Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1390

The Paradox Quotient (PQ) of Digital Leadership

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.    -F. Scott Fitzgerald

We are shifting into a hyper-connected, and hyper-competitive digital paradigm. Many say digital is the age of people, the age of empathy, the age of design, and the age of innovation. Unprecedentedly, the physical boundary can no longer limit our thought, our communication, and our life experience. Not only can we travel all over the world more conveniently, but more importantly, we can share knowledge, viewpoint, and wisdom with others all over the world via social platforms effortlessly. The world is becoming smaller due to the advanced technology; the world is perhaps also bigger than you could imagine, because the things you know, compared to what you don't know, is just the tip of an iceberg. More fundamentally, the world is now integrated into the WHOLE, a well-rounded globe as it is, not just two separate hemispheres. And more often than not, you have to see the full spectrum of colors and embrace seemly paradoxical PoVs in order to understand things holistically. So besides IQ and EQ, will PQ - Paradoxical Quotient emerge as a critical quality for today’s digital leaders?

The paradox is “a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.”The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. The paradox is also like the two sides of the coin, they are not just opposite, but also complementary, to make it a whole. At a silo, perhaps you only see or understand one side, believe it’s right, and then assume the other side must be wrong. But if you stand at the right angle to see the both sides, you know even they are different, but both hold part of truth in it. Digital now just like the new window, provides a multi-dimensional view to see things and the world differently. Therefore, digital is the age of empathy. Acceptance is the key. Acceptance of others as they are, without prejudice or destructive criticism, acceptance of self as an indefatigable spirit, acceptance that paradoxes are two sides of the same coin and that complexities are the spice of life.

The leader with high PQ is more balanced with emotional excellence. Emotional Brilliance comes because of balance, not extremes of any kind. Yin and yang are two sides to the same coin. We need to accept and appreciate both. The business and the world indeed becomes not only hyperconnected but also over-complex. So how can you strike the right balance when it is difficult to tell the two apart, as when entities change slowly but utterly, or when their boundaries as indistinct. Are the vague objects only vague language? Whether you are vague about identity, or identity with vagueness, there is a multitude of issues that afflict decision-making and action, some of which have spawned whole new fields of inquiry. That pertain to motivation, preference, knowledge, wisdom as well as morality and responsibility. Therefore, the high PQ means to gain understanding in more objective, empathetic, and systematic way.

The leaders with high PQ is more inquisitive and innovative: Creativity is a divergent-convergent, dot-connecting scenario. Interdisciplinarity and paradox are the rare and precious dots to spark the next level of innovation because often creative outcomes may come from recombining ideas in different ways to create the fresh ideas or the new ways to solve the old problems. More systematically, from innovation management perspective, the high “PQ” mindset is better at balancing between orders (standardization) and ‘chaos’ (innovation): Organizations and their people learn through their interactions with the environment: They act, observe the consequences of their action, make inferences about those consequences, and draw implications for future action. The process is adaptively rational, it has to strike the balance of ‘keeping the order,’ and sparking the innovation. A leader with high “PQ” is usually more inquisitive as well - The paradox of leadership is about the balance of asking and answering; leading at the front and leading from the behind, or overall speaking, leadership and followership. At today’s business with information overloading and knowledge abundance, framing the right questions is often more crucial to direct organizations toward the right directions.

PQ is the multidimensional intelligence, without broad knowledge, profound insight, and ultimate wisdom, you can not understand both sides of coin cohesively; PQ is also a high level of EQ because emotional excellence can only be achieved via balancing of confidence and humbleness; logic and intuition, orders and chaos. Digital leaders with high PQ can orchestrate and harmonize via their unique vision and distinctive abilities to lead differently.

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The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 11/5/2015

Leadership without influence, just like the air without oxygen!

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 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.

The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 11/5/2015Leaders as Coaches: Substantially, leadership is all about future and change; direction and dedication; influence and innovation; in styles, there are authoritarian, delegation, and participation leadership styles. With organizations are transforming from mechanical industrial mode to organic digital mode, the command and control authoritarian leadership style is less effective to manage today’s multi-generational, multicultural, and multi-devicing workforce. And leaders today are not the one who always have all the answers due to the information overloading and shortened knowledge life cycle, but often they need to participate in framing good questions, and encourage teams to find more than one answers, and always discover a better way to do things. The coach leads by asking: "How would you like to do it"? "Are there any other ways of doing it"? "Can you compare them"? "Which is best”? Also, continue to update her/his own knowledge, coach, and learn at the same time.

