Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1378
December 21, 2015
CIO’s Digital Agenda XX: Digital IT Performance Management
IT should focus on improving business and enforcing business capabilities.
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with about 2300+ 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.
How to achieve IT efficiency, effectiveness, agility and improve IT performance are the goal every CIO wants to pursue, however, It is not easy, IT performance needs to well reflect the business value in which IT can contribute both strategically and operationally, to capture both short term gain and long term win, and contribute to the business’s bottom line and top line growth.
Digital IT Performance ManagementWhat are Key Practical Steps to Improve IT Performance? What are Key Practical Steps to Improve IT Performance: How to achieve IT efficiency, effectiveness and agility are the goals every CIO wants to pursue, however, It is not easy because it requires changing the culture and getting the buy-in of the IT resources. Also, in reality, problem is that quite often productivity metrics is nearly nonexistent in organizations for most of IT functions and monitoring is not an easy task. Though the situation varies, still, there are a couple of key steps can be shared in improving IT performance across vertical sectors.
CIO's Four Views of IT KPIs- IT is pervasive in any contemporary enterprise today, however, most of IT organizations still get stuck into lower level maturity, with a reputation as a cost center, IT should work with stakeholders to develop KPIs that show how IT is improving business and enforcing business capabilities. Here are four views of KPIs, from IT cost breakdown to IT Performance quadrant; from PMO measure to business capability metrics.
IT Spending Benchmark Debate: Ideally what should be a percentage of IT spend of an organization relative to its revenue? Seriously, the answer to this question depends on the industry, the company, the company's financial state, the company's competition, the company's IT history, and most importantly, the company's strategic plan and the fit of the IT plan to support the company's plan.
CIO's Dashboard A well-designed dashboard is an effective management tool to enable business leaders to make a better decision, from IT management perspective; a dashboard should present the topics that you manage. CIOs shall ask yourself what are IT business objectives towards your organizational strategy. Then, translate it to smart KPIs.
PMO Metrics and KPIs? KPIs are key elements in driving business performance, but they are often overlooked when measuring accountability and business maturity levels. Besides on-time, on the budget, what KPIs do you think the best measure effectiveness of IT project portfolio management and project management processes to deliver business value?
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
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with about 2300+ 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.
How to achieve IT efficiency, effectiveness, agility and improve IT performance are the goal every CIO wants to pursue, however, It is not easy, IT performance needs to well reflect the business value in which IT can contribute both strategically and operationally, to capture both short term gain and long term win, and contribute to the business’s bottom line and top line growth.
Digital IT Performance ManagementWhat are Key Practical Steps to Improve IT Performance? What are Key Practical Steps to Improve IT Performance: How to achieve IT efficiency, effectiveness and agility are the goals every CIO wants to pursue, however, It is not easy because it requires changing the culture and getting the buy-in of the IT resources. Also, in reality, problem is that quite often productivity metrics is nearly nonexistent in organizations for most of IT functions and monitoring is not an easy task. Though the situation varies, still, there are a couple of key steps can be shared in improving IT performance across vertical sectors.
CIO's Four Views of IT KPIs- IT is pervasive in any contemporary enterprise today, however, most of IT organizations still get stuck into lower level maturity, with a reputation as a cost center, IT should work with stakeholders to develop KPIs that show how IT is improving business and enforcing business capabilities. Here are four views of KPIs, from IT cost breakdown to IT Performance quadrant; from PMO measure to business capability metrics.
IT Spending Benchmark Debate: Ideally what should be a percentage of IT spend of an organization relative to its revenue? Seriously, the answer to this question depends on the industry, the company, the company's financial state, the company's competition, the company's IT history, and most importantly, the company's strategic plan and the fit of the IT plan to support the company's plan.
CIO's Dashboard A well-designed dashboard is an effective management tool to enable business leaders to make a better decision, from IT management perspective; a dashboard should present the topics that you manage. CIOs shall ask yourself what are IT business objectives towards your organizational strategy. Then, translate it to smart KPIs.
PMO Metrics and KPIs? KPIs are key elements in driving business performance, but they are often overlooked when measuring accountability and business maturity levels. Besides on-time, on the budget, what KPIs do you think the best measure effectiveness of IT project portfolio management and project management processes to deliver business value?
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
Agile Practice: How to Set Sustainable Pace in Agile Initiatives
What's far more important is having consistent, stable velocity while maintaining the quality of work.
With Agile gaining momentum, the techniques upon how to make it more successful also become a hot topic. For example, how to set a sustainable pace in Agile initiatives? Is Agile velocity more about business values (features) or line of code? Is it more about project effectiveness (doing the right thing) or more about team productivity? And how to continue improving the team’s capacity and capability?
Agile is about continuous improvement: You really don't want the teams to produce same results when they are capable of innovating and improving continuously in their work. In the initial sprints, teams tend to over-estimate and commit more than their capacity and under-deliver. After a couple of sprints, they become careful and start underestimating and over deliver - this gives a sense of feel good! And then, the teams start to stabilize and settle down with their outcome. This will start to vary when the team tries to bring in some kind of disruption to their work and try new things. Is is pretty healthy. If the team / developer could go fast at the beginning delivering values without the proper initiative of analyzing and planning, they will go slow and slower over time, and even need over-time works which might destroy overall productivity later.
The team improves productivity via automation and stabilization: At initial stages of engagement, productivity is lower (even with overtime) because the team is getting familiar with the environment, knowing each other, and other foundational work. As time passes, team’s productivity increases and settles in a band. With further automation in manual tasks, team’s productivity increases. So instead of spending the overtime on doing more work, spend it on improving the way you work. If Scrum is a good fit and the people committed to it, a Scrum team should be clearly more productive one month after starting, and then teams will be more productive and stabilize to deliver maximum velocity (business value). To reach that state teams may spend a couple of sprints that are called as their sustainable pace.
Overtime increases velocity very little if at all. If any extra work needs doing then it's to discover why you think you need over time and change so you don't. Limited, short-term over time can result in limited, short-term velocity increase. Significant long-term over time can result in significantly increased velocity (delivered stories/points), with a corresponding reduction in quality, an increase in defects etc.Overtime is an indicator that the team is running over capacity and the target velocity needs to be reduced. Overtime and long hours by the team had an increase in defects. Over time working is not suggestible for long run to any team, because the quality might degrade and teams won’t be happy. Teams want to be 'helpful' and will push themselves into an unsustainable pace, and unless this is addressed they will suffer burn-out, and become demoralized and lose confidence in their abilities. They will grow back again, but the time lost due to burnout and recovery is always greater than any time gained. The real purpose ofAgile velocity is not to measure productivity but to be able to have a number which signify the CURRENT capability and capacity of team so that near future releases can be planned or visualized.
