Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1344

"CIO Master" Tuning XVII: IT’s Digital Portfolio

The purpose to manage a healthy IT digital portfolio is to run, grow, and transform business accordingly.
IT plays a significant role in the business’s digital transformation journey. To reimagine IT potential, reinvent IT management and maximize IT value, it is important to build a balanced IT digital portfolio with a set of differentiated capabilities to enable business growth and improve IT and overall organizational operational excellence. Generally speaking, a capability is an ability that an organization, person, or system possesses. Capabilities are typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of people, processes, and technology to achieve. Digital Capability Portfolio management is essential to successful strategy management. So What’s in an IT digital portfolio?


Project Portfolio Management Capabilities: The balanced IT application portfolio can deliver lots of value for the business in many ways. It is apart from the basic automation, availability of information and reports. This is the digital arena, IT applications, and its dynamics is totally different. The right IT applications blended with current digital trends can deliver the significant benefits to the business, such as customer satisfaction, business optimization, and change adaptability, etc. Portfolio management is also essential to successful corporate governance and as such, a comprehensive fusing of a firm's strategic capabilities. IT is not just the sum of services or processes, or monolithic hardware only, IT needs to build capability based unique competency via weaving all necessary hard and soft elements, in reaching high-level maturity. Each of these same capabilities may be combined in different fashions to yield multiple competencies. If capabilities define how you do something (marketing, logistics, production, etc.) and competencies describe just the result of those capability combinations in terms of what you deliver to the market and customers, then the firm can exist, thrive, and generate a suitable return as an outcome of being competitively advantageous. The de facto best practices of managing IT project portfolio need to include such as, only manage a business project, not for technology's sake, prioritize the portfolio, and manage full application life cycle. Every IT project is the initiative to help build business capability and competency.

Innovation Management Portfolio: IT needs to reinvent itself as the innovation engine of the organization. It helps the business to build a balanced portfolio of innovation projects, across the matrix of three types of innovation (process, product/service, business model) and three degrees of innovation (incremental, substantial, breakthrough). Managing innovation portfolio should be integrated with the annual strategic planning process and financial investment model. The size and mix of the innovation project portfolio depend on the business situation, strategic objectives and severity of external challenges or changes. Generally, all businesses should have a handful of "bets" in the breakthrough category. What's important when developing the mix is to make sure:
(1) You're accepting risk for potential reward.
(2) You aren't ignoring specific types of innovation
(3) Innovation is benefiting the widest possible audience within your organization
(4) You aren't sacrificing the long term viability of the portfolio for short-term rewards

Digital Talent Portfolio: People are often the weakest link in strategy management of the business. It's important to define the set of competency to tailor your organizational needs. Digital talent management capability needs to have the new digital dimension to handle digital new normal, so it has become necessary to develop strategic core competencies for digital professionals. All of the competencies seem important, but the main thing that you should put into the consideration is that does your company really need such core competencies and on what level if applicable. It always depends on the company culture, position requirements and type of industry the company works for. Build a solid digital talent portfolio for long term business perspective, not just make a compromise for the short term skill shortage. Employees serve in various roles throughout your organization, and each role has job-specific competencies that need to be understood and analyzed before you can begin developing different "talent management" processes and systems for business advantage - then the talent management task is a lot more strategic and complex. IT organizations usually need both specialized generalists and dedicated IT specialists. Competencies are interrelated with the traits and experience. In a competitive 21st workplace, it has become necessary to develop strategic core competencies. One’s capable of providing and creating sustainable solutions. Developing core competencies is important. It's what defines how 'specialized generalist' executives are, and speaks volumes of how productive they can be. IT talent in demand are those who can work independently, have excellent problem-solving skills, are disciplined, have a "customer focus," and communicate well. Talent competency is the digital lenses through which people managers can assess talent in more strategic, analytical and creative way. Assess professional traits on which competencies are built. The integrity and suitability of the competency are tested through traits such as critical thinking, creative thinking, attitude, passion, entrepreneurship, leadership, maturity, and wisdom. etc. Employees serve in various roles throughout your organization, and each role has job-specific competencies that need to be understood and analyzed before you can begin developing different "talent management" processes and systems. The well-managed IT talent portfolio is to ensure the business has the talent to run and grow the business, and put the right people with the right capabilities in the right positions for driving the business transformation.