How to Cultivate a Positive Culture: Culture is "the pattern of values and behaviors prevailing in the organization or society." It’s invisible and untouchable. A company's culture helps define what a company is like. What it means to be part of the company, how to act in the company, what others in the company believe and strive for even how others see the company. So what’s your culture “expression”? Overall, do you have a positive or negative culture?
IT as a Business Solution Provider: With emergent digital technologies, many IT organizations reinvent themselves to ensure value and quality of deliverable. The core vs context is a business decision and not just an IT discussion. CIOs are gradually realizing that their organizations are not in the commodity server business or just a back-office cost center. With a growing trend in Cloud Computing, namely Managed Cloud, the agile IT of today via an enlightened CIO is becoming a "service broker," and business solution provider, instead of just a "service provider."
Which factors should a Strategy for Change Contain? The speed of change is accelerated, Either individuals or organizations spend significant time and resource to deal with the big changes such as radical digital transformation or small changes such as daily betterment. What’s the strategy behind the change, and which qualities or factors should such a strategy for change contain?
How should you Structure, not Stifle Innovation: The gap is growing between the need for innovation and many organizations' capacities to learn how to do it. It's harder and much more painful to define your innovation constitution than to define the structures, and the formats used to make innovation happen. Although there’s no magic formula for innovation success, people, structure, and process are all important factors. More specifically, how should you structure innovation, or what are the principles, processes, and practices to manage innovation more effectively and systematically?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 10/29/2015

Leadership without influence, just like the air without oxygen!
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 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.
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 11/5/2015Leaders as Coaches: Substantially, leadership is all about future and change; direction and dedication; influence and innovation; in styles, there are authoritarian, delegation, and participation leadership styles. With organizations are transforming from mechanical industrial mode to organic digital mode, the command and control authoritarian leadership style is less effective to manage today’s multi-generational, multicultural, and multi-devicing workforce. And leaders today are not the one who always have all the answers due to the information overloading and shortened knowledge life cycle, but often they need to participate in framing good questions, and encourage teams to find more than one answers, and always discover a better way to do things. The coach leads by asking: "How would you like to do it"? "Are there any other ways of doing it"? "Can you compare them"? "Which is best”? Also, continue to update her/his own knowledge, coach, and learn at the same time.
How to Cultivate a Positive Culture: Culture is "the pattern of values and behaviors prevailing in the organization or society." It’s invisible and untouchable. A company's culture helps define what a company is like. What it means to be part of the company, how to act in the company, what others in the company believe and strive for even how others see the company. So what’s your culture “expression”? Overall, do you have a positive or negative culture?
IT as a Business Solution Provider: With emergent digital technologies, many IT organizations reinvent themselves to ensure value and quality of deliverable. The core vs context is a business decision and not just an IT discussion. CIOs are gradually realizing that their organizations are not in the commodity server business or just a back-office cost center. With a growing trend in Cloud Computing, namely Managed Cloud, the agile IT of today via an enlightened CIO is becoming a "service broker," and business solution provider, instead of just a "service provider."
Which factors should a Strategy for Change Contain? The speed of change is accelerated, Either individuals or organizations spend significant time and resource to deal with the big changes such as radical digital transformation or small changes such as daily betterment. What’s the strategy behind the change, and which qualities or factors should such a strategy for change contain?
How should you Structure, not Stifle Innovation: The gap is growing between the need for innovation and many organizations' capacities to learn how to do it. It's harder and much more painful to define your innovation constitution than to define the structures, and the formats used to make innovation happen. Although there’s no magic formula for innovation success, people, structure, and process are all important factors. More specifically, how should you structure innovation, or what are the principles, processes, and practices to manage innovation more effectively and systematically?
Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

How to Classify Innovation

The innovation classification is not just based on the required investments, or on the potential market, but on its evolution abilities.
For many, innovation is still a serendipity, for others, it is a buzzword, and it has many definitions. One of the good definitions of innovation is, "intentional novelty bringing sustainable benefit." Innovation is a theme studied in several fields since social applied sciences (like business administration) to engineering. In this way, there’s a vast terminology (types of innovation) in what some researchers call incremental (improvement, continuous, modular, component, etc.) and others call radical (breakthrough, disruptive, system, paradigmatic) innovation.