In reality, the team’s productivity and effectiveness depends on the team maturity, technology, product knowledge/functionality, etc. A stable velocity can be created by a team committing under their predicted capacity as is commonly recommended and working only to that commitment. What's far more important is having consistent, stable velocity while maintaining quality of work. Then you can establish a level of trust between yourself and stakeholders that you can deliver on what your promise. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
With Agile gaining momentum, the techniques upon how to make it more successful also become a hot topic. For example, how to set a sustainable pace in Agile initiatives? Is Agile velocity more about business values (features) or line of code? Is it more about project effectiveness (doing the right thing) or more about team productivity? And how to continue improving the team’s capacity and capability?
Agile is about continuous improvement: You really don't want the teams to produce same results when they are capable of innovating and improving continuously in their work. In the initial sprints, teams tend to over-estimate and commit more than their capacity and under-deliver. After a couple of sprints, they become careful and start underestimating and over deliver - this gives a sense of feel good! And then, the teams start to stabilize and settle down with their outcome. This will start to vary when the team tries to bring in some kind of disruption to their work and try new things. Is is pretty healthy. If the team / developer could go fast at the beginning delivering values without the proper initiative of analyzing and planning, they will go slow and slower over time, and even need over-time works which might destroy overall productivity later.
The team improves productivity via automation and stabilization: At initial stages of engagement, productivity is lower (even with overtime) because the team is getting familiar with the environment, knowing each other, and other foundational work. As time passes, team’s productivity increases and settles in a band. With further automation in manual tasks, team’s productivity increases. So instead of spending the overtime on doing more work, spend it on improving the way you work. If Scrum is a good fit and the people committed to it, a Scrum team should be clearly more productive one month after starting, and then teams will be more productive and stabilize to deliver maximum velocity (business value). To reach that state teams may spend a couple of sprints that are called as their sustainable pace.
Overtime increases velocity very little if at all. If any extra work needs doing then it's to discover why you think you need over time and change so you don't. Limited, short-term over time can result in limited, short-term velocity increase. Significant long-term over time can result in significantly increased velocity (delivered stories/points), with a corresponding reduction in quality, an increase in defects etc.Overtime is an indicator that the team is running over capacity and the target velocity needs to be reduced. Overtime and long hours by the team had an increase in defects. Over time working is not suggestible for long run to any team, because the quality might degrade and teams won’t be happy. Teams want to be 'helpful' and will push themselves into an unsustainable pace, and unless this is addressed they will suffer burn-out, and become demoralized and lose confidence in their abilities. They will grow back again, but the time lost due to burnout and recovery is always greater than any time gained. The real purpose ofAgile velocity is not to measure productivity but to be able to have a number which signify the CURRENT capability and capacity of team so that near future releases can be planned or visualized. In reality, the team’s productivity and effectiveness depends on the team maturity, technology, product knowledge/functionality, etc. A stable velocity can be created by a team committing under their predicted capacity as is commonly recommended and working only to that commitment. What's far more important is having consistent, stable velocity while maintaining quality of work. Then you can establish a level of trust between yourself and stakeholders that you can deliver on what your promise. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Vision vs. Insight
A vision is a future state of being, and an insight is the perception of inner nature of things.
As businesses and the world move deeper and deeper into the digital world of VUCA -volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, one of the most desired traits for leaders is VISION, because leadership is all about direction, it shows people where to go; and the other equally important leadership trait is INSIGHT, because it brings up the big WHY - why do you go where you are going and how to get there. So more specifically, what are apple to apple comparisons between vision vs. insight?
A vision is a future state of being, and an insight is the perception of inner nature of things. Vision is a foresight with a proactive understanding of cause and effect, not reactive seeing. It is a clear choice among future scenarios that advocates future trends and promotes certain behavior. The "aha" vision is an "entrepreneurial" attribute; the ability to envision a solution to a perceived or not-yet-perceived need. Insight is the vision through ‘mind's eyes,’ the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively in Greek called noesis. When you learn to create inner space of clarity, calmness in the storming mind of thoughts emotions, sensations, dreams and imagination, insights can be perceived.
Vision is something you see, others don’t. And insight is thinking into the box after thinking out of the box. Vision is something you see, others don't, and a visionary mind is able to and not afraid to leverage contrarian views to shape a holistic picture. While insight takes both creativity and reasoning, intuition and logic, the power of acute observation and deduction, questioning, connection, penetration, discernment, perception called intellection or noesis. The most important thing is that you believe in your vision and many follow your vision. A vision re-conceptualizes the future, connects the previously unconnected dream. It fires the imagination and opens the mind to new concepts and ideas. Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. Insight is being able to identify the root cause of a problem or the core issues of a situation which lead to understanding and resolution. Too often people may take the easy path, think and work at a superficial level rather than spending the time to understand what is going on underneath. Insight is an understanding of cause and effect based on the identification of relationships and behaviors within a model, context, or scenario.
A visionary mind has the ability to think the past, perceive what is now and foresee the future. Insight is the ability to perceive clearly or deep penetration. Vision is about shaping an idea that comes with a commitment to push it through - personal dynamics and guts, determination and single-mindedness. The vision if understood in this perspective becomes a reality achievable and a comprehensible dream beyond words. Insight is about penetrating and often sudden understanding, as of a complex situation or problem. The insight of situation requires in-depth understanding. It’s about the understanding of one´s possibilities, adversaries, environments effects and other stakeholders’ behavior. The more complex the situation is, the more different approaches and role gaming is needed to reach for understanding. A collective insight is superior -. If a team clicks it may reach shared insight of situation which is always better than individual belief.
So vision inspires you to move forward, and insight enables you to dig deeper; vision zooms into the future as if it were closer; and insight penetrates to gain an in-depth understanding about what's going on; vision makes you feel passion about what is going to happen - the opportunities, and insight keeps you calm down about the potential risks; vision is the great work via both mind and heart orchestration; and insight is the excellent job via left brain and right brain’s connection and collaboration. So the very essence of leadership is to point out the destination via vision; and craft a good strategy via insight, to lead change with confidence and effectiveness.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
As businesses and the world move deeper and deeper into the digital world of VUCA -volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, one of the most desired traits for leaders is VISION, because leadership is all about direction, it shows people where to go; and the other equally important leadership trait is INSIGHT, because it brings up the big WHY - why do you go where you are going and how to get there. So more specifically, what are apple to apple comparisons between vision vs. insight?