The purpose to manage a healthy IT digital portfolio is to run, grow, and transform business accordingly. IT leaders need to set the right priority, the focus should be on business value and strategic impact. At today’s fast changing business dynamic, organizations need to do the regular review to ensure the business has and continue to build the set of digital capabilities and competency to manage change and improve overall organizational agility and maturity.

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


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CIO Master Tuning: IT’s Digital Portfolio

IT plays a significant role in the business’s digital transformation. To reimagine IT potential, reinvent IT management and maximize IT value, it is important to build a balanced IT digital portfolio with a set of differentiated capabilities to enable business growth and improve IT and overall organizational agility. Digital Capability Portfolio management is essential to successful strategy management. Generally speaking, a capability is an ability that an organization, person, or system possesses. Capabilities are typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of people, processes, and technology to achieve. So What’s insight IT’s digital portfolio?

Project Portfolio Management Capabilities: The balanced IT application portfolio can deliver lots of value for the business in many ways. It is apart from the basic automation, availability of information and reports. This is the digital arena, IT applications, and its dynamics is totally different. The right IT applications blended with current digital trends can deliver the significant benefits to the business, such as customer satisfaction, business optimization, and change adaptability, etc. Portfolio management is also essential to successful corporate governance and as such, a comprehensive fusing of a firm's strategic capabilities.  IT is not just the sum of services or processes, or monolithic hardware only, IT needs to build capability based unique competency via weaving all necessary hard and soft elements, in reaching high-level maturity. Each of these same capabilities may be combined in different fashions to yield multiple competencies. If capabilities define how you do something (marketing, logistics, production, etc.) and competencies describe just the result of those capability combinations in terms of what you deliver to the market and customers, then the firm can exist, thrive, and generate a suitable return as an outcome of being competitively advantageous.The de facto best practices of managing IT project portfolio need to include such as, only manage a business project, not for technology's sake, prioritize the portfolio, and manage full application life cycle. Every IT project is the initiative to help build business capability and competency.
Innovation Management Portfolio: IT needs to reinvent itself as the innovation engine of the organization. Businesses need to have a balanced portfolio of innovation projects, across the matrix of three types of innovation (process, product/service, business model) and three degrees of innovation (incremental, substantial, breakthrough). Managing innovation portfolio should be integrated with the annual strategic planning process and financial investment model. The size and mix of the innovation project portfolio depend on the business situation, strategic objectives and severity of external challenges or changes. Generally, all businesses should have a handful of "bets" in the breakthrough category. What's important when developing the mix is to make sure:(1) You're accepting risk for potential reward.(2) You aren't ignoring specific types of innovation(3) Innovation is benefiting the widest possible audience within your organization(4) You aren't sacrificing the long term viability of the portfolio for short-term rewards
Digital Talent Portfolio: Well define the set of competency to tailor your organizational needs. Digital talent management capability needs to have the new digital dimension to handle digital new normal, so it has become necessary to develop strategic core competencies for digital professionals. All of the competencies seem important, but the main thing that you should put into the consideration is that does your company really need such core competencies and on what level if applicable. It always depends on the company culture, position requirements and type of industry the company works for. Build a solid digital talent portfolio for long term business perspective, not just short term talent need. Employees serve in various roles throughout your organization, and each role has job-specific competencies that need to be understood and analyzed before you can begin developing different "talent management" processes and systems and business advantage - then the talent management task is a lot more strategic and complex. Organizations usually need both specialized generalists and dedicated IT specialists. Competencies are interrelated with the traits and experience. In a competitive 21st workplace, it has become necessary to develop strategic core competencies. One’s capable of providing and creating sustainable solutions. Developing core competencies is important. It's what defines how 'specialized generalist' executives are, and speaks volumes of how productive they can be. IT talent in demand are those who can work independently, have excellent problem-solving skills, are disciplined, have a "customer focus," and communicate well. Assess professional traits on which competencies are built. The integrity and suitability of the competency are tested through traits such as critical thinking, creative thinking, attitude, passion, entrepreneurship, leadership, maturity, and wisdom. Etc. Employees serve in various roles throughout your organization, and each role has job-specific competencies that need to be understood and analyzed before you can begin developing different "talent management" processes and systems. talent competency is the digital lenses through which people managers can assess talent in more strategic, analytical and creative way.
The purpose to manage a healthy IT digital portfolio is to run, grow, and transform business accordingly. IT leaders need to set the right priority, the focus should be on business value and strategic impact. At today’s fast changing business dynamic, organizations need to do the regular review to ensure the business has and continue to build the set of digital capabilities and competency to manage change and improve overall organizational agility and maturity.