Radical Innovation vs. Incremental Innovation: Radical innovation brings something that was not existing before at all, by creating or gathering technologies or process, in order to bring new steps which can open to other innovations and enhancement. The radical innovation creates a chain of innovation, meaning it necessarily leads to new innovation and enhancements. Enhancement gathers existing process and technologies to solve a precise problem. It cannot lead to other enhancement except for itself. What happens is that there’s not a ruler or scale that say how much an innovation is incremental (small) or radical (big)! Either an innovation is small (incremental) or big (radical) it can still be called innovation, because both are important types of innovation.

The innovation classification is based on the position of the concept in the evolution tree. Generally speaking, one small innovation needs fewer resources compared to big innovation (but it’s not absolute). Not only time and money but also how to persuade the decision makers to let the idea through stage-gate. Mostly because of the level of uncertainty and pertinent risk. This is an important issue to know when categorizing ideas as big/medium/small innovation. Analogically, the innovation classification is based on the position of the concept in the evolution tree: An innovation would be like a big branch, enhancement is like a small branch, application is like a leaf. We understand with this image that more radical innovation should support other innovation / enhancement / application while enhancement could support only other enhancements or applications. The classification is not based on the required investments, or on the potential market, but on its evolution abilities.

Innovation is a question of ambition, and imagination, not a question of investment only. Without ideas that break the mind walls, any innovation department and all its process and investments will innovate in nothing. Either an innovation is small (incremental) or big (radical), it can still be called innovation because both are important types of innovation. A company should invest part its money in each one of these types to diversify the risks. While a radical innovation doesn’t appear in the horizon, incremental innovations are the continuous journey, it is fundamental to improve products, services, and processes to compete in the today’s dynamic market. A company should invest part its money in each of these types of innovation to diversify the risks.

Innovation is about having new knowledge and new processes. Innovation is the specific phenomenon and strategic imperative of the knowledge-based economy. Innovation is about too much knowledge in terms of too many good creative ideas, and too little available resources. Innovation is about prioritization - a system that can "smell" the right idea at the right time and place. And innovation is an important component of business strategy.





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Are Strategy and Execution Two Different Things?

Digital strategy-execution are no longer linear steps, but an iterative continuum.

Strategy management is one of the most crucial business activities in modern organizations today. How do you ensure you have the right strategy? How do you ensure that strategy is executed well? Are strategy and execution two different things? If a great strategy produces poor results, how can you argue that it is great? Poor culture or poor strategy, which one is worse to impede business growth? Are execution problems symptoms of trouble upstream in the strategy-development process?


Strategy and Execution work hand in hand, neither is good alone. Creating a strategy is one thing, and strategies should be flexible enough to change as conditions often do. There are many bad strategies in the pile that have never done anyone any good because they have never been executed. When developing a strategy, one should always plan an execution of strategy. Strategy and Execution are two completely different things and skill sets, but they are interlinked. Unless executed well, the greatest strategy will flop and without all dependencies and influences placed in the melting pot, risk-management of the greatest strategy will be a costly activity.

The "right" strategy depends on an organization’s capabilities. It is impossible to plan and implement something you can not do. Even when the strategy is appropriate, poor implementation will derail it. An organization which has developed a wonderful strategy, but it does not apply to the environment mainly due to its organizational capability in executing it timely with agility. etc. So you have to assess the organization's strengths, the bright spots of its opportunities, and ensure that you have mission clarity. You develop the best plan you can, as quickly as you can, with what you know, and then you begin to execute, test, measure, and adjust as you go.