A vision is a future state of being, and an insight is the perception of inner nature of things. Vision is a foresight with a proactive understanding of cause and effect, not reactive seeing. It is a clear choice among future scenarios that advocates future trends and promotes certain behavior. The "aha" vision is an "entrepreneurial" attribute; the ability to envision a solution to a perceived or not-yet-perceived need. Insight is the vision through ‘mind's eyes,’ the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively in Greek called noesis. When you learn to create inner space of clarity, calmness in the storming mind of thoughts emotions, sensations, dreams and imagination, insights can be perceived.
Vision is something you see, others don’t. And insight is thinking into the box after thinking out of the box. Vision is something you see, others don't, and a visionary mind is able to and not afraid to leverage contrarian views to shape a holistic picture. While insight takes both creativity and reasoning, intuition and logic, the power of acute observation and deduction, questioning, connection, penetration, discernment, perception called intellection or noesis. The most important thing is that you believe in your vision and many follow your vision. A vision re-conceptualizes the future, connects the previously unconnected dream. It fires the imagination and opens the mind to new concepts and ideas. Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. Insight is being able to identify the root cause of a problem or the core issues of a situation which lead to understanding and resolution. Too often people may take the easy path, think and work at a superficial level rather than spending the time to understand what is going on underneath. Insight is an understanding of cause and effect based on the identification of relationships and behaviors within a model, context, or scenario.
A visionary mind has the ability to think the past, perceive what is now and foresee the future. Insight is the ability to perceive clearly or deep penetration. Vision is about shaping an idea that comes with a commitment to push it through - personal dynamics and guts, determination and single-mindedness. The vision if understood in this perspective becomes a reality achievable and a comprehensible dream beyond words. Insight is about penetrating and often sudden understanding, as of a complex situation or problem. The insight of situation requires in-depth understanding. It’s about the understanding of one´s possibilities, adversaries, environments effects and other stakeholders’ behavior. The more complex the situation is, the more different approaches and role gaming is needed to reach for understanding. A collective insight is superior -. If a team clicks it may reach shared insight of situation which is always better than individual belief. So vision inspires you to move forward, and insight enables you to dig deeper; vision zooms into the future as if it were closer; and insight penetrates to gain an in-depth understanding about what's going on; vision makes you feel passion about what is going to happen - the opportunities, and insight keeps you calm down about the potential risks; vision is the great work via both mind and heart orchestration; and insight is the excellent job via left brain and right brain’s connection and collaboration. So the very essence of leadership is to point out the destination via vision; and craft a good strategy via insight, to lead change with confidence and effectiveness.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
December 20, 2015
CIO’s Digital Agenda IXX: The Best Practices to Run Digital IT
Either best practices or next practices, the goal is to learn from the past, but not to stifle innovation.
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with about 2300+ 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.
Digital transformation is a thorny journey, with complexity, uncertainty, trials, and pitfalls on the way, so how do you develop the best and next practices to drive digital transformation more effortlessly?
The Best Practices to Run Digital ITThree Principles Modern IT Needs to Practice- Information is like blood, and technology is like a backbone for any modern business today. However, most of IT organization has a reputation as a cost center than a value creator, a controller than an enabler, a tool than a magic. With the new wave of the latest technology trends such as cloud, mobile, consumerization and social, the contemporary IT leaders need to refresh the innovative mindset, embrace the lightweight technology, practice the following three principles, run IT with simplicity technically, culturally and politically, in order to become the strategic business partners and reach high-level of IT maturity.
Five Aspects of Center of Excellence - A center of excellence refers to a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, evangelization, best practices, research, support or training for a focus area.Like any other business practices, the CoE solution needs to come from both sides of the aisles -IT and business, though. While IT needs to think more about business value and strategic vision, the business also needs to accept IT as a source for such value instead of a cost/service center.
CIO's Agile Practices in Managing IT Complexity Businesses become over-complex and hyper-connected today, agility is the ability of an organization to sense opportunity or threat, prioritize its potential responses, and act efficiently and effectively. More specifically, what does Agile mean for IT and business, how does CIO leverage agile in managing IT complexity?
How to Overcome Corporate Silo Mentality? We have transitioned from an industrial to knowledge, innovation, and hyperconnectivity economy - with this shift has come to a change in organizational forms away from the traditional rigid hierarchies managed through command and control to more fluid and responsive network forms. Yet many business managers still apply old silo management mindsets to new ways of organizing and this legacy of the old economy limits many 'networked' organizations. Are silos a mere product of organizational design? Or is their nature tied to a deeper level: the humankind's nature? Despite the mountain of evidence pointing the detrimental effects of these silos, they still seem to be quite common in organizations. The question is: why?
Seven Dashboard Best Practices-Actionable data enables better decision making. Dashboard mediums continue to grow in scope, which is great on one hand, but, will dashboards outlive their usefulness? Here are some Dashboard best practices.
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
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with about 2300+ 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. Digital transformation is a thorny journey, with complexity, uncertainty, trials, and pitfalls on the way, so how do you develop the best and next practices to drive digital transformation more effortlessly?
The Best Practices to Run Digital ITThree Principles Modern IT Needs to Practice- Information is like blood, and technology is like a backbone for any modern business today. However, most of IT organization has a reputation as a cost center than a value creator, a controller than an enabler, a tool than a magic. With the new wave of the latest technology trends such as cloud, mobile, consumerization and social, the contemporary IT leaders need to refresh the innovative mindset, embrace the lightweight technology, practice the following three principles, run IT with simplicity technically, culturally and politically, in order to become the strategic business partners and reach high-level of IT maturity.
Five Aspects of Center of Excellence - A center of excellence refers to a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, evangelization, best practices, research, support or training for a focus area.Like any other business practices, the CoE solution needs to come from both sides of the aisles -IT and business, though. While IT needs to think more about business value and strategic vision, the business also needs to accept IT as a source for such value instead of a cost/service center.
CIO's Agile Practices in Managing IT Complexity Businesses become over-complex and hyper-connected today, agility is the ability of an organization to sense opportunity or threat, prioritize its potential responses, and act efficiently and effectively. More specifically, what does Agile mean for IT and business, how does CIO leverage agile in managing IT complexity?
