Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1406
September 13, 2015
A Leadership Journey from Good to Great
The substance of leadership never changes, it’s all about making the positive influence, and providing direction, both for oneself and others.
The reason the great leadership being so rare is that people are more often conditioned throughout education to be followers, to conform, only one right answer, etc. The industrial age required followers, those, including some being put in a leadership position, that would just do their jobs and not to question. However, we are not in the industrial age any longer. On one hand, now at digital age, there are many informal leaders - who practice professional influence via digital channels - throughout organizations, industry and beyond. More digital leaders are emerging via their power of positive influence; not the title of status quo. On the other hand, digital also raises the bar to be a great leader, because everything becomes so transparent, leadership is no longer just about a few spotlight moments, but a continuous learning and delivery; leadership is also no long only about what you talk, what you act, but about what you think - the thought processes can be much easily tracked down via your digital footprint, so how can you take an ongoing leadership journey from good to great?
The leader is both born and taught. Leadership is about Character. Natural leaders are those who carry themselves with an air of confidence and direction. It is the level of consciousness of the leader, or, the level of self-development in regards to the ability to embody the human experience. The great leadership is only achieved once a leader has fully integrated themselves via deep introspective work and has the willingness to do this. In fact, in this regard, the first sign that you have a great leader on your hands is the very willingness to look within, integrate the emotional body, and expand the consciousness. Until this happens all else pales in comparison.
A great leader is a visionary: Leadership is one's ability to paint a vivid picture, a vision of a future state and motivate others to achieve it. There are too many transactional managers who overly focus on short-term thinking due to the pressure of stakeholder, risk aversion, or ineffective strategy. Despite our present condition and realities, we must never abandon the hope that generations to come will view things differently and breathe new life into an old and dysfunctional system. The level of thinking that creates a problem cannot possibly solve the problem. Thus, the ability to transcend the small thinking mind becomes of paramount importance. From this vantage point, integration of the psyche can occur and the leader who emerges from this vantage point has a more holistic view of the company as well as the Universe.
A great leader is transformational: A transformational leader is a person who is not afraid of doing what needs to be done for the good of the organization - in good and difficult times. A leader is someone that makes those around them better by engaging them in the overall mission of the department or group. Leading by example sets the tone for how people should handle their own critical tasks. Leading by example versus leading by title. For better or worse, leadership in business is a very complex subject which includes a myriad of hard business skills (executive, strategic planning, management, financial, functional, Sales, Marketing, IT etc.), along with the soft skills of leadership and interpersonal behaviors. Within each of the above-listed skills are many sub-skills that are included in the mix.
A great leader is not perfect, but progressive: One needs to build on their intellectual abilities through experience, training, and motivation to improve. Clearly we need to adjust to the situation in how we operate as leaders and followers while still being true to our character. One's EQ becomes important when dealing with difficult matters that challenge how we act. It requires anger management to begin with, plus self-discipline regardless of external factors: which can be gained throughout the years, and the expertise on daily basis has become our part of strength, consequently character trait; starting from a place of humility is key. Any leader who is willing to admit "I've made mistakes in the past," or "I'm still learning how to do this better" is going to be approachable and set the right example for others to follow. And most people are looking for a great leader who makes progress, rather than perfection.
A great leader is also a great coach: Someone who supports you, challenges you, does not judge when you make mistakes, expects you to learn from those mistakes, he or she is a mentor and has realistic expectations. A leader's job is to remove obstacles, whatever that takes. So I'd define it as "Someone adept and adroit at removing obstacles." So the role of a leader is to create conditions that encourage and enable others to dedicate their collective intelligence, talent, and full energy to achieve extraordinary results. Leaders are sure enough in themselves to know what they don't know and trust their own judgment of others to empower those around them to make an organization successful. Leaders thrive on the success of their subordinates as much as their own and see mentoring as a privilege, not a task to be endured. Leaders are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. Leaders understand what failure is, but another step in attaining success and never punish those who fail. Leaders understand that bad news does not improve with age and don't hesitate to share it with their leadership.
The substance of leadership never changes, it’s all about making the positive influence, and providing direction, both for oneself and others. However, transforming leadership from good to great is a journey, the challenge is that what is often needed is a 'wake up call' to that leader. That wake-up call can come in many forms, one of which we know is a crisis -that is the hard lessons, and that's the ones we don't want, but it’s the trial to test leadership authenticity; and there were those inevitable moments when leaders faced open resistance. It was in these moments that you built up the skill to understand that what was needed in some situations was a combination of stick and carrot: never one without the other. Still, the high mature leadership shall evoke the positive emotions in order to make change sustainable and lead business transformation more effectively for the long term.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The reason the great leadership being so rare is that people are more often conditioned throughout education to be followers, to conform, only one right answer, etc. The industrial age required followers, those, including some being put in a leadership position, that would just do their jobs and not to question. However, we are not in the industrial age any longer. On one hand, now at digital age, there are many informal leaders - who practice professional influence via digital channels - throughout organizations, industry and beyond. More digital leaders are emerging via their power of positive influence; not the title of status quo. On the other hand, digital also raises the bar to be a great leader, because everything becomes so transparent, leadership is no longer just about a few spotlight moments, but a continuous learning and delivery; leadership is also no long only about what you talk, what you act, but about what you think - the thought processes can be much easily tracked down via your digital footprint, so how can you take an ongoing leadership journey from good to great?
The leader is both born and taught. Leadership is about Character. Natural leaders are those who carry themselves with an air of confidence and direction. It is the level of consciousness of the leader, or, the level of self-development in regards to the ability to embody the human experience. The great leadership is only achieved once a leader has fully integrated themselves via deep introspective work and has the willingness to do this. In fact, in this regard, the first sign that you have a great leader on your hands is the very willingness to look within, integrate the emotional body, and expand the consciousness. Until this happens all else pales in comparison.
A great leader is a visionary: Leadership is one's ability to paint a vivid picture, a vision of a future state and motivate others to achieve it. There are too many transactional managers who overly focus on short-term thinking due to the pressure of stakeholder, risk aversion, or ineffective strategy. Despite our present condition and realities, we must never abandon the hope that generations to come will view things differently and breathe new life into an old and dysfunctional system. The level of thinking that creates a problem cannot possibly solve the problem. Thus, the ability to transcend the small thinking mind becomes of paramount importance. From this vantage point, integration of the psyche can occur and the leader who emerges from this vantage point has a more holistic view of the company as well as the Universe.
A great leader is transformational: A transformational leader is a person who is not afraid of doing what needs to be done for the good of the organization - in good and difficult times. A leader is someone that makes those around them better by engaging them in the overall mission of the department or group. Leading by example sets the tone for how people should handle their own critical tasks. Leading by example versus leading by title. For better or worse, leadership in business is a very complex subject which includes a myriad of hard business skills (executive, strategic planning, management, financial, functional, Sales, Marketing, IT etc.), along with the soft skills of leadership and interpersonal behaviors. Within each of the above-listed skills are many sub-skills that are included in the mix.
A great leader is not perfect, but progressive: One needs to build on their intellectual abilities through experience, training, and motivation to improve. Clearly we need to adjust to the situation in how we operate as leaders and followers while still being true to our character. One's EQ becomes important when dealing with difficult matters that challenge how we act. It requires anger management to begin with, plus self-discipline regardless of external factors: which can be gained throughout the years, and the expertise on daily basis has become our part of strength, consequently character trait; starting from a place of humility is key. Any leader who is willing to admit "I've made mistakes in the past," or "I'm still learning how to do this better" is going to be approachable and set the right example for others to follow. And most people are looking for a great leader who makes progress, rather than perfection.
A great leader is also a great coach: Someone who supports you, challenges you, does not judge when you make mistakes, expects you to learn from those mistakes, he or she is a mentor and has realistic expectations. A leader's job is to remove obstacles, whatever that takes. So I'd define it as "Someone adept and adroit at removing obstacles." So the role of a leader is to create conditions that encourage and enable others to dedicate their collective intelligence, talent, and full energy to achieve extraordinary results. Leaders are sure enough in themselves to know what they don't know and trust their own judgment of others to empower those around them to make an organization successful. Leaders thrive on the success of their subordinates as much as their own and see mentoring as a privilege, not a task to be endured. Leaders are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. Leaders understand what failure is, but another step in attaining success and never punish those who fail. Leaders understand that bad news does not improve with age and don't hesitate to share it with their leadership.