The strategy reflects leadership. Execution is driven by decision-making. Culture impacts the quality of performance. For companies, especially large organizations, strategy and execution are complementary processes, not events. Strategy may be defined at one point, but as you track its implementation, you will find that there are unintended strategies (some great, some counter-productive). Within the strategy process stream, you need to find ways to incorporate change. Otherwise, your strategy just becomes a glossy publication on the desk, with no relevance to reality. And culture is the pathway to changes. Even tactical tasks are done at bottom-up, senior management is central to execution, even if you won’t be on the coalface of operations, you still need to ensure the culture is changing, ensure an enabling climate, governance is strong, you are sending the right message, you develop and allocate resources, recognize good performance and find better ways to empower your managers and staffs.

Right strategy should produce results that are measurables to address the business imperatives. How do you ensure that strategy is executed well? The key isn't to execute the strategy; the key is to achieve outcomes. The strategy provides the first steps but can be radically changed as demanded by the environment and experience of execution. The "right" strategy can't be completely defined from the planning space; it is clarified through initial actions.When you start getting the business imperatives addressed starting with near terms then you know, the strategy is working. So measure should be done in short intervals, but is clearly linked to the strategy.

"Leaving strategy to management" is the downfall of most strategic efforts. Are execution problems symptoms of trouble upstream in the strategy-development process? Execution problems are problems over definition and control, of not being open to what can and should be learned through initial steps and valuing the input and collaboration of those not involved in the original planning process. It takes collective wisdom and democratic process to both craft a good strategy and execute it effectively. It is also necessary to differentiate between grand Strategy, theater level strategy and tactics designed to achieve specific tasks. Grand strategies, once conceived, must be decomposed into segments that can accomplish by executing tactics that achieve tasks. It is a mistake to look at strategy and execution in isolation as all strategies should have an element of 'reality check' to them and part of that reality is 'can they be executed?'

At today’s “VUCA” business dynamic, strategy and execution are no longer linear steps, but an iterative continuum. Strategy and execution can be closely associated with a cross analogy: having a vision and actually implementing it. The best strategies offer a somewhat clear path for implementation while the worst are vague or unrealistic. So strategy and execution are complimentary mates, who only together balance each other and can produce meaningful outcomes.
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A Discerning Mind

A more discerning individual is better equipped to make sound judgments.
Discernment means the ability to judge well. Many times people make a poor judgment, not because ignorance, but because of the lack of insight and discernment. More specifically, what's the difference between judgment and discernment? Can judgment or being judgmental have a right or wrong or moral aspect to it? Do you think discernment frees us from any fear of being wrong? Is discernment more detached, more creative, or free?



Judgment vs. discernment: Is judging a bit archaic and a bit polarized since judgment and discernment are basically used in each other’s definitions, they are quite similar, but there is a difference. Discernment speaks more to using both perception ( experience or intuition) and research/analysis to make the best decision. Being judgmental has more connotations of a preconceived notion based more on pure emotion, and less on an unbiased, situation-based flexible analysis.


Having discernment can free us from the fear of being wrong.  The verb ‘discern’ simply means to detect with the senses. Discernment is more about perceptiveness. Why be fearful if you know how to have discernment? We first need to develop the awareness of what the body is sensing and then learn to decode that information. Does your experience show you that there is more freedom when going beyond judgment? Being judgmental has the aspect of something being right or wrong. Another aspect goes into discernment is that there is a sensitivity of the body that can give us feedback on all kinds of situations.

A more discerning individual is better equipped to make sound judgments. We have to develop the tools of a sensitive body and then learn how to "decode" those messages. When you judge something, you form a critical opinion of it based on facts, discerned data, and preconceived notions. Judgment occurs at a conscious level while discernment can sometimes occur at a subconscious level as well. The subconscious stuff is far more valuable because it taps into an "inner knowing." Judgment is hard to walk away from, yet so worthwhile when we learn to set it aside. The judgment does start as protection but then lingers out of habit. As you learn to go beyond patterns, the discovery of how to use discernment allows you to choose your steps that are aligned with your inner, core self, and leverage data-based analytics in order to make sound judgments.

Discernment requires the ability to be the witness in situations, to have the inner knowing that allows for discernment, to develop better sensing tools and then to act from the greater dimension of knowledge, understanding, and awareness. Once we bring awareness to the decision-making process, we can detect differences like discernment and judgment.


