinker.
Applying Creative thinking to connect the dots and think differently: Creativity is the high level of the thinking process and has interconnectivity with other thought processes such as critical thinking. Often, a creative person is an independent thinker who can think “out of the box,” and break down silo or conventional wisdom. A digital leader or professional must find ways to stimulate creativity, breakdown convention thinking patterns, be original and be yourself; practice creativity via trying to put two totally different things together to make something new, be adventurous and explore new possibilities. Being an independent thinker with creativity, perhaps more often than not, involves some level of discomfort and interdisciplinary transcendence, it’s how unusual dots getting connected and innate ideas getting sparked, and it also allows you to appreciate others’ great ideas, but not just follow others blindly. Keep your energy flows freely and be mindful all the time.
Independent thinking is not silo thinking, leverage Systems Thinking (ST) to understand the connectivity of parts and the whole: Digital means hyperconnectivity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Practicing independent thinking in the interdependent world should also leverage Systems Thinking. Everything has more than one side and you have to master them all, including assumptions. When trying to determine the macro environment and how the factors influence business strategy/plan one way or another, it is difficult to move away entirely from assumptions. What is powerful about Systems Thinking is that it’s concerned with wholes changes of the scope, thereby engendering new action systems as part of the process of creating cross-disciplined understanding. Hence, via leveraging ST, an independent thinker can also think and understand things in a more holistic way, not be extreme or binary sort of.
Either digital leaders or workers today must apply multi-intelligence properly and practice independent thinking all the time; it means to keep being yourself, practice real thinking, break down outdated rules or traditions, and improve leadership effectiveness and maturity.
"Digital Master" Book Series Slideshare Introduction
"
Leadership Master" Introduction Slideshare Presentation
"Leadership Master" Introduction Blog
"Leadership Master" Chapter I Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter II Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter III Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter IV Introduction "
Leadership Master" Chapter V Introduction
"Leadership Master" Amazon Order Link
" Leadership Master " B&N Order Link
" Leadership Master " IBook Order Link
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
?Leadership Master" Book Tuning IX: Independent Thinking as Differentiator of Authentic Leadership
Cookie Cutting approach often fails in leadership development, because authenticity can not be replicated.
Leadership is simple because it’s all about future and change. Leadership is complex because there are so many variables you have to leverage in identifying leadership authenticity and improving leadership effectiveness. If developing leadership is like growing a tree, then the root is the mindset. The deeper you can think, the more significant the leadership influence could be. Independent thinking is extremely important in the digital era in which information only clicks away, but the true insight has inundated with out of dated knowledge, and the real signal is mixed with a lot of noises. A leader without independent thinking is a lack of authenticity; a digital worker without independent thinking is a lack of creativity. Independent thinking is a differentiator of authentic leadership, but more specifically, how to think independently and innovatively?
Practicing the real critical thinking in shaping independent thinking ability: Generally speaking, critical thinking is to make objective reasoning in order to form a judgment. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to learn for career and life. There is evidence that business professionals, managers/leaders who utilize critical thinking with an evidence-based approach to decision making do better than those that don't. Critical thinking indeed includes many thinking patterns, such as analytics, synthesis, deductive thinking, creative thinking, etc. And the anti-critical thinking symptoms include reflexive thinking, compliance, group thinking syndrome, half-brain thinking or even no thinking, etc. Learning Critical Thinking methods require the person acknowledge their own biases and prejudices before considering the information. From a biological point of view, one could consider the effort of critical thinking as training your mind to seek reason, or to reframe its approach to a conundrum in a certain way, it is the combined thinking skills for analyzing, evaluating, and producing coherent argumentation.Therefore, practicing the real critical thinking continually is a prerequisite to being an independent thinker.
Applying Creative thinking to connect the dots and think differently: Creativity is the high level of the thinking process and has interconnectivity with other thought processes such as critical thinking. Often, a creative person is an independent thinker who can think “out of the box,” and break down silo or conventional wisdom. A digital leader or professional must find ways to stimulate creativity, breakdown convention thinking patterns, be original and be yourself; practice creativity via trying to put two totally different things together to make something new, be adventurous and explore new possibilities. Being an independent thinker with creativity, perhaps more often than not, involves some level of discomfort and interdisciplinary transcendence, it’s how unusual dots getting connected and innate ideas getting sparked, and it also allows you to appreciate others’ great ideas, but not just follow others blindly. Keep your energy flows freely and be mindful all the time.