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Three Questions to Assess a Person's Courage

It takes courage, confidence, and intelligence to overcome the “ fear of failure.”

Many people cannot get out of ‘comfort zone” due to fears or doubt, or to put simply, lack of courage. Fear has always been one of the major obstacles to change--fear of failure, fear of loss of control, etc. Fear can paralyze an individual to do nothing or become manipulated mentality to spur negative emotions. Fear will drive you away from your personal goals, your ambitions, your standards, and norms. Likewise, fear can paralyze a company to maintaining status quo, refusing to adapt to change. It turns to become such counter-productive behavior when the contribution of others offers the potential to add so much value. To achieve success, either at the individual or organizational level, it is necessary to have “enthusiasm,” and courage, based on the inner strength that is able to increase the quality of the individual and collective performance. So which questions should you ask to assess a person’s courage?

Are you often courageous to take calculated risks for making changes and achieving visions & goals? Passion and courage are the good pairs. The human being needs to be enthused to participate and achieve goals courageously. Get excited about a goal to achieve is a form of love that allows you to pursue it with greater emotional determination. To be courageous to listen to what you don’t want to hear and to have the guts to make tough decisions. Being courageous is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of it. Also, be intelligent to take calculated risks. When people shift from a 'risk-avoidance' to a 'risk management' and risk intelligence mentality, they weigh on risk and reward, take prudent risks and find ways to mitigate risk rather than eliminate it, and embrace personal or business growth opportunities proactively.

Either at individual or business level, what’s the correlation between competence and courage?  Put differently, there may be a willingness to act, but an inability to do so. And at the digital age, a “fearless” mind has more bold in perspectives, courage to take actions. At the business level, building a “fearless” working environment means to inspire openness, innovation, and critical thinking, and empower talent to unleash their potentials with less fear. From a leadership perspective, by stepping out the status quo, the fear falling off trying that the unexpected might happen and getting hurt by being exposed in the process is a function of your Ego. There are action steps you will have to take in your mind first. (1). A leader must believe in his/her vision.  (2) A leader must feel the passion for the thing is doing. (3). A leader must know the ways to get it, like master the actions.( 4) A leader must hear others, especially the team. (5) A leader must walk the talk.

Are innovators more courageous, or courage refines an innovator? Innovators have the tendency to constantly question the status quo. Innovation is about thinking differently, acting differently, delivering differently, adding value differently from the status quo. Innovation requires thinking beyond, as opposed to outside the box, altering or changing the frame of reference to create previously unconsidered solutions. Innovators need to rise above the status quo and take on a new set of activities that have them involved in the strategy development process from the get-go. Hence, innovators are courageous. Without courage, there is no innovation or innovators. Don't be afraid of the failure, but you have to learn something from your failure. In the world of innovation, you will fail more often, many more times, than success. So you should not be afraid of the failure. At the organizational level, if the company does not understand the failure, then there will be no innovation.

It takes courage, confidence, and intelligence to overcome the “ fear of failure” - although it comes dressed in many disguises. You need to "master" your abilities and your team need to master precision as a team. This comes from first thinking through the work or situation, continually learning, making "non-repeatable" mistakes and taking calculated risks. Being courageous is not just about being brave or bold, it is the combination of vision, passion, and intellectual risk-taking with high “IQ+EQ.”



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“CIO Master” Tuning XVI: The Multidimensional Value from Agility Lenses

Business value assessment depends on the context.

The purpose of business is to create customers. But how to create value to customers, shareholders and beyond? Value is a very broad concept in any organization. Some investments don't yield a direct return on investment. Business value includes both monetary things such as an increase in sales, reduction in costs but also includes less tangible things such as security, compliance, brand awareness/recognition. What are the multidimensional value perception via agility lenses?

Business value assessment depends on the context: From a strict business / finance perspective, business value is that increases the equity or shared value of the company. And the equity value of the company is the value of all of the dividend payments to the shareholders because that's what owning equity or shares gives you. So financially, business value is what increases the earnings of the company, because earnings are paid out, in some portion of dividends. The question, of course, is how to increase earnings; that is usually what people talk about when they talk about business value: how to increase the earnings of the firm. This is generally done by (1) selling more things to your current customers, (2) selling things to new customers, (3) increase the price at which you sell things, (4) decrease how much it costs to sell things or (5) some combination of the above.