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Agile Practices "Up"

At the top level, Agile needs to be the philosophy to perceive multidimensional business values.

Many forward-looking organizations are shifting from doing Agile to being Agile. Scaling agile needs to be taken in several dimensions. It's not only the number of developers. There is also the number of teams, the number of sites (including onshore or offshore), the number of time zones, the number of products or values streams the developers work on, and so on. And even more importantly, how to follow the set of agile principles and practice Agile up, to build an agile leadership team or boardroom, and practice agile philosophy to run an entire organization?

Agile is not about process, practices, procedure but about culture, attitude, guidelines, and principles. Agile is like science where scientists are constantly looking for better theory to prove newer observations. This thing does not fit well with human nature in the short term which look for stability (even if stability is an illusion), so it leads to the rise of various processes, practices and procedures. Here is how to do something in an agile fashion:-Find out where you are.-Take a small step towards your goal.-Adjust your understanding based on what you learned.-Repeat.

Agile is really about constant renewal. Those who sell packaged practices demonstrate a tenuous understanding of the values and principles that underly the products they sell. Develop your own relationship with the values and principles - you'll recognize anyone who has not. Often agile practices are at odds with the overall corporate or governmental environment. Agile practices up mean more about a mind shift and a set of principles to run an agile organization. Agile principles and agile thinking would be a better bet at today’s business dynamic with increasing speed of change and uncertainty.

Change in attitude and culture need time and patience. Slow and steady exposure of agile culture benefits in immediate, medium and long terms at personal and enterprise level. Many executives deal entirely with predefined practices and requirements that are in place due to the corporate mission and strategies from years ago, regulatory reporting, financial industry expectations, stockholder demands that are fairly constant, etc. So their view of a process that adapts to changing requirements is foreign to them. Executives of many well-established companies tend to be of a "certain age," and more fully versed in corporate politics and how people work than in technology. They tend to be more conservative to avoid changes because major changes are risky and cost money. However, without change and innovation, often the small niche players can disrupt large organizations and even the whole industry overnight.

Agile is more a "direction," than an "end." At the top level, Agile needs to be the philosophy to perceive multidimensional business values. Make the effort at the leadership and portfolio level to qualify and quantify value in terms of both strategic value and tactical value; direct revenue and indirect (mission/vision/values) terms is the first step to crafting high-level strategic intents. When faced with two or more alternatives that deliver roughly the same value, take the path that makes future change easier. Once benefits of agile are visible and understood, a domino effect takes over.

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Three Levels of Impact in Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation for businesses intends to achieve the new level of efficiency and lead to the next level of innovation.

Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology, both horizontally and vertically. Digital becomes the very fabric of high performing business, being outside-in and customer-centric is the new mantra for forward-looking and high mature digital organizations today. Organizations have to create synergy via building a positive culture, achieve operational excellence via IT enablement, and inspire innovation via risk intelligence. There are three levels of impact organizations can make in the journey of digital transformation:
Fundamental: Keeping the light on is still fundamental for any organizations to gain a good reputation. Improve operational excellence by eliminating all waste across the organization (not product development alone). The organization’s operational capability can be built through IT- business alignment, arrangement, and enablement. Those organizations that have a more mature alignment outperform their competitors and tend to be more responsive to these changes. Alignment goes beyond conformity and order taking, it needs to include a close partnership with interpersonal and cross-functional communication, value analytics, and flexible governance. Organizations with strong operational capability can achieve efficiency and reliability in a cohesive way.


Radical: Compared to change, digital transformation is radical. Change can be a somewhat mechanical implementation of new or different ways to doing something while the transformation is more likely to be a sweeping approach to altering a culture, or parts of it, possibly even to parts of its value system, to embrace such as change and help it become self-perpetuating. That said, it is referring to a modification and internalization of new values, behaviors, and culture. When the need for significant change is identified, it's generally naive to think it will succeed without transformation as well. It’s critical to hire the right people and empower them to foster a healthily competitive culture. Appreciate the fact that companies hire people to strengthen the organization. Invest time and money in developing them. Create a culture where every employee is a leader - initiative, collaborative, production oriented, learn and develop others, accountable.  IT also plays a pivotal role in leading a digital transformation in their organizations. Because IT oversees business processes, it can help weave all these important business elements such as process and digital technology & tools into the building blocks of change capability. Radical digital is strategic imperative, as organizations that do not respond to external environmental changes will quickly be out-competed, and faded in the background soon.