Independent thinking is not silo thinking, leverage Systems Thinking (ST) to understand the connectivity of parts and the whole: Digital means hyperconnectivity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Practicing independent thinking in the interdependent world should also leverage Systems Thinking. Everything has more than one side and you have to master them all, including assumptions. When trying to determine the macro environment and how the factors influence business strategy/plan one way or another, it is difficult to move away entirely from assumptions. What is powerful about Systems Thinking is that it’s concerned with wholes changes of the scope, thereby engendering new action systems as part of the process of creating cross-disciplined understanding. Hence, via leveraging ST, an independent thinker can also think and understand things in a more holistic way, not be extreme or binary sort of.
Either digital leaders or workers today must apply multi-intelligence properly and practice independent thinking all the time; it means to keep being yourself, practice real thinking, break down outdated rules or traditions, and improve leadership effectiveness and maturity.
"Digital Master" Book Series Slideshare Introduction
"
Leadership Master" Introduction Slideshare Presentation
"Leadership Master" Introduction Blog
"Leadership Master" Chapter I Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter II Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter III Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter IV Introduction "
Leadership Master" Chapter V Introduction
"Leadership Master" Amazon Order Link
" Leadership Master " B&N Order Link
" Leadership Master " IBook Order Link
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Leadership is simple because it’s all about future and change. Leadership is complex because there are so many variables you have to leverage in identifying leadership authenticity and improving leadership effectiveness. If developing leadership is like growing a tree, then the root is the mindset. The deeper you can think, the more significant the leadership influence could be. Independent thinking is extremely important in the digital era in which information only clicks away, but the true insight has inundated with out of dated knowledge, and the real signal is mixed with a lot of noises. A leader without independent thinking is a lack of authenticity; a digital worker without independent thinking is a lack of creativity. Independent thinking is a differentiator of authentic leadership, but more specifically, how to think independently and innovatively?
Practicing the real critical thinking in shaping independent thinking ability: Generally speaking, critical thinking is to make objective reasoning in order to form a judgment. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to learn for career and life. There is evidence that business professionals, managers/leaders who utilize critical thinking with an evidence-based approach to decision making do better than those that don't. Critical thinking indeed includes many thinking patterns, such as analytics, synthesis, deductive thinking, creative thinking, etc. And the anti-critical thinking symptoms include reflexive thinking, compliance, group thinking syndrome, half-brain thinking or even no thinking, etc. Learning Critical Thinking methods require the person acknowledge their own biases and prejudices before considering the information. From a biological point of view, one could consider the effort of critical thinking as training your mind to seek reason, or to reframe its approach to a conundrum in a certain way, it is the combined thinking skills for analyzing, evaluating, and producing coherent argumentation.Therefore, practicing the real critical thinking continually is a prerequisite to being an independent thinker.
Applying Creative thinking to connect the dots and think differently: Creativity is the high level of the thinking process and has interconnectivity with other thought processes such as critical thinking. Often, a creative person is an independent thinker who can think “out of the box,” and break down silo or conventional wisdom. A digital leader or professional must find ways to stimulate creativity, breakdown convention thinking patterns, be original and be yourself; practice creativity via trying to put two totally different things together to make something new, be adventurous and explore new possibilities. Being an independent thinker with creativity, perhaps more often than not, involves some level of discomfort and interdisciplinary transcendence, it’s how unusual dots getting connected and innate ideas getting sparked, and it also allows you to appreciate others’ great ideas, but not just follow others blindly. Keep your energy flows freely and be mindful all the time.
Independent thinking is not silo thinking, leverage Systems Thinking (ST) to understand the connectivity of parts and the whole: Digital means hyperconnectivity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Practicing independent thinking in the interdependent world should also leverage Systems Thinking. Everything has more than one side and you have to master them all, including assumptions. When trying to determine the macro environment and how the factors influence business strategy/plan one way or another, it is difficult to move away entirely from assumptions. What is powerful about Systems Thinking is that it’s concerned with wholes changes of the scope, thereby engendering new action systems as part of the process of creating cross-disciplined understanding. Hence, via leveraging ST, an independent thinker can also think and understand things in a more holistic way, not be extreme or binary sort of.
Either digital leaders or workers today must apply multi-intelligence properly and practice independent thinking all the time; it means to keep being yourself, practice real thinking, break down outdated rules or traditions, and improve leadership effectiveness and maturity.