How to Overcome Corporate Silo Mentality? We have transitioned from an industrial to knowledge, innovation, and hyperconnectivity economy - with this shift has come to a change in organizational forms away from the traditional rigid hierarchies managed through command and control to more fluid and responsive network forms. Yet many business managers still apply old silo management mindsets to new ways of organizing and this legacy of the old economy limits many 'networked' organizations. Are silos a mere product of organizational design? Or is their nature tied to a deeper level: the humankind's nature? Despite the mountain of evidence pointing the detrimental effects of these silos, they still seem to be quite common in organizations. The question is: why?
Seven Dashboard Best Practices-Actionable data enables better decision making. Dashboard mediums continue to grow in scope, which is great on one hand, but, will dashboards outlive their usefulness? Here are some Dashboard best practices.
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
A Fulfilling Mind
“If you so choose, even the unexpected setbacks can bring new and positive possibilities. If you so choose, you can find value and fulfillment in every circumstance.” -Ralph Marston
We like the water when it flows to the river and merge to the sea; we enjoy the clouds when they change the shapes and fly around; we are enchanted by the nature world because of its full spectrum of colors and four seasons of changes; and we love the life when we gain the new experience or capture the fresh insight… Fulfillment and enjoyment are kind of interconnected, although they are indeed two different things, but not mutually exclusive of each other. Fulfillment is the reward one gets from having a work well done. Enjoyment can be from the simplest things; watching a sunrise, smelling a fragrant flower, seeing a full rainbow after the storm passes. Enjoyment is also an adjunct to fulfillment, but fulfillment is much deeper than enjoyment....Is enjoyment more from the heart and fulfillment from the mind? And what are important elements to shape a fulfilling mind?
Freedom: What you get in return from freedom is peace of mind. Your mind is not cluttered. You are free, but you do not feel empty, on the opposite, you feel fulfilled. Although nothing in the universe is absolutely free, everything is bound to something else! Can we say that any action that is performed with total freedom where freedom doesn't cause any kind of conflict of interest with others will be fulfilling always? It is nothing to do with right or wrong. It is all about one's freedom, which gives immense joy to anyone when it is exercised. When you don't have any compulsion, you are free, you don't worry whether it's positive or negative, you accept things, you don't judge, you don't worry about what others think, you don't even want others to accept your way of thought, because you know everything is momentary and everything you come across is a something you have to experience in this journey called life. You just seek. You try to find answers from within. You don't believe in any dogmas. The world is open. All boundaries are created by humans. So as humans, we also need to break free and live life on our terms. Unless one enjoys the freedom how can he/she understand the meaning of life and unless he/she understands the meaning of life completely what kind of fulfillment can he/she aspire for? So, one should move towards experiencing total freedom first. And true fulfillment comes when you visibly see what have accomplished is able to make a difference, or advocate freedom.
Connectivity: Fulfillment comes both through the mind and heart connection internally or the mind to mind connectivity externally. Our mind is often too hard-wired to look through our heart, but ultimately heart to heart connections harmonize the world. A fulfilling mind connects the dots more broadly to see the new possibilities. it is the mind with the thinking process that holds onto its nature connectivity while being prepared to connect the dots even at the opposite direction should they make sense. The fulfillment comes through the deep sense of connectivity, the movement with circulation and energy flowing. Continuous movement is what makes things happen, but, it is just like the water flowing up, continuous improvement is a tough journey. In every walk of life, it is a continuous process and in this continuity flows the life force, and you keep flowing with the life force, you shall be alive and bubbling with positive energy, and feel fulfilled.
Abundance: Internally, abundance is about awareness within you, of who you are. Abundance is the framework for living, a perspective, a creativity flow, and a sense of confidence. Externally, abundance means the flow of information or the clicks away knowledge. Abundance stems from what we need and what we value such as resources, time, food, good will, creativity, engagement, etc, the inner abundance of self-awareness and external abundance of resources shape a fulfilling mind, it should feel like stepping into the sea, the further you go, the deeper you become; or climbing up the mountain, the higher you reach, the humble you become. It further creates connection and joy. “If one is to live an abundant life. One must seek out all manner of ways to be challenged. Otherwise, the fountain of the flow of life will only trickle in. One needs to perturb the flow of life so as to engage it fully. Rich engagement is the fruit of the enlightened labor of one’s passion by a sense of fulfillment.” ― Ivan Alexander Pozo-Illa
Generally speaking, a fulfilling mind is free to think, being in the zone with dot-connecting creative passion, with an abundance of perspective and sense of confidence, to enjoy such fulfilling experiences. There are masters who are always in such moment or one with it, no matter where they are or what they do. It is true fulfillment of life. This is a life discovery.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
We like the water when it flows to the river and merge to the sea; we enjoy the clouds when they change the shapes and fly around; we are enchanted by the nature world because of its full spectrum of colors and four seasons of changes; and we love the life when we gain the new experience or capture the fresh insight… Fulfillment and enjoyment are kind of interconnected, although they are indeed two different things, but not mutually exclusive of each other. Fulfillment is the reward one gets from having a work well done. Enjoyment can be from the simplest things; watching a sunrise, smelling a fragrant flower, seeing a full rainbow after the storm passes. Enjoyment is also an adjunct to fulfillment, but fulfillment is much deeper than enjoyment....Is enjoyment more from the heart and fulfillment from the mind? And what are important elements to shape a fulfilling mind?
Freedom: What you get in return from freedom is peace of mind. Your mind is not cluttered. You are free, but you do not feel empty, on the opposite, you feel fulfilled. Although nothing in the universe is absolutely free, everything is bound to something else! Can we say that any action that is performed with total freedom where freedom doesn't cause any kind of conflict of interest with others will be fulfilling always? It is nothing to do with right or wrong. It is all about one's freedom, which gives immense joy to anyone when it is exercised. When you don't have any compulsion, you are free, you don't worry whether it's positive or negative, you accept things, you don't judge, you don't worry about what others think, you don't even want others to accept your way of thought, because you know everything is momentary and everything you come across is a something you have to experience in this journey called life. You just seek. You try to find answers from within. You don't believe in any dogmas. The world is open. All boundaries are created by humans. So as humans, we also need to break free and live life on our terms. Unless one enjoys the freedom how can he/she understand the meaning of life and unless he/she understands the meaning of life completely what kind of fulfillment can he/she aspire for? So, one should move towards experiencing total freedom first. And true fulfillment comes when you visibly see what have accomplished is able to make a difference, or advocate freedom.
