Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1396
October 16, 2015
How to Measure Effectiveness of Talent Management to Reach Corporate Goals
The best performance management system needs to tie everyone in the organization to company’s profit and also company’s rewards.
People are always the most invaluable asset in organizations, and Talent Management is one of the most important, but challenging disciplines to accomplish. Talent management is studying people performance via assessments, utility analysis, and other methods which help companies evaluate the value they are getting from their people. However, many metrics is too transaction focused, not sufficient to provide management, especially top level executives a clear fact-based strategic insight on the most invaluable asset of an organization - People; so how to measure talent management effectiveness, link metrics to business strategy, and reach corporate goals seamlessly?
It makes sense to use the added value in terms of Human Capital as a KPI- not as a KPI for the HR function, but for the company. In finance dominant organizational culture, people have been called human cost, human resource, human asset and human capital. Human Capital does make sense within the context of the goals of a company especially when you consider Human Capital is the largest intangible asset of a company. Some call it Profit and Loss for people and Learning (PLPL). Performance indicators need to focus on measuring quality, quantity, time and cost. Revenue growth, profit improvement, margin targets, product variety for stability, turnover, shareholder/owner return and talent sustainability are a very few. Whatever is not currently exceptional must be improved and that which already is brilliant must be maintained. Every function talent managers touch and activity HR handles have potential metrics for improvement comparison: engagement, cost control, return on incentives, recruiting efficiency, the number of stars rejecting outside offers, speed in revising performance objectives, clarity of organizational structure, depth of backups in succession plans. By tracking these measures, you can focus on where targets are not being met that support planned revenue and profit levels, and what actions might be taken to improve at the individual, practice and corporate levels.
The more aggressive performance indicators can be defined to measure the effectiveness of talent management at the strategic level.The typical HR KPIs like employee satisfaction index, attrition level, HR productivity, average employee age, average learning hours per employee, average cost per hire, average spend on employee welfare, average employee longevity etc, are all relevant, but some of them look a bit lacking in biting power. The more aggressive performance indicators can be defined to measure the effectiveness of the HR strategy, policy, frameworks, processes and structure on the floor as far as organization health, culture, conducive work environment and quality of resources are concerned. Therefore, some of the following parameters may be brought into the scope for HR corporate targets:
-HRM dispute density, no of HRM related disputes registered in a year.
-Discipline index - no of disciplinary actions taken during a year per, say for internal purpose
Average time to dispute resolution.
-No of HR policy exceptions granted per year.
-No of breaches of statutory compliance per year.
-Average employee competency index (can be included in annual report) – this is pretty complex – you can start with a definition and have to improve upon over time.
-No of HR innovations per year. How does one define or benchmark HR innovations?
Corporate targets as Performance Indicators often make more sense on a very high level of the organization. The ability to realistically impact that particular corporate target has to be within the sphere of the individual, because it otherwise will be an unreasonable objective to be measured on. On lower levels of the organization, the corporate targets should of course then be broken further down for the business units to accomplish the overall goals. As for specific KPIs, it very much depends on the business you are in. A somewhat generic KPI could be in terms of responsiveness and reaction to client requests, which could perhaps be applied to more or less all levels of an organization.Performance Indicators like employee satisfaction, absence, employee turnover, high performer turnover, safety, diversity in promotions for measuring people and organization. Some of the most important metrics are those that look at previous internal employee surveys and focus in on what needs to improve. If the people in the organization said that you didn't provide transparency, then that became a metric for improvement. What did they really mean, how do you work with the entire organization to improve it - leaders, managers, employees all need to be considered. Part of the role as a talent manager is to address what is not working in the employee experience, so adding these and making tangible changes will help achieve all of the other metrics. And it means there is always something new to be working on.
Too often consultants, HR professionals, and other well-meaning individuals deploy their favorite instrument in an effort to understand something about talent management. Sometimes organizations create their own measures with little understanding of how measurement works. The best performance management system needs to tie everyone in the organization to company’s profit and also company’s rewards, and at the same time, there are individual performance incentives which are measured against personal goals. This keeps all employees working together while at the same time push the individual to exceed their personal goals. It is a win-win for both individuals and the organization.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
People are always the most invaluable asset in organizations, and Talent Management is one of the most important, but challenging disciplines to accomplish. Talent management is studying people performance via assessments, utility analysis, and other methods which help companies evaluate the value they are getting from their people. However, many metrics is too transaction focused, not sufficient to provide management, especially top level executives a clear fact-based strategic insight on the most invaluable asset of an organization - People; so how to measure talent management effectiveness, link metrics to business strategy, and reach corporate goals seamlessly?It makes sense to use the added value in terms of Human Capital as a KPI- not as a KPI for the HR function, but for the company. In finance dominant organizational culture, people have been called human cost, human resource, human asset and human capital. Human Capital does make sense within the context of the goals of a company especially when you consider Human Capital is the largest intangible asset of a company. Some call it Profit and Loss for people and Learning (PLPL). Performance indicators need to focus on measuring quality, quantity, time and cost. Revenue growth, profit improvement, margin targets, product variety for stability, turnover, shareholder/owner return and talent sustainability are a very few. Whatever is not currently exceptional must be improved and that which already is brilliant must be maintained. Every function talent managers touch and activity HR handles have potential metrics for improvement comparison: engagement, cost control, return on incentives, recruiting efficiency, the number of stars rejecting outside offers, speed in revising performance objectives, clarity of organizational structure, depth of backups in succession plans. By tracking these measures, you can focus on where targets are not being met that support planned revenue and profit levels, and what actions might be taken to improve at the individual, practice and corporate levels.
The more aggressive performance indicators can be defined to measure the effectiveness of talent management at the strategic level.The typical HR KPIs like employee satisfaction index, attrition level, HR productivity, average employee age, average learning hours per employee, average cost per hire, average spend on employee welfare, average employee longevity etc, are all relevant, but some of them look a bit lacking in biting power. The more aggressive performance indicators can be defined to measure the effectiveness of the HR strategy, policy, frameworks, processes and structure on the floor as far as organization health, culture, conducive work environment and quality of resources are concerned. Therefore, some of the following parameters may be brought into the scope for HR corporate targets:
-HRM dispute density, no of HRM related disputes registered in a year.
-Discipline index - no of disciplinary actions taken during a year per, say for internal purpose
Average time to dispute resolution.
-No of HR policy exceptions granted per year.
-No of breaches of statutory compliance per year.
-Average employee competency index (can be included in annual report) – this is pretty complex – you can start with a definition and have to improve upon over time.
-No of HR innovations per year. How does one define or benchmark HR innovations?