"Digital Master" Book Series Slideshare Introduction
"
Leadership Master" Introduction Slideshare Presentation
"Leadership Master" Introduction Blog
"Leadership Master" Chapter I Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter II Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter III Introduction
"Leadership Master" Chapter IV Introduction "
Leadership Master" Chapter V Introduction
"Leadership Master" Amazon Order Link
" Leadership Master " B&N Order Link
" Leadership Master " IBook Order Link
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Independent Thinking as Differentiator of Authentic Leadership
Cookie Cutting approach often fails in leadership development, because authenticity can not be copied.
Leadership is simple because it’s all about future and change. Leadership is complex because there are so many variables you have to leverage in identify leadership authenticity and improving leadership effectiveness. If developing leadership is like growing a tree, then the root is the mindset. The deeper you can think, the bigger the leadership influence could be. Independent thinking is extremely important in the digital era in which information only clicks away, but the true insight has inundated with out of dated knowledge, and the real signal is mixed with a lot of noises. A leader without independent thinking is a lack of authenticity; a digital worker without independent thinking is a lack of creativity. Is independent thinking a differentiator of authentic leadership, and why?
Practicing the real critical thinking in shaping independent thinking ability: Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to learn for career and life. There is evidence that business professionals, managers/leaders who utilize critical thinking with an evidence-based approach to decision making do better than those that don't. The anti-critical thinking symptoms include reflexive thinking, compliance, group thinking syndrome, half-brain thinking or even no thinking, etc. Learn Critical Thinking methods require the person acknowledge their own biases and prejudices before considering the information. From a biological point of view, one could consider the effort of critical thinking as training your mind to seek reason, or to reframe its approach to a conundrum in a certain way, it is the combined thinking skills for analyzing, evaluating, and producing coherent argumentation.
Applying Creative thinking to connect the dots and think differently: Creativity is the high level of the thinking process and has critical thinking embedded in it. Thus, a creative person is also an independent thinker to think “out of the box,” and break down silo or conventional wisdom. A person must find ways to stimulate creativity. breakdown convention thinking, be original and be yourself; try putting two totally different things together to make something new, be adventurous and explore new possibilities. Being an independent thinker, perhaps more often than not, involves some level of discomfort and interdisciplinary transcendence, it’s how unusual dots getting connected and innate ideas getting sparked, and it also allows you to appreciate others’ great ideas, not just follow others blindly. Keep your energy flows freely and be mindful all the time.
Independent thinking is not silo thinking, leverage Systems Thinking to understand the connectivity of parts and the whole: Digital means hyperconnectivity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Practicing independent thinking in the interdependent world should also leverage Systems Thinking. Everything has more than one side and you have to master them all, including assumptions. When trying to determine the macro environment and how the factors influence business strategy/plan one way or another, it is difficult to move away entirely from assumptions. What is powerful about Systems Thinking is that it’s concerned with wholes changes of the scope, thereby engendering new action systems as part of the process of creating understanding. Systems Thinking engenders new actions as part of the process of creating cross-disciplined understanding.
Either digital leaders or workers must use the intelligence properly and practice independent thinking all the time; it means to keep being yourself, practice real thinking, break down outdated rules or traditions, and improve leadership effectiveness and maturity.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Leadership is simple because it’s all about future and change. Leadership is complex because there are so many variables you have to leverage in identify leadership authenticity and improving leadership effectiveness. If developing leadership is like growing a tree, then the root is the mindset. The deeper you can think, the bigger the leadership influence could be. Independent thinking is extremely important in the digital era in which information only clicks away, but the true insight has inundated with out of dated knowledge, and the real signal is mixed with a lot of noises. A leader without independent thinking is a lack of authenticity; a digital worker without independent thinking is a lack of creativity. Is independent thinking a differentiator of authentic leadership, and why?
Practicing the real critical thinking in shaping independent thinking ability: Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to learn for career and life. There is evidence that business professionals, managers/leaders who utilize critical thinking with an evidence-based approach to decision making do better than those that don't. The anti-critical thinking symptoms include reflexive thinking, compliance, group thinking syndrome, half-brain thinking or even no thinking, etc. Learn Critical Thinking methods require the person acknowledge their own biases and prejudices before considering the information. From a biological point of view, one could consider the effort of critical thinking as training your mind to seek reason, or to reframe its approach to a conundrum in a certain way, it is the combined thinking skills for analyzing, evaluating, and producing coherent argumentation.