Connectivity: Fulfillment comes both through the mind and heart connection internally or the mind to mind connectivity externally. Our mind is often too hard-wired to look through our heart, but ultimately heart to heart connections harmonize the world. A fulfilling mind connects the dots more broadly to see the new possibilities. it is the mind with the thinking process that holds onto its nature connectivity while being prepared to connect the dots even at the opposite direction should they make sense. The fulfillment comes through the deep sense of connectivity, the movement with circulation and energy flowing. Continuous movement is what makes things happen, but, it is just like the water flowing up, continuous improvement is a tough journey. In every walk of life, it is a continuous process and in this continuity flows the life force, and you keep flowing with the life force, you shall be alive and bubbling with positive energy, and feel fulfilled.
Abundance: Internally, abundance is about awareness within you, of who you are. Abundance is the framework for living, a perspective, a creativity flow, and a sense of confidence. Externally, abundance means the flow of information or the clicks away knowledge. Abundance stems from what we need and what we value such as resources, time, food, good will, creativity, engagement, etc, the inner abundance of self-awareness and external abundance of resources shape a fulfilling mind, it should feel like stepping into the sea, the further you go, the deeper you become; or climbing up the mountain, the higher you reach, the humble you become. It further creates connection and joy. “If one is to live an abundant life. One must seek out all manner of ways to be challenged. Otherwise, the fountain of the flow of life will only trickle in. One needs to perturb the flow of life so as to engage it fully. Rich engagement is the fruit of the enlightened labor of one’s passion by a sense of fulfillment.” ― Ivan Alexander Pozo-Illa
Generally speaking, a fulfilling mind is free to think, being in the zone with dot-connecting creative passion, with an abundance of perspective and sense of confidence, to enjoy such fulfilling experiences. There are masters who are always in such moment or one with it, no matter where they are or what they do. It is true fulfillment of life. This is a life discovery.
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Three Digital Credos in Running a High-Effective Digital Organization
Digital credos are the philosophy behind the methodologies and the mindset behind behaviors.
Organizations large and small are in the journey of digital transformation. Digitalization implies the full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so adopting a new digital technology only is not sufficient. You have to transform the company’s underlying functions, build robust business capabilities, also establish the clear digital credos to cultivate a digital culture, in order to run a high-effective and high-mature digital organization.
Customer-Centricity: One of the key characteristics of digital organizations is customer-centricity. When companies take the outside-in customer lenses and adopt customer-centric strategies, customers become the primary driver of “why” and “what” work should be done, “how” to do it better, and “who” should do it. And customer-centricity becomes the nature of the priorities in the organization. So the consideration of digital design would include, how would you ensure that all organizational structures, processes, and strategy alignment around an excellent customer experience to result in a profitable and purposeful organization. And being customer-centric is not just a few best practices or a high-level user interface, it has to permeate and integrate all key business components to orchestrate a high-mature digital business that has a set of key business capabilities to delight customers.
Employee-Engagements: Statistically, more than two-thirds of employees do not feel engaged at work. Disengagement can have as much to the company and roles they work for. There are both internal (such as satisfaction and a sense of contribution) and external factors (such as authority or responsibility) in affecting employees’ engagement. So from talent management perspectives, managers should help employees find the way to link their activities to digital strategy, by doing that, every staff should be able to see what they can make a difference to the company, and hopefully to the customers as well, such “visual connection” can help individuals to find the meaning of work, and also discover their own purpose to work via autonomy. And employees are more willing to take up challenging works outside their comfort zone and keep in the knowing about how their actions impact on the “big picture,” customers, and translate to the business objectives. The latest digital technologies also open the new possibilities to unleash both employees’ potential, as well as the organization’s full growth potential, There are many tools to facilitate social collaboration and cross-functional communication, and employees would like to have their voice heard, their work appreciated, and their value recognized.
Business Agility: Organizational agility is the ability to sense, respond, and take action for the accelerated changes and continuous digital disruptions. It is the capability to solve business problems more effectively and collaboratively. It means to become a truly holistic organization, stop talking about IT and business as separate entities, it is a holistic organization with one set of goals and objective. Agility is also a strategic balance of creativity and standardization; principles and flexibility; targets at the organizational pressure points where they are not only needed today but will most likely be needed tomorrow, to thrive amid increasing speed of change and overall digital transformation.
The digital credos are the top principles to run digital organizations today, they are not the static rules or rigid processes to stifle innovation. Instead, they are the philosophy behind the methodologies, and they are the mindsets behind behaviors and actions. Going digital not just about the products you make or the website you design. It’s a core shift in how the business operates. It’s the set of “beliefs” to run today’s fast, always on, highly connected and ultra-competitive organization cross-sectors and cross-geographic boundaries.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Organizations large and small are in the journey of digital transformation. Digitalization implies the full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so adopting a new digital technology only is not sufficient. You have to transform the company’s underlying functions, build robust business capabilities, also establish the clear digital credos to cultivate a digital culture, in order to run a high-effective and high-mature digital organization.
Customer-Centricity: One of the key characteristics of digital organizations is customer-centricity. When companies take the outside-in customer lenses and adopt customer-centric strategies, customers become the primary driver of “why” and “what” work should be done, “how” to do it better, and “who” should do it. And customer-centricity becomes the nature of the priorities in the organization. So the consideration of digital design would include, how would you ensure that all organizational structures, processes, and strategy alignment around an excellent customer experience to result in a profitable and purposeful organization. And being customer-centric is not just a few best practices or a high-level user interface, it has to permeate and integrate all key business components to orchestrate a high-mature digital business that has a set of key business capabilities to delight customers.
Employee-Engagements: Statistically, more than two-thirds of employees do not feel engaged at work. Disengagement can have as much to the company and roles they work for. There are both internal (such as satisfaction and a sense of contribution) and external factors (such as authority or responsibility) in affecting employees’ engagement. So from talent management perspectives, managers should help employees find the way to link their activities to digital strategy, by doing that, every staff should be able to see what they can make a difference to the company, and hopefully to the customers as well, such “visual connection” can help individuals to find the meaning of work, and also discover their own purpose to work via autonomy. And employees are more willing to take up challenging works outside their comfort zone and keep in the knowing about how their actions impact on the “big picture,” customers, and translate to the business objectives. The latest digital technologies also open the new possibilities to unleash both employees’ potential, as well as the organization’s full growth potential, There are many tools to facilitate social collaboration and cross-functional communication, and employees would like to have their voice heard, their work appreciated, and their value recognized.