Exceptional: Innovation is the key to being “exceptional,” at what you do and how you do it. It's not enough to encourage innovation - you have to enable it, steward it, protect it. Often it's all of the legacy performance management policies, outdated processes, and "we've always done it that way" culture that stifle innovation. If this describes your organization, then you have a long road ahead towards innovation. Furthermore, if you are a billion dollar organization, you may have the luxury of fostering unbridled innovation utilizing the power of averages to hit upon a great idea that is commercially viable after a period of R&D. However, most of companies are in a situation of managing budget limitations, demanding clients and organizational objectives associated with revenue, costs, and margins. Innovation Management is more science than art. It is important to build a foundation where innovation could be woven into the cultural fabric of the organization, continue to challenge the status quo, keep the conversation going, finding out what works, what doesn’t work and inched closer to being exceptional.

“Transformation" involves internalization of the new values and conceptual model, so that the newly required behaviors don't require the same kind of effort and vigilance. Instead, the newly established behaviors will be in harmony with the internalized values, the transformed person or organization as a whole, and ultimately achieve the new level of efficiency and lead to the next level of innovation. Digital is the age of customers. So lean on customer - focus on creating value to customers in every step. Only via putting more effort and making these three-level impact, organizations could well delight customers via orchestrating hard elements such as process & technology, and soft elements such as culture and communication, and build a unique set of digital capabilities for long-term prosperity.
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How Much can you Affect Environment Today that will Create a Positive Change Tomorrow?

Keep mindfully insatiable curiosity. It starts with your attitude.
Change - big or small is inevitable. You can’t step into the same river twice, meaning that everything is always in a state of flow. However, change is not for its own sake, the driver for change is for making progress or innovation, so what are you doing today that will create a positive change tomorrow?

To create a positive change tomorrow, someone needs to start today understanding self. Not knowing ourselves as best as we can, how we can do any change and aim for a positive change? So investigate more and more yourself every day, and be authentic. This has helped you in understanding how you can do a change on self, that will positively reflect anyone around you. In this way, the result is not only positive for you and for people next to you, but it lasts longer both for you and those you can influence. Then the next step is to help others do the same. Helping others to know themselves and aim for any improvement. So changes will be positive day by day. In the end, the positive change attitude becomes contagious.

Try to see more different perspectives without pushing toward the one that you think is the truth. This is an interesting and never finish journey of connection with others. Listen and hear what people are saying or trying to say. Capturing their ideas and creativity but always remembering to share yours. When there is an interchange of thoughts we begin accepting and opening to newness and transforming to innovate together. Cultivate the capacity to listen with hunger, in order to deeply understand different perspectives, to meet people where they are, and to collaborate on moving forward. Keep mindfully insatiable curiosity. It starts with your attitude. Keeping an open mind and learning more and more about Social Media. It is not only a platform for the expression of ideas, but it also provides an opportunity to share thoughts and insights with others that was unavailable not that long ago. A resource can only provide a benefit if it is utilized.

Helping others succeed through mentoring. Tomorrow will be at least as good as today and probably even better. It takes responsibilities, treat people right, believing in their own potential and value people, so they will always have enough self-confidence to do the right thing for individuals and not just numbers. This is something that creates a positive change for tomorrow as well as in the moment. Whether it is positive reinforcement, being someone's personal sounding board, or simply being the positive energy in a room.

As a professional, we stick to our values and try to spread the word. An ocean starts with one raindrop and if a lot of people do the same we do create a better world where we will look at values and human beings instead of numbers and figures. “Plant a seed" of intention of kindness, compassion, and empathy. If you incorporate this mindset as a natural part of your daily discourse, you will be amazed at the response that you receive and it sets the stage for building long lasting relationships in the community in which you reside.