Value has so many dimensions, both tangibly and intangibly: Anything that can increase top line and bottom line of the business, increase customer satisfaction (and thereby get more customers), time critical (that can be a great advantage compared to the competitors) are all business value. Business value is often seen as the value perceived by the end user. That is far too narrow. For example, it can be of great value to be able to deliver swiftly.  Another example is about building marketing value by being able to share on social networks. Things organizations might value:- Selling things to customers- Avoiding risk- doing their daily work more efficiently- attracting and retaining the right people-making money and-improving customer satisfaction

The 'monetary' impact is the result and not the goal of 'business value.' Business Value lies in existing customers' satisfaction, attracting new customers, happy employees, lower risk, avoiding waste etc. Look at value as the intersection of risk and return, much like an investment portfolio manager will. Each organization has an array of investments it can make, and their portfolio of choices affects overall long-term return value.  Business value" tends to be created when a product or service does one of the following:- saves money- makes money- save time- reduces risk or increases safety- is more durable- is more convenient- increases comfort- pride of ownership (prestige value)

From IT management perspective, what is the responsibility of the development team to validate the business value? IT leaders are business leaders who should make continuous inquiries about the business value because every IT project is the business initiative for problem-solving. If the development team must understand the business value, who is responsible for ensuring that understanding? the determination of value rests entirely with the product owner (PO), assuming strategic alignment with corporate goals, etc. If so, is there any responsibility of the development team to act as a check and balance on the business value delivered, or assume an ethical stance? What to do if the PO thinks something is of business value and the team do not? If it's a common occurrence then feedback from those who should be seeing the value in the delivered product should be accruing; let that be the arbiter. Not getting that feedback? Then you're working at risk. On the other side, what if the team thinks a feature is valuable, the PO does not? What quite a few organizations do is to allow the team members take a proportion of their time to use on things of their own choice. The feature can be 'your choice' for that time.

The highest business value stories tend to be the ones that achieve multiple outcomes. Business value is a collection of value internal to the organizations and external to the customer. It is contextual and multifaceted, with the goals to achieve long-term business prosperity.
CIO Master Order Link on Amazon CIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & Noble CIO Master Order Link On IBooks
“CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection III “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection II “CIO Master” Book Preview Quote Collection I, Slideshare Presentation “CIO Master” Book Preview Conclusion Running IT as Digital Transformer “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 9 IT Agility “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 8 Three "P"s in Running Digital IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 7 IT Innovation Management “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 6 Digital Strategy-Execution Continuum "CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 5 Thirteen Digital Flavored IT “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 4 CIO as Talent Master Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 3 “CIOs as Change Agent” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 2 “CIOs as Digital Visionary” Introduction “CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 1 “Twelve Digital CIO Personas” Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Introduction "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Book Preview
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

“CIO Master” Tuning: The Multidimensional Value from Agility Lenses

The purpose of business is to create customers. But how to create value to customers, shareholders? Value is a very broad concept in any organization. Some investments don't yield a direct return on investment. Business value includes both monetary things such as an increase in sales, reduction in costs but also includes less tangible things such as security, compliance, brand awareness/recognition.
Business value assessment depends on the context: From a strict business / finance perspective, business value is that which increases the equity or shared value of the company. And the equity value of the company is the value of all of the dividend payments to the shareholders because that's what owning equity or shares gives you. So business value is what increases the earnings of the company, because earnings are paid out, in some portion of dividends. The question, of course, is how to increase earnings; that is usually what people talk about when they talk about business value: how to increase the earnings of the firm. This is generally done by (1) selling more things to your current customers, (2) selling things to new customers, (3) increase the price at which you sell things, (4) decrease how much it costs to sell things or (5) some combination of the above.
Value has so many dimensions: Anything that can increase top line and bottom line of the business, increase customer satisfaction (and thereby get more customers), time critical (that can be a great advantage compared to the competitors) are all business value. Business value is often seen as the value perceived by the end user. That is far too narrow. For example, it can be of great value to be able to deliver swiftly.  Another example is about building marketing value by being able to share on social networks. Things organizations might value:- Selling things to customers- Avoiding risk- doing their daily work more efficiently- attracting and retaining the right people-making money and-reducing risk
The 'monetary' impact is the result and not the goal of 'business value.' Business Value lies in existing customers' satisfaction, attracting new customers, happy employees, lower risk, avoiding waste etc. Look at value as the intersection of risk and return, much like an investment portfolio manager will. Each organization has an array of investments it can make, and their portfolio of choices affects overall long-term return value.  Business value" tends to be created when a product or service does one of the following:- saves money- makes money- save time- reduces risk or increases safety- is more durable- is more convenient- increases comfort- pride of ownership (prestige value)
What is the responsibility of the development team to validate the business value? If the development team must understand the business value, who is responsible for ensuring that understanding? the determination of value rests entirely with the product owner (PO), assuming strategic alignment with corporate goals, etc. If so, is there any responsibility of the development team to act as a check and balance on the business value delivered, or assume an ethical stance? What to do if the PO thinks something is of business value and the team do not? If it's a common occurrence then feedback from those who should be seeing the value in the delivered product should be accruing; let that be the arbiter. Not getting that feedback? Then you're working at risk. What if the team thinks a feature is valuable, the PO does not? What quite a few organizations do is allow the team members a proportion of their time to use on things of their own choice. The feature can be 'your choice' for that time.
The highest business value stories tend to be the ones that achieve multiple outcomes. Business value is a collection of value internal to the organizations and external to the customer.

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“Digital Valley” Tuning: How to Avoid those Pitfalls in Strategy Management

Strategic wisdom is an integral and multidimensional intelligence.

The strategy is the pillar of organizational existence, its vision, mission, design, structure, functions. There is no doubt that strategy becomes more important, not less in organizations large or small today, because of the fierce competition, rapid changes, and hyper uncertainty. But there are many obstacles on the way and numerous pitfalls you have to avoid in making a good strategy and executing it smoothly. So how to apply strategic wisdom to overcome those barriers and improve strategy management effectiveness?


Nothing is perfect in this world, and that include 'strategy': The strategy is both art and science. It is important to note corporate strategy is about how to fulfill the unique vision of the future not about the past. Strategic Thinking is an innate skill possessed by a few but claimed by many. One can get very close to perfection but who will be the judge - the originator/creator, user or the affected/ customer? Talking about perfection is just an academic debate, especially nowadays strategy is no longer a static document file put on the shelf, but a dynamic roadmap you should keep updating. You always should define your strategy what the up and down risks are and if realized, what to change. A strategy is not a stubbornly inflexible tool, but you must have reasons for change and drive consistent actions out of that change.

Silo thinking is narrow-minded, and silo strategy will more than once lead to failure:  It’s important to have strategies that are in sync with business vision and mission and, more importantly, coordinate and integrate between all teams cross-functionally to achieve macro success at the enterprise level. However, the choice of words vs. the actual mentality is always up for interpretation. The case of working in an environment where there are barriers to getting things done is so counter-productive, and barriers are in every place. Hence, it is strategically imperative to create synergy via optimizing connection and harnessing collaboration. Otherwise, silo strategy will lead to failure sooner or later.

Not setting Priority right: Another implicit organizational consideration that should explicit in Strategy Management is the need for PRIORITIZATION. Resources are always limited, so not all ideas can be incubated nor should they be, as has already been observed. If there are ten ideas or fifteen goals on the radar then making the "right" decision about which to discard is at least as important as selecting the much smaller number which can be taken forward for experimenting. The strategy is all about identifying the real problems, making the right guidelines, setting the right priority, and taking timely actions.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast: Today companies work more on the execution, and many said business is 30% planning and 70% execution. But culture is really the leader. A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. Determining the culture required is part of determining the strategy. Culture is one of the main factors that affect implementation of strategies. While successful strategy should also take account culture into enterprise even around the enterprise. Strategy is driven by culture, for culture is the framework in which strategy is held for effect benefit and growth.  Many of us like Drucker’s quote: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”Culture first, the strategy is tailored to a specific culture" And if the business has a great culture, it will strengthen of strategy execution and you will get a great result. In this sense culture is one of many resources required to execute and realize the strategy.