Corporate targets as Performance Indicators often make more sense on a very high level of the organization. The ability to realistically impact that particular corporate target has to be within the sphere of the individual, because it otherwise will be an unreasonable objective to be measured on. On lower levels of the organization, the corporate targets should of course then be broken further down for the business units to accomplish the overall goals. As for specific KPIs, it very much depends on the business you are in. A somewhat generic KPI could be in terms of responsiveness and reaction to client requests, which could perhaps be applied to more or less all levels of an organization.Performance Indicators like employee satisfaction, absence, employee turnover, high performer turnover, safety, diversity in promotions for measuring people and organization. Some of the most important metrics are those that look at previous internal employee surveys and focus in on what needs to improve. If the people in the organization said that you didn't provide transparency, then that became a metric for improvement. What did they really mean, how do you work with the entire organization to improve it - leaders, managers, employees all need to be considered. Part of the role as a talent manager is to address what is not working in the employee experience, so adding these and making tangible changes will help achieve all of the other metrics. And it means there is always something new to be working on.Too often consultants, HR professionals, and other well-meaning individuals deploy their favorite instrument in an effort to understand something about talent management. Sometimes organizations create their own measures with little understanding of how measurement works. The best performance management system needs to tie everyone in the organization to company’s profit and also company’s rewards, and at the same time, there are individual performance incentives which are measured against personal goals. This keeps all employees working together while at the same time push the individual to exceed their personal goals. It is a win-win for both individuals and the organization.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
October 15, 2015
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 10/15/2015
Leadership without influence, just like the air without oxygen!
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1+ million page views with about #2251th blog posting in 50+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of the “Future of CIO” blog.
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 10/15/2015The Triple ‘A’s in Digital IT: Due to the “disruptive” nature of technology and the abundance of information, IT plays a more significant role in business’s digital transformation, because IT is the only entity in the organization supposed to understand business entirely and oversight organizational processes horizontally. IT needs to be able to provide innovative solution or supply a differentiated solution that contributes to both top line growth and the bottom line success of the organization. There is an “alphabetic soup” in running a digital IT which must lead in reaching high-level performance; besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, here, we introduce the triple “A”s in digital IT.
How to Fill Three Leadership Gaps: Competition at the leading edge of business is fierce at the age of digitalization and globalization. Successful companies need to grow and innovate, investing in, and developing the next generation of leadership is one of the best ways to do that. Many studies show that there are significant leadership gaps for high potentials who will be tomorrow’s leaders. The cookie-cutting matching approach more possibly lands a homogeneous follower, can not discover an authentic leader. And traditional talent pipeline is not sufficient enough to select heterogeneous, creative, and character-based leaders who can lead more effectively in today’s digital dynamic and global business setting.
Five Aspects in Digital Strategy: Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today. So it's important to outline the strategic intent and frame the strategy to be understandable and implementable. Otherwise, people's different interpretations yield many unintended consequences. Then, it is vital to actively socialize the strategy to confirm its intent and understandability by those who will guide the implementation. Here are five aspects in crafting and implementing a digital strategy.
Vision vs. Strategy: Vision is where or who you want to be and Strategy is how you can achieve or reach your goal. An unclear vision leads to defective strategy. Visions inspire; strategies compel; vision comes first, but sometimes vision appears and gets clear by working on the strategy. A vision describes the desired future position of the company. A strategy is an action or ways chosen to bring about the desired future, such as achievement of a goal.
CIO’s Four Views of 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.
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 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 “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1+ million page views with about #2251th blog posting in 50+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of the “Future of CIO” blog.
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog 10/15/2015The Triple ‘A’s in Digital IT: Due to the “disruptive” nature of technology and the abundance of information, IT plays a more significant role in business’s digital transformation, because IT is the only entity in the organization supposed to understand business entirely and oversight organizational processes horizontally. IT needs to be able to provide innovative solution or supply a differentiated solution that contributes to both top line growth and the bottom line success of the organization. There is an “alphabetic soup” in running a digital IT which must lead in reaching high-level performance; besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, here, we introduce the triple “A”s in digital IT.
How to Fill Three Leadership Gaps: Competition at the leading edge of business is fierce at the age of digitalization and globalization. Successful companies need to grow and innovate, investing in, and developing the next generation of leadership is one of the best ways to do that. Many studies show that there are significant leadership gaps for high potentials who will be tomorrow’s leaders. The cookie-cutting matching approach more possibly lands a homogeneous follower, can not discover an authentic leader. And traditional talent pipeline is not sufficient enough to select heterogeneous, creative, and character-based leaders who can lead more effectively in today’s digital dynamic and global business setting.
Five Aspects in Digital Strategy: Digital strategy is the compass to navigate through the digital transformation journey in organizations today. So it's important to outline the strategic intent and frame the strategy to be understandable and implementable. Otherwise, people's different interpretations yield many unintended consequences. Then, it is vital to actively socialize the strategy to confirm its intent and understandability by those who will guide the implementation. Here are five aspects in crafting and implementing a digital strategy.
Vision vs. Strategy: Vision is where or who you want to be and Strategy is how you can achieve or reach your goal. An unclear vision leads to defective strategy. Visions inspire; strategies compel; vision comes first, but sometimes vision appears and gets clear by working on the strategy. A vision describes the desired future position of the company. A strategy is an action or ways chosen to bring about the desired future, such as achievement of a goal.
CIO’s Four Views of 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.
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 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
Data Science vs. Decision Science
Either of them is not the end, but the means to the end - for problem-solving, improvement, and innovation.
From a business perspective, "Data science is the study of where information comes from, what it represents and how it can be turned into a valuable resource in the creation of business and IT strategies"(Whatis.com). Decision science or engineering is not "just a new buzzword." It is a knowledge revolution for proactive structural decision simulation analysis and strategic decision analysis for crisis early warning and proactive feedforward reactors control against process operation uncertainties. The typical challenge seen with the traditional analytics approach is to arrive at insights, but not necessarily affect actual business decisions, and not always in a timely manner. Decision Engineering approach embeds analytics in actual business decisions - rather than leaving it to the receiver of insights to use or dump. There is a further difference between Data Science and Decision Science. The latter is also called Business Data Science, combining the instrumental (data science tools & technique), social (business context) and functional (information process) axes to add value to the data and information within a company.
Data science has to be able to contribute towards the ability or capacity to enable change. Usually data-gathering is driven by the need to make decisions. Many are questioning the ROI on data science. But in the operational context of many organizations, data is collected as part of an important business function: human resources, logistics, quality control, and accounting. This means the data will be collected even if the ROI is not apparent. Strategic alignment, however, dictates constant change either in the nature of the data collected or its handling; This is not as simple as scanning all sorts of historical data that might now be outdated and inapplicable. While certain segments of the data science community might be focused on this historical learning, businesses generally seek out guidance to deal with future developments. So in certain respects, the only surviving lessons from the past are the most abstract; and the lessons also lead to the development of capacity to make use of intellectual capital; this remains with an organization in perpetuity, unless deliberately impaired. As such, a data scientist actually wields not just data but capital (capitalized intelligence) as evidenced by persistent artifacts associated with production.
There are three general pillars in Decision Science: Modeling/Simulation (stochastics and probability), Data Analysis (an application of statistics principles and data science), and Optimization (mathematical modeling with generally discrete results and an opportunity for sensitivity analysis for skeptics). These three pillars are different methods an analyst could apply to a particular problem based on the information at hand and the desired methodology. All three methods provide an opportunity to gain insight to make an informed quantitative decision and evaluate if a certain risk is acceptable. And there is an opportunity to explore a mixture of the "pillars," it doesn't matter if you are calling yourself a decision of data scientist, you are still applying scientific and mathematical principles to gain further insight or arrive at some results.