The substance of leadership never changes, it’s all about making the positive influence, and providing direction, both for oneself and others. However, transforming leadership from good to great is a journey, the challenge is that what is often needed is a 'wake up call' to that leader. That wake-up call can come in many forms, one of which we know is a crisis -that is the hard lessons, and that's the ones we don't want, but it’s the trial to test leadership authenticity; and there were those inevitable moments when leaders faced open resistance. It was in these moments that you built up the skill to understand that what was needed in some situations was a combination of stick and carrot: never one without the other. Still, the high mature leadership shall evoke the positive emotions in order to make change sustainable and lead business transformation more effectively for the long term.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
September 12, 2015
What is your Aura
When we find calm inside, we sense the aura outside too.
"Aura" is a circle or an outline of energy around us. Aura is the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place. Aura can be perceived by those who have extra sensing power and can perceive higher vibrations." (dicionary.com)
All is energy. The unit of energy as it grows in size gradually differentiates itself into three parts that are the Aura, the Mind, and the Subconscious. The Aura is the energy bag that surrounds the whole body of the individual, and it is the seat of all emotions. It is connected on one side to the Super Conscious and on another side to the mind which envelops the brain and connects with it through electrical impulses. The Mind is the seat of consciousness and it sends out a network of energy into every cell of the body without which the body cannot function. This network of conscious energy is termed as the Subconscious and is the storehouse of inherent traits of good and evil emotions which was present in the original unit of energy which combined with matter to create the life-form. The Subconscious is also the storehouse of all talents developed and lessons learned by the individual from previous reincarnations.
When we find calm inside, we sense the aura outside too. We feel we create a kind of vibration around us. That enthusiasm, energy, optimism, and love oozes out our bodies. It’s starting point of experience is from within. There is a natural aura of Nature abundantly outside for all of us, we, however, can experience it, only if we really feel so, have such a touch within us. People with great auras can attract others to them since most have wisdom, power and love exuding from their energetic bodies. Humility coupled with supreme confidence is the rich "AURA" factor indicator. There is also another aspect of the auric field: the COLOR. The thought forms being given out by a personality are reflected in shapes and colors and that is all within their aura as well. People who can see auras can sense a person's nature or where they are coming from by the colors surrounding them.
Your belief is your aura! Not imagination. Your self-confidence, bravery, commitment, and determination etc, all form as an aura around you when you strongly believe in your strengths. The more worry about our weaknesses turns as a negative aura! Belief is the aura! In a group where leadership is involved, most likely the person who can recognize that quality of leadership within, or has the will and desire to be a leader, will be the ones who lead. Confidence can expand the ability of a person to lead a group. Could that be the aura of leadership.
"When Your Energy vibrates at a frequency that is in direct alignment with what the universe has been attempting to deliver your entire life, you begin to live in the flow and true miracles start to happen." - Panache Desai
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
"Aura" is a circle or an outline of energy around us. Aura is the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place. Aura can be perceived by those who have extra sensing power and can perceive higher vibrations." (dicionary.com)
All is energy. The unit of energy as it grows in size gradually differentiates itself into three parts that are the Aura, the Mind, and the Subconscious. The Aura is the energy bag that surrounds the whole body of the individual, and it is the seat of all emotions. It is connected on one side to the Super Conscious and on another side to the mind which envelops the brain and connects with it through electrical impulses. The Mind is the seat of consciousness and it sends out a network of energy into every cell of the body without which the body cannot function. This network of conscious energy is termed as the Subconscious and is the storehouse of inherent traits of good and evil emotions which was present in the original unit of energy which combined with matter to create the life-form. The Subconscious is also the storehouse of all talents developed and lessons learned by the individual from previous reincarnations.
When we find calm inside, we sense the aura outside too. We feel we create a kind of vibration around us. That enthusiasm, energy, optimism, and love oozes out our bodies. It’s starting point of experience is from within. There is a natural aura of Nature abundantly outside for all of us, we, however, can experience it, only if we really feel so, have such a touch within us. People with great auras can attract others to them since most have wisdom, power and love exuding from their energetic bodies. Humility coupled with supreme confidence is the rich "AURA" factor indicator. There is also another aspect of the auric field: the COLOR. The thought forms being given out by a personality are reflected in shapes and colors and that is all within their aura as well. People who can see auras can sense a person's nature or where they are coming from by the colors surrounding them.
Your belief is your aura! Not imagination. Your self-confidence, bravery, commitment, and determination etc, all form as an aura around you when you strongly believe in your strengths. The more worry about our weaknesses turns as a negative aura! Belief is the aura! In a group where leadership is involved, most likely the person who can recognize that quality of leadership within, or has the will and desire to be a leader, will be the ones who lead. Confidence can expand the ability of a person to lead a group. Could that be the aura of leadership.
"When Your Energy vibrates at a frequency that is in direct alignment with what the universe has been attempting to deliver your entire life, you begin to live in the flow and true miracles start to happen." - Panache Desai
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Working Hard and Working Smart Need to Go Hand-in-Hand
You must be clear on balancing the "Thinking & Doing" to improve Quality, Creativity, and Productivity, etc.
Today’s business world is fast-paced and hyper-competitive, many business professionals keep their hands full all the times. Overall speaking, hard work is a good attitude, however, keeping “busyness” doesn’t mean one should just do what is being told without thinking; or take actions without a strategy. And to some extent, we do need to discover "who we are," too. The dreams you intend to realize, the mindset you are equipped with, and the attitude you need to achieve the goals. Or to put simply, working hard and working smart need to go hand-in-hand.
Work hard and work smarter need to go hand in hand. The key of hard work is to be sure you are working hard on those things that matter and not work hard on those things that don't - the key to hard work is setting the right priorities and expectations and sticking with that philosophy. Working Hard is really working smarter, with the right mindset and attitude! In today's workforce demographics (Boomer, Gen X, Y and Millennial's), you must be clear on balancing the "Thinking & Doing" to improve Quality, Creativity, and Productivity, etc., along with the "Work Experience" that your associates want to and expect to have as part of their experience in your organization. The latter can also be represented in the "learning moments" that they hope to glean as part of their experience in a company. Lastly, the effort or work professionalism are needed to be best awarded when there is a line of sight to shape a high-performing culture and achieve a particular business outcome.
Hard work is very important, but do not be a busy fool. There is a very clear difference. Having a strategy that is reviewed regularly is very important because it provides clear direction. Hard work is relative, but what is important is to well manage the plan, effort, and time. With the right amount and type of effort applied strategically with good timing, you will dribble your way to achieving your ultimate goals. You need to keep your hands on the wheel, eyes opened, and ears to the ground. From a business perspective, if your enterprise is not going the way it should be going, trying harder is not the solution. A lot of the time particularly in the early stages of a company's life cycle, the customers will almost be the driving force. As you grow, it will be vital to obtain a good spread of clients and to also try to obtain a good balance between them driving you, and you providing a balanced but professional service. This will only occur when you have a good quantum of clients. Changing something is closer to the solution, if you know how to find what to change, you must work hard on those things that matter. You must define your vision, mission and objectives in any business undertaking, and then pursue them vigorously with your strategies. You must break your mission into specific and concrete objectives. If you fail, try to fail forward and not lose hope. Let your failure be an experience that will give you a leap for success. Sometimes doing nothing can be much more productive than working hard towards an indeterminable goal. The hard work can bring success, but it will never be the only criteria for achieving success.
While hard work is one of the key ingredients in the recipe of success, it is not the guarantee in itself. There are other overriding criteria or twists that will decide the outcome. People like those who go extra mile to solve the problems. most of us have periods of our day when we are passionate, highly motivated and eager to do something that does not require we work hard, be held accountable or set goals and schedule time to make sure it gets done. It is the magic that flows from our natural motivations. It is so natural we sometimes do not ever realize that it is special. Let's take the time to discover when we are beginning to work hard what it is that is making it hard. Grinding through what is hard is most of the time not the best use of time, money and energy. Nevertheless, to achieve success both as an individual and an employee, it is important that you understand your work environment, understand what is required to be done, have the right resources; including the appropriate mindset, and channel your energy into what is expected of you. Hard work is required to eventually be successful.
Hard work is only one variable in the success equation, but it is one of the "controllable" variables. We are responsible for doing the best with what we have been given in life but, the BEST means a lot of things - the advanced mindset, the good strategy, the right attitude, and working hard & working smart need to go hand-in-hand in achieving the ultimate goals.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Today’s business world is fast-paced and hyper-competitive, many business professionals keep their hands full all the times. Overall speaking, hard work is a good attitude, however, keeping “busyness” doesn’t mean one should just do what is being told without thinking; or take actions without a strategy. And to some extent, we do need to discover "who we are," too. The dreams you intend to realize, the mindset you are equipped with, and the attitude you need to achieve the goals. Or to put simply, working hard and working smart need to go hand-in-hand.
Work hard and work smarter need to go hand in hand. The key of hard work is to be sure you are working hard on those things that matter and not work hard on those things that don't - the key to hard work is setting the right priorities and expectations and sticking with that philosophy. Working Hard is really working smarter, with the right mindset and attitude! In today's workforce demographics (Boomer, Gen X, Y and Millennial's), you must be clear on balancing the "Thinking & Doing" to improve Quality, Creativity, and Productivity, etc., along with the "Work Experience" that your associates want to and expect to have as part of their experience in your organization. The latter can also be represented in the "learning moments" that they hope to glean as part of their experience in a company. Lastly, the effort or work professionalism are needed to be best awarded when there is a line of sight to shape a high-performing culture and achieve a particular business outcome.
Hard work is very important, but do not be a busy fool. There is a very clear difference. Having a strategy that is reviewed regularly is very important because it provides clear direction. Hard work is relative, but what is important is to well manage the plan, effort, and time. With the right amount and type of effort applied strategically with good timing, you will dribble your way to achieving your ultimate goals. You need to keep your hands on the wheel, eyes opened, and ears to the ground. From a business perspective, if your enterprise is not going the way it should be going, trying harder is not the solution. A lot of the time particularly in the early stages of a company's life cycle, the customers will almost be the driving force. As you grow, it will be vital to obtain a good spread of clients and to also try to obtain a good balance between them driving you, and you providing a balanced but professional service. This will only occur when you have a good quantum of clients. Changing something is closer to the solution, if you know how to find what to change, you must work hard on those things that matter. You must define your vision, mission and objectives in any business undertaking, and then pursue them vigorously with your strategies. You must break your mission into specific and concrete objectives. If you fail, try to fail forward and not lose hope. Let your failure be an experience that will give you a leap for success. Sometimes doing nothing can be much more productive than working hard towards an indeterminable goal. The hard work can bring success, but it will never be the only criteria for achieving success.
While hard work is one of the key ingredients in the recipe of success, it is not the guarantee in itself. There are other overriding criteria or twists that will decide the outcome. People like those who go extra mile to solve the problems. most of us have periods of our day when we are passionate, highly motivated and eager to do something that does not require we work hard, be held accountable or set goals and schedule time to make sure it gets done. It is the magic that flows from our natural motivations. It is so natural we sometimes do not ever realize that it is special. Let's take the time to discover when we are beginning to work hard what it is that is making it hard. Grinding through what is hard is most of the time not the best use of time, money and energy. Nevertheless, to achieve success both as an individual and an employee, it is important that you understand your work environment, understand what is required to be done, have the right resources; including the appropriate mindset, and channel your energy into what is expected of you. Hard work is required to eventually be successful.
Hard work is only one variable in the success equation, but it is one of the "controllable" variables. We are responsible for doing the best with what we have been given in life but, the BEST means a lot of things - the advanced mindset, the good strategy, the right attitude, and working hard & working smart need to go hand-in-hand in achieving the ultimate goals.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
What’s the Big Shift Towards Systems Thinking
There's a big shift toward ST as being a complex adaptive system based on simple rules.
Systems Thinking is to understand the interconnectivity between parts and the whole. This wholeness comprises various media that are each functionally contrary to the unitive, fluid and seamless nature of the whole. Or to put simply, Systems Thinking is to see the trees without missing Forrest. But what are the emergent trends of Systems Thinking, and how to leverage Systems Thinking in strategy crafting and problem-solving?
There is a significant philosophical difference between different forms of Systems Thinking. The evidence of the evolution of Systems Thinking is more than an interdisciplinary activity, but a transdisciplinary one. Surely there has been an interest in connecting Systems Thinking to complexity and chaos theory and complex adaptive systems. Exactly what this looks like must surely be different depending on which type of Systems Thinking is being connected. Universality in ST means it cuts across multiple approaches and methods (the plurality of Systems Thinking methods). ST as Complexity Adaptive System means we can identify the simple rules that underlie all forms of Systems Thinking. From a personal perspective, there’s observable behavioral change in focus from 'better understanding of solutions' to 'better understanding of problems' in an attempt to address perceived increase in system complexity, a tangible recognition that success is a holistic endeavour that needs collaboration and continuous learning. There is a big increase in a cross-silo, cross-discipline, and continuous exploration.
The strongest trend of ST is in developing areas of application - taking some existing core approaches and applying those in new areas or to new problems. So a few examples include: the use of systems approaches in the evaluation of interventions, work on the use of systems approaches in complex projects. Most of the development work we do, follows that pattern, so building on "standard" systems approaches for specific areas of application: organizational change, strategic risk, performance management, complex projects, business ethics etc. “Hidden in the common sense or craft knowledge of the systems practitioner are ontological and epistemological presuppositions. In not exploring these, Systems Thinking has failed to take full advantage of opportunities to learn from practice and to develop as a discipline." - Quote.
There's a big shift toward ST as being a complex adaptive system based on simple rules. In some ways there appears to be a shift back towards engineering based forms of Systems Thinking (away from approaches more focused on the wider indirect sociological influences) - The shift appears in keeping with a wider ideological shift back towards faith in technology and its ability to solve all the world’s problems. Also, there's a significant shift involving universality where in the past the focus has been on pluralism.1). A shift from what a system IS to what it DOES to its context. 2). A shift from seeing a system as a set of interconnected components to seeing a system as a set of interwoven threads. It is in a systemic approach to strategy, which brings us back to the purpose. There is a tension relating to the fact that the system may be set up in a way which is supportive of the current purpose, or it may not. When we rethink the purpose, our understanding of the system is critical to our ability to reshape the system in order to fulfill that intention. It's sensible to set the definitional boundaries. Systems Thinkers should revisit the continued relevance and application of definitions, but see no need why the wheel must be reinvented in its entirety.
Systems Thinking is neither positive nor negative. Systems Thinking is more as a tool, not an object. If System Thinking is "effective," its effect can be positive or negative in any given value system. Whether that effect was intended might be a result of the System Thinker's ability, mind and attitude. With now many organizations are on the journey for digital transformation, the Systems Thinking progression is to be sensitive of the emergent trend, to keep balanced thinking, not via the stillness, but through the state of the flow with the harmony of interconnectivity and interdependence.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Systems Thinking is to understand the interconnectivity between parts and the whole. This wholeness comprises various media that are each functionally contrary to the unitive, fluid and seamless nature of the whole. Or to put simply, Systems Thinking is to see the trees without missing Forrest. But what are the emergent trends of Systems Thinking, and how to leverage Systems Thinking in strategy crafting and problem-solving?There is a significant philosophical difference between different forms of Systems Thinking. The evidence of the evolution of Systems Thinking is more than an interdisciplinary activity, but a transdisciplinary one. Surely there has been an interest in connecting Systems Thinking to complexity and chaos theory and complex adaptive systems. Exactly what this looks like must surely be different depending on which type of Systems Thinking is being connected. Universality in ST means it cuts across multiple approaches and methods (the plurality of Systems Thinking methods). ST as Complexity Adaptive System means we can identify the simple rules that underlie all forms of Systems Thinking. From a personal perspective, there’s observable behavioral change in focus from 'better understanding of solutions' to 'better understanding of problems' in an attempt to address perceived increase in system complexity, a tangible recognition that success is a holistic endeavour that needs collaboration and continuous learning. There is a big increase in a cross-silo, cross-discipline, and continuous exploration.
The strongest trend of ST is in developing areas of application - taking some existing core approaches and applying those in new areas or to new problems. So a few examples include: the use of systems approaches in the evaluation of interventions, work on the use of systems approaches in complex projects. Most of the development work we do, follows that pattern, so building on "standard" systems approaches for specific areas of application: organizational change, strategic risk, performance management, complex projects, business ethics etc. “Hidden in the common sense or craft knowledge of the systems practitioner are ontological and epistemological presuppositions. In not exploring these, Systems Thinking has failed to take full advantage of opportunities to learn from practice and to develop as a discipline." - Quote.
There's a big shift toward ST as being a complex adaptive system based on simple rules. In some ways there appears to be a shift back towards engineering based forms of Systems Thinking (away from approaches more focused on the wider indirect sociological influences) - The shift appears in keeping with a wider ideological shift back towards faith in technology and its ability to solve all the world’s problems. Also, there's a significant shift involving universality where in the past the focus has been on pluralism.1). A shift from what a system IS to what it DOES to its context. 2). A shift from seeing a system as a set of interconnected components to seeing a system as a set of interwoven threads. It is in a systemic approach to strategy, which brings us back to the purpose. There is a tension relating to the fact that the system may be set up in a way which is supportive of the current purpose, or it may not. When we rethink the purpose, our understanding of the system is critical to our ability to reshape the system in order to fulfill that intention. It's sensible to set the definitional boundaries. Systems Thinkers should revisit the continued relevance and application of definitions, but see no need why the wheel must be reinvented in its entirety.
Systems Thinking is neither positive nor negative. Systems Thinking is more as a tool, not an object. If System Thinking is "effective," its effect can be positive or negative in any given value system. Whether that effect was intended might be a result of the System Thinker's ability, mind and attitude. With now many organizations are on the journey for digital transformation, the Systems Thinking progression is to be sensitive of the emergent trend, to keep balanced thinking, not via the stillness, but through the state of the flow with the harmony of interconnectivity and interdependence.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
September 11, 2015
How to Ask the Right Questions about Big Data
The data is very important, but the interpretation of those data is equal of importance.
Big Data continues to emerge as one of the top priorities in executive’s agenda though data itself is not necessary fun, what’s the big story of Big Data? Often Big Data is a hammer looking for a nail. One needs to know how to ask the right questions before deploying Big Data processing capabilities. But how to ask the right questions about Big Data?
Asking the right questions helps clarify what you are trying to achieve. Asking the right questions using any sized data is a given. It's how we answer the question with Big Data, and that's the big challenge. Big Data is like a big hammer, but how we swing that hammer is what will produce the best results. Large amounts of data become an issue to the extent that its usage confirms an entrenched mindset or methodological bias. Quantity begets authoritative confirmation, but this does not in itself extend the boundaries of knowledge. However, the enormity of data does not necessarily confine those boundaries as well. This is why it’s so important to start with the right questions. If you are clear about what you are trying to achieve, and then, you can think about the questions to which you need answers.
The right initial questions get you started; while the answers to those questions often lead to other good questions as well; and ultimately the epiphanies which make the biggest differences. Analysis of big data, little data, transactional data, etc, combined with a deep and wide knowledge of the "business" being analyzed, and the ability to do something with the results is where we need to go. This requires strong collaboration from all sides of businesses, and leadership with vision. We need knowledge-based problem-solving; Operations Simulation Analysis tracking the causes, consequence of these applications for goal, mission, performance tracking operation improvement, supporting process/ product/technology/market innovation, strategic changes, and management implementation.
The data is very important, but the interpretation of those data is equal of importance. Therefore, the good questions help discover the pattern behind the data, and capture the business insight from it. Every process will try learning about data; it will be about supervised mining than analyst digging through the data. Engineering will change from stateful perfection to adaptive cohesion. On the one hand, the IT-business connection is still preoccupied with making sense out of low-level transactional data from their CRM and other IT application systems. Analytics is typically a large-scale multi-year effort to support faster financial close, reporting, information management and a host of other things. Hadoop-based applications have less involvement with the rank-and-file and drive the latest technologies for digital marketing, customer experience management, a host of sensor-based apps, etc.
Analytics is making an evolutionary journey from capturing hindsight to insight and foresight, it is becoming a significant tool in decision making via answering questions. However, it is still the early days of machine learning and big data engineering, possibilities are immense...It is perhaps more crucial to ask the right questions than just hunting for answers. Be curious to ask questions, particularly the great questions. You will find more surprises in this journey.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Big Data continues to emerge as one of the top priorities in executive’s agenda though data itself is not necessary fun, what’s the big story of Big Data? Often Big Data is a hammer looking for a nail. One needs to know how to ask the right questions before deploying Big Data processing capabilities. But how to ask the right questions about Big Data?
Asking the right questions helps clarify what you are trying to achieve. Asking the right questions using any sized data is a given. It's how we answer the question with Big Data, and that's the big challenge. Big Data is like a big hammer, but how we swing that hammer is what will produce the best results. Large amounts of data become an issue to the extent that its usage confirms an entrenched mindset or methodological bias. Quantity begets authoritative confirmation, but this does not in itself extend the boundaries of knowledge. However, the enormity of data does not necessarily confine those boundaries as well. This is why it’s so important to start with the right questions. If you are clear about what you are trying to achieve, and then, you can think about the questions to which you need answers.
The right initial questions get you started; while the answers to those questions often lead to other good questions as well; and ultimately the epiphanies which make the biggest differences. Analysis of big data, little data, transactional data, etc, combined with a deep and wide knowledge of the "business" being analyzed, and the ability to do something with the results is where we need to go. This requires strong collaboration from all sides of businesses, and leadership with vision. We need knowledge-based problem-solving; Operations Simulation Analysis tracking the causes, consequence of these applications for goal, mission, performance tracking operation improvement, supporting process/ product/technology/market innovation, strategic changes, and management implementation.
The data is very important, but the interpretation of those data is equal of importance. Therefore, the good questions help discover the pattern behind the data, and capture the business insight from it. Every process will try learning about data; it will be about supervised mining than analyst digging through the data. Engineering will change from stateful perfection to adaptive cohesion. On the one hand, the IT-business connection is still preoccupied with making sense out of low-level transactional data from their CRM and other IT application systems. Analytics is typically a large-scale multi-year effort to support faster financial close, reporting, information management and a host of other things. Hadoop-based applications have less involvement with the rank-and-file and drive the latest technologies for digital marketing, customer experience management, a host of sensor-based apps, etc.Analytics is making an evolutionary journey from capturing hindsight to insight and foresight, it is becoming a significant tool in decision making via answering questions. However, it is still the early days of machine learning and big data engineering, possibilities are immense...It is perhaps more crucial to ask the right questions than just hunting for answers. Be curious to ask questions, particularly the great questions. You will find more surprises in this journey.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Agile Measurement
Project success is measured against the business drivers of revenue growth; revenue retention; cost containment; risk optimization; and compliance.
Many organizations are shifting from Waterfall to Agile mode. Agile does not take less discipline but needs more engineering and management discipline. Given that business initiatives are unique endeavors, it would take a substantial number of projects using comparably skilled resources and different approaches to having unbiased metrics concerning alternative approaches. As Drucker wisely pointed out," you can only manage what you measure." But how to measure Agile success effectively?
The degree of success would be measured in terms of how much could a team deliver for their stakeholders/investors in agreed time frame and set cost for the project. If you need to define some kind of success measure, then identifying which of these, and it may be more than one, are the outcomes they are looking for and asking how the business will define success in that criteria is one approach. What are your goals in the execution of the project? In general, there are only a "benefits" that businesses value. They want a product that:
-makes money-saves money-saves time-reduces risk (or increases safety)-more convenient-is durability/reliability-adds prestige (or pride of ownership)- has entertainment value
You have to make sure that the customer has defined carefully what they mean by "value," and the customer needs to make sure that those definitions still apply. The big strength of "agile" methods is that the value is delivered slice-on-slice, so that if the situation changes, the losses are minimized. If the business is "fuzzy" about the where the "value" of the project sits, or how that is to be obtained, this can create issues. Few matrices could be: 1). Number of changes delivered/ Total number of changes asked for. (It’s important because the entertaining changes is one of the key drivers for using Agile. This matrix can be used to indicate Agility of the team.)2). Actual cost to Estimated cost (It will help in showing how effective is the Agile management in terms of managing the costs.)3). Actual efforts to Estimated efforts. (It will help in showing how accurate the estimations have been.)4). Quality. (Post-production defects/ Total number of defects reported including post production defects)
Organizational leadership is responsible for the performance of the organization. Organizational leadership is held accountable for that performance. Therefore, when and how an organization goes about ideating and conceptualizing is a decision that falls upon organizational leadership because it impacts performance. Organizational leadership is responsible for deciding whether an agile approach is suitable and organizational leadership is accountable when the results fall short. The agile team is responsible for delivering solutions - not for organizational strategy, not for capability gap analysis, and not for prioritizing organizational initiatives that derive from the capability gap analysis. The business capability gap analysis will lead to initiatives to buy, build, enhance, sunset, or retire systems and processes. Those initiatives will be prioritized and made into projects that are road mapped for project execution. And the project team doesn't get to decide what the project is so the team can't really be held accountable if someone else's idea doesn't work. The reason why it isn't the agile team's role to ideate and conceptualize is because the agile team isn't held accountable by investors, lenders, and regulatory authorities. The organizational leaders who are held accountable are responsible for ideating and conceptualizing.
Self-governance requires a level of maturity. Agile approaches rely on a project team's ability to self-govern - less management intervention. If you have teams mature enough to self-govern, you probably also have teams that would be efficient and effective regardless of approach. For a metric concerning success to have any validity, it has to be measured against something. In terms of an agile approach, it has to be measured against alternative approaches. The problem with that is that you have no reliable metrics on what would have happened with alternative approaches, be they different agile approaches, hybrid approaches, or waterfall approaches. Project success is measured against the business drivers of revenue growth; revenue retention; cost containment; risk optimization; and compliance; irrespective of the approach used to execute the project. This is how the business will measure the success of the project - by whether the desired result was achieved. This in most cases won't be known until after the project team has dispersed.
Agile is not and never will be a one-size-fits-all solution for what ails business. Evangelize if you want. It is just another tool in the toolkit. It is people getting work done, and people have gotten work done in many different ways using many different approaches. A good approach won't make a weak team's performance excellent. A poor approach won't make an excellent team's performance awful. Excellent people will excel despite an approach, not because of it. Weak people will perform weakly despite an approach, not because of it. Whatever metrics you derive to measure Agile projects, they should enable better actions and serious improvements, accurate enough, not exhaustive but simple enough and more importantly should motivate the team as well.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Many organizations are shifting from Waterfall to Agile mode. Agile does not take less discipline but needs more engineering and management discipline. Given that business initiatives are unique endeavors, it would take a substantial number of projects using comparably skilled resources and different approaches to having unbiased metrics concerning alternative approaches. As Drucker wisely pointed out," you can only manage what you measure." But how to measure Agile success effectively?
The degree of success would be measured in terms of how much could a team deliver for their stakeholders/investors in agreed time frame and set cost for the project. If you need to define some kind of success measure, then identifying which of these, and it may be more than one, are the outcomes they are looking for and asking how the business will define success in that criteria is one approach. What are your goals in the execution of the project? In general, there are only a "benefits" that businesses value. They want a product that:
-makes money-saves money-saves time-reduces risk (or increases safety)-more convenient-is durability/reliability-adds prestige (or pride of ownership)- has entertainment value
You have to make sure that the customer has defined carefully what they mean by "value," and the customer needs to make sure that those definitions still apply. The big strength of "agile" methods is that the value is delivered slice-on-slice, so that if the situation changes, the losses are minimized. If the business is "fuzzy" about the where the "value" of the project sits, or how that is to be obtained, this can create issues. Few matrices could be: 1). Number of changes delivered/ Total number of changes asked for. (It’s important because the entertaining changes is one of the key drivers for using Agile. This matrix can be used to indicate Agility of the team.)2). Actual cost to Estimated cost (It will help in showing how effective is the Agile management in terms of managing the costs.)3). Actual efforts to Estimated efforts. (It will help in showing how accurate the estimations have been.)4). Quality. (Post-production defects/ Total number of defects reported including post production defects)
Organizational leadership is responsible for the performance of the organization. Organizational leadership is held accountable for that performance. Therefore, when and how an organization goes about ideating and conceptualizing is a decision that falls upon organizational leadership because it impacts performance. Organizational leadership is responsible for deciding whether an agile approach is suitable and organizational leadership is accountable when the results fall short. The agile team is responsible for delivering solutions - not for organizational strategy, not for capability gap analysis, and not for prioritizing organizational initiatives that derive from the capability gap analysis. The business capability gap analysis will lead to initiatives to buy, build, enhance, sunset, or retire systems and processes. Those initiatives will be prioritized and made into projects that are road mapped for project execution. And the project team doesn't get to decide what the project is so the team can't really be held accountable if someone else's idea doesn't work. The reason why it isn't the agile team's role to ideate and conceptualize is because the agile team isn't held accountable by investors, lenders, and regulatory authorities. The organizational leaders who are held accountable are responsible for ideating and conceptualizing.
Self-governance requires a level of maturity. Agile approaches rely on a project team's ability to self-govern - less management intervention. If you have teams mature enough to self-govern, you probably also have teams that would be efficient and effective regardless of approach. For a metric concerning success to have any validity, it has to be measured against something. In terms of an agile approach, it has to be measured against alternative approaches. The problem with that is that you have no reliable metrics on what would have happened with alternative approaches, be they different agile approaches, hybrid approaches, or waterfall approaches. Project success is measured against the business drivers of revenue growth; revenue retention; cost containment; risk optimization; and compliance; irrespective of the approach used to execute the project. This is how the business will measure the success of the project - by whether the desired result was achieved. This in most cases won't be known until after the project team has dispersed. Agile is not and never will be a one-size-fits-all solution for what ails business. Evangelize if you want. It is just another tool in the toolkit. It is people getting work done, and people have gotten work done in many different ways using many different approaches. A good approach won't make a weak team's performance excellent. A poor approach won't make an excellent team's performance awful. Excellent people will excel despite an approach, not because of it. Weak people will perform weakly despite an approach, not because of it. Whatever metrics you derive to measure Agile projects, they should enable better actions and serious improvements, accurate enough, not exhaustive but simple enough and more importantly should motivate the team as well.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
How can CIOs convince the Board & Top Management of IT strategy
There is no stand-alone IT strategy. There is the only business strategy with IT as a key element.
Due to the increasing speed of changes and fierce business competitions, many IT organizations are at cross road to either being transformed into a value added digital engine for their business growth, or being irrelevant as a cost center only. How do you define the strategic role of CIOs at Board Level, what are important skills they need to cultivate, and how can you convince the Board and top management of your strategy?
There is no stand-alone IT strategy. There is the only business strategy with IT as a key element. IT is business, and IT strategy in an integral part of business strategy. The IT plan is the series of steps required involving technology that enable the business strategy. It's sometimes hard to articulate the value of doing things right. It sounds counterintuitive when phrased this way, but if you ever had to fight for a budget, and it's always a fight, you must have found yourself in a situation where you can do something right and pay more now, or do "just enough" to meet the superficial goals and worry about the fallout when it comes. Perhaps, IT professionals should start building a database of stock pitches that help embattled CIOs to explain why it's worth to get things right the first time. A CIO as an IT leader, need to be a business strategist who co-create corporate strategy with IT strategy as a crucial element in it.
IT is easily split between two broad areas, and it has to master both: From operation perspective, IT is the utility to keep the light on; and from strategic perspective, IT is the value-added delivery that makes the organization different. Make this distinction clear to the business and make it clear that utility spend is rarely discretionary. But do question every element of utility and consider how it is delivered because the CFO dislikes cost that has no obvious benefit. If these elements can be delivered in another alternative way that optimize the cost, then show the Board the options, but also show them the risk in the business term. For the delivery elements, engage directly with the business owners of these systems and have them provide the ‘revenue’ side of the equation of what value these IT elements deliver directly to the business. As long as your costs are below the ‘revenue’ figure, then the budget should be less of an issue. Such data-based communication is more convincing for the Board and top management to understand IT value and the strategy presented.
IT needs to present itself in business language, and embed your needs inside the benefit to the business: It is common to observe gaps between decision makers and IT experts mainly because of non-matching knowledge about technology or the different dialects they speak. IT must do what every other business unit must do: demonstrate that they have necessary utility costs under control via modernization and optimization and show that investment in key areas will make more money than it costs by getting the buy-in of the business owners. If you stand alone in front of the Board and try and sell ‘tech’ in any language, particularly in “IT” jargon, and then you deserve to fail. Embed your needs inside the benefit to the business, and if your ‘needs’ add nothing to the function of the business, and then seriously consider why you are presenting them in the first place. As long as you don't have the ingrained roots of how IT functions create values, businesses will never understand your strategy no matter which way you communicate it. Be diligent in planning your strategy to-demonstrate some form of ROI that is worthwhile.-ensure you have identified the risks.-make sure your strategy has the detail behind it and create a roadmap that you will deliver on.-be certain that you measure the RIGHT thing Right.
CIO is a serious partner in the inner circle of top management to creating value-added strategies and enabling deeper insights into the opportunities IT can do. Almost all CIOs interact at the Board Level - it is just a matter of degree. But CIO as Chief Influence Officer, needs to be well prepared, make leadership influence when having opportunities. Forward-looking businesses need to be evangelists for the true CIO role that sits at the table and play a part in the business and bridge the gaps for, information and innovation, digitalization and globalization.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Due to the increasing speed of changes and fierce business competitions, many IT organizations are at cross road to either being transformed into a value added digital engine for their business growth, or being irrelevant as a cost center only. How do you define the strategic role of CIOs at Board Level, what are important skills they need to cultivate, and how can you convince the Board and top management of your strategy?
There is no stand-alone IT strategy. There is the only business strategy with IT as a key element. IT is business, and IT strategy in an integral part of business strategy. The IT plan is the series of steps required involving technology that enable the business strategy. It's sometimes hard to articulate the value of doing things right. It sounds counterintuitive when phrased this way, but if you ever had to fight for a budget, and it's always a fight, you must have found yourself in a situation where you can do something right and pay more now, or do "just enough" to meet the superficial goals and worry about the fallout when it comes. Perhaps, IT professionals should start building a database of stock pitches that help embattled CIOs to explain why it's worth to get things right the first time. A CIO as an IT leader, need to be a business strategist who co-create corporate strategy with IT strategy as a crucial element in it.
IT is easily split between two broad areas, and it has to master both: From operation perspective, IT is the utility to keep the light on; and from strategic perspective, IT is the value-added delivery that makes the organization different. Make this distinction clear to the business and make it clear that utility spend is rarely discretionary. But do question every element of utility and consider how it is delivered because the CFO dislikes cost that has no obvious benefit. If these elements can be delivered in another alternative way that optimize the cost, then show the Board the options, but also show them the risk in the business term. For the delivery elements, engage directly with the business owners of these systems and have them provide the ‘revenue’ side of the equation of what value these IT elements deliver directly to the business. As long as your costs are below the ‘revenue’ figure, then the budget should be less of an issue. Such data-based communication is more convincing for the Board and top management to understand IT value and the strategy presented.
IT needs to present itself in business language, and embed your needs inside the benefit to the business: It is common to observe gaps between decision makers and IT experts mainly because of non-matching knowledge about technology or the different dialects they speak. IT must do what every other business unit must do: demonstrate that they have necessary utility costs under control via modernization and optimization and show that investment in key areas will make more money than it costs by getting the buy-in of the business owners. If you stand alone in front of the Board and try and sell ‘tech’ in any language, particularly in “IT” jargon, and then you deserve to fail. Embed your needs inside the benefit to the business, and if your ‘needs’ add nothing to the function of the business, and then seriously consider why you are presenting them in the first place. As long as you don't have the ingrained roots of how IT functions create values, businesses will never understand your strategy no matter which way you communicate it. Be diligent in planning your strategy to-demonstrate some form of ROI that is worthwhile.-ensure you have identified the risks.-make sure your strategy has the detail behind it and create a roadmap that you will deliver on.-be certain that you measure the RIGHT thing Right.CIO is a serious partner in the inner circle of top management to creating value-added strategies and enabling deeper insights into the opportunities IT can do. Almost all CIOs interact at the Board Level - it is just a matter of degree. But CIO as Chief Influence Officer, needs to be well prepared, make leadership influence when having opportunities. Forward-looking businesses need to be evangelists for the true CIO role that sits at the table and play a part in the business and bridge the gaps for, information and innovation, digitalization and globalization.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
September 10, 2015
The Leadership is the Hidden GEM of the “Future of CIO”
The most critical and yet overlooked foundation to being a real leader is in choosing a destination that creates a better world!
The blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thought; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making influence through touching the hearts and connecting the minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.5 million page views with about #2500th blog posting. Among 50+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting, Digital Leadership is the hidden GEM, Here are a set of featured “Future of CIO” categories to brainstorm leadership :
Digital Leadership is the Hidden GEM of “Future of CIO”Digital Leadership (250+Blogs): The digital world today is much more complicated and that requires an ability to juggle multiple and competing demands and clear the vision under cloudy climate and uncertain circumstances. Leadership is first as an advanced mindset, then as a clarified vision and an exemplary behavior. Leadership is about FUTURE! Leadership is about CHANGE. Leadership is about INNOVATION. Leadership is about FOCUS. It is about providing direction, both for oneself and others. It is a basic human ability to inspire self and others to look beyond limitations and make continuous improvement. Leadership is the art of persuasion and the science of disciplines; it’s about the inspiration and motivation; innovation and progression. By choosing to lead, you must have a vision and intention for making that choice, also strike the right balance to run, grow and transform your business seamlessly.Mind Shifts (250+ Blogs): Thinking is the seed that molds and makes one's life. So, is it true that our thoughts shape our personalities, and visa versa. As a matter of fact, the way we think has much of an effect and affect on how we turn out in our life (though many other things do as well). Some examples might be, who we surround ourselves with, how hard we try to do certain things, whether or not we're repetitive (pending on what the repetition is), choosing left instead of right (or vice versa), the communication styles, the career preferences, or the hobbies and entertainment choice, etc. To put simply, we are what we think of...
3. CIO Leadership/CIO Debates/ (350+ Blogs): The magic “I” of CIO sparks many imaginations: Chief information officer, chief infrastructure officer , Chief Integration Officer, chief International officer, Chief Inspiration Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Influence Office etc. The future of CIO is entrepreneur driven, situation oriented, value-added,she or he will take many paradoxical roles: both as business strategist and technology visionary,talent master and effective communicator,savvy business enabler and relentless cost cutter, and transform the business into Digital Master!
4. Digitalization/Digital Master Tuning (250+ Blogs): Digital Master - Debunk the Myths of Enterprise Digital Maturity was published in Jan. 2015, it is the book to envision the multidimensional impact that digital philosophy, technology, innovation, and methodology will have on the future of business and human society. It received overall great feedback in the IT community and beyond. After publishing, I also wrote more than 100+ blogs to continue advocating the best principles and the next practices to run a “Digital Master” - The organization that has rich digital insight , high level innovative capability, and maturity, not only to initiate digital innovation, but also to drive enterprise - wide digital transformation.
5. Innovation/ Creativity (250+ Blogs): In recent years, creativity has become a very highly valued skill. Creative people combine existing possibilities to reach more often unexpected solutions. Creativity is an essential building block for innovation in business. It is very important to recognize that innovation is an essential factor for a company’s long term success. However, becoming a truly innovative company is difficult, due to the risks involved and management skills needed. Innovation is about moving forward. In any business, if you are not moving forward, you are moving backward. 6. Talent Management (200+ Blogs): People are the most invaluable asset in any organization anytime and anywhere. However, the traditional talent management treat people more as cost or resource, less as an asset or capital investment; performance management approaches more focus on measuring behaviors and quantitative result, with ignorance of qualitative assessment about character, mindsets, talent potential, multidimensional intelligence and culture effect. Talent competency is the digital lenses through which people managers ought to assess and manage talent in more strategic, analytical and creative way.
7. Culture Master/Gaps/Global Perspectives/Keywords in 21st Century (100+ blogs): Culture is invisible, but it’s one of the most powerful factors for business’s long term prosperity; culture is soft, but it's one of the “toughest” ingredients in “digital transformation formula.” Creating a culture itself needs a (internal) strategy. There are many different perspectives of culture presented along with diverse ways and means of dealing with it. How can you identify culture gaps? What’s the global perspectives of culture? What's your culture readiness, how shall you assess culture? Is one of the goals behind building a great culture about whether your culture can help people become who they are, to create synergy and accomplish the business purpose?
8. Food for Thoughts (100+ Blogs): Life is like four seasons, there’s ups and downs , good time and bad time. Do you have the self-awareness which has to do with “knowing yourself.” It means knowing how to identify our strengths, our weak areas, our own way of reacting to situations, our preferences (in what situations and in what I'm good or I do not feel at ease), our desires, needs, emotions. Knowing ourselves allows us to predict how successfully we tackle the various situations that life or work will put us in front, going to meet prepared, and thus able to choose situations, behaviors and attitudes based on their functional objectives.
9. Change Management (200+blogs): Change Management and Strategy Management need to go hand in hand. The goal for change is always to make improvement or innovations happen, and it's a progressive journey to keep business move forward. Change is inevitable, but more than two-thirds of change effort fail to achieve the expected results. The change shouldn't be treated as a singular occurrence when it is an ongoing, continued process and dynamic capability within the organization.
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 blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thought; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making influence through touching the hearts and connecting the minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.5 million page views with about #2500th blog posting. Among 50+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting, Digital Leadership is the hidden GEM, Here are a set of featured “Future of CIO” categories to brainstorm leadership :Digital Leadership is the Hidden GEM of “Future of CIO”Digital Leadership (250+Blogs): The digital world today is much more complicated and that requires an ability to juggle multiple and competing demands and clear the vision under cloudy climate and uncertain circumstances. Leadership is first as an advanced mindset, then as a clarified vision and an exemplary behavior. Leadership is about FUTURE! Leadership is about CHANGE. Leadership is about INNOVATION. Leadership is about FOCUS. It is about providing direction, both for oneself and others. It is a basic human ability to inspire self and others to look beyond limitations and make continuous improvement. Leadership is the art of persuasion and the science of disciplines; it’s about the inspiration and motivation; innovation and progression. By choosing to lead, you must have a vision and intention for making that choice, also strike the right balance to run, grow and transform your business seamlessly.Mind Shifts (250+ Blogs): Thinking is the seed that molds and makes one's life. So, is it true that our thoughts shape our personalities, and visa versa. As a matter of fact, the way we think has much of an effect and affect on how we turn out in our life (though many other things do as well). Some examples might be, who we surround ourselves with, how hard we try to do certain things, whether or not we're repetitive (pending on what the repetition is), choosing left instead of right (or vice versa), the communication styles, the career preferences, or the hobbies and entertainment choice, etc. To put simply, we are what we think of...
3. CIO Leadership/CIO Debates/ (350+ Blogs): The magic “I” of CIO sparks many imaginations: Chief information officer, chief infrastructure officer , Chief Integration Officer, chief International officer, Chief Inspiration Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Influence Office etc. The future of CIO is entrepreneur driven, situation oriented, value-added,she or he will take many paradoxical roles: both as business strategist and technology visionary,talent master and effective communicator,savvy business enabler and relentless cost cutter, and transform the business into Digital Master!
4. Digitalization/Digital Master Tuning (250+ Blogs): Digital Master - Debunk the Myths of Enterprise Digital Maturity was published in Jan. 2015, it is the book to envision the multidimensional impact that digital philosophy, technology, innovation, and methodology will have on the future of business and human society. It received overall great feedback in the IT community and beyond. After publishing, I also wrote more than 100+ blogs to continue advocating the best principles and the next practices to run a “Digital Master” - The organization that has rich digital insight , high level innovative capability, and maturity, not only to initiate digital innovation, but also to drive enterprise - wide digital transformation.
5. Innovation/ Creativity (250+ Blogs): In recent years, creativity has become a very highly valued skill. Creative people combine existing possibilities to reach more often unexpected solutions. Creativity is an essential building block for innovation in business. It is very important to recognize that innovation is an essential factor for a company’s long term success. However, becoming a truly innovative company is difficult, due to the risks involved and management skills needed. Innovation is about moving forward. In any business, if you are not moving forward, you are moving backward. 6. Talent Management (200+ Blogs): People are the most invaluable asset in any organization anytime and anywhere. However, the traditional talent management treat people more as cost or resource, less as an asset or capital investment; performance management approaches more focus on measuring behaviors and quantitative result, with ignorance of qualitative assessment about character, mindsets, talent potential, multidimensional intelligence and culture effect. Talent competency is the digital lenses through which people managers ought to assess and manage talent in more strategic, analytical and creative way.
7. Culture Master/Gaps/Global Perspectives/Keywords in 21st Century (100+ blogs): Culture is invisible, but it’s one of the most powerful factors for business’s long term prosperity; culture is soft, but it's one of the “toughest” ingredients in “digital transformation formula.” Creating a culture itself needs a (internal) strategy. There are many different perspectives of culture presented along with diverse ways and means of dealing with it. How can you identify culture gaps? What’s the global perspectives of culture? What's your culture readiness, how shall you assess culture? Is one of the goals behind building a great culture about whether your culture can help people become who they are, to create synergy and accomplish the business purpose?
8. Food for Thoughts (100+ Blogs): Life is like four seasons, there’s ups and downs , good time and bad time. Do you have the self-awareness which has to do with “knowing yourself.” It means knowing how to identify our strengths, our weak areas, our own way of reacting to situations, our preferences (in what situations and in what I'm good or I do not feel at ease), our desires, needs, emotions. Knowing ourselves allows us to predict how successfully we tackle the various situations that life or work will put us in front, going to meet prepared, and thus able to choose situations, behaviors and attitudes based on their functional objectives.
9. Change Management (200+blogs): Change Management and Strategy Management need to go hand in hand. The goal for change is always to make improvement or innovations happen, and it's a progressive journey to keep business move forward. Change is inevitable, but more than two-thirds of change effort fail to achieve the expected results. The change shouldn't be treated as a singular occurrence when it is an ongoing, continued process and dynamic capability within the organization.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
What is the Human Mind
The progress of humankind is dependent on the advancement level of those leading minds.
The "mind" is traditionally referring to consciousness or awareness.The mind is created by brain activity. The mind is the music, the brain is the composer, the orchestra of the trillion nerve cells and neuronal connections as well as the electrical impulses and chemical messengers make it possible for one neural network to connect with another. We have to understand more deeply about our own mind, what’re the correlation between the brain and the mind, what’re the thinking processes? Analogically, the brain is the hardware and the mind is the software with the totality in action, so the brain with the mind is the hardware plus software.
The result of all brain activity is the mind: without the brain there can be no individual mind, yet it is conceivable that the brain produces something that as is greater than itself and this is the 'mind.' The way humans can gather energy up is by 'being who we are,' or 'how we feel,' which is based on how we actually experience the moment as a human being and how it makes us feel ( either peace or grief). If you do this then the energy gets mixed up with the actual situation you are in and things become very creative, and things happen which is bigger than the initial input by the person or the situation. Most people gather up their energy primarily from their mind. The way the brain computes the situations and measures 'how you feel' can be used as a guide to knowing what is good for you. Someone has increased his/her power of will, at the higher level, he/she can control the mind, calming it will not break into waves and have all kinds of desires; holding the mind steady, not allowing it to get into waves from external or internal cause; controlling the mind perfectly just by the power of will.
The mind is the conscious energy that engulfs the brain; it works through the brain in sending a network of consciousness to every cell of the body in order for each to perform its own function. This is done through electrical impulses in the brain cells. The uncontrolled mind, without mindfulness and complete awareness, cannot be capable of performing a good action. This is the reason that nowadays, even the modern science, especially psychology, recognizes ‘‘the effectiveness of mindfulness in reducing stress, raising self-awareness, enhancing emotional intelligence, and in controlling negative behavior etc.’’ There is a 'fail safe' measurement included within this that means something is only a 'good' action if others around you receive love and care too. Intention doesn’t really come into it.
To what degree mind and brain are linked in a physical sense remains a subject of intense discussion. The thought does not precede the thinker; the thinker precedes the thought and the consciousness of the thinker precedes the fact of his/her being a thinker. The brain is vertebrate's organ of the body that is the center of individual's creating, storing, and reacting functions including mind and energy for metabolic sustainability. The human brain has a unique functional capacity for life used to sustain metabolic energy and physiological functions for survival, reproduction, love and all behaviors. We would probably all agree that the mind is not located between the eyes, but that is where the attention and the majority of activity seem to be. The experience of the world through the senses and the mind, the various processes of thinking and the different implications of this experience are all offshoots of the consciousness of the Self.
The mind is something more personal. It is a label that individuals create for that collective sensation or awareness that is on their own. The collective sensation is one's perspective, experience, memory, imagination, perception, the world is projected by the brain through the collection of sensations and ideas that we are sensitive to and intrigued by. The progress of humankind is dependent on the advancement level of those leading minds.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The "mind" is traditionally referring to consciousness or awareness.The mind is created by brain activity. The mind is the music, the brain is the composer, the orchestra of the trillion nerve cells and neuronal connections as well as the electrical impulses and chemical messengers make it possible for one neural network to connect with another. We have to understand more deeply about our own mind, what’re the correlation between the brain and the mind, what’re the thinking processes? Analogically, the brain is the hardware and the mind is the software with the totality in action, so the brain with the mind is the hardware plus software.
The result of all brain activity is the mind: without the brain there can be no individual mind, yet it is conceivable that the brain produces something that as is greater than itself and this is the 'mind.' The way humans can gather energy up is by 'being who we are,' or 'how we feel,' which is based on how we actually experience the moment as a human being and how it makes us feel ( either peace or grief). If you do this then the energy gets mixed up with the actual situation you are in and things become very creative, and things happen which is bigger than the initial input by the person or the situation. Most people gather up their energy primarily from their mind. The way the brain computes the situations and measures 'how you feel' can be used as a guide to knowing what is good for you. Someone has increased his/her power of will, at the higher level, he/she can control the mind, calming it will not break into waves and have all kinds of desires; holding the mind steady, not allowing it to get into waves from external or internal cause; controlling the mind perfectly just by the power of will.
The mind is the conscious energy that engulfs the brain; it works through the brain in sending a network of consciousness to every cell of the body in order for each to perform its own function. This is done through electrical impulses in the brain cells. The uncontrolled mind, without mindfulness and complete awareness, cannot be capable of performing a good action. This is the reason that nowadays, even the modern science, especially psychology, recognizes ‘‘the effectiveness of mindfulness in reducing stress, raising self-awareness, enhancing emotional intelligence, and in controlling negative behavior etc.’’ There is a 'fail safe' measurement included within this that means something is only a 'good' action if others around you receive love and care too. Intention doesn’t really come into it.
To what degree mind and brain are linked in a physical sense remains a subject of intense discussion. The thought does not precede the thinker; the thinker precedes the thought and the consciousness of the thinker precedes the fact of his/her being a thinker. The brain is vertebrate's organ of the body that is the center of individual's creating, storing, and reacting functions including mind and energy for metabolic sustainability. The human brain has a unique functional capacity for life used to sustain metabolic energy and physiological functions for survival, reproduction, love and all behaviors. We would probably all agree that the mind is not located between the eyes, but that is where the attention and the majority of activity seem to be. The experience of the world through the senses and the mind, the various processes of thinking and the different implications of this experience are all offshoots of the consciousness of the Self. The mind is something more personal. It is a label that individuals create for that collective sensation or awareness that is on their own. The collective sensation is one's perspective, experience, memory, imagination, perception, the world is projected by the brain through the collection of sensations and ideas that we are sensitive to and intrigued by. The progress of humankind is dependent on the advancement level of those leading minds.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
What’s is the Human Mind
The "mind" is traditionally referring to consciousness or awareness.The mind is created by brain activity. The mind is the music, the brain is the composer, the orchestra of the trillion nerve cells and neuronal connections as well as the electrical impulses and chemical messengers make it possible for one neural network to connect with another. We have to understand more deeply about our own mind, what’re the correlation between the brain and the mind, what’re the thinking processes? Analogically, brain is the hardware and the mind is the software with the totality in action, so the brain with mind is the hardware plus software.
The result of all brain activity is the mind: without the brain there can be no individual mind, yet it is conceivable that the brain produces something that as is greater than itself and this is the 'mind.' The way humans can gather energy up is by 'being who we are,' or 'how we feel,' which is based on how we actually experience the moment as a human being and how it makes us feel ( either peace or grief). If you do this then the energy gets mixed up with the actual situation you are in and things become very creative, and things happen which is bigger than the initial input by the person or the situation. Most people gather up their energy primarily from their mind. The way the brain computes the situations and measures 'how you feel' can be used as a guide to knowing what is good for you. Someone has increased his/her power of will, at the higher level, he/she can control the mind, calming it will not break into waves and have all kinds of desires; holding the mind steady, not allowing it to get into waves from external or internal cause; controlling the mind perfectly just by the power of will.
The mind is the conscious energy that engulfs the brain; it works through the brain in sending a network of consciousness to every cell of the body in order for each to perform its own function. This is done through electrical impulses in the brain cells. The uncontrolled mind, without mindfulness and complete awareness, cannot be capable of performing good action. This is the reason that nowadays, even the modern science, especially psychology, recognizes ‘‘the effectiveness of mindfulness in reducing stress, raising self-awareness, enhancing emotional intelligence, and in controlling negative behaviour etc.’’ There is a 'fail safe' measurement included within this that means something is only a 'good' action if others around you receive love and care too ( even if they don’t see it as this). Intention doesn’t really come into it.
To what degree mind and brain are linked in a physical sense remains a subject of intense discussion. Thought does not precede the thinker; the thinker precedes the thought and the consciousness of the thinker precedes the fact of his being a thinker. Brain is vertebrate's organ of the body that is the center of individual's creating, storing, and reacting functions including mind and energy for metabolic sustainability. Human brain has an unique functional capacity for life used to sustain metabolic energy and physiological functions for survival, reproduction, love and all behaviors. We would probably all agree that the mind is not located between the eyes, but that is where the attention and the majority of activity seems to be. The experience of the world through the senses and the mind, the various processes of thinking and the different implications of this experience are all offshoots of the consciousness of the Self. The mind is something more personal. It is a label that individuals create for that collective sensation or awareness that is on their own. The collective sensation is one's perspective, experience, memory, imagination, perception, the world is projected by the brain through the collection of sensations and ideas that we are sensitive to and intrigued by. The progress of humankind is dependent on the advanced level of those leading minds.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