Applying Creative thinking to connect the dots and think differently: Creativity is the high level of the thinking process and has critical thinking embedded in it. Thus, a creative person is also an independent thinker to think “out of the box,” and break down silo or conventional wisdom. A person must find ways to stimulate creativity. breakdown convention thinking, be original and be yourself; try putting two totally different things together to make something new, be adventurous and explore new possibilities. Being an independent thinker, perhaps more often than not, involves some level of discomfort and interdisciplinary transcendence, it’s how unusual dots getting connected and innate ideas getting sparked, and it also allows you to appreciate others’ great ideas, not just follow others blindly. Keep your energy flows freely and be mindful all the time.
Independent thinking is not silo thinking, leverage Systems Thinking to understand the connectivity of parts and the whole: Digital means hyperconnectivity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Practicing independent thinking in the interdependent world should also leverage Systems Thinking. Everything has more than one side and you have to master them all, including assumptions. When trying to determine the macro environment and how the factors influence business strategy/plan one way or another, it is difficult to move away entirely from assumptions. What is powerful about Systems Thinking is that it’s concerned with wholes changes of the scope, thereby engendering new action systems as part of the process of creating understanding. Systems Thinking engenders new actions as part of the process of creating cross-disciplined understanding.
Either digital leaders or workers must use the intelligence properly and practice independent thinking all the time; it means to keep being yourself, practice real thinking, break down outdated rules or traditions, and improve leadership effectiveness and maturity.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
CIOs as VISIONEERs: Running Digital IT with "DECISIONEERING & SOLUTIONEERING & ENGINEERING" Disciplines
Digital CIOs are visioneers (visionary pioneers)- who can run digital IT with decisioneering, solutioneering, and engineering disciplines.
Forward-thinking IT organizations continue to reinvent themselves to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and agility. Ambitious companies also understand how crucial IT is to drive businesses growth and optimize business capabilities. Digital transformation is on the way. IT Transformation seeks to change. The word "transformation" in itself means change and change for the better - new ways and methods of doing things, new structures, new relationships etc. The contemporary CIOs are visioneers (visionary pioneers)- who can run digital IT with decisioneering, solutioneering, and engineering disciplines to improve organizational level effectiveness, intelligence, and maturity.
Running digital IT as decisioneering: IT as the steward of business information takes important responsibilities to ensure the right people getting the right information to make right decisions at the right time. IT must embrace a responsibility to engineer best practice decision paths, “decisioneering" if you will. This demands a disciplined, process-based approach not only to data and information but also a deep understanding of the decisions that need to be made and their impact. IT must design information strategies around decisions. IT needs to be seamlessly embedded into the business decision processes, also plays a crucial role in building an information -based decision-making culture. At traditional companies, both strategic decisions and operations decisions are often based on static or even outdated information available and the “gut feeling” of decision makers. Now the abundance of information flow and the more advanced digital technologies make it possible to gain real-time insight and business foresight if organizations are truly being digitized underneath, at the process level. What should be focused on is to integrate IT into the business decision-making processes to be highly responsive. Hence, running IT as decisioneering will help to build a high-intelligent and high-agile organization.
IT has to get more involved in the business as Solutioneering: Traditional IT is run as an inside-out operational driven service provider and measured via internal IT lenses. IT managers who become territorial over the department only compound the problem. Hence, in order to reinvent IT as an outside-in customer-centered business partner for problem solving. IT needs to be ‘Solutionary’ to understand how the organization works and then give solutions that will increase the functionality to lower cost and, if applicable, increase output. That means a higher profit. Besides improving efficiency, IT should become strategic focused and increase profitability for the organization. The focus of IT needs to engage with the business units to find out how the department is perceived, what the pain points are and to identify opportunities for developing new services or improving/optimizing current ones. A CIO can't just sit back and apply yesterday’s techniques to today's problems, the key is engagement with the business. The CIO has a role in selling the merits of IT to the business and quantifying projects in terms of ROI. To put simply, IT should be the solutioneers for adding values and spurring innovation.