What is the goal of doing both data science and decision science? The pyramid of wisdom separate: data - information - knowledge - understanding - wisdom. This is in order of largest to smallest. These elements are not the same, but the one cannot be without the other. Nor is the one better nor equal they are all relevant and to be taken into account in decision making. Too often, businesses lean towards data science as the solution, building unbalanced teams which fall somewhat short of the fundamental skill of business problem definition and structuring. A solution is somewhere between data science and decision science. Businesses needs insights that drive real value, data science is only one of many enablers, and decision science could put more focus on decision analysis, but always keep in mind: either of them is not the end, but the means to the end - for problem-solving, improvement and innovation.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
From a business perspective, "Data science is the study of where information comes from, what it represents and how it can be turned into a valuable resource in the creation of business and IT strategies"(Whatis.com). Decision science or engineering is not "just a new buzzword." It is a knowledge revolution for proactive structural decision simulation analysis and strategic decision analysis for crisis early warning and proactive feedforward reactors control against process operation uncertainties. The typical challenge seen with the traditional analytics approach is to arrive at insights, but not necessarily affect actual business decisions, and not always in a timely manner. Decision Engineering approach embeds analytics in actual business decisions - rather than leaving it to the receiver of insights to use or dump. There is a further difference between Data Science and Decision Science. The latter is also called Business Data Science, combining the instrumental (data science tools & technique), social (business context) and functional (information process) axes to add value to the data and information within a company.
Data science has to be able to contribute towards the ability or capacity to enable change. Usually data-gathering is driven by the need to make decisions. Many are questioning the ROI on data science. But in the operational context of many organizations, data is collected as part of an important business function: human resources, logistics, quality control, and accounting. This means the data will be collected even if the ROI is not apparent. Strategic alignment, however, dictates constant change either in the nature of the data collected or its handling; This is not as simple as scanning all sorts of historical data that might now be outdated and inapplicable. While certain segments of the data science community might be focused on this historical learning, businesses generally seek out guidance to deal with future developments. So in certain respects, the only surviving lessons from the past are the most abstract; and the lessons also lead to the development of capacity to make use of intellectual capital; this remains with an organization in perpetuity, unless deliberately impaired. As such, a data scientist actually wields not just data but capital (capitalized intelligence) as evidenced by persistent artifacts associated with production.
There are three general pillars in Decision Science: Modeling/Simulation (stochastics and probability), Data Analysis (an application of statistics principles and data science), and Optimization (mathematical modeling with generally discrete results and an opportunity for sensitivity analysis for skeptics). These three pillars are different methods an analyst could apply to a particular problem based on the information at hand and the desired methodology. All three methods provide an opportunity to gain insight to make an informed quantitative decision and evaluate if a certain risk is acceptable. And there is an opportunity to explore a mixture of the "pillars," it doesn't matter if you are calling yourself a decision of data scientist, you are still applying scientific and mathematical principles to gain further insight or arrive at some results.
What is the goal of doing both data science and decision science? The pyramid of wisdom separate: data - information - knowledge - understanding - wisdom. This is in order of largest to smallest. These elements are not the same, but the one cannot be without the other. Nor is the one better nor equal they are all relevant and to be taken into account in decision making. Too often, businesses lean towards data science as the solution, building unbalanced teams which fall somewhat short of the fundamental skill of business problem definition and structuring. A solution is somewhere between data science and decision science. Businesses needs insights that drive real value, data science is only one of many enablers, and decision science could put more focus on decision analysis, but always keep in mind: either of them is not the end, but the means to the end - for problem-solving, improvement and innovation.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Three “C”s in Running a Digital IT
IT management needs to put emphasis on these “C” words and be driven by concepts like collaborative value or collective advantage and multi-layer ROIs.
At industrial age, IT is often considered as maintenance department and cost center, which lenses do you take to look into IT depends on the senior executives’ perspectives, background, and the organization’s culture as well. With the emergent digital era, many IT organizations are at turning point of change from transactional IT to transformational IT, and from operational IT to strategic IT. 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, here, we introduce the triple “C”s in digital IT:
Change Capability: IT is always at the center of change. Change may be mechanical, but the 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 can help weave all these important business elements such as process and digital technology & tools into the building blocks of change capability, because organizations that do not respond to external environmental changes will quickly be out-competed, and IT can play a pivotal role in leading a radical digital transformation in their organizations.
Collaboration: The CIO must be a partner with every aspect of the business: The supporting IT budgets must reflect business priorities and urgency. Too often IT claims success when they have delivered a technological solution, and the business responds 'so what.' Business cares more about the delivery of a viable business solution than the technology that supports it. Often IT fails to demonstrate value through the gathering and use of metrics long after the solution is deployed. IT budgeting is not done in a vacuum. The CIO's greatest challenge is to educate the business on the cost/benefit for each of their alternatives, and together they make the best-informed decisions they are capable of. Business units that want it all and want it now will do whatever they can to expedite new technologies to gain a competitive advantage in their respective markets. Organizations rely more and more on technology; IT department has more and more to overcome to running at digital speed. People tend to have a high expectation of digital flow, very little patience with technology issues. Only through mutual understanding and cross-functional collaboration, business and IT can work as a whole to manage a smooth digital transformation.
Cloudification: IT now can leverage cloud on-demand model to charge back or charge forward. IT- business alignment is shifting to IT-business engagement, and IT as an integral component of the business, plays more significant role in catalyzing business growth. The cloudified IT implies to run bimodal IT in many organizations: The role of IT will be managing legacy applications, and applications run on the cloud. This is where the definition of Bimodal IT makes sense. It’s the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focuses on stability and the other on agility. One is to keep the light on with industrial speed, the other is to drive business transformation with digital speed. Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasizing safety and accuracy. Mode 2 is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasizing agility and speed. In the cloud era, the “Critical Role of IT” is having IT as an agile business enabler. Agile IT should adopt and evolve to become more reliable, available, cost efficient, secure; with lower cost and lower time to market, also IT should be simpler, better, and faster.
Business paradigm is shifting from the industrial era to information/digital era, technology plays a pivotal role in such transformation, and therefore, IT value needs to reflect such shift. IT management needs to put emphasis on these “C” words and be driven by concepts like collaborative value or collective advantage and multi-layer ROIs. IT value is demonstrated through the rate of productivity increases, the rate of new product development, the rate of market share gains, the rate of customer satisfaction and employee engagement.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
At industrial age, IT is often considered as maintenance department and cost center, which lenses do you take to look into IT depends on the senior executives’ perspectives, background, and the organization’s culture as well. With the emergent digital era, many IT organizations are at turning point of change from transactional IT to transformational IT, and from operational IT to strategic IT. 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, here, we introduce the triple “C”s in digital IT:
Change Capability: IT is always at the center of change. Change may be mechanical, but the 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 can help weave all these important business elements such as process and digital technology & tools into the building blocks of change capability, because organizations that do not respond to external environmental changes will quickly be out-competed, and IT can play a pivotal role in leading a radical digital transformation in their organizations.