Business Agility: Organizational agility is the ability to sense, respond, and take action for the accelerated changes and continuous digital disruptions. It is the capability to solve business problems more effectively and collaboratively. It means to become a truly holistic organization, stop talking about IT and business as separate entities, it is a holistic organization with one set of goals and objective. Agility is also a strategic balance of creativity and standardization; principles and flexibility; targets at the organizational pressure points where they are not only needed today but will most likely be needed tomorrow, to thrive amid increasing speed of change and overall digital transformation.
The digital credos are the top principles to run digital organizations today, they are not the static rules or rigid processes to stifle innovation. Instead, they are the philosophy behind the methodologies, and they are the mindsets behind behaviors and actions. Going digital not just about the products you make or the website you design. It’s a core shift in how the business operates. It’s the set of “beliefs” to run today’s fast, always on, highly connected and ultra-competitive organization cross-sectors and cross-geographic boundaries.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
December 19, 2015
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 12/19/2015
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with 2300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of the “Future of CIO” blog - to celebrate the holiday season.The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 12/19/2015Running IT in a Continuous Delivery Mode: Many IT organizations are on the way for radical digital transformation, to change their reputation from a cost center to a value creator; from a back-office support function to a relentless innovation engine; from the process "glue" to the capability builder, and from a reactive mode to a proactive and continuous delivery mode.
Three Digital Mentalities to Bridge the Digital Gaps. Digital is the age of explosive information, hyperconnectivity, fierce competition, although the physical obstacles can not separate people from communication, but still, there are walls at people’s heart and gaps in their minds. We identified "Three Mentalities which Enlarge the Digital Gaps" in the previous posting, here we also discuss three mentalities to bridge digital gaps.
Digital CIO’s Agenda XV: Change Management Fine Tuning: Change is inevitable, organizational change has become a common practice within an organization, but how to fine tune the Change Management, and overcome the obstacles to managing a smooth digital transformation? The Paradox of Complexity: People are complex, business is complex, and the world is complex, and they are becoming more complex due to the explosive information and the accelerated speed of changes. Modern organizations spend significant time and resources to deal with complexity, is complexity good or bad; the complex organizational structure/process or the hyper-complex business ecosystem, which factors contribute the most to making organizations more complex? And philosophically, what is the paradox of complexity?
Monthly Innovation Brief - Connecting the Dots of Innovation Dec.: Innovation is the light every organization is pursuing. Innovation takes the cycle of observing-questioning-connecting-networking-experimenting. From the management perspective, innovation is how to transform novel ideas to achieve its business value, due to the hyper-complexity of modern business, innovation is essentially about reducing the unnecessary business complexity to tackle the complexities of business dynamic. Here is a set of dot-connection of innovation management.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.
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Three “Rigidities” to Avoid in Innovation Management
The search for the key to the "sustainable innovation holy grail" requires a specific understanding of innovator motivation.
Innovations at the digital era are coming at seemingly much fast space, more changes and more potential disruption, and therefore, innovation management also becomes more complex and dynamic, so what are the potential barriers to stop people from being creative, and how to manage innovation more effectively?
Rigid thinking: A strong blockade for innovation is rigid thinking, relying only on how things were done before, and lack of “out-of-box” thinking. If one only looks at a problem or situation based on some parallel or formula of the past, the "options" for self-expression are limited. If the situation requires a new formula or option, rigid thought prevents the ability to create a new expression from manifesting in that moment. Narrow/closed-mindedness also blocks creativity, as to be creative, one's mind needs to be open to new concepts. The opposite of creative thinking is the static mind. Creativity requires openness to new experiences or opening your eyes to see old things in a new and different way. Keeping growth mind, learning from every experience, but also learn to unlearn your experiences, creativity starts with a knowledge base, and then openness to new experience or detecting thing you didn't know or applying knowledge from other domains to a new one, results in creativity in the new domain, sometimes in contexts like that you end up being creative by accident. Lack of humility, which is a form of rigidity and being closed to new ideas, is indeed an impediment to creativity.
Rigid process: Innovation is, generally speaking, a discipline because it is a systematic way to applying creativity in the real life and business. However, should innovation processes be standardized, or is it innovation process an oxymoron? The term innovation process implies an openness to innovative ideas, with an accepted interface into the organization to actually develop and exploit the ideas as they come about. An obsession with the rigidity of efficiency stunts the innovation creation process. Innovation is fluid and should not be straight-jacketed. Many process innovations will be concerned with increasing and optimizing efficiency and maintaining existing skills and linkages. Efficiency and short-term goal orientation often divert focus from innovation in general; and innovation that will benefit in the long range return on investment. So innovation is often dependent on business insight because you can't change an organization without insight, the organization adapts exclusively to the insight you provide to it. The search for the key to the "sustainable innovation holy grail" requires a specific understanding of innovator motivation. It is not a one size fits all, and thus, innovation processes need to be robust and “antifragile.”
Rigid culture: If there’s idea gap, it means the cause to gap may have something to do with corporate culture, culture is about how to focus - focus on a few things that matter for business, and the business has the capability to do better than the competitors. It’s what innovation all about - do it better, faster and more cost effectively. One of the biggest barriers to innovation is culture inertia: Here are some common response: "We've always done it this way," "Our competitors are doing it so it must be right," "Stick to your own responsibility," "You don't really understand that problem," "Don't rock the boat;" etc. Indeed, attitude matters, and DARE a little to ask "Why" or "Why not." Hence, it is imperative for improving the organization's culture to one that is more innovative, inspires creativity, celebrates or allows failure or prototyping. If you have or develop the right culture through change management, open, not close; agile, not rigid, and then everything else can be connected. An adaptive culture makes innovation and improvement easier. It is easier to collect, facilitate and manage ideas more optimally. Finally, if you get the culture right, then people feel they have the freedom to try and even to fail.
Innovation is both art and science. From a business management perspective, it is more science than art. Especially digital innovation now expands its horizon and flexes its muscles, goes beyond just creating the new things, and it has enriched context. Therefore, innovation management needs to take a structured approach, but it also has to overcome “rigidity” we described above and bring up the business result with agility and flexibility. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Innovations at the digital era are coming at seemingly much fast space, more changes and more potential disruption, and therefore, innovation management also becomes more complex and dynamic, so what are the potential barriers to stop people from being creative, and how to manage innovation more effectively?
