Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1337
May 15, 2016
The Spotlight on Digital CIOs May. 2016
Modern CIOs have many personas and face great challenges.
Modern CIOs have many personas and face great challenges. It is not sufficient to only keep the light on. Regardless of which industry or the nature of organization you are in, being a digital leader will need to master the art of creating unique, differentiating value from piles of commoditized technologies, but more specifically, what are the digital-savvy CIOs doing to run IT as a value creator and innovation engine? Here is the monthly spotlight of the CIO.
The Profiles of Digital CIOs May 2016CIOs as Talent Master: Three Aspects of Retooling Talent Management People are always the most important asset of the organization.The digital dynamic continues to evolve with increasing speed of change and rapid integration of the business across the globe. Talent Management is throwing fresh challenges and calls for radical change to be embraced. Talent Management has adapted to the changing workforce in the changing workplace and added additional best of breed talent and engagement systems to their existing core.
CIOs as Change Agent: Five Perils of Changes Management Change is the only constant, and the speed of change is increasing rapidly. Organizations large or small spend the significant time and resource to deal with the big changes such as radical digital transformation or small changes such as adopting a new version of software. And statistically, more than 70% of Change Management effort fail to achieve the expected result, what are the perils of Change Management, and how to manage change more effectively?
CIOs as a Digital Pro: Due to the abundance of information and omnipresence of technology, IT plays a pivotal role in businesses’ digital transformation journey. Transformation means to change the "nature" of something, albeit that the increasing pace of technological advances has clearly impacted the nature and scope of opportunity. Digital transformation represents a break with the past, with a high level of impact and complexity. Transformation efforts need to be undertaken as the means of getting to a defined different capability to accomplish a defined goal. CIO as an IT and digital leader, how to be a digital pro and lead effectively and effortlessly?
CIOs as Chief Improvement Officer: How to Leverage DevOp to Improving IT Agility: IT plays a significant role in building the organization’s change capability to adapt to the digital new normal. Need for agility arises due to changes in underlying assumptions. Every CIO may ask self: Is IT responsive and proactive enough to find answers and solutions in case of emerging chances? Does IT have a platform which is scalable, secure, resilient and well interconnected? For achieving agility, IT leaders should both apply the digital management philosophy based on a set of Agile principles, but also leverage DevOp and take a series of practices to improving IT effectiveness and maturity.
CIOs as Chief Influence Officer: How does a CIO Make a Digital Influence: Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology and capability. IT plays a pivotal role in digital transformation. Given the power of SMAC technologies and abundance of information to fuel business innovations, how does a CIO make the multitude of digital influence, like a Pro?
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with about #2800th 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
Modern CIOs have many personas and face great challenges. It is not sufficient to only keep the light on. Regardless of which industry or the nature of organization you are in, being a digital leader will need to master the art of creating unique, differentiating value from piles of commoditized technologies, but more specifically, what are the digital-savvy CIOs doing to run IT as a value creator and innovation engine? Here is the monthly spotlight of the CIO.
The Profiles of Digital CIOs May 2016CIOs as Talent Master: Three Aspects of Retooling Talent Management People are always the most important asset of the organization.The digital dynamic continues to evolve with increasing speed of change and rapid integration of the business across the globe. Talent Management is throwing fresh challenges and calls for radical change to be embraced. Talent Management has adapted to the changing workforce in the changing workplace and added additional best of breed talent and engagement systems to their existing core.
CIOs as Change Agent: Five Perils of Changes Management Change is the only constant, and the speed of change is increasing rapidly. Organizations large or small spend the significant time and resource to deal with the big changes such as radical digital transformation or small changes such as adopting a new version of software. And statistically, more than 70% of Change Management effort fail to achieve the expected result, what are the perils of Change Management, and how to manage change more effectively?
CIOs as a Digital Pro: Due to the abundance of information and omnipresence of technology, IT plays a pivotal role in businesses’ digital transformation journey. Transformation means to change the "nature" of something, albeit that the increasing pace of technological advances has clearly impacted the nature and scope of opportunity. Digital transformation represents a break with the past, with a high level of impact and complexity. Transformation efforts need to be undertaken as the means of getting to a defined different capability to accomplish a defined goal. CIO as an IT and digital leader, how to be a digital pro and lead effectively and effortlessly?
CIOs as Chief Improvement Officer: How to Leverage DevOp to Improving IT Agility: IT plays a significant role in building the organization’s change capability to adapt to the digital new normal. Need for agility arises due to changes in underlying assumptions. Every CIO may ask self: Is IT responsive and proactive enough to find answers and solutions in case of emerging chances? Does IT have a platform which is scalable, secure, resilient and well interconnected? For achieving agility, IT leaders should both apply the digital management philosophy based on a set of Agile principles, but also leverage DevOp and take a series of practices to improving IT effectiveness and maturity.
CIOs as Chief Influence Officer: How does a CIO Make a Digital Influence: Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology and capability. IT plays a pivotal role in digital transformation. Given the power of SMAC technologies and abundance of information to fuel business innovations, how does a CIO make the multitude of digital influence, like a Pro?The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with about #2800th 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
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Passion
Passion is a strong emotion and the enthusiasm to do something. People are passionate about different things. We are all different. It takes passion to fuel energy and overcome obstacles to reach new height; it takes passion to learn, grow, fail forward or start over. Does passion come from the heart of mind, how to assess a person’s passion?
Does vision kindle your passion? Passion is an inspiration which is often accompanied by vision. Passion can sustain and can be the drive to realize visions. With a clear vision and a strong belief system, you will develop a passion for putting efforts to do worthy things. With solid core values and strong disciple, you can then channel that passionate energy in a positive way. Passion should never take precedence over judgment. Following the passion also requires a good sense of judgment that you are on a right path. Therefore, vision is crucial to sustaining passion. Visionary could mean the ability to think outside the box, to think creatively, to be innovative both inside and outside the certain boundaries, Visionary is the one who can envision the future but not necessarily have plans and actions to get it. And passion further drives people to planning and taking action for reaching the vision. Therefore, passion seems to help ‘brighten the future' where being visionary is 'making the future.'
Can passion fuel creativity? Passion is an emotion, which is something that comes from within passion. Passion enables determination, creativity, strategy, and talent. If you do not have the passion for what you do, determination, creativity, talent, and strategy become hard work which in turn disables determination etc. On one hand, we have the level of curiosity, desire to learn and natural ability to maintain an open and inquisitive mind, and on the other hand, we have the conditions of the environment in which we operate, with all the restrictions, the needs, the gaps and pressures that might push our creative minds to soar. Be passionate about learning and growing. Passion does fuel your imagination and creativity. A passion with a good positive chain of thoughts followed by positive actions brought good results. Optimism is like the gas pedal, passion can give it a push. Optimism is built on a positive perception or a belief linked to one’s expectations some of which may take the time to turn creative thought and ideas into the reality.
How can passion help you grow skills and develop a career? Passion aligned with capabilities and meaningful work is a destination that grows with you. Although passion from a career perspective comes in many forms, it may change based on your set of career "lenses" as you evolve. Be passionate about the learning, the skills you develop will help you as your career evolves, having a passion and building a career around that passion would certainly help to discover “who you are,” and fuel creativity, align your focus and therefore potentially aiding you in greater success. Ultimately, when facing barriers, it depends on the person who faces a situation, how he/she understands it, how he/she understands him/herself, harnesses/leverages the right attributes within him/herself and moves forward. Also, he/she recognizes that failure, pessimism, negative thoughts are also very valuable, as long as he/she does not lose passion, deals learns and improves in the process by it.
What fuels passion? It is a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. It comes both from heart and mind. Passion could fade away, don’t just follow passion blindly, but always connect passion to the vision, let passion fuel creativity, and keep passionate about learning and growth.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
“CIO Master” Book Tuning: From Information Management to Innovation Management
The majority of IT organizations are on the journey to move up the maturity from a support center to an innovation engine of the business. From information to innovation management, what are the logical steps should IT take, and how to manage a balanced innovation portfolio to maximize business value and improve business performance?