Collaboration: The CIO must be a partner with every aspect of the business: The supporting IT budgets must reflect business priorities and urgency. Too often IT claims success when they have delivered a technological solution, and the business responds 'so what.' Business cares more about the delivery of a viable business solution than the technology that supports it. Often IT fails to demonstrate value through the gathering and use of metrics long after the solution is deployed. IT budgeting is not done in a vacuum. The CIO's greatest challenge is to educate the business on the cost/benefit for each of their alternatives, and together they make the best-informed decisions they are capable of. Business units that want it all and want it now will do whatever they can to expedite new technologies to gain a competitive advantage in their respective markets. Organizations rely more and more on technology; IT department has more and more to overcome to running at digital speed. People tend to have a high expectation of digital flow, very little patience with technology issues. Only through mutual understanding and cross-functional collaboration, business and IT can work as a whole to manage a smooth digital transformation.
Cloudification: IT now can leverage cloud on-demand model to charge back or charge forward. IT- business alignment is shifting to IT-business engagement, and IT as an integral component of the business, plays more significant role in catalyzing business growth. The cloudified IT implies to run bimodal IT in many organizations: The role of IT will be managing legacy applications, and applications run on the cloud. This is where the definition of Bimodal IT makes sense. It’s the practice of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focuses on stability and the other on agility. One is to keep the light on with industrial speed, the other is to drive business transformation with digital speed. Mode 1 is traditional and sequential, emphasizing safety and accuracy. Mode 2 is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasizing agility and speed. In the cloud era, the “Critical Role of IT” is having IT as an agile business enabler. Agile IT should adopt and evolve to become more reliable, available, cost efficient, secure; with lower cost and lower time to market, also IT should be simpler, better, and faster.Business paradigm is shifting from the industrial era to information/digital era, technology plays a pivotal role in such transformation, and therefore, IT value needs to reflect such shift. IT management needs to put emphasis on these “C” words and be driven by concepts like collaborative value or collective advantage and multi-layer ROIs. IT value is demonstrated through the rate of productivity increases, the rate of new product development, the rate of market share gains, the rate of customer satisfaction and employee engagement.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
How to Embed Leadership Development in Business Management
It’s well-known fact that there is no perfect leader, but the progressive one is on their way to be more effective.
Leadership development is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today because leadership is about change. Leadership is both nature and nurtured, some can be trained, some can not. Leadership is also about values and beliefs, future and direction; discovery and dedication, how can you embed leadership development in cultivating high potential talent to achieve career success and growing a business from built to last and good to great as well?
Leadership is an art -and it takes the time to perfect an art. It also takes a commitment from those around the leader. Building trust and feedback loops are critical. Ensure that your emerging leaders are provided with ample professional development training, mentoring, job-coaching and job shadowing opportunities, provides a good start for them. Clearly, there are many other activities that you can offer up and coming leaders that will enhance their growth. A good foundation leads to greater probability of optimization. A philosophy/ program anchor/ concept or skill will embed when there's a personal and emotive connect and when it answers the question of "what's in it for me." The what’s need to be answered only once the big WHYs are clear. It’s about the capacity to see the bigger whole, the interconnections, the paradoxes and the polarities/dichotomies. That capacity can be gained in different ways.
Embedding leadership development requires a culture of learning in the organization. Your leadership development interventions and learning journeys will do well to be strongly aligned with business challenges. Great plan to integrate coaching to help transfer learning to leadership practice, could be made more impactful to ask the coaches to feed in schemes to support organizational learning. Leaders create culture and culture dictates success or failure because of leadership skills. One cannot train or embed leadership skills for lower level managers without the total support of the top executive. If their philosophy is different from what you teach, your information will eventually go by the wayside. Evaluate values, beliefs, attitudes, policies, expectations and workplace climate and you will know what is going on and what information you need to share with management.
Recognition and reward mechanism is embedded in reinforcing leadership development. It's a leadership development construct or perspective- on the job observation, feedback, and continuous coaching may be clues to how well it has embedded. Also- the system within which the learning needs to be embedded needs to have a recognition and reward mechanism to constantly reinforce what's desired and appreciated in terms of leadership behavior/ skill/ approach. If "part of the problem is there are too many leaders who don't measure up," a solution may be to re-engineer the leadership. Begin with re-designing a strategy, rediscovering the talent pipeline, and re-training leaders to be digital leaders who can close the gaps and make differences.
Developing leaders is a crucial investment, requiring time and energy, often viewed as a luxury in today's fast-paced work environment. There does appear to be a leadership gap. Leaders today need to prioritize by taking a hard look at what they value and assure it is instilled among their leaders and emitting throughout their company culture. Embed leadership development by striking a shared balance between operations and development is a great place to start.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Leadership development is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today because leadership is about change. Leadership is both nature and nurtured, some can be trained, some can not. Leadership is also about values and beliefs, future and direction; discovery and dedication, how can you embed leadership development in cultivating high potential talent to achieve career success and growing a business from built to last and good to great as well?
Leadership is an art -and it takes the time to perfect an art. It also takes a commitment from those around the leader. Building trust and feedback loops are critical. Ensure that your emerging leaders are provided with ample professional development training, mentoring, job-coaching and job shadowing opportunities, provides a good start for them. Clearly, there are many other activities that you can offer up and coming leaders that will enhance their growth. A good foundation leads to greater probability of optimization. A philosophy/ program anchor/ concept or skill will embed when there's a personal and emotive connect and when it answers the question of "what's in it for me." The what’s need to be answered only once the big WHYs are clear. It’s about the capacity to see the bigger whole, the interconnections, the paradoxes and the polarities/dichotomies. That capacity can be gained in different ways.
Embedding leadership development requires a culture of learning in the organization. Your leadership development interventions and learning journeys will do well to be strongly aligned with business challenges. Great plan to integrate coaching to help transfer learning to leadership practice, could be made more impactful to ask the coaches to feed in schemes to support organizational learning. Leaders create culture and culture dictates success or failure because of leadership skills. One cannot train or embed leadership skills for lower level managers without the total support of the top executive. If their philosophy is different from what you teach, your information will eventually go by the wayside. Evaluate values, beliefs, attitudes, policies, expectations and workplace climate and you will know what is going on and what information you need to share with management.
Recognition and reward mechanism is embedded in reinforcing leadership development. It's a leadership development construct or perspective- on the job observation, feedback, and continuous coaching may be clues to how well it has embedded. Also- the system within which the learning needs to be embedded needs to have a recognition and reward mechanism to constantly reinforce what's desired and appreciated in terms of leadership behavior/ skill/ approach. If "part of the problem is there are too many leaders who don't measure up," a solution may be to re-engineer the leadership. Begin with re-designing a strategy, rediscovering the talent pipeline, and re-training leaders to be digital leaders who can close the gaps and make differences.
Developing leaders is a crucial investment, requiring time and energy, often viewed as a luxury in today's fast-paced work environment. There does appear to be a leadership gap. Leaders today need to prioritize by taking a hard look at what they value and assure it is instilled among their leaders and emitting throughout their company culture. Embed leadership development by striking a shared balance between operations and development is a great place to start.