IT is an engineering discipline, as always, but adding more enriched digital context: Digital CIOs are intrapreneur to run IT as a software startup. They apply scientific logic with the structural approach and engineering discipline to break big business problems down into deliverable chunks for delivering value to the business at regular intervals. From software management perspective, it is the stepwise scenario to identify mindsets, technical and nontechnical strategies, and tactics needed to realize the new software engineering approach. This would include strategic and tactical planning, Systems Engineering, concurrent engineering, project design, quality engineering, portfolio management and optimization, systems ecology, etc. Digital organizations become more dynamic and responsive, open systems concepts will focus on meeting the needs of the environment, socialization will improve collaborations, communications, cooperations, and coordinations and software economics will increase customer value. Digital engineering approach is combined with the simplification of programming tools and proliferation of “DIY” - doing it yourself interfaces. An effective CIO’s job is to improve operations to reduce the burden on the company while trying to stay current with ever-changing technologies. That includes reducing costs, improving systems, streamlining processes and providing continually expanding business solutions.
The purpose of IT is to move the business forward with the speed. Technology and its associated methodologies and practices are parts of that leverage mechanism. IT role is critical to operational business success, but it is ever more important for business strategy and digital transformation via practicing decisioneering, solutioneering, and engineering discipline. Still, IT is the means to the end, not the end itself.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Forward-thinking IT organizations continue to reinvent themselves to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and agility. Ambitious companies also understand how crucial IT is to drive businesses growth and optimize business capabilities. Digital transformation is on the way. IT Transformation seeks to change. The word "transformation" in itself means change and change for the better - new ways and methods of doing things, new structures, new relationships etc. The contemporary CIOs are visioneers (visionary pioneers)- who can run digital IT with decisioneering, solutioneering, and engineering disciplines to improve organizational level effectiveness, intelligence, and maturity.
Running digital IT as decisioneering: IT as the steward of business information takes important responsibilities to ensure the right people getting the right information to make right decisions at the right time. IT must embrace a responsibility to engineer best practice decision paths, “decisioneering" if you will. This demands a disciplined, process-based approach not only to data and information but also a deep understanding of the decisions that need to be made and their impact. IT must design information strategies around decisions. IT needs to be seamlessly embedded into the business decision processes, also plays a crucial role in building an information -based decision-making culture. At traditional companies, both strategic decisions and operations decisions are often based on static or even outdated information available and the “gut feeling” of decision makers. Now the abundance of information flow and the more advanced digital technologies make it possible to gain real-time insight and business foresight if organizations are truly being digitized underneath, at the process level. What should be focused on is to integrate IT into the business decision-making processes to be highly responsive. Hence, running IT as decisioneering will help to build a high-intelligent and high-agile organization.
IT has to get more involved in the business as Solutioneering: Traditional IT is run as an inside-out operational driven service provider and measured via internal IT lenses. IT managers who become territorial over the department only compound the problem. Hence, in order to reinvent IT as an outside-in customer-centered business partner for problem solving. IT needs to be ‘Solutionary’ to understand how the organization works and then give solutions that will increase the functionality to lower cost and, if applicable, increase output. That means a higher profit. Besides improving efficiency, IT should become strategic focused and increase profitability for the organization. The focus of IT needs to engage with the business units to find out how the department is perceived, what the pain points are and to identify opportunities for developing new services or improving/optimizing current ones. A CIO can't just sit back and apply yesterday’s techniques to today's problems, the key is engagement with the business. The CIO has a role in selling the merits of IT to the business and quantifying projects in terms of ROI. To put simply, IT should be the solutioneers for adding values and spurring innovation.
IT is an engineering discipline, as always, but adding more enriched digital context: Digital CIOs are intrapreneur to run IT as a software startup. They apply scientific logic with the structural approach and engineering discipline to break big business problems down into deliverable chunks for delivering value to the business at regular intervals. From software management perspective, it is the stepwise scenario to identify mindsets, technical and nontechnical strategies, and tactics needed to realize the new software engineering approach. This would include strategic and tactical planning, Systems Engineering, concurrent engineering, project design, quality engineering, portfolio management and optimization, systems ecology, etc. Digital organizations become more dynamic and responsive, open systems concepts will focus on meeting the needs of the environment, socialization will improve collaborations, communications, cooperations, and coordinations and software economics will increase customer value. Digital engineering approach is combined with the simplification of programming tools and proliferation of “DIY” - doing it yourself interfaces. An effective CIO’s job is to improve operations to reduce the burden on the company while trying to stay current with ever-changing technologies. That includes reducing costs, improving systems, streamlining processes and providing continually expanding business solutions.
The purpose of IT is to move the business forward with the speed. Technology and its associated methodologies and practices are parts of that leverage mechanism. IT role is critical to operational business success, but it is ever more important for business strategy and digital transformation via practicing decisioneering, solutioneering, and engineering discipline. Still, IT is the means to the end, not the end itself.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