Rigid thinking: A strong blockade for innovation is rigid thinking, relying only on how things were done before, and lack of “out-of-box” thinking. If one only looks at a problem or situation based on some parallel or formula of the past, the "options" for self-expression are limited. If the situation requires a new formula or option, rigid thought prevents the ability to create a new expression from manifesting in that moment. Narrow/closed-mindedness also blocks creativity, as to be creative, one's mind needs to be open to new concepts. The opposite of creative thinking is the static mind. Creativity requires openness to new experiences or opening your eyes to see old things in a new and different way. Keeping growth mind, learning from every experience, but also learn to unlearn your experiences, creativity starts with a knowledge base, and then openness to new experience or detecting thing you didn't know or applying knowledge from other domains to a new one, results in creativity in the new domain, sometimes in contexts like that you end up being creative by accident. Lack of humility, which is a form of rigidity and being closed to new ideas, is indeed an impediment to creativity.
Rigid process: Innovation is, generally speaking, a discipline because it is a systematic way to applying creativity in the real life and business. However, should innovation processes be standardized, or is it innovation process an oxymoron? The term innovation process implies an openness to innovative ideas, with an accepted interface into the organization to actually develop and exploit the ideas as they come about. An obsession with the rigidity of efficiency stunts the innovation creation process. Innovation is fluid and should not be straight-jacketed. Many process innovations will be concerned with increasing and optimizing efficiency and maintaining existing skills and linkages. Efficiency and short-term goal orientation often divert focus from innovation in general; and innovation that will benefit in the long range return on investment. So innovation is often dependent on business insight because you can't change an organization without insight, the organization adapts exclusively to the insight you provide to it. The search for the key to the "sustainable innovation holy grail" requires a specific understanding of innovator motivation. It is not a one size fits all, and thus, innovation processes need to be robust and “antifragile.”
Rigid culture: If there’s idea gap, it means the cause to gap may have something to do with corporate culture, culture is about how to focus - focus on a few things that matter for business, and the business has the capability to do better than the competitors. It’s what innovation all about - do it better, faster and more cost effectively. One of the biggest barriers to innovation is culture inertia: Here are some common response: "We've always done it this way," "Our competitors are doing it so it must be right," "Stick to your own responsibility," "You don't really understand that problem," "Don't rock the boat;" etc. Indeed, attitude matters, and DARE a little to ask "Why" or "Why not." Hence, it is imperative for improving the organization's culture to one that is more innovative, inspires creativity, celebrates or allows failure or prototyping. If you have or develop the right culture through change management, open, not close; agile, not rigid, and then everything else can be connected. An adaptive culture makes innovation and improvement easier. It is easier to collect, facilitate and manage ideas more optimally. Finally, if you get the culture right, then people feel they have the freedom to try and even to fail. Innovation is both art and science. From a business management perspective, it is more science than art. Especially digital innovation now expands its horizon and flexes its muscles, goes beyond just creating the new things, and it has enriched context. Therefore, innovation management needs to take a structured approach, but it also has to overcome “rigidity” we described above and bring up the business result with agility and flexibility. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
December 18, 2015
CIO’s Digital Agenda XVIII: The Pitfalls to Avoid in Digital Transformation
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.2 million page views with about 2300+ 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.
Digital transformation is a thorny journey, there are many roadblocks on the way, and numerous pitfalls lead to the failure, so how to identify and avoid them in order to drive digital transformation effortlessly?
The Pitfalls to Avoid in Digital TransformationWhy does Silo Happen and How to Bridge It There are different definitions of the silo, by its nature it’s about isolation. The segmenting or sectioning of work by skill/knowledge/type/etc. is a necessary component of complex work or large workplaces. But silos are fundamentally about keeping the mind static and keeping the people separate rather than keeping work separate.
The Common Weakness in Setting Strategic Objective Every organization has a strategy, but more than 70% of strategic planning fail to achieve the expected result, so what is the most common weakness in setting strategic objectives? And how to avoid pitfalls in strategy execution?
Is Culture the #1 Root Cause to Fail Strategy Organizations rise and fall, not on the quantum of plans and resources, but on the capabilities to manage, lead, yet most importantly to execute. Great culture saves even the mediocre talent and plans. Many companies fail in execution more than 70%, and culture is often the root cause to such failures. It is about many different matters like resistance to change, silos thinking with competing agendas, lack of clear and decisive leadership, leadership actions inconsistent with strategy, poor communication of strategy, lack of accountability on follow-through; inability to measure impact, too focused on short-term results, and maybe the most popular and big obstacle: the spirit of business (culture), and those aspects are all part of culture. So is the culture the #1 root cause to fail strategy? Who does create the culture of a company? Can it be changed? How can it be remained for years or centuries?
How Does a Senior Leader Deal With Blind spots? There’s knowing unknown, there’s unknowing unknown, so it's not a new topic about “Blind Spots,” everyone perhaps has some, but as a senior business leader (or any kind of leader), the blind spots will cloud your vision, trigger your negative emotion, cause your decision ineffectiveness, and screw your leadership competency. So what're the causes of the blind spot, and how to deal with them logically?
Is “Pseudo-Involvement” the Pitfall of Change Management: About two third of change management efforts fail to achieve the expected result, the causes may vary, is “pseudo-involvement” one of the pitfalls in Change Management, though ‘pseudo’ is ambiguous itself, it implies different situations in either reasonable or negative way.
Innovation Mantra: Fail Forward At the age of innovation, failure is seen as a fruit full of experience. Failure is part of innovation. It depends on how you read failure: A way to improve until you find the wonderful solution which will suit market or simply a waste of time. It depends on what you learn from it. It follows common sense: you learn more from failure than from your success!
How to Avoid Micromanagement Pitfalls: Micromanagement generally has a negative connotation, it means the managers put too tight control on their employees or team or insignificant details, it perhaps causes more damage than benefit. And many management experts thought that micromanagement is indeed one of the most destructive patterns a leader - middle or senior - can have. And from a culture perspective, ”not being micromanaged" almost always comes up. So why does micromanagement cause problems, and how to avoid such micromanagement pitfalls?The KPI Promises & Pitfalls-You can only manage what you measure, defining the right set of Key Performance Indicators is important for managing project or business effectively, and measuring KPIs to keep track of progress makes a certain level of promise for success. However, there are also big pitfalls when selecting or measuring the wrong KPIs. What is a good process to determine the right KPIs, and what is the process to change it when they are no longer relevant?