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October 14, 2015
Innovation Goes Beyond a Buzzword
Every idea has a potential to be an innovation - but it is very far away from being an innovation.
Innovation" is a must word everywhere today, the trendy word obsessively filling all presentations, even of really backward organizations in most obsolete industries. Often the definition of innovation is way too broad. It is so broad that the term innovation sometimes becomes meaningless. Innovation is over-used and misused by many, but it is still a useful concept. Generally speaking, "innovation means implementing ideas to create value.” This trend, forced by marketeers, in real life off the presentation rooms, causes the endless run that pushes good, proven products and businesses to disappear from the market to give way to seasonal novelties, that are usually just face liftings or cheaper versions of the older ones. This is mostly about creating the demand for "new" products among customers and replying to the demand for innovation of the management. Does innovation need to be absolutely new irrespective of time and place?
Innovation is the key business differentiator: As standardization has been poured into every item in modern life, largely due to production chain and the industrial era. Innovation has risen as the key differentiating value for a company to sell its products or services. And these products and services will remain innovative as much time as competitors learn how to copy it, or the novelty is not relevant for the market anymore. An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization, or external relations. Innovation is not just a new design, a new color, a new seasonal change. It is not only an amazing new idea or the marketing change of an existing product. Innovation is utilizing what you already have in a unique and creative way that as not been done before and using that thing to MAKE PROFIT. It can be iterative, evolutionary, revolutionary, or disruptive, but it must be marketable and implementable. It is not just new design or invention, it is taking that invention tuning it, tweaking it, changing it in a way that the inventor didn't see and making the customers say "wow, that's cool."
Every innovation includes change process: Consider any new idea as an innovation, mainly if such new idea will change, optimize or improve any existing technology, service, treatment, process, politics, etc...Not every innovation includes "technology in all its scope," but every innovation includes change process, and successful management of this change process is vital for the successful creation of innovations. There are quite some terms that are vital for successful creation of innovations that are misinterpreted, misunderstood, overused/misused. Innovation has become a buzzword to that point that those who truly understand it cannot get the real message out through the "hype" and truly implement innovative change.* It must be new, ‘new’ means it must force at least a minimum of a change process in adaptation to its target, this change process can be everything (thinking, cummunication, behaviour, use, etc.) the more complex the change process the “target” faces the more radical it becomes (difference between incremental and radical innovation). Commercialization is not at the end of the process (though almost 90% of companies see it this way) but it starts almost with problem identification and moves all the way down to product development and implementation, this approach does not guarantee success.
Innovation should start from a deep research of people’s concerns, needs, and frustrations. Being able to engage in successful creation of innovations is a very hard work and does include a lot of skills and abilities as well as processes and theories, understanding of the "innovation" is critical and people who engage in those activities should understand what they do and those who talk about it should understand what they talking about. Great process is used (or should be used) for incremental innovation, radical innovation in contrast requires visionary, divergence, imagination and some other attributes that is seldom found in people’s concerns, needs and frustration - as those are usually focused on present or even past but of course if this deep research of people is conducted by visionary, divergent people with strong imagination you have great opportunities for potentially radical innovations. A company should aim for both radical and incremental innovations if they are striving for competitive advantage and long-term survival. All new ideas are certainly considered as an innovation if they somehow impact our civilization.
Every idea has a potential to be an innovation - but it is very far away from being an innovation. In the rapidly evolving businesses and economic systems, the creation of new innovations is very complex but critical for firms survival and thriving.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Innovation" is a must word everywhere today, the trendy word obsessively filling all presentations, even of really backward organizations in most obsolete industries. Often the definition of innovation is way too broad. It is so broad that the term innovation sometimes becomes meaningless. Innovation is over-used and misused by many, but it is still a useful concept. Generally speaking, "innovation means implementing ideas to create value.” This trend, forced by marketeers, in real life off the presentation rooms, causes the endless run that pushes good, proven products and businesses to disappear from the market to give way to seasonal novelties, that are usually just face liftings or cheaper versions of the older ones. This is mostly about creating the demand for "new" products among customers and replying to the demand for innovation of the management. Does innovation need to be absolutely new irrespective of time and place?
Innovation is the key business differentiator: As standardization has been poured into every item in modern life, largely due to production chain and the industrial era. Innovation has risen as the key differentiating value for a company to sell its products or services. And these products and services will remain innovative as much time as competitors learn how to copy it, or the novelty is not relevant for the market anymore. An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization, or external relations. Innovation is not just a new design, a new color, a new seasonal change. It is not only an amazing new idea or the marketing change of an existing product. Innovation is utilizing what you already have in a unique and creative way that as not been done before and using that thing to MAKE PROFIT. It can be iterative, evolutionary, revolutionary, or disruptive, but it must be marketable and implementable. It is not just new design or invention, it is taking that invention tuning it, tweaking it, changing it in a way that the inventor didn't see and making the customers say "wow, that's cool."
Every innovation includes change process: Consider any new idea as an innovation, mainly if such new idea will change, optimize or improve any existing technology, service, treatment, process, politics, etc...Not every innovation includes "technology in all its scope," but every innovation includes change process, and successful management of this change process is vital for the successful creation of innovations. There are quite some terms that are vital for successful creation of innovations that are misinterpreted, misunderstood, overused/misused. Innovation has become a buzzword to that point that those who truly understand it cannot get the real message out through the "hype" and truly implement innovative change.* It must be new, ‘new’ means it must force at least a minimum of a change process in adaptation to its target, this change process can be everything (thinking, cummunication, behaviour, use, etc.) the more complex the change process the “target” faces the more radical it becomes (difference between incremental and radical innovation). Commercialization is not at the end of the process (though almost 90% of companies see it this way) but it starts almost with problem identification and moves all the way down to product development and implementation, this approach does not guarantee success.
Innovation should start from a deep research of people’s concerns, needs, and frustrations. Being able to engage in successful creation of innovations is a very hard work and does include a lot of skills and abilities as well as processes and theories, understanding of the "innovation" is critical and people who engage in those activities should understand what they do and those who talk about it should understand what they talking about. Great process is used (or should be used) for incremental innovation, radical innovation in contrast requires visionary, divergence, imagination and some other attributes that is seldom found in people’s concerns, needs and frustration - as those are usually focused on present or even past but of course if this deep research of people is conducted by visionary, divergent people with strong imagination you have great opportunities for potentially radical innovations. A company should aim for both radical and incremental innovations if they are striving for competitive advantage and long-term survival. All new ideas are certainly considered as an innovation if they somehow impact our civilization. Every idea has a potential to be an innovation - but it is very far away from being an innovation. In the rapidly evolving businesses and economic systems, the creation of new innovations is very complex but critical for firms survival and thriving.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
How to Leverage HR to Manage a High-Performing Digital Workforce
HR must be a balance of 'hi-tech' and 'hi-touch.
Like corporate IT, HR is traditionally perceived by business as a support function and a cost center only. However, digital is the age of people, for forward-thinking organizations, the very goal of digital transformation is to build a people-centric business. Generally what HR does is to hire the right people, putting them in the right positions to develop a long-term working relationship.Therefore, HR plays a strategic role in managing today’s multi-generational, multi-cultural, and multi-devicing global workforce. HR needs to rebuild or establish an exceptional relationship with the workforce. The workforce needs to trust and have confidence in HR to be their 'advocate' with management at all levels and HR needs to be working to create a more people-centric organisation - one where people wake up and are excited/looking forward to coming into work each day because of the 'value' they receive - not just the paycheck they get. Stop selling fear and sell commercial advantage. Start managing people more and manage issues and risk less. You only have an issue when "people" are motivated to make it an issue. Cross-functional collaboration is strategic imperative in building a high-performing workforce. Leaders need to find advisors with real strategic capability and understanding of business at a grass roots level, and then listen to them. Operations need to recognize that productivity is largely about people and start seeing HR as their strategic ally. HR need to smell the roses and realize no one will take them serious until they can sell their ideas in a way that the managers see a tangible and provide a business advantage.
HR must be a balance of 'hi-tech' and 'hi-touch.' Don't overlook the spread of HR technology as a root cause of the disconnect between HR management and HR leadership. They go hand-in-hand and provide the complete solution - the way to create and deliver value to the workforce and senior management and the organization as a whole. HR needs to help create that 'emotional attachment' to the organization through hi-touch and be in tune with changing or emerging trends, requirements in the workforce whether generational driven or otherwise. Due to many factors, most organizations have incurred a tremendous 'cost of lost opportunity,’ this 'lost opportunity' is holding organizations back from reaching their full potential - from being as competitive as they could be and should be. It is too critical an issue not to get it fixed and fixed right.
The flatter the organization the better - for engagement, accountability, and the freedom to act. The more you need flexibility and speed and the less you are hindered by regulatory or quality requirements, the flatter you want to be. And HR, as aligned to those business objectives, is empowered to support the structure that make the business as competitive as it can be -- fit for purpose. HR needs to understand the types of structures that are really being used at all levels so they can properly support the organization. All structures are a result of some sort of compromise in achieving the 'line of best fit' as one size and shape does not always satisfy all. HR has a significant role to play in enabling the organization to perform and achieve its goals, and that the structure will influence HR's areas of focus and priority. Therefore, HR should be profoundly interested in the nature of the structure because it is HR's role to ask whether at any point in time the structure is appropriate and fit for its purpose, though HR effectiveness is not just dependent on the organizational structure. It is the people in the organization that HR must manage and develop. Flat organizations have a chance to optimize the engagement, accountability and freedom to act if the right people management practices are applied. Structure alone cannot produce better results, the organization dynamics such as culture, structure, effective communication, proactive actions, and efficiency can jointly achieve the effectiveness.
Like businesses, HR operates in different environments and in a constantly changing landscape - its structure, skills and deliverables should coordinate with and complement the business. HR team needs to be skilled appropriately - including though not limited to project management, analytics, and financial skills. HR organization needs to be flexible and agile enough to evolve as the company's business and competitive landscape evolve. HR head and C-levels need to regularly ensure HR focuses on outcomes that add value to the business, rather than on traditional processes. In short, HR is a strategic partner to build a high-performing and high-mature workforce in digital organizations today.
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A Risk Intelligent Board
A harmonic, forward-looking approach to practice governance discipline has to be put at the heart of corporate board in the digital age.
The corporate board is one of the most important governance bodies. Governance, per se, as a concept goes back 2500 years, deriving from Greek naval terminology, kubernesis or kuberneo, and referred to the act of piloting a ship - both providing direction to accomplish the ship’s purpose and its protection (risk avoidance) in that process. To navigate the corporate ship at today’s business dynamic, risk avoidance is not sufficient, the corporate board needs to be risk aware and risk intelligent. Many say that companies don’t fail, boards do.
One of the obvious issues raised from many significant business failures is the failure of governance. Often the current governance models can't enable NEDs to get enough information to hear the whole story. The problem of information asymmetry is endemic to the entire governance process. It is one which will not go away. But information asymmetry cannot be used by the board to escape taking responsibility for something significant. In fact, this is more of a case of responsibility being attributed to the board because ultimately, the buck must stop there. There are several questions with governance implications when a business has a serious incident or failure. For instance, who was responsible for feeding unreliable information up the organizational food chain? What checks were there to test the reliability of such information? How robust was the organization's risk assurance system, all the way up to the management board? How could that system miss something that has had a widespread impact? Was senior management and, ultimately, the management board, too easily assured? Who was complicit in this and how far up the organizational food chain did the cover-up go?
The clear and consistent ethical message has to start from the top with actions and not just lip service. How can top management know everything that is going on? they can't. Introducing more controls and procedures for everyone to comply with could be counter-productive - stifling innovation, common sense and personal responsibility. In an environment where there is pressure to deliver, it seems quite possible that no one thought about the ethics aspect of solving the challenge - until it was much too late. The answer is to create an environment where staff do think about the ethical aspects of their work. Make self-assessment by asking “Is there anything going on which could cause embarrassment if it became known?' The problem is that people in high-performing organizations are often too busy to think about ethics. Boards and management should help them find the time and resources.
The NED in boards should request information from all directions of the operations. Because it is evidence that information is crucial for any board to function well and act accordingly. However, many Boards and independent NEDs are unfortunately focussed on the data and information fed to them, and not on how and where do they get the information. The issue is probably a reflection of the culture of the senior management of the organization. Board members would begin to seek to know more about the day-to-day running of the business, especially decisions that have the potential to harm the organization. Also, they should learn not to lay too much emphasis on numbers, but on the goodwill of the organization. In any case, management responsibility is to ensure proper control framework and assessment.
Governance is a sophisticated process that if well executed, will lead to better decisions. It will allow not only to protect the existing value but also to create new value for its shareholders. And today, boards that are still using traditional risk management frameworks and management showing graphs and curves to their board are only moving forward by driving through a rear mirror view. Because, the biggest risk for business is beyond those traditional graphs and curves. Boards need to master risk intelligence - to identify both business risks and opportunities. A harmonic, forward-looking approach to practice governance discipline has to be put at the heart of corporate board in the digital age.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The corporate board is one of the most important governance bodies. Governance, per se, as a concept goes back 2500 years, deriving from Greek naval terminology, kubernesis or kuberneo, and referred to the act of piloting a ship - both providing direction to accomplish the ship’s purpose and its protection (risk avoidance) in that process. To navigate the corporate ship at today’s business dynamic, risk avoidance is not sufficient, the corporate board needs to be risk aware and risk intelligent. Many say that companies don’t fail, boards do.
One of the obvious issues raised from many significant business failures is the failure of governance. Often the current governance models can't enable NEDs to get enough information to hear the whole story. The problem of information asymmetry is endemic to the entire governance process. It is one which will not go away. But information asymmetry cannot be used by the board to escape taking responsibility for something significant. In fact, this is more of a case of responsibility being attributed to the board because ultimately, the buck must stop there. There are several questions with governance implications when a business has a serious incident or failure. For instance, who was responsible for feeding unreliable information up the organizational food chain? What checks were there to test the reliability of such information? How robust was the organization's risk assurance system, all the way up to the management board? How could that system miss something that has had a widespread impact? Was senior management and, ultimately, the management board, too easily assured? Who was complicit in this and how far up the organizational food chain did the cover-up go?
The clear and consistent ethical message has to start from the top with actions and not just lip service. How can top management know everything that is going on? they can't. Introducing more controls and procedures for everyone to comply with could be counter-productive - stifling innovation, common sense and personal responsibility. In an environment where there is pressure to deliver, it seems quite possible that no one thought about the ethics aspect of solving the challenge - until it was much too late. The answer is to create an environment where staff do think about the ethical aspects of their work. Make self-assessment by asking “Is there anything going on which could cause embarrassment if it became known?' The problem is that people in high-performing organizations are often too busy to think about ethics. Boards and management should help them find the time and resources.
The NED in boards should request information from all directions of the operations. Because it is evidence that information is crucial for any board to function well and act accordingly. However, many Boards and independent NEDs are unfortunately focussed on the data and information fed to them, and not on how and where do they get the information. The issue is probably a reflection of the culture of the senior management of the organization. Board members would begin to seek to know more about the day-to-day running of the business, especially decisions that have the potential to harm the organization. Also, they should learn not to lay too much emphasis on numbers, but on the goodwill of the organization. In any case, management responsibility is to ensure proper control framework and assessment.
Governance is a sophisticated process that if well executed, will lead to better decisions. It will allow not only to protect the existing value but also to create new value for its shareholders. And today, boards that are still using traditional risk management frameworks and management showing graphs and curves to their board are only moving forward by driving through a rear mirror view. Because, the biggest risk for business is beyond those traditional graphs and curves. Boards need to master risk intelligence - to identify both business risks and opportunities. A harmonic, forward-looking approach to practice governance discipline has to be put at the heart of corporate board in the digital age.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
October 13, 2015
The “Holding Accountability” in Agile Philosophy
Accountability means say what you DO, do what you SAY, no rumor-mongering, not backbiting.
Accountability is “the obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner.” (businessdictionary.com). To extend the definition, accountability not only means to accept the responsibility for what you DO but also what you SAY, say what you do, do what you say, no rumor-mongering, not backbiting. More specifically, how to practice the "holding accountability" in Agile philosophy?"Holding accountable" means to overcome negative emotions and take step-wise actions. Have you seen effective agile teams hindered or rendered ineffective when leadership blames instead of practicing root cause analysis to drive continuous improvement across the organization? So "You will be held accountable" is on the face of it, not a bad thing, you have the freedom to do whatever needs to be done, and the responsibility to ensure you do your best to bring about a good outcome. Speaking philosophically about responsibility and accountability usually leads us to the conclusion that all humans should be responsible for their own communications and actions and as such, accountability is not necessary. However, in real life responsible people make mistakes or have invalid notions, many times driven by emotions rather than philosophical logic. So “holding accountable” means to overcome the negative emotions and take a step-wise approach for problem-solving in applying agile philosophy.
Management needs to be fully engaged in agile philosophy: In Agile, management now needs to be comfortable with empowering teams to own the delivery of the work after years of potentially poor delivery in waterfall, trust is something that is missing in this scenario. Making teams 'accountable' is one way to convey that the team owns the delivery, but in reality they always did. What's fundamentally changed is that management no longer gets to sit on the sidelines and wait for 'project updates,' rather, they need to be fully engaged in helping the team deliver the most valuable things for the organization. One can make an assessment of the work and resources needed and determine if one can commit (set up for success) and then commit to completing the work. On the other hand, if one is told they must do something and he or she knows the resources and tools are insufficient for the job (set up for failure) yet they are told they will be held accountable if the job does not complete successfully in spite of outlining the chances of success are small. Which one is accountable? Which one is blamed? No organization is 100% agile. The larger the organization, the greater the distance between the owners and the workers, and the more opportunity for the owners to feel the loss of control. Owners like to feel they are in control.
Accountability is conducted inward, and responsibility conducted outward. Responsibility is 'accountability' conducted outward, in that the team has successfully delivered sprint backlog items. Accountability is conducted inward, in that the team respects and supports all team members while successfully completing the work If one is accountable for a certain result, the individual has to be empowered. Of course, that does not happen all the time, so the onus on the individual to come up with resources and tools required. Then "negotiate" to have them in place in phases. If there is a board of directors, it needs to take responsibility for the link between corporate performance and Return on Investment. So there is a FUNDAMENTAL dichotomy between Agile as an operating philosophy and Executive Control as dictated by economic drivers.
Accountability needs to be a two-way commitment that does need to consider real empowerment levels to get the job done. The beauty of agile comes in with its incremental nature and use of empiricism. Leaders can inspire directs and teams by clearly articulating goals and explain how the teams can contribute to reaching the goals. It motivates by ensuring people how important their role is and how it matters to customers and the company. Leaders will do all she or he can to ensure people are set up to succeed and then will celebrate success with the team. Leaders provide a reason for directs to chose them as their leaders every day. Leaders know how to get out of the way and let the team determine how to reach the goals they have set. In the end, one should be accountable for one's words with no external impetus, but being human beings that are not always the case. Sometimes we have to be reminded of our agreements and obligations. most issues of accountability in which management seems to blame the employee for not fulfilling the expectation started when the employee unadvisedly accepted a task (for whatever personal or psychological reason). The accountability refrain is then: "you said you could get this done, and I depended on you doing it, and you haven't done it." We are accountable for our own words, and our own commitments. And we should be accountable to ourselves. However, sometimes we forget or get distracted or over booked or have to answer to more than the organization, and the manager serves as a reminder or 'nagger' about our commitments to help hold us accountable.True accountability focuses on learning as a core value in building an agile culture. It is not uncommon to confuse accountability with blame. They are actually opposites. Shared accountability or collective accountability involves shared ownership because most breakdowns stem from silo behavior where people aren't coordinating, communicating, solving problems or making decisions in a way that considers consequences to others. True accountability focuses on learning to do things differently, rather than punishment. Accepting responsibility is when we prove our values and build our trust.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The Triple “A”s in Digital IT
The triple "A"s in digital IT enable lifting up IT agility and overall corporate maturity.
Due to the “disruptive” nature of technology and the abundance of information, IT plays more significant role in business’s digital transformation, because IT is the only entity in the organization supposed to understand business entirely and oversight organizational processes horizontally, IT needs to be able to provide innovative solution or supply a differentiated solution that contributes to both top line growth and the bottom line success of the organization. There is an “alphabetic soup” in running a digital IT which must lead in reaching high-level performance; besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, here, we introduce the triple “A”s in digital IT:
Automation: Automation is needed for efficiency to balance the demand and supply. The first stage in the journey to automation must be to examine every process and identify how it can be made more efficient and how it connects to other processes. Many IT departments operate in silos with separate teams delivering separate functional tasks: backup, monitoring, security, server administration, mail administration. Effective automation should first examine these functions and understand the connections and define any constraints in the system. Identify and remove the inefficiencies and rationalize the manual actions first. As this process goes along, see what can be automated by scripts or just by using the automation available natively within many of the tools you already have, but don’t use it because you don’t examine the processes from a holistic viewpoint on a regular basis. Often times the simple act of reviewing, connecting and rationalizing will itself improve efficiency and introduce elements of automation that have not previously existed. One of the key areas to examine when undertaking this review is not just the effort involved in any tasks, but the time impact in subsequent tasks having to wait for key tasks to be completed. IT needs to take the wise steps to do consolidation, modernization, automation, integration, innovation, and optimization to improve its overall maturity.
Analytics: In majority of organizations, IT is the steward of corporate data, and back to the fundamental, the title of CIO is Chief Information Officer. The ultimate goal for any data analysis is to make effective decisions. Big Data has diversified format with five “Vs”: Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity, and Value. The Big Data is characterized by long strings of unstructured and semi-structured data in multiple petabytes amounts. The term Big Data is a reference to the largest amount of data ever generated by humankind. "Big data" as a term addresses several parts: concept, data, technology, adoptions /case, analytics scenario; some experts also consider sensor and log data as Big Data because the characteristics are very similar. Regardless how big or complex does not make sense if not converted into usable information for decision making to identify, analyze and solve issues for the better of the company and its stakeholders including customers. This needs the right tools and knowledge. It brings together insights for teams that unify developers, data and business experts to work directly with a digital leader, with a budget and an outcome of managing.
Agility: Agile isn't primarily about engineering. It is about making organizations more waste-repellent. Many companies have incorporated Agile practices into broader based business (non-development) practices, from strategic planning to customer services. Hence, it is too narrow-minded if you think "Agile is an engineering solution to an engineering problem, designed for developers, not managers." Besides managers seeking to be enlightened, the agility can be productivity multipliers by eliminating impediments; understand the fundamentals of core agile principles which are not only in the spirit of Agile, but in a sense serve as a mature cornerstone of its implementations, they should also understand the fundamentals of creation of value, constraints, etc. Whether you have Agile teams or not, you still need to have management discipline and, if you prefer, leadership. Agile IT organizations are able to adapt quickly in a sustainable manner to changes (threats, opportunities) of any dimension in the operating environment and grow. Implementing agility starts from the ground up, and cannot/shouldn't be imposed on teams. The development team wants to own their process, talk to their customer and deliver their customers requirements through better quality software and processes. However, ground up cannot succeed if the development team has to fight the company culture, rules, and processes. Therefore, C-levels such as CIOs needs to focus on creating the right organizational culture, where people can take ownership of their processes and believe they will benefit from doing so. Organizations with Agile culture can identify both opportunities and risks, and response to them with speed and resilience.
There is no one size fits all formula to run a high effective IT, because, different IT organizations and enterprise as a whole are at the different stage of business maturity, IT can be used as a tool, enabler, catalyzer, or a digital platform to meet the ultimate goal of an organization's Short/Medium/Long term strategic plans. Focus on VALUE proposition to run a digital IT, you need to understand the business strategy with IT as a core element, and how IT organizations can deliver effectively to meet business objectives, that is to deliver business value with IT.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Due to the “disruptive” nature of technology and the abundance of information, IT plays more significant role in business’s digital transformation, because IT is the only entity in the organization supposed to understand business entirely and oversight organizational processes horizontally, IT needs to be able to provide innovative solution or supply a differentiated solution that contributes to both top line growth and the bottom line success of the organization. There is an “alphabetic soup” in running a digital IT which must lead in reaching high-level performance; besides triple “I”s - Information, Innovation, and Integration, here, we introduce the triple “A”s in digital IT:
Automation: Automation is needed for efficiency to balance the demand and supply. The first stage in the journey to automation must be to examine every process and identify how it can be made more efficient and how it connects to other processes. Many IT departments operate in silos with separate teams delivering separate functional tasks: backup, monitoring, security, server administration, mail administration. Effective automation should first examine these functions and understand the connections and define any constraints in the system. Identify and remove the inefficiencies and rationalize the manual actions first. As this process goes along, see what can be automated by scripts or just by using the automation available natively within many of the tools you already have, but don’t use it because you don’t examine the processes from a holistic viewpoint on a regular basis. Often times the simple act of reviewing, connecting and rationalizing will itself improve efficiency and introduce elements of automation that have not previously existed. One of the key areas to examine when undertaking this review is not just the effort involved in any tasks, but the time impact in subsequent tasks having to wait for key tasks to be completed. IT needs to take the wise steps to do consolidation, modernization, automation, integration, innovation, and optimization to improve its overall maturity.
Analytics: In majority of organizations, IT is the steward of corporate data, and back to the fundamental, the title of CIO is Chief Information Officer. The ultimate goal for any data analysis is to make effective decisions. Big Data has diversified format with five “Vs”: Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity, and Value. The Big Data is characterized by long strings of unstructured and semi-structured data in multiple petabytes amounts. The term Big Data is a reference to the largest amount of data ever generated by humankind. "Big data" as a term addresses several parts: concept, data, technology, adoptions /case, analytics scenario; some experts also consider sensor and log data as Big Data because the characteristics are very similar. Regardless how big or complex does not make sense if not converted into usable information for decision making to identify, analyze and solve issues for the better of the company and its stakeholders including customers. This needs the right tools and knowledge. It brings together insights for teams that unify developers, data and business experts to work directly with a digital leader, with a budget and an outcome of managing.
Agility: Agile isn't primarily about engineering. It is about making organizations more waste-repellent. Many companies have incorporated Agile practices into broader based business (non-development) practices, from strategic planning to customer services. Hence, it is too narrow-minded if you think "Agile is an engineering solution to an engineering problem, designed for developers, not managers." Besides managers seeking to be enlightened, the agility can be productivity multipliers by eliminating impediments; understand the fundamentals of core agile principles which are not only in the spirit of Agile, but in a sense serve as a mature cornerstone of its implementations, they should also understand the fundamentals of creation of value, constraints, etc. Whether you have Agile teams or not, you still need to have management discipline and, if you prefer, leadership. Agile IT organizations are able to adapt quickly in a sustainable manner to changes (threats, opportunities) of any dimension in the operating environment and grow. Implementing agility starts from the ground up, and cannot/shouldn't be imposed on teams. The development team wants to own their process, talk to their customer and deliver their customers requirements through better quality software and processes. However, ground up cannot succeed if the development team has to fight the company culture, rules, and processes. Therefore, C-levels such as CIOs needs to focus on creating the right organizational culture, where people can take ownership of their processes and believe they will benefit from doing so. Organizations with Agile culture can identify both opportunities and risks, and response to them with speed and resilience. There is no one size fits all formula to run a high effective IT, because, different IT organizations and enterprise as a whole are at the different stage of business maturity, IT can be used as a tool, enabler, catalyzer, or a digital platform to meet the ultimate goal of an organization's Short/Medium/Long term strategic plans. Focus on VALUE proposition to run a digital IT, you need to understand the business strategy with IT as a core element, and how IT organizations can deliver effectively to meet business objectives, that is to deliver business value with IT.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