A balanced innovation portfolio includes many different types of innovations: Often nowadays, technology is a disruptive force of radical innovation, and the information is the lifeblood to nurture incremental innovation. Hence, IT needs to manage a balanced innovation portfolio including both types of innovations, and with broader “horizon” from service/process innovation to process/business model innovation to communication/culture innovation. Innovation is "a change that adds stakeholder value.” Now if your stakeholders are internal process owners and your output stakeholders are the same, the type of innovation you have is Continuous Innovation. If you take knowledge from one context and bring it over into a new context, you have knowledge or technology transfer innovation. With continuous process improvements, you often reduced costs and increased productivity *without* increased revenue generation. On the other hand, if the change, whether an improvement on an existing process or the addition of an entirely new process, leads to increased revenue generation, either from the expansion of an existing market or the creation of a new market, then it’s more as innovation.
From Information management to innovation management: Information may be one of the most time intensive pieces to innovation puzzles. Information is growing exponentially, and it is humanly impossible to explore all of the "art" out there around a subject or technology. Information analytics may provide certain customer insight or product foresight for drawing the beams of innovation light. There are some critical pieces of information needed for accelerating idea validation such as facts about business ideas, definition, benefits and shortcomings, applications, and competing technologies. Root causes of business problems need to be solved. The components or operations of ideas, what can interact with ideas, and what parameters the innovative ideas might have? Who else is using such new ideas? Who are the industry players? Do you learn some innovative ideas across the industrial border? You also learn what the trend of such new idea is. Identify important technology trends, including potential next-generation innovation waves, as well as the key players who are involved in their development. The original germ of a creative idea is often, if not always arrived at through the interaction of ideas from different domains of thought and experience, or information as general. The implementation of the idea has to follow a logical path to the solution of most types of problem since contemporary society tends to follow logically rather than lateral kinds of structures. Therefore, the actual solution to a problem requires both cross-domain (divergent) cognitive processes as well as logical, convergent ones.
.The process may not conform to any known logic, as it can wander and be influenced by disparate associations brought up during the act of exploring (the rationale between the steps may not have been predictable).
Innovation, in general, is surely a discipline: Innovation is not serendipity, but a systematic process to transform novel ideas and achieve their business values. The bulk of data, methods, and approaches involved as well as the complexity of processes encountered speaks in favor of the scientific approach to innovation management. It covers information management, knowledge, and technology transfer, entrepreneurship and it is closely related to several other disciplines. It stands in between management, economy, psychology, sociology, and law, not speaking about disciplines that are related to technologies implemented by the particular innovation. Theoretical treatment of the discipline may give rise to a science.On the other hand, the subject of the study is very subtle and difficult to distinguish from other sciences mentioned above - in a sense innovation would be a "cross-science."
The nature of how the "implementation of the idea has to follow a logical path for the solution,” and IT as an information hub could become the hotbed to nurture and incubate great ideas, to design a robust, but not overly rigid process for both idea creation, selection, prioritization and overall innovation management. From information management to innovation management, IT can build its value proposition from a service provider to an innovative solution provider, from supporting business to catalyzing business growth.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
May 14, 2016
The Monthly Insight of Digital BoDs: Running a Digital Savvy Corporate Board May, 2016
BoDs with a cognitive difference can make better decisions, and digitize Boardroom with creativity
At today’s “VUCA” digital dynamic, organizations face both unprecedented opportunities to grow and hyper-competition or great risks to survive. Therefore, corporate board plays a more significant role in overseeing business strategy, setting principles and policies, and making the judgment on and assurance of corporate action within a framework of practical knowledge. So how to run a digital savvy board and improve digital organization maturity?
Running a Digital Savvy Corporate BoardA High-Performing Board: Corporate Board plays a significant role in overseeing organizational strategy, practicing governance and exemplifying leadership disciplines. However, most of the boards still operate on a traditional approach to recruiting for expertise and executing its function; what’s the paradigm shift in building a high-performing Board, and how to create the synergy, trust, and confidence of BoDs?
An Innovative Board: There are different types of boards around, some Boards are "working Boards" and have to provide hands-on advice, information, and oversight; other Boards have a more strategic purpose in advising the corporate oversight. Many Boards are often stuck with a view of the rear mirror mindset, looking at the past quarter results, supervising the audit, and reviewing a budget of the coming months. Does Board overall spend enough time on planning for the future -that means dealing with innovation choices?
A Learning Board Due to the increasing velocity and variety of changes in the digital era, corporate board, as one of the most significant governance bodies, also faces the unprecedented changes, including the new perspective of boardroom composition, the priority of boardroom agenda, the stakeholder engagement, as well as the merging strategies or risks driven by the latest digital technology. So what kind of board should be ideal, and how to shape a culture of “learning board” in adapt to the speed of changes?
A Value Added Board: Corporate Board is one of the most significant governance bodies in modern businesses. Generally speaking, Boards have a couple of main functions such as strategy oversight (input, review, etc), governance practices (monitoring, risk management), service (providing advice & support to executives), and resource provision (opening their networks etc.). However, from industry research, very low percentage (less than 30%) of BoDs understand how their organizations create value. This is an absolutely abysmal statistic and is reflective of the fact that the most public company boards have not correctly understood what their primary responsibility is. What’re the principles and practices to run a value-added digital board though?
An Adaptive Board: Corporate Board plays a significant role in over-sighting strategy and practicing governance discipline. The board needs to retain the ability to capture immediate and future opportunities which will enhance their shareholders’ benefit. What makes a board adaptive and effective has to do with cognition, skills, and attributes of BoDs, and that is the most difficult to access. With the increasing speed of changes and unprecedented business velocity and uncertainty, what is the composition of the board in terms of minds, skills and experience need to be in order to add value to achieving the shareholders' expectations? And how to build an adaptive board with learning agility and complementary capabilities and skills to lead through the ongoing changes and radical digital transformation?
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with 2800+ 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; 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
At today’s “VUCA” digital dynamic, organizations face both unprecedented opportunities to grow and hyper-competition or great risks to survive. Therefore, corporate board plays a more significant role in overseeing business strategy, setting principles and policies, and making the judgment on and assurance of corporate action within a framework of practical knowledge. So how to run a digital savvy board and improve digital organization maturity?
Running a Digital Savvy Corporate BoardA High-Performing Board: Corporate Board plays a significant role in overseeing organizational strategy, practicing governance and exemplifying leadership disciplines. However, most of the boards still operate on a traditional approach to recruiting for expertise and executing its function; what’s the paradigm shift in building a high-performing Board, and how to create the synergy, trust, and confidence of BoDs?
An Innovative Board: There are different types of boards around, some Boards are "working Boards" and have to provide hands-on advice, information, and oversight; other Boards have a more strategic purpose in advising the corporate oversight. Many Boards are often stuck with a view of the rear mirror mindset, looking at the past quarter results, supervising the audit, and reviewing a budget of the coming months. Does Board overall spend enough time on planning for the future -that means dealing with innovation choices?
A Learning Board Due to the increasing velocity and variety of changes in the digital era, corporate board, as one of the most significant governance bodies, also faces the unprecedented changes, including the new perspective of boardroom composition, the priority of boardroom agenda, the stakeholder engagement, as well as the merging strategies or risks driven by the latest digital technology. So what kind of board should be ideal, and how to shape a culture of “learning board” in adapt to the speed of changes?
A Value Added Board: Corporate Board is one of the most significant governance bodies in modern businesses. Generally speaking, Boards have a couple of main functions such as strategy oversight (input, review, etc), governance practices (monitoring, risk management), service (providing advice & support to executives), and resource provision (opening their networks etc.). However, from industry research, very low percentage (less than 30%) of BoDs understand how their organizations create value. This is an absolutely abysmal statistic and is reflective of the fact that the most public company boards have not correctly understood what their primary responsibility is. What’re the principles and practices to run a value-added digital board though?
An Adaptive Board: Corporate Board plays a significant role in over-sighting strategy and practicing governance discipline. The board needs to retain the ability to capture immediate and future opportunities which will enhance their shareholders’ benefit. What makes a board adaptive and effective has to do with cognition, skills, and attributes of BoDs, and that is the most difficult to access. With the increasing speed of changes and unprecedented business velocity and uncertainty, what is the composition of the board in terms of minds, skills and experience need to be in order to add value to achieving the shareholders' expectations? And how to build an adaptive board with learning agility and complementary capabilities and skills to lead through the ongoing changes and radical digital transformation?The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with 2800+ 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; 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
Three Questions to Assess a Person’s EGO
We need a well-developed ego but we have to keep it under control.
Ego is an interesting world with both positive and negative meanings. Different dictionaries give synonyms such as “self-esteem,” “'self-importance,” “self-worth.” “self-respect,” “self-conceit,” “self-image,” “self-confidence.” It is often defined as the 'conscious mind' or 'self,’ especially as distinct from the world and other selves.' Ego can be both healthy or toxic, which questions should you ask to assess a person's "EGO"?
Do you have the right dose of EGO? We all have an ego - an ambitious sense of self that drives us to accomplish things. The word ego means a 'sense of self' which means that you are aware of your physical, mental and emotional presences. Others define “ego” as someone with self-awareness, self-determined, and ability to achieve. The suggested categories of healthy ego are self-actualization, self-esteem, self-awareness, and self-pride. However, too much ego is unhealthy, and it can cause problems - an inflated, pompous, selfish drive that fights to win at all costs; to have an overinflated sense of self. A healthy ego, by contrast, is one in service to our higher selves (that intuitive, a more selfless aspect of ourselves that is the truly enduring part). When healthy, the ego still helps us succeed via our own strength in a professional way. With healthy ego, individuals should get involved themselves to help grow that responsibility down to the personal level. Only then can humanity stand a chance and comprehensively see positive results. Putting our EGO aside opens the door to true human actions and interactions.
Do you have "Ego" problem and being perceived as “egotistical”? When people base their self-esteem on how others see them, they are often seen as egotistical. Put yourself above all others without ever caring about or considering the consequences of detriment to others by your actions is what being defined as 'egotistical' behavior. We need a well-developed ego but we have to keep it under control. An ego out of control would use your whole life for ego gratifications. When they focus on what they want and tune into what others want, they develop ego-strength as they pursue their goals and serve others. It's all in the balance of it, the yin and yang. You've got to have a strong sense that you are able to affect big change in order to motivate others to do so. There are quite a few ego-words with both positive and negative implications as well: Ego-awareness is the ability to know that one is consciously making decisions; egotism is the overestimation of the importance of one's ego; ego-centricity is behavior that is motivated by a belief that one's ego is of greater importance than others' are; ego-driven is used to describe someone who is motivated by a real or fantasy view of their own ego. Ego-strength is one pursues his/her goals and serves others as well.
How to be confident without too much EGO Many people confuse confidence with ego. It is good to be confident in a natural way and there is no ego in that. However, if your confidence is based on trying to cover up your inner weakness or fear of being seen for who you really are that is definitely an unhealthy ego.When you identify with your higher self, strength, spirit, or some other definition of the higher part of you which is not egotistical, you feel totally at peace. You have a sense of natural humility because you don't need to prove anything to anyone. You do not prevent yourself from shining or standing out in a group when needed, nor do you push yourself ahead of others or stamp on them or try to make them feel small. You have a natural respect for all life and an innate understanding that every human being is valuable.
Like many things in the world, it’s all about balance. Too much ego has one thinking too much of oneself: minimizing, marginalizing and dismissing the perspectives of others. Too little ego has one not believing in oneself, lack of confidence and self-esteem. The pendulum can swing to either side. The goal is to maintain the right level of healthy ego, and grow into a high-quality digital professional.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Ego is an interesting world with both positive and negative meanings. Different dictionaries give synonyms such as “self-esteem,” “'self-importance,” “self-worth.” “self-respect,” “self-conceit,” “self-image,” “self-confidence.” It is often defined as the 'conscious mind' or 'self,’ especially as distinct from the world and other selves.' Ego can be both healthy or toxic, which questions should you ask to assess a person's "EGO"?
Do you have the right dose of EGO? We all have an ego - an ambitious sense of self that drives us to accomplish things. The word ego means a 'sense of self' which means that you are aware of your physical, mental and emotional presences. Others define “ego” as someone with self-awareness, self-determined, and ability to achieve. The suggested categories of healthy ego are self-actualization, self-esteem, self-awareness, and self-pride. However, too much ego is unhealthy, and it can cause problems - an inflated, pompous, selfish drive that fights to win at all costs; to have an overinflated sense of self. A healthy ego, by contrast, is one in service to our higher selves (that intuitive, a more selfless aspect of ourselves that is the truly enduring part). When healthy, the ego still helps us succeed via our own strength in a professional way. With healthy ego, individuals should get involved themselves to help grow that responsibility down to the personal level. Only then can humanity stand a chance and comprehensively see positive results. Putting our EGO aside opens the door to true human actions and interactions.
Do you have "Ego" problem and being perceived as “egotistical”? When people base their self-esteem on how others see them, they are often seen as egotistical. Put yourself above all others without ever caring about or considering the consequences of detriment to others by your actions is what being defined as 'egotistical' behavior. We need a well-developed ego but we have to keep it under control. An ego out of control would use your whole life for ego gratifications. When they focus on what they want and tune into what others want, they develop ego-strength as they pursue their goals and serve others. It's all in the balance of it, the yin and yang. You've got to have a strong sense that you are able to affect big change in order to motivate others to do so. There are quite a few ego-words with both positive and negative implications as well: Ego-awareness is the ability to know that one is consciously making decisions; egotism is the overestimation of the importance of one's ego; ego-centricity is behavior that is motivated by a belief that one's ego is of greater importance than others' are; ego-driven is used to describe someone who is motivated by a real or fantasy view of their own ego. Ego-strength is one pursues his/her goals and serves others as well.
How to be confident without too much EGO Many people confuse confidence with ego. It is good to be confident in a natural way and there is no ego in that. However, if your confidence is based on trying to cover up your inner weakness or fear of being seen for who you really are that is definitely an unhealthy ego.When you identify with your higher self, strength, spirit, or some other definition of the higher part of you which is not egotistical, you feel totally at peace. You have a sense of natural humility because you don't need to prove anything to anyone. You do not prevent yourself from shining or standing out in a group when needed, nor do you push yourself ahead of others or stamp on them or try to make them feel small. You have a natural respect for all life and an innate understanding that every human being is valuable.Like many things in the world, it’s all about balance. Too much ego has one thinking too much of oneself: minimizing, marginalizing and dismissing the perspectives of others. Too little ego has one not believing in oneself, lack of confidence and self-esteem. The pendulum can swing to either side. The goal is to maintain the right level of healthy ego, and grow into a high-quality digital professional.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
"CIO Master" Book Tuning XXXII: Why Some CIOs Meddle in the Middle?
IT needs to be viewed as leading and integral to growth and transformation as well as digitization.
With the increasing speed of change and overloading information, IT plays a more significant role in the organization’s digital transformation. The CIO also needs to be a digital leader, rather than just a transactional manager, in order to make positive leadership influence across the organization and beyond. A CIO is expected to integral IT as part of business, align IT goal with business strategies, and hence, to ensure IT provides business solutions and become innovation engine to the organization. However, many IT leaders still manage in the “industrial mode” to run IT as a silo function, try to get alignment with business, rather than being an integral part of business. No wonder there are still many CIOs meddle in the middle. More specifically, what are the roadblocks that stop IT executives shift from acting as tactical managers to becoming digital savvy business leaders?
Lack of business leadership/vision: The CIO as a business leader, not just an IT manager, needs to spend significant time in strategic planning, as IT strategy is an integral element of corporate strategy. The CIO role should have the same responsibilities as the rest of the C-level group with regards to creating the enterprise strategy. Understanding business needs is the key success factor for the digital CIO, to have a vision of IT strategies as an integral element of business strategy based on the existing and the future business needs as well, and CIOs need to be the information master who can convey the technological vision and in-depth business insight. It’s an intimate understanding of the business, inspires teams to clearly see the picture of a better tomorrow, and communicating that vision in a way in which the picture becomes clear to those who can provide direction, funding or permission to execute the vision for the benefit of the organization. The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! If the CIO comes only to speak about IT, he or she only acts as a functional manager, but in fact, the CIO is one of the most senior IT executives in an organization, and therefore, must be at the enterprise strategy table for co-creating business strategy, with IT as an integral element, from start to finish and then onto being part of the execution plan, owning and driving IT-enabled business goals as a result. CIO role as C-level is to contribute to the formulation of the business strategy where new trends of technology will provide strategic capabilities to the business that will enhance the competitive advantages of the organization. Without a clear vision, CIOs will meddle in the middle, and IT will get stuck at the lower level of maturity.
Lack of business-savvy: In order to be an effective Digital CIO, you must understand every aspect of the business. Unfortunately, too many CIOs are seen as just techies by the business side of the house, and the IT departments see CIOs as a tactical IT Managers who don't have enough hands-on business experience. A digital CIO is a trustful business advisor, who needs to provide expert advice and recommendations, to the rest of the executive leadership. The honest justification for a recommendation to adopt new digital technologies or not as requested by executive leadership requires that the CIO has built a level of trust with the executive team first. It is a tough balance to have business acumen and be fluent on technology understanding at the same time. People come in from outside of IT perform well as CIOs as long as their role is properly understood, so it should also work the other way around, IT ranked CIOs need to learn the business and gain an in-depth understanding of end customers as well. Make IT more shared, integrated, flexible, reliable, and fast. Get engaged in the investment process prior to the decision already being made, and keep IT running flawlessly at the prevailing level of sophistication.
Lack of world class team that do the magic or lack of access to that pool of talent: People are the most critical asset in organizations and digital is the age of people. IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today. IT needs both specialized generalists to bridge the “culture chasm” between business and IT, and dedicated specialists to solve specific technical problems. IT also has to digitalize the processes of talent management and performance management not just within IT, but across the business boundary and expand the digital talent pipeline to ensure hiring the right people in the right position to do the right work. High-potential IT professionals need to take the calculated risk to grow on their own, gain diverse experience, build a unique set of capability, and become “who they want to be.” They need to develop many important skills such as learning agility, cross-departmental collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation, etc. Often IT leaders too narrowly look specific problems and handy project requirement, but the lack of a broad view of their organization and long-term talent strategy for the business, that enlarges IT talent gaps; or the miscommunication between IT & HR causes the “artificial skills gap” in leapfrogging IT agility and maturity. IT leaders as talent master should keep up on standards within their domain that can lead to the holistic enterprise viewpoint and execution of IT strategies that fit within that enterprise viewpoint.
Lack of a full set of digital capability: The capability is the ability to achieve the desired effect under specified performance standards and conditions through combinations of ways, activities, and resources to perform a set of activities. The enterprise consists of a set of capabilities. And IT is one of the most critical elements, and often the “superglue” in business capability building. The organization then uses these capabilities to understand the market environment, create new products and services and then deliver products and services. The business is then designed around the experience. IT is an important component of many differentiated business capabilities. The constraint is in getting all of the systems up to a current technology to snap into an enterprise information strategy. With the accelerated digital speed, IT needs to shift from “fixing things broken” reactively to “building business capability” proactively; and be good at the multitude of digital IT management which includes strategy management, portfolio management, change management, cost management, and GRC. etc. IT also needs to shift from inside-out operation driven to outside-in customer-centricity. It takes innovative leadership to reimagine IT and it takes a structural approach to reinventing IT effectively. CIOs as IT leaders need to be able to recognize the struggles of the company by understanding the business beyond IT. They must be transformational leaders that not only manage the IT group but also work to integrate and lead the integration (not merely alignment) of IT to business processes in building\ differentiate business capabilities and the strategic value proposition.
Lack of true partners instead of contractually inflexible suppliers: Every IT project is a business project with clear business goals, especially today's software project is not only for automation's sake, the purpose of many of complex projects are optimizing business processes and deliver the better result with lower cost, so innovation is key from many perspectives. Therefore, IT leaders should set clear guidelines to select trustful business partners who can take extra miles, and contribute to IT efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. For example, the innovation capabilities IT vendors can provide to their clients are to connect the dots. Those IT vendors work with their clients across industries, across cultures, accumulate many success stories and, even more, failure anecdotes to benefit their client, for adopting the best solutions and avoid pitfalls, modernizing legacy application via borrowing the fresh idea from totally different industry or culture.
Leadership is about creating a powerful future that is compelling in the present, that utilizes the best talents, capabilities, and resources of their people and organization to produce meaningful and valuable results. For the CIO to become an inspiring digital leader, that simply means being a proper "C-level" leader to build strong and value-creating relationships with C-suites, between IT and vendors or suppliers; and build a strong team with a strong bench. Setup idea forums to engage the business and build business liaisons proactively to help shape the problem or opportunity before it becomes a project. This starts to build credibility outside of just managing the "run" side of things. Then you can become more strategic. Be integral to business strategy on the top of effective and efficient delivery of services and solutions.
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
With the increasing speed of change and overloading information, IT plays a more significant role in the organization’s digital transformation. The CIO also needs to be a digital leader, rather than just a transactional manager, in order to make positive leadership influence across the organization and beyond. A CIO is expected to integral IT as part of business, align IT goal with business strategies, and hence, to ensure IT provides business solutions and become innovation engine to the organization. However, many IT leaders still manage in the “industrial mode” to run IT as a silo function, try to get alignment with business, rather than being an integral part of business. No wonder there are still many CIOs meddle in the middle. More specifically, what are the roadblocks that stop IT executives shift from acting as tactical managers to becoming digital savvy business leaders?
Lack of business leadership/vision: The CIO as a business leader, not just an IT manager, needs to spend significant time in strategic planning, as IT strategy is an integral element of corporate strategy. The CIO role should have the same responsibilities as the rest of the C-level group with regards to creating the enterprise strategy. Understanding business needs is the key success factor for the digital CIO, to have a vision of IT strategies as an integral element of business strategy based on the existing and the future business needs as well, and CIOs need to be the information master who can convey the technological vision and in-depth business insight. It’s an intimate understanding of the business, inspires teams to clearly see the picture of a better tomorrow, and communicating that vision in a way in which the picture becomes clear to those who can provide direction, funding or permission to execute the vision for the benefit of the organization. The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! If the CIO comes only to speak about IT, he or she only acts as a functional manager, but in fact, the CIO is one of the most senior IT executives in an organization, and therefore, must be at the enterprise strategy table for co-creating business strategy, with IT as an integral element, from start to finish and then onto being part of the execution plan, owning and driving IT-enabled business goals as a result. CIO role as C-level is to contribute to the formulation of the business strategy where new trends of technology will provide strategic capabilities to the business that will enhance the competitive advantages of the organization. Without a clear vision, CIOs will meddle in the middle, and IT will get stuck at the lower level of maturity.
Lack of business-savvy: In order to be an effective Digital CIO, you must understand every aspect of the business. Unfortunately, too many CIOs are seen as just techies by the business side of the house, and the IT departments see CIOs as a tactical IT Managers who don't have enough hands-on business experience. A digital CIO is a trustful business advisor, who needs to provide expert advice and recommendations, to the rest of the executive leadership. The honest justification for a recommendation to adopt new digital technologies or not as requested by executive leadership requires that the CIO has built a level of trust with the executive team first. It is a tough balance to have business acumen and be fluent on technology understanding at the same time. People come in from outside of IT perform well as CIOs as long as their role is properly understood, so it should also work the other way around, IT ranked CIOs need to learn the business and gain an in-depth understanding of end customers as well. Make IT more shared, integrated, flexible, reliable, and fast. Get engaged in the investment process prior to the decision already being made, and keep IT running flawlessly at the prevailing level of sophistication.
Lack of world class team that do the magic or lack of access to that pool of talent: People are the most critical asset in organizations and digital is the age of people. IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today. IT needs both specialized generalists to bridge the “culture chasm” between business and IT, and dedicated specialists to solve specific technical problems. IT also has to digitalize the processes of talent management and performance management not just within IT, but across the business boundary and expand the digital talent pipeline to ensure hiring the right people in the right position to do the right work. High-potential IT professionals need to take the calculated risk to grow on their own, gain diverse experience, build a unique set of capability, and become “who they want to be.” They need to develop many important skills such as learning agility, cross-departmental collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation, etc. Often IT leaders too narrowly look specific problems and handy project requirement, but the lack of a broad view of their organization and long-term talent strategy for the business, that enlarges IT talent gaps; or the miscommunication between IT & HR causes the “artificial skills gap” in leapfrogging IT agility and maturity. IT leaders as talent master should keep up on standards within their domain that can lead to the holistic enterprise viewpoint and execution of IT strategies that fit within that enterprise viewpoint.
Lack of a full set of digital capability: The capability is the ability to achieve the desired effect under specified performance standards and conditions through combinations of ways, activities, and resources to perform a set of activities. The enterprise consists of a set of capabilities. And IT is one of the most critical elements, and often the “superglue” in business capability building. The organization then uses these capabilities to understand the market environment, create new products and services and then deliver products and services. The business is then designed around the experience. IT is an important component of many differentiated business capabilities. The constraint is in getting all of the systems up to a current technology to snap into an enterprise information strategy. With the accelerated digital speed, IT needs to shift from “fixing things broken” reactively to “building business capability” proactively; and be good at the multitude of digital IT management which includes strategy management, portfolio management, change management, cost management, and GRC. etc. IT also needs to shift from inside-out operation driven to outside-in customer-centricity. It takes innovative leadership to reimagine IT and it takes a structural approach to reinventing IT effectively. CIOs as IT leaders need to be able to recognize the struggles of the company by understanding the business beyond IT. They must be transformational leaders that not only manage the IT group but also work to integrate and lead the integration (not merely alignment) of IT to business processes in building\ differentiate business capabilities and the strategic value proposition.
Lack of true partners instead of contractually inflexible suppliers: Every IT project is a business project with clear business goals, especially today's software project is not only for automation's sake, the purpose of many of complex projects are optimizing business processes and deliver the better result with lower cost, so innovation is key from many perspectives. Therefore, IT leaders should set clear guidelines to select trustful business partners who can take extra miles, and contribute to IT efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. For example, the innovation capabilities IT vendors can provide to their clients are to connect the dots. Those IT vendors work with their clients across industries, across cultures, accumulate many success stories and, even more, failure anecdotes to benefit their client, for adopting the best solutions and avoid pitfalls, modernizing legacy application via borrowing the fresh idea from totally different industry or culture.
Leadership is about creating a powerful future that is compelling in the present, that utilizes the best talents, capabilities, and resources of their people and organization to produce meaningful and valuable results. For the CIO to become an inspiring digital leader, that simply means being a proper "C-level" leader to build strong and value-creating relationships with C-suites, between IT and vendors or suppliers; and build a strong team with a strong bench. Setup idea forums to engage the business and build business liaisons proactively to help shape the problem or opportunity before it becomes a project. This starts to build credibility outside of just managing the "run" side of things. Then you can become more strategic. Be integral to business strategy on the top of effective and efficient delivery of services and solutions.
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
Why Some CIOs Meddle in the Middle?
IT needs to be viewed as leading and integral to growth and transformation as well as digitization.
With the increasing speed of change and overloading information, IT plays a more significant role in the organization’s digital transformation. The CIO also needs to be a digital leader, rather than just a transactional manager, in order to make positive leadership influence across the organization and beyond. A CIO is expected to integral IT as part of business, align IT goal with business strategies, and hence, to ensure IT provides business solutions and become innovation engine to the organization. However, many IT leaders still manage in the “industrial mode” to run IT as a silo function, try to get alignment with business, rather than being an integral part of business. No wonder there are still many CIOs meddle in the middle. More specifically, what are the roadblocks that stop IT executives shift from acting as tactical managers to becoming digital savvy business leaders?
Lack of business leadership/vision: The CIO as a business leader, not just an IT manager, needs to spend significant time in strategic planning, as IT strategy is an integral element of corporate strategy. The CIO role should have the same responsibilities as the rest of the C-level group with regards to creating the enterprise strategy. Understanding business needs is the key success factor for the digital CIO, to have a vision of IT strategies as an integral element of business strategy based on the existing and the future business needs as well, and CIOs need to be the information master who can convey the technological vision and in-depth business insight. It’s an intimate understanding of the business, inspires teams to clearly see the picture of a better tomorrow, and communicating that vision in a way in which the picture becomes clear to those who can provide direction, funding or permission to execute the vision for the benefit of the organization. The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! If the CIO comes only to speak about IT, he or she only acts as a functional manager, but in fact, the CIO is one of the most senior IT executives in an organization, and therefore, must be at the enterprise strategy table for co-creating business strategy, with IT as an integral element, from start to finish and then onto being part of the execution plan, owning and driving IT-enabled business goals as a result. CIO role as C-level is to contribute to the formulation of the business strategy where new trends of technology will provide strategic capabilities to the business that will enhance the competitive advantages of the organization. Without a clear vision, CIOs will meddle in the middle, and IT will get stuck at the lower level of maturity.
Lack of business-savvy: In order to be an effective Digital CIO, you must understand every aspect of the business. Unfortunately, too many CIOs are seen as just techies by the business side of the house, and the IT departments see CIOs as a tactical IT Managers who don't have enough hands-on business experience. A digital CIO is a trustful business advisor, who needs to provide expert advice and recommendations, to the rest of the executive leadership. The honest justification for a recommendation to adopt new digital technologies or not as requested by executive leadership requires that the CIO has built a level of trust with the executive team first. It is a tough balance to have business acumen and be fluent on technology understanding at the same time. People come in from outside of IT perform well as CIOs as long as their role is properly understood, so it should also work the other way around, IT ranked CIOs need to learn the business and gain an in-depth understanding of end customers as well. Make IT more shared, integrated, flexible, reliable, and fast. Get engaged in the investment process prior to the decision already being made, and keep IT running flawlessly at the prevailing level of sophistication.
Lack of world class team that do the magic or lack of access to that pool of talent: People are the most critical asset in organizations and digital is the age of people. IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today. IT needs both specialized generalists to bridge the “culture chasm” between business and IT, and dedicated specialists to solve specific technical problems. IT also has to digitalize the processes of talent management and performance management not just within IT, but across the business boundary and expand the digital talent pipeline to ensure hiring the right people in the right position to do the right work. High-potential IT professionals need to take the calculated risk to grow on their own, gain diverse experience, build a unique set of capability, and become “who they want to be.” They need to develop many important skills such as learning agility, cross-departmental collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation, etc. Often IT leaders too narrowly look specific problems and handy project requirement, but the lack of a broad view of their organization and long-term talent strategy for the business, that enlarges IT talent gaps; or the miscommunication between IT & HR causes the “artificial skills gap” in leapfrogging IT agility and maturity. IT leaders as talent master should keep up on standards within their domain that can lead to the holistic enterprise viewpoint and execution of IT strategies that fit within that enterprise viewpoint.
Lack of a full set of digital capability: The capability is the ability to achieve the desired effect under specified performance standards and conditions through combinations of ways, activities, and resources to perform a set of activities. The enterprise consists of a set of capabilities. And IT is one of the most critical elements, and often the “superglue” in business capability building. The organization then uses these capabilities to understand the market environment, create new products and services and then deliver products and services. The business is then designed around the experience. IT is an important component of many differentiated business capabilities. The constraint is in getting all of the systems up to a current technology to snap into an enterprise information strategy. With the accelerated digital speed, IT needs to shift from “fixing things broken” reactively to “building business capability” proactively; and be good at the multitude of digital IT management which includes strategy management, portfolio management, change management, cost management, and GRC. etc. IT also needs to shift from inside-out operation driven to outside-in customer-centricity. It takes innovative leadership to reimagine IT and it takes a structural approach to reinventing IT effectively. CIOs as IT leaders need to be able to recognize the struggles of the company by understanding the business beyond IT. They must be transformational leaders that not only manage the IT group but also work to integrate and lead the integration (not merely alignment) of IT to business processes in building\ differentiate business capabilities and the strategic value proposition.
Lack of true partners instead of contractually inflexible suppliers: Every IT project is a business project with clear business goals, especially today's software project is not only for automation's sake, the purpose of many of complex projects are optimizing business processes and deliver the better result with lower cost, so innovation is key from many perspectives. Therefore, IT leaders should set clear guidelines to select trustful business partners who can take extra miles, and contribute to IT efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. For example, the innovation capabilities IT vendors can provide to their clients are to connect the dots. Those IT vendors work with their clients across industries, across cultures, accumulate many success stories and, even more, failure anecdotes to benefit their client, for adopting the best solutions and avoid pitfalls, modernizing legacy application via borrowing the fresh idea from totally different industry or culture.
Leadership is about creating a powerful future that is compelling in the present, that utilizes the best talents, capabilities, and resources of their people and organization to produce meaningful and valuable results. For the CIO to become an inspiring digital leader, that simply means being a proper "C-level" leader to build strong and value-creating relationships with C-suites, between IT and vendors or suppliers; and build a strong team with a strong bench. Setup idea forums to engage the business and build business liaisons proactively to help shape the problem or opportunity before it becomes a project. This starts to build credibility outside of just managing the "run" side of things. Then you can become more strategic. Be integral to business strategy on the top of effective and efficient delivery of services and solutions.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
With the increasing speed of change and overloading information, IT plays a more significant role in the organization’s digital transformation. The CIO also needs to be a digital leader, rather than just a transactional manager, in order to make positive leadership influence across the organization and beyond. A CIO is expected to integral IT as part of business, align IT goal with business strategies, and hence, to ensure IT provides business solutions and become innovation engine to the organization. However, many IT leaders still manage in the “industrial mode” to run IT as a silo function, try to get alignment with business, rather than being an integral part of business. No wonder there are still many CIOs meddle in the middle. More specifically, what are the roadblocks that stop IT executives shift from acting as tactical managers to becoming digital savvy business leaders?
Lack of business leadership/vision: The CIO as a business leader, not just an IT manager, needs to spend significant time in strategic planning, as IT strategy is an integral element of corporate strategy. The CIO role should have the same responsibilities as the rest of the C-level group with regards to creating the enterprise strategy. Understanding business needs is the key success factor for the digital CIO, to have a vision of IT strategies as an integral element of business strategy based on the existing and the future business needs as well, and CIOs need to be the information master who can convey the technological vision and in-depth business insight. It’s an intimate understanding of the business, inspires teams to clearly see the picture of a better tomorrow, and communicating that vision in a way in which the picture becomes clear to those who can provide direction, funding or permission to execute the vision for the benefit of the organization. The biggest challenge now is the increasing rate of change, and this isn't going to change! If the CIO comes only to speak about IT, he or she only acts as a functional manager, but in fact, the CIO is one of the most senior IT executives in an organization, and therefore, must be at the enterprise strategy table for co-creating business strategy, with IT as an integral element, from start to finish and then onto being part of the execution plan, owning and driving IT-enabled business goals as a result. CIO role as C-level is to contribute to the formulation of the business strategy where new trends of technology will provide strategic capabilities to the business that will enhance the competitive advantages of the organization. Without a clear vision, CIOs will meddle in the middle, and IT will get stuck at the lower level of maturity.
Lack of business-savvy: In order to be an effective Digital CIO, you must understand every aspect of the business. Unfortunately, too many CIOs are seen as just techies by the business side of the house, and the IT departments see CIOs as a tactical IT Managers who don't have enough hands-on business experience. A digital CIO is a trustful business advisor, who needs to provide expert advice and recommendations, to the rest of the executive leadership. The honest justification for a recommendation to adopt new digital technologies or not as requested by executive leadership requires that the CIO has built a level of trust with the executive team first. It is a tough balance to have business acumen and be fluent on technology understanding at the same time. People come in from outside of IT perform well as CIOs as long as their role is properly understood, so it should also work the other way around, IT ranked CIOs need to learn the business and gain an in-depth understanding of end customers as well. Make IT more shared, integrated, flexible, reliable, and fast. Get engaged in the investment process prior to the decision already being made, and keep IT running flawlessly at the prevailing level of sophistication.
Lack of world class team that do the magic or lack of access to that pool of talent: People are the most critical asset in organizations and digital is the age of people. IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today. IT needs both specialized generalists to bridge the “culture chasm” between business and IT, and dedicated specialists to solve specific technical problems. IT also has to digitalize the processes of talent management and performance management not just within IT, but across the business boundary and expand the digital talent pipeline to ensure hiring the right people in the right position to do the right work. High-potential IT professionals need to take the calculated risk to grow on their own, gain diverse experience, build a unique set of capability, and become “who they want to be.” They need to develop many important skills such as learning agility, cross-departmental collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation, etc. Often IT leaders too narrowly look specific problems and handy project requirement, but the lack of a broad view of their organization and long-term talent strategy for the business, that enlarges IT talent gaps; or the miscommunication between IT & HR causes the “artificial skills gap” in leapfrogging IT agility and maturity. IT leaders as talent master should keep up on standards within their domain that can lead to the holistic enterprise viewpoint and execution of IT strategies that fit within that enterprise viewpoint.
Lack of a full set of digital capability: The capability is the ability to achieve the desired effect under specified performance standards and conditions through combinations of ways, activities, and resources to perform a set of activities. The enterprise consists of a set of capabilities. And IT is one of the most critical elements, and often the “superglue” in business capability building. The organization then uses these capabilities to understand the market environment, create new products and services and then deliver products and services. The business is then designed around the experience. IT is an important component of many differentiated business capabilities. The constraint is in getting all of the systems up to a current technology to snap into an enterprise information strategy. With the accelerated digital speed, IT needs to shift from “fixing things broken” reactively to “building business capability” proactively; and be good at the multitude of digital IT management which includes strategy management, portfolio management, change management, cost management, and GRC. etc. IT also needs to shift from inside-out operation driven to outside-in customer-centricity. It takes innovative leadership to reimagine IT and it takes a structural approach to reinventing IT effectively. CIOs as IT leaders need to be able to recognize the struggles of the company by understanding the business beyond IT. They must be transformational leaders that not only manage the IT group but also work to integrate and lead the integration (not merely alignment) of IT to business processes in building\ differentiate business capabilities and the strategic value proposition.
Lack of true partners instead of contractually inflexible suppliers: Every IT project is a business project with clear business goals, especially today's software project is not only for automation's sake, the purpose of many of complex projects are optimizing business processes and deliver the better result with lower cost, so innovation is key from many perspectives. Therefore, IT leaders should set clear guidelines to select trustful business partners who can take extra miles, and contribute to IT efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. For example, the innovation capabilities IT vendors can provide to their clients are to connect the dots. Those IT vendors work with their clients across industries, across cultures, accumulate many success stories and, even more, failure anecdotes to benefit their client, for adopting the best solutions and avoid pitfalls, modernizing legacy application via borrowing the fresh idea from totally different industry or culture.
Leadership is about creating a powerful future that is compelling in the present, that utilizes the best talents, capabilities, and resources of their people and organization to produce meaningful and valuable results. For the CIO to become an inspiring digital leader, that simply means being a proper "C-level" leader to build strong and value-creating relationships with C-suites, between IT and vendors or suppliers; and build a strong team with a strong bench. Setup idea forums to engage the business and build business liaisons proactively to help shape the problem or opportunity before it becomes a project. This starts to build credibility outside of just managing the "run" side of things. Then you can become more strategic. Be integral to business strategy on the top of effective and efficient delivery of services and solutions.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
May 13, 2016
The Monthly CIO Debates Collection May 2016
Debating is not for stimulating conflicts, but for brainstorming better ways to do things.
Due to the changing nature of technology, IT leadership role also continues to involve & shift the focus, to move up the maturity level. More and more CIOs are requested to take more responsibility and many CIOs present the breadth of leadership competency. The proactive IT debates help IT leaders to brainstorm innovative and better ways to do things, and improve management capabilities. Here are the monthly CIO debates collections May 2016.
The Monthly CIO Debates Collection May. 2016What are Qualities and Skill Set to Fill CIO Role? CIOs today need to play a different role and wear multiple hats, therefore, they come from different background, take diverse career path, there’s no one size fitting all skill or stereotypical image to portray a modern CIO, however, there are certain leadership qualities and desired skill set to fill the role.
Is Business & IT Gap ‘Artificial’? The “gap” between business and IT is always a hot debate, and the conclusion is also controversial, some say, the gap is definitely shrinking, as IT is gradually becoming engrained into every aspect of business these days due to internet, technology developments etc. The clear cut divide that used to be there between IT and business in the olden days is vanishing fast; the opposite opinion is that indeed the gap is deepened because the “shadow IT”-business bypassing IT oversight to order SAAS service on their own, causes serious governance issue and communication gaps.
CIO as Chief Insight Officer: How to Become a Trusted Advisor for Business? CIO is the information steward at enterprise today, however, data or information is means to the end, not the end itself; more importantly, CIO needs to capture business & customer insight from the abundance of information in foreseeing the future of business and continuously driving operational excellence. Therefore, CIO plays a crucial role as ‘Chief Insight Officer’ to provide data-based advice for business executive peers and corporate board.
How to Promote IT Effectively? It is no secret that IT can often only be noticed when things are broken, the CIO and his/her team should be the leading persons driving that message of IT value throughout the enterprise. They are, after all, the face of the IT organization. The key challenge is to demonstrate what you provide can help the client achieve some critical purpose of theirs.
IT Benchmarking - Love it or Hate it? IT leaders like CIOs do their best to improve and present IT performance, IT benchmarking is such an approach. Although IT benchmarking data gets a controversial viewpoint, some love it, while others do not so buy-in. Metrics are great for comparing against peers in the industry but do they really tell you if you're at a competitive position?
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with 2700+ 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
Due to the changing nature of technology, IT leadership role also continues to involve & shift the focus, to move up the maturity level. More and more CIOs are requested to take more responsibility and many CIOs present the breadth of leadership competency. The proactive IT debates help IT leaders to brainstorm innovative and better ways to do things, and improve management capabilities. Here are the monthly CIO debates collections May 2016.
The Monthly CIO Debates Collection May. 2016What are Qualities and Skill Set to Fill CIO Role? CIOs today need to play a different role and wear multiple hats, therefore, they come from different background, take diverse career path, there’s no one size fitting all skill or stereotypical image to portray a modern CIO, however, there are certain leadership qualities and desired skill set to fill the role.
Is Business & IT Gap ‘Artificial’? The “gap” between business and IT is always a hot debate, and the conclusion is also controversial, some say, the gap is definitely shrinking, as IT is gradually becoming engrained into every aspect of business these days due to internet, technology developments etc. The clear cut divide that used to be there between IT and business in the olden days is vanishing fast; the opposite opinion is that indeed the gap is deepened because the “shadow IT”-business bypassing IT oversight to order SAAS service on their own, causes serious governance issue and communication gaps.
CIO as Chief Insight Officer: How to Become a Trusted Advisor for Business? CIO is the information steward at enterprise today, however, data or information is means to the end, not the end itself; more importantly, CIO needs to capture business & customer insight from the abundance of information in foreseeing the future of business and continuously driving operational excellence. Therefore, CIO plays a crucial role as ‘Chief Insight Officer’ to provide data-based advice for business executive peers and corporate board.
How to Promote IT Effectively? It is no secret that IT can often only be noticed when things are broken, the CIO and his/her team should be the leading persons driving that message of IT value throughout the enterprise. They are, after all, the face of the IT organization. The key challenge is to demonstrate what you provide can help the client achieve some critical purpose of theirs.IT Benchmarking - Love it or Hate it? IT leaders like CIOs do their best to improve and present IT performance, IT benchmarking is such an approach. Although IT benchmarking data gets a controversial viewpoint, some love it, while others do not so buy-in. Metrics are great for comparing against peers in the industry but do they really tell you if you're at a competitive position?
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with 2700+ 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
“Digital Valley” Book Tuning VII: Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Culture Wisdom
True culture wisdom springs from personality, curiosity, education, and appreciation of the diversity of thought and characters.
The definition of culture is “the mindsets, attitudes, feelings, values and behaviors that characterize and inform a group and its member.” There are organizational culture, community culture, societal culture, etc. From a business perspective, culture is the way how we think and do things around here. Culture wisdom is the type of intelligence for tolerance of ambiguity, and a set of capabilities such as learning agility, cultural flexibility, empathetic communication, complexity handling. Etc. Which questions should you ask to assess a person’s culture wisdom?
Do you have a global mindset? Being global is about crossing not just borders but also cultural divides between business, nations or social sectors. A global mindset is a worldview that looks at problems or issues in such a way that a solution emerges through a collaborative multicultural approach involving global psychological capital, intellectual and global social capital. Culture is much deeper than customs or languages. Cultural behavior is the end product of collected wisdom, filtered and passed down through many generations as shared core beliefs, values, assumptions, notions, and persistent action patterns. True culture empathy springs from personality, curiosity, education, and appreciation of the diversity of thought and characters. A global mind with deep cultural empathy means that you have to not just see through the eyes of someone who is different, but you have to think through that person’s brain.
Do you have high "CI"- Cultural Intelligence? People are gregarious by nature, they tend to organize themselves and it gives rise to a collective set of attitudes, beliefs, educational systems, notions of time and space, society structures, ways of doing business, running the world., etc. These items are roughly speaking the elements of a culture (regional, national, continental, generational, ethnic, religious beliefs, the list goes on and on). Hence, global leadership certainly has to take into account cultural intelligence and how that affects things and leadership effectiveness: how you interact with one another, how you manage, and what’s your thinking process and how you make a decision; from cognitive intelligence about others - as well as themselves! Hence, culture management is an integral component of people management including all talent management aspects, the sophistication of talent practices, how people work and manage other people, workforce demographics, and composition, etc.
How to build a successful culture change that helps people become who they are? Culture is the way how we think and do things around here: but HOW you do what you do is a result of your culture - WHO you are. By encouraging people to focus on who they are, and pursue the purpose discovery, autonomy, and mastery, the great culture catalyzes positive mind, attitude, and behaviors; but discourage the negativity and unprofessionalism. The definition of culture is 'the mindsets, attitudes, feelings, values and behaviors that characterize and inform a group and its members' - but ultimately it is WHO you are and not “What you do” or “HOW you do it.” Culture is the artifacts - what people can see and feel in the organization, and rituals - how business marks events, such as wins and how to celebrate, what is censured if deemed unacceptable under vision, mission, and strategy. One of the most effective ways is to empower the people to define their own meaning and actions to contribute towards culture changes, the evidence of needing change has to come from within the organization and that evidence needs to be visible to all to ensure the tipping point is reached.
At today’s global organization with multi-generational and multicultural workforce, culture wisdom becomes a more critical quality for digital leaders and professionals, to communicate effectively, collaborate cohesively and adapt to change effortlessly. It is the wisdom to bring understanding and workforce harmony.
Digital Valley Book Order Link on Amazon Digital Valley Book Order Link on Barners & Noble Digital Valley Book Order Link on IBook Digital Valley Book Slideshare Presentation & Video Digital Valley Introduction Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 1 Creative Wisdom Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 2 Strategic Wisdom Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 3 System Wisdom Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 4 Decision Wisdom
Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 5 Culture Wisdom Digital Valley Book Quote Collection 1
Digital Valley Book Quote Collection II
Digital Valley Book Quote Collection III
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The definition of culture is “the mindsets, attitudes, feelings, values and behaviors that characterize and inform a group and its member.” There are organizational culture, community culture, societal culture, etc. From a business perspective, culture is the way how we think and do things around here. Culture wisdom is the type of intelligence for tolerance of ambiguity, and a set of capabilities such as learning agility, cultural flexibility, empathetic communication, complexity handling. Etc. Which questions should you ask to assess a person’s culture wisdom?
Do you have a global mindset? Being global is about crossing not just borders but also cultural divides between business, nations or social sectors. A global mindset is a worldview that looks at problems or issues in such a way that a solution emerges through a collaborative multicultural approach involving global psychological capital, intellectual and global social capital. Culture is much deeper than customs or languages. Cultural behavior is the end product of collected wisdom, filtered and passed down through many generations as shared core beliefs, values, assumptions, notions, and persistent action patterns. True culture empathy springs from personality, curiosity, education, and appreciation of the diversity of thought and characters. A global mind with deep cultural empathy means that you have to not just see through the eyes of someone who is different, but you have to think through that person’s brain.
Do you have high "CI"- Cultural Intelligence? People are gregarious by nature, they tend to organize themselves and it gives rise to a collective set of attitudes, beliefs, educational systems, notions of time and space, society structures, ways of doing business, running the world., etc. These items are roughly speaking the elements of a culture (regional, national, continental, generational, ethnic, religious beliefs, the list goes on and on). Hence, global leadership certainly has to take into account cultural intelligence and how that affects things and leadership effectiveness: how you interact with one another, how you manage, and what’s your thinking process and how you make a decision; from cognitive intelligence about others - as well as themselves! Hence, culture management is an integral component of people management including all talent management aspects, the sophistication of talent practices, how people work and manage other people, workforce demographics, and composition, etc.
How to build a successful culture change that helps people become who they are? Culture is the way how we think and do things around here: but HOW you do what you do is a result of your culture - WHO you are. By encouraging people to focus on who they are, and pursue the purpose discovery, autonomy, and mastery, the great culture catalyzes positive mind, attitude, and behaviors; but discourage the negativity and unprofessionalism. The definition of culture is 'the mindsets, attitudes, feelings, values and behaviors that characterize and inform a group and its members' - but ultimately it is WHO you are and not “What you do” or “HOW you do it.” Culture is the artifacts - what people can see and feel in the organization, and rituals - how business marks events, such as wins and how to celebrate, what is censured if deemed unacceptable under vision, mission, and strategy. One of the most effective ways is to empower the people to define their own meaning and actions to contribute towards culture changes, the evidence of needing change has to come from within the organization and that evidence needs to be visible to all to ensure the tipping point is reached.
At today’s global organization with multi-generational and multicultural workforce, culture wisdom becomes a more critical quality for digital leaders and professionals, to communicate effectively, collaborate cohesively and adapt to change effortlessly. It is the wisdom to bring understanding and workforce harmony.
Digital Valley Book Order Link on Amazon Digital Valley Book Order Link on Barners & Noble Digital Valley Book Order Link on IBook Digital Valley Book Slideshare Presentation & Video Digital Valley Introduction Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 1 Creative Wisdom Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 2 Strategic Wisdom Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 3 System Wisdom Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 4 Decision Wisdom
Digital Valley Book Preview Chapter 5 Culture Wisdom Digital Valley Book Quote Collection 1
Digital Valley Book Quote Collection II
Digital Valley Book Quote Collection III
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
“Digital Valley” Book Tuning: Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Culture Wisdom
The definition of culture is “the mindsets, attitudes, feelings, values and behaviors that characterize and inform a group and its member.” There are business culture, community culture, societal culture, etc. From a business perspective, culture is the way how we think and do things around here, culture wisdom is the type of intelligence for tolerance of ambiguity, a set of capabilities such as learning agility, cultural flexibility, empathetic communication, complexity handling. Etc. Which questions should you ask to assess a person’s culture wisdom?
Do you have a global mindset? Being global is about crossing not just borders but also cultural divides between business, nations or social sectors. A global mindset is a worldview that looks at problems or issues in such a way that a solution emerges through a collaborative multicultural approach involving global psychological capital, intellectual and global social capital. Culture is much deeper than customs or languages. Cultural behavior is the end product of collected wisdom, filtered and passed down through many generations as shared core beliefs, values, assumptions, notions, and persistent action patterns. True culture empathy springs from personality, curiosity, education, and appreciation of the diversity of thought and characters. A global mind with good cultural empathy means that you have to not just see through the eyes of someone who is different, but you have to think through that person’s brain.
What’s your “Cultural Intelligence”? People are gregarious by nature, they tend to organize themselves and it gives rise to a collective set of attitudes, beliefs, educational systems, notions of time and space, society structures, ways of doing business, running the world., etc. These items are roughly speaking the elements of a culture (regional, national, continental, generational, ethnic background, religious beliefs, the list goes on and on). Hence, global leadership certainly has to take into account cultural intelligence and how that affects things and leadership effectiveness: how you interact with one another, how you manage, and what’s your thinking process and how you make a decision; from cognitive intelligence about others - as well as themselves! Hence, culture management is an integral component of people management including all talent management aspects, the sophistication of talent practices, how people work and manage other people, workforce demographics, and composition, etc.
How to build a successful culture change that helps people become who they are? Culture is the way how we think and does things around here: but HOW you do what you do is a result of your culture - WHO you are. By encouraging people to focus on who they are, and pursue the purpose discovery, autonomy, and mastery, the great culture catalyzes positive mind, attitude, and behaviors; but discourage the negativity and unprofessionalism. The definition of culture is 'the mindsets, attitudes, feelings, values and behaviors that characterize and inform a group and its members' - but ultimately it is WHO you are and not “What you do” or “HOW you do it.” Culture is the artifacts - what people can see and feel in the organization, and rituals - how business marks events, such as wins and how to celebrate, what is censured if deemed unacceptable under vision, mission, and strategy. One of the most effective ways is to empower the people to define their own meaning and actions to contribute towards culture changes, the evidence of needing change has to come from within the organization and that evidence needs to be visible to all to ensure the tipping point is reached.
At today’s global organization with the multi-generational and multicultural workforce, culture wisdom becomes a more critical quality for digital leaders and professionals, to communicate effectively, collaborate cohesively and adapt to change effortlessly. It is the wisdom to bring understanding and workforce harmony.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