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
The Paradox of Complexity
In business, complexity both drives innovation and also hinders it.
People are complex, business is complex, and the world is complex, and they are becoming more complex due to the explosive information and the accelerated speed of changes. Modern organizations spend significant time and resources to deal with complexity, is complexity good or bad; the complex organizational structure/process or the hyper-complex business ecosystem, which factors contribute the most to making organizations more complex? And philosophically, what is the paradox of complexity?
Complexity vs. Innovation: In business, complexity both drives innovation and also hinders it. When a business becomes overly complex and people get frustrated and annoyed by not being able to accomplish things easily, this drives the search for simpler concepts and methods, which is the need to take the innovative initiative. At the same time, over-complexity in a business may be hiding simple and innovative ways to achieve things because the people involved just don't get the time to step back from the complexity and hence, they continue to follow the old routine to do the things, lack of the out of box creativity. From the management perspective, there are needed complexities such as design complexity that competitors cannot imitate easily; or the collaboration complexity that make people more productive and business more agile to adapt to the changes. Usually, innovation either through need seeker or technology driver is the key factors to weave such complexity in order. Therefore, the certain level of complexity is a foundation to spark the next level of innovation; and one of the very goals for innovation is to simplify the old way to do things, or to manage the complexity in an optimal manner.
Complexity vs. Intelligence: Complexity is a sort of intelligence from a scientific angle. Einstein said that every solution to the problem should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. It means that a problem has an inherent, irreducible complexity; any attempt to simplify further than that will fail, and any complexity added to it is harmful. Then where does the complexity manifest itself in the intelligence process? it is the brain ability to preliminarily understand the extent of any problem or condition. The people with what being referred as highly intelligent have a strong aptitude to understand the "complexity" of the given problem. It's like a rating scale of complexity. Some people get the whole picture as opposed to others that can't seem to get a grasp on the problem. Intelligence is the ability to break any complex thought or problem to the most rudimentary parts whereas they either can be acted on or dismissed. It is the level of activity in either case or the means of which activity or lack of activity or alternatives that demonstrate levels of intelligence.
Complexity vs. Business Value: So complexity per se is neither good nor bad, or it can be either good or bad depending on circumstances. Some problems are simple in nature; others are complex. Complexity is diverse, ambiguous, and dynamic with unpredictable outcomes. It is often erroneously confused with the term complication. Nevertheless, complexity and complication do not mean the same thing. Something that is complex is not necessarily difficult, but something that is complicated does have a high degree of difficulty. The complication is the opposite of simplicity, and thus, it needs to be optimized to make it simpler. But organizations "become complex," as an evolutionary trend, not for their own amusement, they do it to respond to environments more proactively. And much of that environment is experienced through trying to get things done. One form of trying to get things done is the incredible daily difficulty of the creation of pathways for action. There is something more fundamental which plays a causal role in fostering greater organizational complexity.
So complexity is one of the key characteristics of digitalization, on one side, the greater organizational complexity can improve agility to adapt to the changes; on the other side, the undesired complexity can make things over-complicated to stifle the creativity. The leaders and managers just have to understand the multifaceted complexity via paradoxical understand, and manage them systematically. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
People are complex, business is complex, and the world is complex, and they are becoming more complex due to the explosive information and the accelerated speed of changes. Modern organizations spend significant time and resources to deal with complexity, is complexity good or bad; the complex organizational structure/process or the hyper-complex business ecosystem, which factors contribute the most to making organizations more complex? And philosophically, what is the paradox of complexity?
Complexity vs. Innovation: In business, complexity both drives innovation and also hinders it. When a business becomes overly complex and people get frustrated and annoyed by not being able to accomplish things easily, this drives the search for simpler concepts and methods, which is the need to take the innovative initiative. At the same time, over-complexity in a business may be hiding simple and innovative ways to achieve things because the people involved just don't get the time to step back from the complexity and hence, they continue to follow the old routine to do the things, lack of the out of box creativity. From the management perspective, there are needed complexities such as design complexity that competitors cannot imitate easily; or the collaboration complexity that make people more productive and business more agile to adapt to the changes. Usually, innovation either through need seeker or technology driver is the key factors to weave such complexity in order. Therefore, the certain level of complexity is a foundation to spark the next level of innovation; and one of the very goals for innovation is to simplify the old way to do things, or to manage the complexity in an optimal manner.
Complexity vs. Intelligence: Complexity is a sort of intelligence from a scientific angle. Einstein said that every solution to the problem should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. It means that a problem has an inherent, irreducible complexity; any attempt to simplify further than that will fail, and any complexity added to it is harmful. Then where does the complexity manifest itself in the intelligence process? it is the brain ability to preliminarily understand the extent of any problem or condition. The people with what being referred as highly intelligent have a strong aptitude to understand the "complexity" of the given problem. It's like a rating scale of complexity. Some people get the whole picture as opposed to others that can't seem to get a grasp on the problem. Intelligence is the ability to break any complex thought or problem to the most rudimentary parts whereas they either can be acted on or dismissed. It is the level of activity in either case or the means of which activity or lack of activity or alternatives that demonstrate levels of intelligence.
Complexity vs. Business Value: So complexity per se is neither good nor bad, or it can be either good or bad depending on circumstances. Some problems are simple in nature; others are complex. Complexity is diverse, ambiguous, and dynamic with unpredictable outcomes. It is often erroneously confused with the term complication. Nevertheless, complexity and complication do not mean the same thing. Something that is complex is not necessarily difficult, but something that is complicated does have a high degree of difficulty. The complication is the opposite of simplicity, and thus, it needs to be optimized to make it simpler. But organizations "become complex," as an evolutionary trend, not for their own amusement, they do it to respond to environments more proactively. And much of that environment is experienced through trying to get things done. One form of trying to get things done is the incredible daily difficulty of the creation of pathways for action. There is something more fundamental which plays a causal role in fostering greater organizational complexity. So complexity is one of the key characteristics of digitalization, on one side, the greater organizational complexity can improve agility to adapt to the changes; on the other side, the undesired complexity can make things over-complicated to stifle the creativity. The leaders and managers just have to understand the multifaceted complexity via paradoxical understand, and manage them systematically. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