The smart goal is not so “SMART”: One of the other pitfalls in Strategy Management is about setting too many performance indicators or measuring the wrong things. S.M.A.R.T goals are more as a guide based on meeting the five criteria-specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. S.M.A.R.T goals work better as a post evaluation tool. Goals are the key to driving accountability, but what makes them effective is how they are implemented. The foundation is the management process. Coming up with 1-3 major aims/goals that everyone understands and agrees upon is key. Once you accomplish that step, it is useful to say "okay, our goal/goals are_______, now how can you make that more specific, how can you measure results, are these results attainable etc." Having a goal that has a purpose should always have first priority, followed by refining that said goal with methods like S.M.A.R.T goals. The point is to make "SMART" goals really smart.
Strategic wisdom is an integral and multidimensional intelligence. It is very crucial to have a clear vision and strategy, and there are many routes that can be taken. A strategic plan is a mean to an end, Strategy Management needs to be agile enough to adapt to change, innovative enough to overcome pitfalls, resilient enough to fix the weakest link, and make strategy execution an ongoing journey and dynamic continuum.

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 WisdomDigital 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


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"Digital Valley" Tuning: How to Apply Creativity Wisdom in Problem Solving

People who can solve problems in a new way are the innovators.


Creativity is expressive, productive, inventive, innovative and emergent. The innovators are simply those who can see what's around, and easily and effortlessly discover a better way to do things. Every one of us has creative strength. Some have strength in “thinking” - generating ideas and options, reframing issues or queries in understanding things via different way; other people excel at “seeing,” or observing - spotting interesting challenges and opportunities, trend surfing or noticing the significant details that others do not; and some others are good at “acting,’ they take thoughts and notions and figure out a place, manage logistic to make the idea a reality. So how to build a highly innovative team or organization, and take a structural approach for applying creativity in problem-solving?  

Develop employees entrepreneurially: To be a super problem-solver, an individual's attitudes and beliefs are all valid within the context of his or her personal experience. Taking people through new experiences, exposing them to additional "data" through those experiences, and doing that very purposefully will create the opportunity to shift attitudes, beliefs, mindsets that ultimately will cultivate their problem-solving capabilities. Let them do things and problems solving in their own way to meet good results. Though the guide is needed at that crucial time, you will see the innovations in your company’ pipeline. Innovative skills and capabilities an organization always needs depend on the circumstances the business is in. Management should direct workflow, support the health of the team, create an environment where people want to work, encourage brainstorming. Business innovation is bravery - it may take you to a whole other place.

Build a culture of problem-solving: You never know how innovative you might be in some field before encountering the problems and before the adoption of solutions. People who can solve problems in a new way are the innovators. What many see as innovation is actually problem-solving: a simple process of deduction to derive a solution drawing from knowledge, experience or a pool of data. Many organizations are not fertile ground for ideation, they hate taking risks, and seldom learn from their mistakes; their internal politics and fears kill creative projects by means of senseless KPIs while they push down the innovation funnel. Whether an organization is more or less innovative depends on the clarity and precision with which its purpose is developed, understood and disseminated; and the extent to which people can buy into a realizable vision which contains the imperative to innovate. The negative reactions to the problems come from a state of distrust, disengagement, and disempowerment. All of the above make the innovation practice everything but simple. With a culture of learning and creativity, individuals will be more innovative if they are so passionate about their jobs that they live it on their own time (work related hobbies, testing theories, products, and applications). If that kind of employee is working for you; not only do you have assurance, you are getting value for the compensation you are spending, but get better results.

Establish the framework to apply creativity for problem solving and managing innovation in a systematic way: There is a paradox in Innovation Management. People can learn several things relating to creativity and these can come under the heading of innovation management. For example, people can learn a process to define the innovation challenge, generate and select ideas, plan for these to be implemented. They can do this so that better ideas get tested quicker and learned about faster. Second, people can learn about their own problem-solving style. However, overly rigid innovation management processes kill innovation, because such management is about bureaucracy and innovation is about creativity. But it doesn’t mean the process is opposite to innovation. In order to solve problems and manage innovation in a systematic way, Innovation Management needs to set the guidelines, establish a framework to “keep focus” and apply efficient tools to improve innovation effectiveness (solving the right problems) and efficiency (solving them right).

It's a new paradigm shift - Digital is the age of innovation. There are a lot of things: both “hard” factors such as policy, process, performance, and “soft” factors such as culture, leadership, communication, etc., need to be weaved seamlessly in order to build an innovative organization with strong creative and collective problem-solving capability.
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 WisdomDigital 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


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“CIO Master” Tuning:XV: How to Build a Trustworthy Relation between IT and Business

The trust means IT and business need to work closely to deliver the solution with optimal speed.


Business Change Management is managing everything that is necessary to get people to adopt new ways of working such as stakeholder management, communications, process or organizational change, training, business readiness and technical change management. etc, also helps to close the gaps between IT and business. Trust is the key, which means IT needs to behave more like an integral part of the business. But how to build a trustworthy culture within IT, between IT and business, and within the organizational scope?

Trust means how to strike the right balance  in order for IT and business aligned as strategic partners. The cause of most conflicts or miscommunication is a lack of trust, in both directions. Solve that problem, and a lot of the other problems go away. Why isn't there trust? There’re a lot of reasons technically, economically, politically and cognitively. The key is engaging at the right level and about the right things, therefore, it should start at the strategic level, IT, marketing, finance, HR., etc all have its own subsection of the overall business strategy. It is invaluable for both IT and business to know what's going in each other's space and why. IT and business must rely on each other's strengths and use each other in the most relevant capacity, both parties have to understand exactly how each one operates. Once business and IT start talking in more strategic terms that are mutually beneficial, then trust will come. Trust is earned by business and IT working as a whole, head to head and hand in hand.

The trust means IT and business need to work closely to deliver the business solution with optimal speed. It’s about what IT can give up control, and what IT needs to control. The trust between IT and business will enable the business to self-service and do more with the technology, so IT can spend more resources on innovation and come up with even better, more relevant solutions for the business; on the other side, IT shouldn't give up control of governance and risk management, as well as building up strong long-term relationship with partners to gain purchasing power and dedicated supports. It’s about finding the right balance. Often business gets frustrated about the speed of IT because they can see the ease of delivery and use of easily accessible solutions that fit to some of their business needs, they see how far technology has advanced, they see the ease with which new sites and services are deployed on demand, and then they sit around a table with their internal IT service providers and suddenly everything is impossible because business is being too demanding; IT may also need to educate business upon the complexity of IT integration, governance & risk & compliance management issues, to not allow ‘shadow IT’ put their organizations at risk for the long period of time.

Transparency is critical to developing a trusting relationship between the business and IT.  From IT management perspective, there is an inherent conflict if IT views its primary objective as standardization, rationalization, and consolidation, but nowadays at the era of digitalization, IT means innovation, integration, and improvement, etc. IT leadership must increase and demonstrate its level of understanding of their organization's business and strategy. This will lead to greater respect and trust from the business leaders. More often than not, information and technology become creative disrupter to business growth and industry evolution, business leaders cross-functionally should stay on the same page when sharpening business strategy and sharing information, the overall business transparency will enable effective communication and build trust. Get things done more effectively.Change is inevitable, and organizational change becomes a common practice within an organization. It isn’t what you do, but the way that you communicate and do it, that matters. The right balance among the elements of an IT organization's value proposition depends on the style and market position of the business as a whole, combined with the expected contribution that IT makes. Building a trustworthy culture is important to improve the maturity of the IT and the organization as a whole.

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“CIO Master” Tuning: How to Build a Trustworthy Relation between IT and Business

The trust means IT and business need to work closely to deliver the solution with optimal speed.

Business Change Management is managing everything that is necessary to get people to adopt new ways of working such as stakeholder management, communications, process or organizational change, training, business readiness and technical change management. etc, also helps to close the gaps between IT and business. Trust is the key, which means IT needs to behave more like an integral part of the business. But how to build a trustworthy culture within IT, between IT and business, and within the organizational scope?

Trust means how to strike the right balance  in order for IT and business aligned as strategic partners. The cause of most conflicts or miscommunication is a lack of trust, in both directions. Solve that problem, and a lot of the other problems go away. Why isn't there trust? There’re a lot of reasons technically, economically, politically and cognitively. The key is engaging at the right level and about the right things, therefore, it should start at the strategic level, IT, marketing, finance, HR., etc all have its own subsection of the overall business strategy. It is invaluable for both IT and business to know what's going in each other's space and why. IT and business must rely on each other's strengths and use each other in the most relevant capacity, both parties have to understand exactly how each one operates. Once business and IT start talking in more strategic terms that are mutually beneficial, then trust will come. Trust is earned by business and IT working as a whole, head to head and hand in hand.