Keep in mind how much you can affect the environment. Then have a good plan in place and leverage the effective technological tools for whatever you wish to accomplish and keep your word no matter what. Not only what we do today will change tomorrow positively but every second and minute charges the one that comes after.

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Three “F” Characteristics in Running a Digital IT

The digital world is so data-driven and so information-intensive, technology needs will only expand, and most likely expand hyperbolically.
Digital transformation represents the next stage of business maturity which will improve how the enterprise works and interacts with its ecosystem, with customers at the center of its focus. IT plays a pivotal role in such a radical transformation. There is an “alphabetic soup” in running a digital IT which must lead in reaching high-level performance and maturity; besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, triple “A”s - Automation, Analysis, and Agility, triple “C”s - Change, Collaboration, and Cloudification, triple “P”s - Principle, Process, and Performance, triple “E”s Enablement, Exploration, and Effectiveness & Efficiency, triple “V”s - Vision, Value, and Variety, Here we introduce triple “F”s in running a high-performing and high mature digital IT:

Fast: IT needs to be running in a more proactive digital mode, rather than in a reactive industrial mode. IT has to speed up as a business enabler to adapt to the change faster than the rest of organizations. At industrial silo mode, IT plays as a controller, IT staff often takes IT driven measures routinely to keep "their" IT systems working well for the business and their colleagues, but slow response to changes. At traditional IT organizations, if you choose "cheap" and also choose "good," then expect "slow." Alternatively, if you choose "fast" to accompany "cheap," then expect poor quality. Cheap, fast and good - it seems you can have only two choices at a time. However, now with the emergent digital technologies such as Cloud, Mobile, Social, Analytics, and IT consumerization trends, IT has better opportunity to run faster with digital speed, be both high quality and cost-effective as well. Most of IT organizations today have to run bi-modal modes: IT at industrial speed --keeps the light on, and digital IT with faster speed focuses on innovation and continuous improvement. The digital world is so data-driven and so information-intensive, technology needs will only expand, and most likely expand hyperbolically.

Flow: Digital means flow: the energy flow, the information flow, the idea flow, and the mind flow. In fact, in this digital information age, there isn't really much of an enterprise without the massive oceans of Data & Information that flow through the enterprise at any given split second. IT is the foundation of data, information, and modern knowledge. Managing data like a company asset will indeed be key functions especially since the data has left the company premise. The fact is that a huge percentage of IT is about the identification and advancement of knowledge for the enterprise and its people. IT is the foundation for massive volumes of data & information that is collected, persisted, categorized, mapped, sliced, diced, reordered, related, transformed, and made meaning of... unifying a disparate cloud environment, without which knowledge would be minimal in the modern day. IT is the force to make value and knowledge flow into business processes. The CIO has the seat at the big table, and with the voice to co-create business strategy. This happens when the strategy of the company is based on the fact that information flow is one of the key resources, and information management is truly a strategic matter.

Flexibility: Flexibility is to embrace the different PoVs and alternative way to do things. A flexible IT organization is a complex social system starting to appreciate such attributes as 'readiness,’ 'ownership,' ‘integration,’ 'full open communication,’ customized structuring as well as developing 'partnerships.’ Ideally, the conscious recognition and use of the complexity inherent in organizational systems leads to greater simplicity. From a structure perspective, centralized, decentralized, and hybrid models can all work given the proper planning and management focus to keep them well-tuned for improving IT flexibility, business agility, and governance flexibility. The culture of flexibility advocated by effective IT leadership is about bringing out the best in others, to make people feel comfortable being who they are and taking the risks necessary to fulfill their potential. IT is at the unique position to oversight business processes, and therefore, it can play a pivotal role in business’s digital transformation. However, breaking down silos and being intentional about developing processes that encourage collaboration and enforcing flexibility is a great first step in bringing about cultural change. Hence, IT has the very power to influence on organization's "Personality" as well.
Many think the new way of management is the management by Information Technology, Three “F” factors matter, not only to avoid the other "F"- failure but to ensure success. IT has become so critical for businesses’ success. Many times, it is a determining factor of success for your larger business strategy to achieve the rapid growth and long-term sustainability of the business as well. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu