Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1397
October 13, 2015
How to Apply Simplicity Principle in Change Management
Change is simply a shift from the “Old Way - Chaos - New Way.”
Simplicity is a behavioral attitude to see things as and what and where they are and be content and cool as it is. Philosophically, simplicity is the source of complication, and complications are the source of simplicity. Often human cannot live the life with simplicity and keep making it complicated. So does Change Management. Can we make change simpler? A successful change requires three things; dissatisfaction with current state, clear vision and clear process for getting towards the vision. How to apply simplicity principle in Change Management?
Helping people cope with the experience of change is fundamental to the process. Acknowledging that something needs to change is the first step. And sometimes that is a very hard one to take for some people. Because often management are overly focused on the technical element of change, they are lacking in how to think about and do this. The most difficult part is the first step of getting others in the group/team to acknowledge there's a problem - that behavior and attitudes are negatively affecting business objectives and growth. That involves people being open and honest about ignoring the problem and/or how they are reacting to those unhelpful behaviours and attitudes. Changing behaviors that are negatively affecting the company's ability to make a profit and continuous growth.
Change is simply a shift from the “Old Way - Chaos - New Way.” People never ever look for a simple way rather they will rely on some popular models developed by a change guru. Having a model is great but without the buy-in from the individuals that are impacted, change won’t happen. All too often, the management heard the phrases "but we have done it this way for 20 years" or "that's it then jobs will be next," such reaction is driven by fear but can be eliminated by simple and regular communication face to face. There are lots of models that act as guidebooks for change practitioners trying to work the way through the chaos. As we might expect of what is still a relatively new discipline and one that has only recently become super trendy, new complexities are being discovered and different institutions/people are trying to get in on the game. Consequently, more complex models and a focus on selling them as the solution. Practically, do not make change process overly rigid, Change Management needs to be changed when necessary.
As for changing a culture, that is a little more than DNA at work. People are hardwired to resist that which seems dangerous to us. Make sure the changes are talked about and explained as part of a two-way conversation are so important. In addition, we often don't want to change things that serve us. For example, if the change seems like it will make most of my experience and knowledge obsolete, I will naturally resist it. That is until I am shown or can see how that actually isn't the case. And we know from studies that if the effort required to change is perceived to be greater than the reward, we aren't going to do it no matter how great the reward on the other side. So, is it a part of human DNA. Does that make change impossible - No! It just means we need to keep that in mind as we navigate and strategize any changes we want to make in organizations. Change is a part of our daily life yet how we approach it is quite complicated sometimes. Staying positive is certainly critical as you move through change. Continue to brainstorm what they are happy about as a result of the changes going on. there is no growth without change. Many humans have an autonomic reaction to environmental change that can range from skepticism to much worse. Is this part of human DNA? A culture is created and recreated each and every day by all the actions individuals within that culture take. To change a culture you need to change those actions, and change enough of them to cause a shift in the culture. Organizationally that is why culture change is so hard. And often when people talk about the need for culture change they are really talking about the need for climate change, not the weather but the atmosphere in a company.
Simplicity has a multitude of perspectives. Elegance is such a word to convey “just right” simplicity. To make the change as simple as possible, not simpler. Simplicity is an aspect of “appropriate” abstraction. There is a relationship between simplicity and clarity. With simplicity, what we are adding is clarity and purpose. In the core of simplicity lies complexity,..more simple one perceives in any system, problem or living being is inherently more complex....Externally simplicity is directly proportional to internally complexity. Apply simplicity as a management principle to manage change effectively.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Simplicity is a behavioral attitude to see things as and what and where they are and be content and cool as it is. Philosophically, simplicity is the source of complication, and complications are the source of simplicity. Often human cannot live the life with simplicity and keep making it complicated. So does Change Management. Can we make change simpler? A successful change requires three things; dissatisfaction with current state, clear vision and clear process for getting towards the vision. How to apply simplicity principle in Change Management?
Helping people cope with the experience of change is fundamental to the process. Acknowledging that something needs to change is the first step. And sometimes that is a very hard one to take for some people. Because often management are overly focused on the technical element of change, they are lacking in how to think about and do this. The most difficult part is the first step of getting others in the group/team to acknowledge there's a problem - that behavior and attitudes are negatively affecting business objectives and growth. That involves people being open and honest about ignoring the problem and/or how they are reacting to those unhelpful behaviours and attitudes. Changing behaviors that are negatively affecting the company's ability to make a profit and continuous growth.
Change is simply a shift from the “Old Way - Chaos - New Way.” People never ever look for a simple way rather they will rely on some popular models developed by a change guru. Having a model is great but without the buy-in from the individuals that are impacted, change won’t happen. All too often, the management heard the phrases "but we have done it this way for 20 years" or "that's it then jobs will be next," such reaction is driven by fear but can be eliminated by simple and regular communication face to face. There are lots of models that act as guidebooks for change practitioners trying to work the way through the chaos. As we might expect of what is still a relatively new discipline and one that has only recently become super trendy, new complexities are being discovered and different institutions/people are trying to get in on the game. Consequently, more complex models and a focus on selling them as the solution. Practically, do not make change process overly rigid, Change Management needs to be changed when necessary.
As for changing a culture, that is a little more than DNA at work. People are hardwired to resist that which seems dangerous to us. Make sure the changes are talked about and explained as part of a two-way conversation are so important. In addition, we often don't want to change things that serve us. For example, if the change seems like it will make most of my experience and knowledge obsolete, I will naturally resist it. That is until I am shown or can see how that actually isn't the case. And we know from studies that if the effort required to change is perceived to be greater than the reward, we aren't going to do it no matter how great the reward on the other side. So, is it a part of human DNA. Does that make change impossible - No! It just means we need to keep that in mind as we navigate and strategize any changes we want to make in organizations. Change is a part of our daily life yet how we approach it is quite complicated sometimes. Staying positive is certainly critical as you move through change. Continue to brainstorm what they are happy about as a result of the changes going on. there is no growth without change. Many humans have an autonomic reaction to environmental change that can range from skepticism to much worse. Is this part of human DNA? A culture is created and recreated each and every day by all the actions individuals within that culture take. To change a culture you need to change those actions, and change enough of them to cause a shift in the culture. Organizationally that is why culture change is so hard. And often when people talk about the need for culture change they are really talking about the need for climate change, not the weather but the atmosphere in a company.
Simplicity has a multitude of perspectives. Elegance is such a word to convey “just right” simplicity. To make the change as simple as possible, not simpler. Simplicity is an aspect of “appropriate” abstraction. There is a relationship between simplicity and clarity. With simplicity, what we are adding is clarity and purpose. In the core of simplicity lies complexity,..more simple one perceives in any system, problem or living being is inherently more complex....Externally simplicity is directly proportional to internally complexity. Apply simplicity as a management principle to manage change effectively.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
October 12, 2015
How to Fill Three Leadership Gaps
The more gaps a leader can mind, the better and bigger influence she/he can make.
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. And traditional talent pipeline is not sufficient enough to select heterogeneous, creative, and authentic leaders who can lead more effectively in today’s digital dynamic and global business setting. To put simply, there are many multinational companies around, but very few global companies; and there are many multinational business executives, but very few truly global leaders. If you are not taking steps now to shrink that leadership gaps, you will not be prepared to lead digital business in the future. So what are the significant gaps need to be filled effectively? Cognition Gaps: The traditional concept of diversity can not fill out the gaps caused by cognitive difference necessarily, the culture intelligence, and the strengths of the problem-solving capabilities people bring to the team. In order to build a high-effective leadership team, foresightful organizations should always look for the complementary mindsets, capabilities and skills that they don't have so that they can build a winning team and complement each other. In such a global climate, those businesses that are unwilling to GENUINELY embrace “thinking differently,” are unable to know how to tap their diverse resources, and be inclusive and recognize merit and ideas, no matter where they come from, will not be able to survive, leave alone thrive. Minding the cognitive gaps can benefit with any organization to make a sound judgment, and generate innovative solutions, to improve your company’s agility and maturity.
Generation Gaps: There is a surging need which is related to the realization that the gap is widening between boomers and the next group of workers. Whether this is related to just the generation gap or other economic factors, they are now recognizing the need to prepare the leadership succession. The key for organizational success is to integrate next generation of leaders, tap into their way of looking at the world, solving problems with very collaborative working style. By tapping into this next generation of leaders, supporting them in leading projects and giving them responsibilities early on our organizations will have a better chance to stay relevant.
Creativity Gaps: There are some competencies such as self-awareness and interpersonal competence that are the focus of leadership development. Creativity has become the #1 desired quality either for leaders or digital professionals. Creativity to some extent, is the nature of seeing the patterns that already exist, and then being able to predict how they change, and sometimes manipulate them in a direction that fits our needs or that of our objective, to come out an alternative way to solve the problems. Creativity is an outcome of a deep understanding of the patterns of thinking that underlies Systems Thinking. There are "common structures" that can be used for the purpose of creativity that are produced by combining different patterns of Systems Thinking. A creative leader without systemic thinking might lack structure frame to keep focus. A creative leader can influence and build a culture of innovation. If there’s idea gap, it means the cause to gap may have something to do with corporate culture, it is imperative for improving the organization's culture to one that is more innovative, inspires creativity, celebrates or allows failure or prototyping. If you have or develop the right culture, through change management if necessary, then everything else can be connected. An adaptive culture makes innovation & improvement easier. It is easier to collect, facilitate, and manage ideas more optimally. Finally, if you get the culture right, then people feel they have the freedom to try and even to fail.
There is no one generic set of leadership skills. Effective leadership differs by level, the type of organization, the stage of organizational evolution, the mindset of stakeholders (particularly boards of directors), the complexity of product, the national and political culture, and many other variables. In order to mind the gaps, the leadership principles should be abstracted and highlighted, the criteria need to be refined, and leadership development has to be re-tuned and integrated with all other policies and procedures. it starts at the hiring process, needs to be linked to company culture, mission, vision, and values, and of course, there is a direct link to performance management -both thinking performance and action performance.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Does the C-Suite Stand Behind Your Customer Experience Initiative
Great customer experience management is a differentiator for companies. It also has to be driven as a culture within the company starting at Board level.
Digital is the age of customers. CEM-Customer Experience Management is in most of the companies’ corporate vocabulary now. However, ‘talk the talk’ is the easy part, very few can walk the talk, how to define CEM strategy proposition and implement it with step-wise approach? The balancing act of looking to increase profit while keeping the customer-centric strategy of the business is perhaps tricky, so how to get the C-suite behind your Customer Experience initiatives?
The elephant in the room is a CX board/team without the C-suite in attendance. It will lack teeth and will slip back into silo arguments. The senior management must participate or the CX team will end up spinning wheel. Without the CXO participation, the initiatives may wither away or at best provide lip service. Especially with SMEs, it is important for the owner or stakeholders to have the vision and experience the benefits. A good CX solution should make better use of resources. The information has to be shared. If you could present a clear rationale linking customer experience to revenue and profits, then a senior leadership team is more likely to take notice. So no matter what you call it, the real challenge is how do you go about taking some subjectivity out of customer experience and inject some objectivity into it. There are a number of business areas that can be transformed by a systematic yet sensitive approach to customer feedback.
If CX upside is not seriously part of c-level concern when planning forward, only CX downside will prompt a concern. Business impact and Risk Management is the appropriate language to use. One way in getting the attention of the C-suite as to the value of CX is through the linkage of the NPS scores to relevant KPIs in the business. For example, you can demonstrate the impact of service equation, measured through the lens of NPS. By evaluating detractor spend vs. promoter spends, you can demonstrate that the incremental $ spend loss from a detractor is quadruple incremental increase of a promoter. This exercise validates the criticality of mitigating detractor experience by assigning a dollar value to the business impact of that bad experience. For the CX and Ops teams, it reinforces the focus on mitigating detractors vs. optimizing promoters, and catches the attention of the CXOs in the process, because often there are definitely misalignments across the C-suite, across the globe. As we all know "It is the customer who determines what a business is." (Peter Ferdinand Drucker)
Different C-level roles understand the importance of Customer Experience from their own lenses. While Sales VPs generally accept that if the work is done well, their win rates improve. One of the marketing's roles is to drive demand generation. So providing numbers to marketing that explain how CX will create more leads is important. How to identify NPS Promoters and activating them is one good method of generating more leads, or converting existing leads to sales. One way to help CIOs understand the criticality of Customer Experience is to propose to run a survey for them on satisfaction of internal users with IT services. Also, more often than not, IT is a differentiating element in digitizing every touch point of Customer Experience. If you can show that you can apply customer listening techniques to do it better than their existing system, you will have a convert. It is indeed critical that the CFO understands the financial benefits of the work and has approved the method to relate NPS trends to revenue. Finally, CEO needs to be the customer advocate, if customers and customer experience are not in the top three items for your company strategy, you need to change jobs. Mixing and analyzing all results together in parallel, in order to obtain a real picture of the situation and demonstrate a holistic picture to engage C-levels.
The good customer experience management is norm, but exceptional customer service and experience offers the 'WOW' concept as the necessary success factor to ensure you stay ahead of the game, particularly with your peers in business. Hence, you have to put the customer at the heart of everything that you do as a business - great customer experience management is a differentiator for companies. It also has to be driven as a culture within the company starting at Board level. Therefore, getting the C-suite stand behind Customer Experience initiatives can truly make CE as an important component of business strategy, embed the culture of customer-centricity, and manage CE more systematically and effectively.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Digital is the age of customers. CEM-Customer Experience Management is in most of the companies’ corporate vocabulary now. However, ‘talk the talk’ is the easy part, very few can walk the talk, how to define CEM strategy proposition and implement it with step-wise approach? The balancing act of looking to increase profit while keeping the customer-centric strategy of the business is perhaps tricky, so how to get the C-suite behind your Customer Experience initiatives?
The elephant in the room is a CX board/team without the C-suite in attendance. It will lack teeth and will slip back into silo arguments. The senior management must participate or the CX team will end up spinning wheel. Without the CXO participation, the initiatives may wither away or at best provide lip service. Especially with SMEs, it is important for the owner or stakeholders to have the vision and experience the benefits. A good CX solution should make better use of resources. The information has to be shared. If you could present a clear rationale linking customer experience to revenue and profits, then a senior leadership team is more likely to take notice. So no matter what you call it, the real challenge is how do you go about taking some subjectivity out of customer experience and inject some objectivity into it. There are a number of business areas that can be transformed by a systematic yet sensitive approach to customer feedback.
If CX upside is not seriously part of c-level concern when planning forward, only CX downside will prompt a concern. Business impact and Risk Management is the appropriate language to use. One way in getting the attention of the C-suite as to the value of CX is through the linkage of the NPS scores to relevant KPIs in the business. For example, you can demonstrate the impact of service equation, measured through the lens of NPS. By evaluating detractor spend vs. promoter spends, you can demonstrate that the incremental $ spend loss from a detractor is quadruple incremental increase of a promoter. This exercise validates the criticality of mitigating detractor experience by assigning a dollar value to the business impact of that bad experience. For the CX and Ops teams, it reinforces the focus on mitigating detractors vs. optimizing promoters, and catches the attention of the CXOs in the process, because often there are definitely misalignments across the C-suite, across the globe. As we all know "It is the customer who determines what a business is." (Peter Ferdinand Drucker)
Different C-level roles understand the importance of Customer Experience from their own lenses. While Sales VPs generally accept that if the work is done well, their win rates improve. One of the marketing's roles is to drive demand generation. So providing numbers to marketing that explain how CX will create more leads is important. How to identify NPS Promoters and activating them is one good method of generating more leads, or converting existing leads to sales. One way to help CIOs understand the criticality of Customer Experience is to propose to run a survey for them on satisfaction of internal users with IT services. Also, more often than not, IT is a differentiating element in digitizing every touch point of Customer Experience. If you can show that you can apply customer listening techniques to do it better than their existing system, you will have a convert. It is indeed critical that the CFO understands the financial benefits of the work and has approved the method to relate NPS trends to revenue. Finally, CEO needs to be the customer advocate, if customers and customer experience are not in the top three items for your company strategy, you need to change jobs. Mixing and analyzing all results together in parallel, in order to obtain a real picture of the situation and demonstrate a holistic picture to engage C-levels.The good customer experience management is norm, but exceptional customer service and experience offers the 'WOW' concept as the necessary success factor to ensure you stay ahead of the game, particularly with your peers in business. Hence, you have to put the customer at the heart of everything that you do as a business - great customer experience management is a differentiator for companies. It also has to be driven as a culture within the company starting at Board level. Therefore, getting the C-suite stand behind Customer Experience initiatives can truly make CE as an important component of business strategy, embed the culture of customer-centricity, and manage CE more systematically and effectively.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Digital IT as an Information Hub and Innovation Engine
In order to run IT an information hub, CIO needs to be a visionary and an effective communicator who have to advocate their organization effectively.
Due to the changing nature of technology and the overwhelming volume of information, IT plays a pivotal role in leading organization's digital transformation. However, IT running in an industrial mode is a business controller with the reputation of slow to change, back office function, not fits in the fast changing business circumstances or volatile digital dynamic. With explosive data and the abundance of information, how to run IT with the growth mentality at digital speed? And how to transform IT from a cost center to an information hub and innovation engine?Leverage digital tools and social platforms to build a culture of innovation: The first thing to do is to create a culture among all staff for them to be always looking for new and innovative ideas. IT leaders must guide them to articulate on how it has the potential to improve the efficiency or provide benefits. This greatly improves the odds of discovering something innovative because more people are looking, but also because of varied interest of staff may have looking in other innovations being used in other professions or industries that could cross over. These innovations may otherwise have been missed. The three P's (Passion, Purpose, and Potential) are critical for every employee no matter what the role is. Without the first two you are just going through the motions and will never be an authentic leader. Passion is a requirement but the way and how it is used, focused and balanced determines success. Recognize that many small innovations will collectively outweigh one or few large innovations. Lead by example and just try things and see what happens. For example, one of the channels to capturing all the innovative ideas from all your staff is to create an Internal blog, where staff can transparently and openly share their ideas across whole organization. This provides an open forum to discuss pro and cons without any filtering or biases which typically kills innovative ideas in it infancy.
Craft a solid IT strategy to build IT as an information hub: An Information Management strategy is critical as it describes the future state, and how to get there. It’s about how an enterprise will leverage information to power its business via optimizing the value of info, while minimizing risks. Information and its lifecycle is complex. Enterprises generally have governance and compliance rules on information. They want people to be able to find, reuse, publish, refactor and republish. Information is the lifeblood of the enterprise, but if not properly managed, it becomes at worst case a liability and at best case an underutilized asset. The following three constraints are actually all reasons an organization should have an information strategy. The first constraint is being the tyranny of the urgent with organization systems. Most of the systems that are needed today and technology leaders are starved for resources. The lack of resources and focus on businesses expanding their capabilities takes precedence to projects like an enterprise data strategy. The second is being the consumerization of technology, this is something that is happening to systems too. It is a part of the mentality that systems can be purchased or access contracted with the concept that SAAS or cloud systems are instantaneous solutions to an organization’s business challenges. This concept is fragmenting information, creating an even bigger challenge in addressing an enterprise policy. The idea of moving fast, moving to new technologies to be flexible and responsible puts you back to the first reason, time and resources for increasingly diverse information. The third is that most organizations are in transitions, data is in dissimilar systems which are being migrated, converted or just staying out due to budget and time constraints. The constraint is in getting all of the systems up to a current technology to snap into an enterprise information strategy.
In order to run IT an information hub, CIO needs to be a visionary and an effective communicator with varying audience via tailored conversations; in order to build IT as an innovation engine, CIOs need to be creative leader who can make influence and shape the culture of innovation. CIOs have to advocate their organization, and IT value has to be driven, indicated and understood at all levels of the organization. This is accomplished through establishing strong interdependent relationships, operational excellence, innovative solutions, customer satisfaction, and superior sets of digital capabilities in order to move up the organizational maturity.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The Board Leadership & Governance Insight of the “Future of CIO” I
Governance is like a steering wheel, to ensure the business running in the right direction!
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with about #2235th 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 special edition of Board Leadership/Governance insight I of the “Future of CIO” blog.
The Board Leadership/Governance Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog IConformance vs. Performance: Corporate Board is one of the most important governance bodies to oversight strategy and to enforce GRC disciplines. Many directors think that the role of the director is conformance. The underlying question is actually fundamental: What is corporate governance, when is it necessary and how should it work? Conformance vs. Performance, which is more important for the Corporate Board?
An Agile Board: Many forward-looking organizations are shifting from doing Agile to being Agile. Agile is more as a mindset, a set of principles and a type of digital culture, rather than the methodology or technology only. Corporate Board as one of the most important governance bodies in the modern business, defines governance principles and practices, oversees business strategy, provisions resources, and sets business culture tones as well. The agile shift is one of the most significant aspects of digital transformation, but how to build an Agile Board that help lead business toward the right direction?
GRC: Methodology vs. Technology: Digital technologies bring significant opportunities and risks in today’s businesses. Hence, GRC (governance, risk management, and compliance) plays more important role in running an effective organization. GRC methodology vs. technology, how to balance them right in improving organizational agility and maturity?
Risk Intelligence Mindset: Digital means both opportunity and risks. Every opportunity has risks in it, and every risk has opportunities in it. Does a lack of risk-based thinking lead to business failure? And how to shape a risk-intelligent mindset?Risk-based thinking is something people all do, but perhaps many people do it imperfectly. In evolutionary terms, from risk control mind to risk management to risk intelligent mind, the successful thinking about risk leads to survival by mitigating risks, and then accumulation of enough resources to thrive by capturing opportunities in it and adapting to the uncertainty and changes.
A Value-added Board: Corporate Board is one of the most significant governance bodies in modern businesses. Generally speaking, Boards have a couple of main functions such as strategy oversight (input, review, etc), governance practices (monitoring, risk management), service (providing advice & support to executives), and resource provision (opening their networks etc.). However, from industry research, very low percentage (less than 30%) of BoDs understand how their organizations create value. This is an absolutely abysmal statistic and is reflective of the fact that the most public company boards have not correctly understood what their primary responsibility is. What’re the principles and practices to run a value-added digital board though?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 #2235th 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 special edition of Board Leadership/Governance insight I of the “Future of CIO” blog.
The Board Leadership/Governance Insight of the “Future of CIO” Blog IConformance vs. Performance: Corporate Board is one of the most important governance bodies to oversight strategy and to enforce GRC disciplines. Many directors think that the role of the director is conformance. The underlying question is actually fundamental: What is corporate governance, when is it necessary and how should it work? Conformance vs. Performance, which is more important for the Corporate Board?
An Agile Board: Many forward-looking organizations are shifting from doing Agile to being Agile. Agile is more as a mindset, a set of principles and a type of digital culture, rather than the methodology or technology only. Corporate Board as one of the most important governance bodies in the modern business, defines governance principles and practices, oversees business strategy, provisions resources, and sets business culture tones as well. The agile shift is one of the most significant aspects of digital transformation, but how to build an Agile Board that help lead business toward the right direction?
GRC: Methodology vs. Technology: Digital technologies bring significant opportunities and risks in today’s businesses. Hence, GRC (governance, risk management, and compliance) plays more important role in running an effective organization. GRC methodology vs. technology, how to balance them right in improving organizational agility and maturity?
Risk Intelligence Mindset: Digital means both opportunity and risks. Every opportunity has risks in it, and every risk has opportunities in it. Does a lack of risk-based thinking lead to business failure? And how to shape a risk-intelligent mindset?Risk-based thinking is something people all do, but perhaps many people do it imperfectly. In evolutionary terms, from risk control mind to risk management to risk intelligent mind, the successful thinking about risk leads to survival by mitigating risks, and then accumulation of enough resources to thrive by capturing opportunities in it and adapting to the uncertainty and changes.
A Value-added Board: Corporate Board is one of the most significant governance bodies in modern businesses. Generally speaking, Boards have a couple of main functions such as strategy oversight (input, review, etc), governance practices (monitoring, risk management), service (providing advice & support to executives), and resource provision (opening their networks etc.). However, from industry research, very low percentage (less than 30%) of BoDs understand how their organizations create value. This is an absolutely abysmal statistic and is reflective of the fact that the most public company boards have not correctly understood what their primary responsibility is. What’re the principles and practices to run a value-added digital board though?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
October 11, 2015
Which Habit would you like to Target with a World-Changing-Act?
The world-changing act starts with mind shift.
With increasing speed of change and continuous digital disruption, from an organization as an entity to a human society as a whole are on the way to adapt to the rapid changes. Digital professionals today have to equip a growth mind to pursue autonomy, purpose, and mastery. They intend to make an impact in hyper-connected and borderless digital global community, but which habit you would like to target with a world-changing-act?
The world-changing act starts with mind shift: There are no big or small world-changing-acts, even the smallest world-changing-act could trigger an avalanche. It depends on which habit from thought process to actions; the world-changing thinking has to break down the silo, overcome the bias, unimaginative, limited, impoverished and stereotypical thinking that leads to the same old expected solutions, to embrace critical thinking and independent thinking, and the world-changing-act targets for progressive change, and long-term transformation in which mind shift is the prerequisite.
World-changing act should start from yourself. If other habits revolve around the targeted habit - the world-changing-act will need self-reflection, a greater emotional charge and/or be repeated more often. World-changing-acts need to be delivered together with a positive emotional charge. Without any conscious effort of ours to the contrary – even our bad moods will affect others like a contagious disease – and, maybe, even help the spread of the actual disease. This would be a positive world-changing-mood as an act in its own right, but we need to give it a form – act. And adding a bit of humour to the act could carry it much further than the plain act itself could.
World-change act should follow the logic steps to cultivate good habits: “A habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of PERCEIVING, thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.There are three results of habit breaking exercise. The first one is the cumulative effect that sharpens our eyes to notice anomalies. It also gives an emotional charge to noticed anomalies – allowing for even dreams about noticed anomalies. The whole of the habitual pattern is disrupted – allowing for anomalies to be noticed. So, we can trap a thought, with a trap set for feeling, And thirdly, opens up nearby habits to scrutiny and more skilful designed traps.
Our “real” world is much more complex and much more ambiguous – allowing for much more targeted beliefs to be changed with much more world-changing-acts...We should do the best we can in whatever capacity that we responsible for. By setting the brain free, think positively and cultivate good habit to make an influence.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
With increasing speed of change and continuous digital disruption, from an organization as an entity to a human society as a whole are on the way to adapt to the rapid changes. Digital professionals today have to equip a growth mind to pursue autonomy, purpose, and mastery. They intend to make an impact in hyper-connected and borderless digital global community, but which habit you would like to target with a world-changing-act?
The world-changing act starts with mind shift: There are no big or small world-changing-acts, even the smallest world-changing-act could trigger an avalanche. It depends on which habit from thought process to actions; the world-changing thinking has to break down the silo, overcome the bias, unimaginative, limited, impoverished and stereotypical thinking that leads to the same old expected solutions, to embrace critical thinking and independent thinking, and the world-changing-act targets for progressive change, and long-term transformation in which mind shift is the prerequisite.
World-changing act should start from yourself. If other habits revolve around the targeted habit - the world-changing-act will need self-reflection, a greater emotional charge and/or be repeated more often. World-changing-acts need to be delivered together with a positive emotional charge. Without any conscious effort of ours to the contrary – even our bad moods will affect others like a contagious disease – and, maybe, even help the spread of the actual disease. This would be a positive world-changing-mood as an act in its own right, but we need to give it a form – act. And adding a bit of humour to the act could carry it much further than the plain act itself could.
World-change act should follow the logic steps to cultivate good habits: “A habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of PERCEIVING, thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.There are three results of habit breaking exercise. The first one is the cumulative effect that sharpens our eyes to notice anomalies. It also gives an emotional charge to noticed anomalies – allowing for even dreams about noticed anomalies. The whole of the habitual pattern is disrupted – allowing for anomalies to be noticed. So, we can trap a thought, with a trap set for feeling, And thirdly, opens up nearby habits to scrutiny and more skilful designed traps.
Our “real” world is much more complex and much more ambiguous – allowing for much more targeted beliefs to be changed with much more world-changing-acts...We should do the best we can in whatever capacity that we responsible for. By setting the brain free, think positively and cultivate good habit to make an influence.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Is Hierarchy Good or Bad for Systems?
System hierarchy is different from command control hierarchy.
Systems Thinking is the ability to think the "whole," and understand the interconnectivity of its parts as well. As complexity is pushing the boundaries of the thinking and traditional systems, what we do know is "that larger and more complicated systems" do not have the requisite agility to adapt to more complex and adaptive environments.The more nonlinear, interconnected, and interdependent the environment, where uncertainty and emergence become more prevalent, hence accelerated rates of change, the less likely ordered hierarchical systems are to be the answer due to the rigidity. Hence, we need to adapt to the Systems Thinking and reimagine the digital organizational structure.
As with all things pertaining to systems, context and perspectives are everything. Is hierarchy an essential part of every system, like many things in this world, "it depends." Hierarchies are brilliant systems inventions in industrial era, not only because they give a system stability and resilience, but also because they reduce the amount of information that any part of the system has to keep track of. However, at the emerging digital age with the nature of hyperconnectivity, nonlinearity, and interdependence, overly rigid hierarchy becomes the very obstacle to stop digital flow and stifle innovation.To be a highly functional system, hierarchy must balance the welfare, freedoms, and responsibilities of the subsystems and total system, there must be enough central control to achieve coordination toward the large-system goals, and enough autonomy to keep all subsystems flourishing, functioning, and self-organizing.
The onion-like organizational layer is different from command-control type hierarchy. Every system is a subsystem of a larger system and simultaneously it is always build up by subsystems. Some organizations leverage systems principles to introduce a different concepts of hierarchy, in which systems evolve and interlink to create larger systems, within even larger systems, and so on, and these systems of systems can forge or alter a myriad of relationships/alliances. In this scenario, the hierarchy can be viewed as onion-like layers rather than the command and control hierarchy, though this is not to say they must be mutually exclusive. "Keep an open mind" to enable exploration of new possibilities, because the best system solution is one that responds perfectly to its environmental circumstances.
Hierarchy shouldn’t stop digital flow and stifle innovation: On reflection, it is possible through highlighting system successes and failures to argue when hierarchies have contributed to both outcomes, and normally digresses thereafter into blame or claim games. The most common anecdote is how managers/leaders tend to restructure if they sense things are becoming dysfunctional, and often with mixed results, but at least they are "seen to be doing something"....Do ALL systems require hierarchy? it depends on your intent and stated purpose. There are systems with limited purposes and needs and don't need any hierarchy definition. Although in certain circumstances hierarchy performs well, but often the symptoms such as silo thinking or bureaucracy caused by rigid hierarchy fail organizations to achieve the next level of agility, or make the solution less optimal and sometimes a burden.
Every system has its position in the hierarchy of systems. However, system hierarchy is different from command control hierarchy. The highly complex and dynamic system needs to be elaborated in a well-organized effort. The goal is to make hierarchical systems adaptive so that they can respond to the challenges of a more complex, interconnected, and interdependent world.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Systems Thinking is the ability to think the "whole," and understand the interconnectivity of its parts as well. As complexity is pushing the boundaries of the thinking and traditional systems, what we do know is "that larger and more complicated systems" do not have the requisite agility to adapt to more complex and adaptive environments.The more nonlinear, interconnected, and interdependent the environment, where uncertainty and emergence become more prevalent, hence accelerated rates of change, the less likely ordered hierarchical systems are to be the answer due to the rigidity. Hence, we need to adapt to the Systems Thinking and reimagine the digital organizational structure.
As with all things pertaining to systems, context and perspectives are everything. Is hierarchy an essential part of every system, like many things in this world, "it depends." Hierarchies are brilliant systems inventions in industrial era, not only because they give a system stability and resilience, but also because they reduce the amount of information that any part of the system has to keep track of. However, at the emerging digital age with the nature of hyperconnectivity, nonlinearity, and interdependence, overly rigid hierarchy becomes the very obstacle to stop digital flow and stifle innovation.To be a highly functional system, hierarchy must balance the welfare, freedoms, and responsibilities of the subsystems and total system, there must be enough central control to achieve coordination toward the large-system goals, and enough autonomy to keep all subsystems flourishing, functioning, and self-organizing.
The onion-like organizational layer is different from command-control type hierarchy. Every system is a subsystem of a larger system and simultaneously it is always build up by subsystems. Some organizations leverage systems principles to introduce a different concepts of hierarchy, in which systems evolve and interlink to create larger systems, within even larger systems, and so on, and these systems of systems can forge or alter a myriad of relationships/alliances. In this scenario, the hierarchy can be viewed as onion-like layers rather than the command and control hierarchy, though this is not to say they must be mutually exclusive. "Keep an open mind" to enable exploration of new possibilities, because the best system solution is one that responds perfectly to its environmental circumstances.
Hierarchy shouldn’t stop digital flow and stifle innovation: On reflection, it is possible through highlighting system successes and failures to argue when hierarchies have contributed to both outcomes, and normally digresses thereafter into blame or claim games. The most common anecdote is how managers/leaders tend to restructure if they sense things are becoming dysfunctional, and often with mixed results, but at least they are "seen to be doing something"....Do ALL systems require hierarchy? it depends on your intent and stated purpose. There are systems with limited purposes and needs and don't need any hierarchy definition. Although in certain circumstances hierarchy performs well, but often the symptoms such as silo thinking or bureaucracy caused by rigid hierarchy fail organizations to achieve the next level of agility, or make the solution less optimal and sometimes a burden.
Every system has its position in the hierarchy of systems. However, system hierarchy is different from command control hierarchy. The highly complex and dynamic system needs to be elaborated in a well-organized effort. The goal is to make hierarchical systems adaptive so that they can respond to the challenges of a more complex, interconnected, and interdependent world.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Five Aspects in Digital Strategy
Strategy agility is the characteristic of digital strategy-execution continuum.
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.
The digital strategy has to be top driven. C levels have to lead the effort by convincing the shareholders and middle business management about the core direction. IT often plays a pivotal role in leading digital transformation at many forward-thinking organizations today, so CIO can define IT strategy which is an integral component of corporate level digital strategy, and plan the step-wise implementation. It’s also important in describing the psychological and organizational factors that get in the way of understanding the critical dimension of true 'digital strategy' that is about disrupting the conventional ways of creating value within established markets. So rather than how do you use information and technology to 'organically' make things better, 'digital strategic' thinking is more about how do you use it to CHANGE the game!
Digital strategy is a type of business strategy, enabled by information and technology. So once that is understood it is always going to be driven top down, whether a digital strategy has to incorporate disruption. A valid strategy that has existed for some time is a 'second mover,' in which a company validates the viability of a new, possibly even disruptive technology before employing it themselves. Although failures in some percentage of new technology-enabled business models are guaranteed and sometimes, waiting for a little maturity can put later adopters on a preferable learning/cost curve.
Building organizational capability as a preparatory step in implementing a digital strategy. There may be many elements of digital infrastructure that are foundational to almost any foreseeable digital strategy so implementing them could be viewed as a valid preparatory first step in readiness for a strategic opportunity when it is recognized. So a company must have a working group encompassing all of the relevant disciplines in place and actively monitoring opportunities in order to recognize and act on them in a time frame that will yield strategic advantage. For example, it includes establishing a data analytics capability, or organizational change capability, etc. In any case to monitor or seek disruptive opportunities requires businesses’ transformational capability with agility to adapt to changes. The corollary perhaps is that without such a mechanism, 'digital strategy' typically ends up as business as usual, IT related evolution with a fancy new title.
It’s a balancing act to make effective digital investment decisions. A key question is how much to anticipate disruptive digital business strategy by investing in information technology without either constraining the thinking and ability to pivot, which investment will tend to do, or wasting that investment, when the game changes. Building flexibility, agility, sustainability and performance into applications and systems infrastructure is expensive. Building reusability into components is, likewise, expensive. The offsetting benefits for these incremental investments come only when planned-for scenarios are realized and the capabilities in which you invested get you to a desirable state more quickly, at lower cost and with less disruption than you might have otherwise. If the world doesn't cooperate or you've missed the boat on events, you may have made an unnecessarily large investment and get nothing in return. It's a balancing act. It always was and always will be.
Embracing the startup culture to move new ideas forward rapidly. Every company has to decide what strategic framework to employ and architect the enterprise, its processes and infrastructure consistent with the plan they derive from it. The collaborative and challenging nature of this always has to come back to adding value to the business and engaging with people. The emphasis is on why companies focus on digital evolution, perhaps, digitally-enabled extensions of existing operational capabilities vs. disruption tear up the road map. For an existing organization to successfully progress almost any kind of discontinuous, or indeed the truly innovative strategy, it somehow needs to embed a start-up culture. This can and has been achieved by establishing a kind of less hierarchical organization that is able to field and move new ideas forward rapidly without the kind of psychological and process barriers.
Strategy agility is the characteristic of digital strategy-execution continuum. The stepwise scenario includes: creating the strategy, aligning all your companies’ assets toward common objectives. The next step is defining intermediate goals that work towards achieving those objectives. Working backward from the end state, taking each objective or goal and breaking it down into incremental and achievable short, mid, and long-term goals, is important to the strategy implementation. Digital strategy is dynamic, emergent and convergent with corporate strategy to focus on radical digital transformation and radical innovation.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
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.
The digital strategy has to be top driven. C levels have to lead the effort by convincing the shareholders and middle business management about the core direction. IT often plays a pivotal role in leading digital transformation at many forward-thinking organizations today, so CIO can define IT strategy which is an integral component of corporate level digital strategy, and plan the step-wise implementation. It’s also important in describing the psychological and organizational factors that get in the way of understanding the critical dimension of true 'digital strategy' that is about disrupting the conventional ways of creating value within established markets. So rather than how do you use information and technology to 'organically' make things better, 'digital strategic' thinking is more about how do you use it to CHANGE the game!
Digital strategy is a type of business strategy, enabled by information and technology. So once that is understood it is always going to be driven top down, whether a digital strategy has to incorporate disruption. A valid strategy that has existed for some time is a 'second mover,' in which a company validates the viability of a new, possibly even disruptive technology before employing it themselves. Although failures in some percentage of new technology-enabled business models are guaranteed and sometimes, waiting for a little maturity can put later adopters on a preferable learning/cost curve.
Building organizational capability as a preparatory step in implementing a digital strategy. There may be many elements of digital infrastructure that are foundational to almost any foreseeable digital strategy so implementing them could be viewed as a valid preparatory first step in readiness for a strategic opportunity when it is recognized. So a company must have a working group encompassing all of the relevant disciplines in place and actively monitoring opportunities in order to recognize and act on them in a time frame that will yield strategic advantage. For example, it includes establishing a data analytics capability, or organizational change capability, etc. In any case to monitor or seek disruptive opportunities requires businesses’ transformational capability with agility to adapt to changes. The corollary perhaps is that without such a mechanism, 'digital strategy' typically ends up as business as usual, IT related evolution with a fancy new title.
It’s a balancing act to make effective digital investment decisions. A key question is how much to anticipate disruptive digital business strategy by investing in information technology without either constraining the thinking and ability to pivot, which investment will tend to do, or wasting that investment, when the game changes. Building flexibility, agility, sustainability and performance into applications and systems infrastructure is expensive. Building reusability into components is, likewise, expensive. The offsetting benefits for these incremental investments come only when planned-for scenarios are realized and the capabilities in which you invested get you to a desirable state more quickly, at lower cost and with less disruption than you might have otherwise. If the world doesn't cooperate or you've missed the boat on events, you may have made an unnecessarily large investment and get nothing in return. It's a balancing act. It always was and always will be.
Embracing the startup culture to move new ideas forward rapidly. Every company has to decide what strategic framework to employ and architect the enterprise, its processes and infrastructure consistent with the plan they derive from it. The collaborative and challenging nature of this always has to come back to adding value to the business and engaging with people. The emphasis is on why companies focus on digital evolution, perhaps, digitally-enabled extensions of existing operational capabilities vs. disruption tear up the road map. For an existing organization to successfully progress almost any kind of discontinuous, or indeed the truly innovative strategy, it somehow needs to embed a start-up culture. This can and has been achieved by establishing a kind of less hierarchical organization that is able to field and move new ideas forward rapidly without the kind of psychological and process barriers.
Strategy agility is the characteristic of digital strategy-execution continuum. The stepwise scenario includes: creating the strategy, aligning all your companies’ assets toward common objectives. The next step is defining intermediate goals that work towards achieving those objectives. Working backward from the end state, taking each objective or goal and breaking it down into incremental and achievable short, mid, and long-term goals, is important to the strategy implementation. Digital strategy is dynamic, emergent and convergent with corporate strategy to focus on radical digital transformation and radical innovation.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
October 10, 2015
The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 10/9/2015
Leadership without influence, just like the air without oxygen!
The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with about #2235th 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 10/9/2015The Three “I”s in Digital IT: Nowadays, information is the lifeblood of organizations, and technology is often the innovation disruptor. Information technology should be seen by any business as a “digital transformer” and strategy enabler.
How to Take Long Term View to Drive Workforce Performance: Performance Management is a significant management discipline in the business system. It’s the management practice that does not have hard coded programming like other business systems but directly drives corporate mindset, attitude, and behavior.
The Ultimate Goal of Agile Transformation: Many forward-thinking organizations are scaling their Agile practices from doing Agile to being Agile, what’s the business value in being agile though? And what are the well-defined goals of Agile transformation? From doing Agile to being agile, what are the principles, practices, and crucial steps in managing such transformation?
Can you Impose a Culture of Innovation: Culture is better defined by the "collective mindsets, attitudes, and behaviors of people in an organization.” There is no question that culture can make or break an organization. Nowadays, innovation becomes an important ingredient in business strategy, but how to cultivate the culture of innovation is perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing business leaders today.
Digital CIO: Rise for Change: In the industrial age, CIOs are the second class executive who often does not have a seat at the big table to make strategy, and who spends most of time and resource on “keeping the light on.” However, digital means the increasing speed of changes, data abundance, and hyperconnectivity, technology is often the very disrupter of innovation, and information is the lifeblood of organizations, many forward-thinking organizations empower their CIOs to be the frontrunner digital transformer, recognize CIOs as communication hub and change agent due to the unique position they hold to oversight business processes, and interweave business capabilities, so are CIOs ready to rise for CHANGES?
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 #2235th 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 10/9/2015The Three “I”s in Digital IT: Nowadays, information is the lifeblood of organizations, and technology is often the innovation disruptor. Information technology should be seen by any business as a “digital transformer” and strategy enabler.
How to Take Long Term View to Drive Workforce Performance: Performance Management is a significant management discipline in the business system. It’s the management practice that does not have hard coded programming like other business systems but directly drives corporate mindset, attitude, and behavior.
The Ultimate Goal of Agile Transformation: Many forward-thinking organizations are scaling their Agile practices from doing Agile to being Agile, what’s the business value in being agile though? And what are the well-defined goals of Agile transformation? From doing Agile to being agile, what are the principles, practices, and crucial steps in managing such transformation?
Can you Impose a Culture of Innovation: Culture is better defined by the "collective mindsets, attitudes, and behaviors of people in an organization.” There is no question that culture can make or break an organization. Nowadays, innovation becomes an important ingredient in business strategy, but how to cultivate the culture of innovation is perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing business leaders today. Digital CIO: Rise for Change: In the industrial age, CIOs are the second class executive who often does not have a seat at the big table to make strategy, and who spends most of time and resource on “keeping the light on.” However, digital means the increasing speed of changes, data abundance, and hyperconnectivity, technology is often the very disrupter of innovation, and information is the lifeblood of organizations, many forward-thinking organizations empower their CIOs to be the frontrunner digital transformer, recognize CIOs as communication hub and change agent due to the unique position they hold to oversight business processes, and interweave business capabilities, so are CIOs ready to rise for CHANGES?
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
How to Improve the Effectiveness of Strategy Execution
The most efficient way to make sure both design and execution stay aligned is to integrate the expectations of critical internal stakeholders into the design.
The word "strategy" is pretty amorphous with so many individual interpretations and nuances of its meaning that conversations about it often go astray amidst a blizzard of the latest buzzwords. To make it worse, more than 70% of strategy fails in execution. It is about many different matters like resistance to change, silos or units with competing agendas, lack of clear and decisive leadership, leadership actions inconsistent with strategy, poor communication of strategy, lack of accountability on follow-through; inability to measure impact, too focused on short-term results, and maybe the most popular and big obstacle: making it meaningful to frontiers, translating strategy to execution, aligning jobs to strategy. So how to improve strategy execution effectiveness?
Outline benefits: A strategy for business change should outline the anticipated benefits - with the benefits being delivered and executed via programs and projects. When we use word “strategy,” it must have long term objective, company level implications and deals with business eco-system. If the plan does not involve any one of these, then it is just a business plan – not a “strategy.” Further, one should call a plan or a course of action to have pre-defined result only when “strategic people” are involved. “Strategic people” means who have decision-making authority or who can veto a decision. If the key strategic benefits have not all been delivered, and the strategy has been properly designed with adequate buy-in, then something has gone wrong with the program design and/or program and project level benefit realization. Or reorient a badly planned strategy that overlooks the expectations of the executive ranks tends to fail if the executives have no incentives, or bad incentives to engage in organizational success. They turn to themselves, collect short-term profits and leave. That can be easily avoided by taking in consideration those expectations in first place. If executive ranks feel engaged, they will align their individual priorities with those of the designed strategy and push for its success.
The significance of design: The most efficient way to make sure both design and execution stay aligned is to integrate the expectations of critical internal stakeholders into the design. If your strategy is designed with these expectations in mind, execution will succeed. Gaps are created when strategies are misaligned with the expectations of the implementation team. This requires an internal branding component of the initial strategy to be attached. The whole concept of design of strategy includes the expectations of the line managers as well as anticipation of execution issues. Hence, the design of strategy is definitely important. A lousy strategy remains lousy even when implemented. Hence the significance of design, which decides whether you can be on a path of mediocrity or greatness. Define the strategy through wide participatory processes greatly increases the likelihood that the defined strategy is implemented. The strategy is a living document that should be amended by changes in the business directions, market conditions, unforeseen events and from current and past execution learning. Implementation is about the realization of such a concept or plan. It is all about an integrated system approach and every step is essential in reaching a specific outcome, and it is not about what is more important but rather about the whole thing and the result.
Internal capacity: What is missing is the internal capacity to understand strategy to the extent that the management and executive teams can participate actively in strategy development and honestly drive implementation. Sometimes strategy makers spend more time designing the content of strategies than thinking how to implement them successfully. In other words lack of accountabilities, lack of decision rights and inter & intra-divisional tensions. They have to drive implementation, otherwise the emergent strategies will continue to be the other of the day and nobody is adequately prepared to function well in this reactive mode. Hence, planning the strategy execution during the design stage in detail is very critical. It is clear that in many cases, often the strategy that is eventually realized, in many cases, differs from the original plan.
Change Management: Strategy implementation is a change management problem. Many executives who don't understand change management or the maths behind it, believe they can 'execute Strategy' by just telling their team to 'get on with it,' and when that fails they then remove the 'poor managers who didn't deliver' when the fault lies solely with themselves.The success in executing a strategy depends on the kind of inputs, data, information, management assumptions that go into strategy formulation. So, what is more, important and relevant is process, ingredients and people involved in formulating the strategy. Detailed time planning of all tasks associated with strategy execution in relation to the strategy formulated; flexibility in the execution plan, so that the change in results of individual steps can be accommodated to plan subsequent tasks. Management should, however, be prepared to consider changes along the way, given the current rate of change that exists.
Path-finding: Obviously, when it comes to the doing of Strategic Planning, there needs to be a process for effectively uncovering what this strategy might be before any planning might take place. At a high level, this could involve creating a framework for understanding the organization's core capabilities more effectively or perhaps a mechanism for generating a survey which can identify employee expectations for the company. In short, you can't just 'design' a strategy, you need to think about how you're designing it. All strategies are intents. Some of them become actionable with plans. Many plans lose viability during their expected window of opportunity. Modifying a plan does not necessarily change the strategy, but it may mean that the strategy has to be re-implemented. Execution (or implementation if you will) is always more important than design in a VUCA world. Yet the act of planning (or design) is important as a way of gaining shared intents, Strategy design is not just, about defining what is our goal, but it is the path, to the achievement of the goal. Whereas, in strategy design, most often elaborations are put on what is the strategic goal, what are the key success parameters of that strategy and not how to reach those goals. The path is left for the executors to find themselves and succeed.
Setting metrics: On the strategy execution side, there are a few areas in implementation. Firstly, the organization needs to think about what metrics and KPIs could be used to communicate the strategy to the business. Metrics and KPIs will be different for each function/business unit dependent upon what role they play in executing the overall strategy. And then the dashboards of these metrics need to be regularly discussed in executive meetings to discuss progress/whether resources could be reallocated to the most important initiatives if others are falling short. it all depends on how often the business shifts directions. Implementation" of a strategy is 90% about initiating and managing necessary changes from the current state to both the strategic positions and designated action capability at the positions.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way, however, it can be managed well: From effective leadership to execution culture; from proactive planning to rigorous processes; from measures to balanced scorecards; the super execution is the result of synchronization of all key business factors; organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The word "strategy" is pretty amorphous with so many individual interpretations and nuances of its meaning that conversations about it often go astray amidst a blizzard of the latest buzzwords. To make it worse, more than 70% of strategy fails in execution. It is about many different matters like resistance to change, silos or units with competing agendas, lack of clear and decisive leadership, leadership actions inconsistent with strategy, poor communication of strategy, lack of accountability on follow-through; inability to measure impact, too focused on short-term results, and maybe the most popular and big obstacle: making it meaningful to frontiers, translating strategy to execution, aligning jobs to strategy. So how to improve strategy execution effectiveness?
Outline benefits: A strategy for business change should outline the anticipated benefits - with the benefits being delivered and executed via programs and projects. When we use word “strategy,” it must have long term objective, company level implications and deals with business eco-system. If the plan does not involve any one of these, then it is just a business plan – not a “strategy.” Further, one should call a plan or a course of action to have pre-defined result only when “strategic people” are involved. “Strategic people” means who have decision-making authority or who can veto a decision. If the key strategic benefits have not all been delivered, and the strategy has been properly designed with adequate buy-in, then something has gone wrong with the program design and/or program and project level benefit realization. Or reorient a badly planned strategy that overlooks the expectations of the executive ranks tends to fail if the executives have no incentives, or bad incentives to engage in organizational success. They turn to themselves, collect short-term profits and leave. That can be easily avoided by taking in consideration those expectations in first place. If executive ranks feel engaged, they will align their individual priorities with those of the designed strategy and push for its success.
The significance of design: The most efficient way to make sure both design and execution stay aligned is to integrate the expectations of critical internal stakeholders into the design. If your strategy is designed with these expectations in mind, execution will succeed. Gaps are created when strategies are misaligned with the expectations of the implementation team. This requires an internal branding component of the initial strategy to be attached. The whole concept of design of strategy includes the expectations of the line managers as well as anticipation of execution issues. Hence, the design of strategy is definitely important. A lousy strategy remains lousy even when implemented. Hence the significance of design, which decides whether you can be on a path of mediocrity or greatness. Define the strategy through wide participatory processes greatly increases the likelihood that the defined strategy is implemented. The strategy is a living document that should be amended by changes in the business directions, market conditions, unforeseen events and from current and past execution learning. Implementation is about the realization of such a concept or plan. It is all about an integrated system approach and every step is essential in reaching a specific outcome, and it is not about what is more important but rather about the whole thing and the result.
Internal capacity: What is missing is the internal capacity to understand strategy to the extent that the management and executive teams can participate actively in strategy development and honestly drive implementation. Sometimes strategy makers spend more time designing the content of strategies than thinking how to implement them successfully. In other words lack of accountabilities, lack of decision rights and inter & intra-divisional tensions. They have to drive implementation, otherwise the emergent strategies will continue to be the other of the day and nobody is adequately prepared to function well in this reactive mode. Hence, planning the strategy execution during the design stage in detail is very critical. It is clear that in many cases, often the strategy that is eventually realized, in many cases, differs from the original plan.
Change Management: Strategy implementation is a change management problem. Many executives who don't understand change management or the maths behind it, believe they can 'execute Strategy' by just telling their team to 'get on with it,' and when that fails they then remove the 'poor managers who didn't deliver' when the fault lies solely with themselves.The success in executing a strategy depends on the kind of inputs, data, information, management assumptions that go into strategy formulation. So, what is more, important and relevant is process, ingredients and people involved in formulating the strategy. Detailed time planning of all tasks associated with strategy execution in relation to the strategy formulated; flexibility in the execution plan, so that the change in results of individual steps can be accommodated to plan subsequent tasks. Management should, however, be prepared to consider changes along the way, given the current rate of change that exists.
Path-finding: Obviously, when it comes to the doing of Strategic Planning, there needs to be a process for effectively uncovering what this strategy might be before any planning might take place. At a high level, this could involve creating a framework for understanding the organization's core capabilities more effectively or perhaps a mechanism for generating a survey which can identify employee expectations for the company. In short, you can't just 'design' a strategy, you need to think about how you're designing it. All strategies are intents. Some of them become actionable with plans. Many plans lose viability during their expected window of opportunity. Modifying a plan does not necessarily change the strategy, but it may mean that the strategy has to be re-implemented. Execution (or implementation if you will) is always more important than design in a VUCA world. Yet the act of planning (or design) is important as a way of gaining shared intents, Strategy design is not just, about defining what is our goal, but it is the path, to the achievement of the goal. Whereas, in strategy design, most often elaborations are put on what is the strategic goal, what are the key success parameters of that strategy and not how to reach those goals. The path is left for the executors to find themselves and succeed.
Setting metrics: On the strategy execution side, there are a few areas in implementation. Firstly, the organization needs to think about what metrics and KPIs could be used to communicate the strategy to the business. Metrics and KPIs will be different for each function/business unit dependent upon what role they play in executing the overall strategy. And then the dashboards of these metrics need to be regularly discussed in executive meetings to discuss progress/whether resources could be reallocated to the most important initiatives if others are falling short. it all depends on how often the business shifts directions. Implementation" of a strategy is 90% about initiating and managing necessary changes from the current state to both the strategic positions and designated action capability at the positions.
Strategy execution is difficult, there are many roadblocks on the way, however, it can be managed well: From effective leadership to execution culture; from proactive planning to rigorous processes; from measures to balanced scorecards; the super execution is the result of synchronization of all key business factors; organizational agility, intelligence, strong disciplines and management practices.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