The trust means IT and business need to work closely to deliver the business solution with optimal speed. It’s about what IT can give up control, and what IT needs to control. The trust between IT and business will enable the business to self-service and do more with the technology, so IT can spend more resources on innovation and come up with even better, more relevant solutions for the business; on the other side, IT shouldn't give up control of governance and risk management, as well as building up strong long-term relationship with partners to gain purchasing power and dedicated supports. It’s about finding the right balance. Often business gets frustrated about the speed of IT because they can see the ease of delivery and use of easily accessible solutions that fit to some of their business needs, they see how far technology has advanced, they see the ease with which new sites and services are deployed on demand, and then they sit around a table with their internal IT service providers and suddenly everything is impossible because business is being too demanding; IT may also need to educate business upon the complexity of IT integration, governance & risk & compliance management issues, to not allow ‘shadow IT’ put their organizations at risk for the long period of time.

Transparency is critical to developing a trusting relationship between the business and IT.  From IT management perspective, there is an inherent conflict if IT views its primary objective as standardization, rationalization, and consolidation, but nowadays at the era of digitalization, IT means innovation, integration, and improvement, etc. IT leadership must increase and demonstrate its level of understanding of their organization's business and strategy. This will lead to greater respect and trust from the business leaders. More often than not, information and technology become creative disrupter to business growth and industry evolution, business leaders cross-functionally should stay on the same page when sharpening business strategy and sharing information, the overall business transparency will enable effective communication and build trust. Get things done more effectively.
Change is inevitable, and organizational change becomes a common practice within an organization. It isn’t what you do, but the way that you communicate and do it, that matters. The right balance among the elements of an IT organization's value proposition depends on the style and market position of the business as a whole, combined with the expected contribution that IT makes. Building a trustworthy culture is important to improve the maturity of the IT and the organization as a whole.


Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

“CIO Master” Tuning: How to Build a Trustworthy Culture

Business Change Management is managing everything that is necessary to get people to adopt new ways of working such as stakeholder management, communications, process or organizational change, training, business readiness and technical change management. etc. From IT management perspective, there is an inherent conflict if IT views its primary objective as standardization, rationalization, and consolidation, but nowadays at the era of digitalization, IT means innovation, integration, and improvement, etc. Trust is the key, which means IT needs to behave more like an integral part of the business. But how to build a trustworthy culture within IT, between IT and business, and within the organizational scope?
Trust means how to strike the right balance  in order for IT and business aligned as strategic partners. The cause of most conflicts or miscommunication is a lack of trust, in both directions. Solve that problem, and a lot of the other problems go away. Why isn't there trust? There’re a lot of reasons technically, economically, politically and cognitively. The key is engaging at the right level and about the right things, therefore, it should start at the strategic level, IT, marketing, finance, HR., etc all have its own subsection of the overall business strategy. It is invaluable for both IT and business to know what's going in each other's space and why. IT and business must rely on each other's strengths and use each other in the most relevant capacity, both parties have to understand exactly how each one operates. Once business and IT start talking in more strategic terms that are mutually beneficial, then trust will come. Trust is earned by business and IT working as a whole, head to head and hand in hand.
The trust means IT and business need to work closely to deliver the business solution with optimal speed. It’s about what IT can give up control, and what IT needs to control. The trust between IT and business will enable the business to self-service and do more with the technology, so IT can spend more resources on innovation and come up with even better, more relevant solutions for the business; on the other side, IT shouldn't give up control of governance and risk management, as well as building up strong long-term relationship with partners to gain purchasing power and dedicated supports. It’s about finding the right balance. Often business gets frustrated about the speed of IT because they can see the ease of delivery and use of easily accessible solutions that fit to some of their business needs, they see how far technology has advanced, they see the ease with which new sites and services are deployed on demand, and then they sit around a table with their internal IT service providers and suddenly everything is impossible because business is being too demanding; IT may also need to educate business upon the complexity of IT integration, governance & risk & compliance management issues, to not allow ‘shadow IT’ put their organizations at risk for the long period of time.
Transparency is critical to developing a trusting relationship between the business and IT. IT leadership must increase and demonstrate its level of understanding of their organization's business and strategy. This will lead to greater respect and trust from the business leaders. On the other hand, more often than not, information and technology become creative disrupter to business growth and industry evolution, business leaders cross-functionally should stay on the same page when sharpening business strategy and sharing information, the overall business transparency will enable effective communication and build trust. Get things done more effectively.
Change is inevitable, and organizational change becomes a common practice within an organization. It isn’t what you do, but the way that you communicate and do it, that matters. The right balance among the elements of an IT organization's value proposition depends on the style and market position of the business as a whole, combined with the expected contribution that IT makes. Building a trustworthy culture is important to improve the maturity of the IT and the organization as a whole.


Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu