Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1407

Central vs. Distributed UX in the Enterprise

Digital is the age of customers. Therefore, UX/CX is emerging as one of the significant aspects of business strategy. The strategic goal of UX within the organization greatly influences which model makes the most sense (unifying a portfolio vs. incremental improvement of product lines). So, it would be interesting to experiment how to structure UX teams to satisfy the strategic goals of UX in their organization and what you have learned in the process?

Centrally-managed, but distributed as team members in Agile dev shop works best.The team does need to be centrally-managed, however, as it can be very hard for UXers to feel the love, empowered, or believe they're getting strong leadership if they're lost at sea in teams. The funding model is very important for a centrally-managed team, especially in companies where UX is not well established. If a UX resource needs to charge back to individual departments, then it means the centralized UX team becomes a body shop that is always hunting for work. If the UX team comes 'for free' and is built into overhead, then it increases the odds that the distributed departments will be willing to use UX resources. It allows business lines to incorporate UX thought-leadership into their projects without impacting P&L, while allowing the UX resources to benefit from the creative community and shared purpose of a centralized UX organization. The "agency" model (either internal or external) almost always creates better initial work, but actually prevents team from "owning" UX and developing the more widespread empathy or domain understanding the creates a long-term sustainable improvement in usability and customer experience.
A centralized team, in a company that is new or immature in regards to UX will likely need to focus on quantifying their value to the business. If that model is in place, the next question is: how does one quantify the business value of the UX team to the business lines, essential in order to increase funding/hiring over time, as well as measure UX resources performance for raises/promotions. There is always that honeymoon period as an organization gets excited about UX, but in-house, centralized design teams that have failed to demonstrate or quantify business value quickly and when budgets get tight, are one of the first areas that are cut. This is symptomatic of a perception issue that a dedicated design organization is a nice-to-have, and not at the center of a company's success. It is also symptomatic of the impatience in large companies and a failure to recognize that UX as a strategic force often requires time to show the tangible results. Centralization creates a unique challenge for the UX manager to make evidence-based claims of the value of his/her team when requesting budgets and proposing promotions. Product managers and their teams justify their existence frequently based on revenue, market share and customer satisfaction metrics. If the UX team is decentralized and belongs to the product team, then it is easier to connect the value of UX to the performance of the product. You are also bound to the product team and they are more likely to champion you.
The formula to present the business value of UX:  One of the biggest benefits is a focus on planning what areas UX will focus on based on strategic alignment. By default, this brings UX into overall strategic planning conversations with the leadership team and highlights the value they bring to that process. Feedback from the product teams regarding their 'perception' of the value of the UX resources they work with + measurements of experience improvement over time + market adoption of products that UX is involved in = business value of UX to the company. Tracking these factors seems like a significant challenge if the team is centralized. If the UX resource works within a product team, it is very simple for their manager to measure their impact and reward them appropriately.These individuals are assigned to projects as appropriate to a project's strategic value. Local alignment is the mixed model, making sure there is a complete UX team in each of your development centers, with strong UX leadership and a seat at the table with the PM and Strategy leadership team. Each individual UX team member is embedded with a specific product line / domain to maintain consistency with users/product teams over time. But all UX team members in the local center are able to assist each other in project work to ensure complementary skill sets are brought to bear on the work.
No matter which models do you adopt, to incorporate UX inside an organization successfully, you have to work on different levels, management has to understand the value to become supportive, the project teams needs to understand, to be able to work effectively together, the other functions inside organization (PM, marketing, sales) need to understand and fully take advantage of the opportunities, UX professionals is needed to guide and perform work - multidisciplinary collaboration is the key.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

Talent Analytics: How to Achieve its True Value

 
Statistically, the total cost of a workforce represents nearly 70 percent of operating expenses for Fortune 500 companies. The real value in talent analytics is revealed when the HR professional is able to forecast talent demand,  highlight a decrease in total compensation expenses next to an increase in performance and revenue, performance appraisal, and become more effective and efficient to maximize stakeholders’ value.
The linkage between Finance and HR is one of the most critical factors in transforming how the business views the contribution of their people function. So, the question to be asked before starting to move is "What objective evidence will show us that we are accomplishing our goals? With workforce planning and analytics, organizations can assign staff across the group's projects on timely schedule. Being able find the gap in the supplies (internal/ external) and the forecasted demands, saved a huge amount of time efforts and money for all stakeholders. It served as a vital tool in recruitment- exit interviews with turnover rates, compensation and benefits, performance appraisal and led to wise investment in training.
If people are a company’s most valuable asset, companies cannot afford to ignore the analytics of their current or future workforce. HR analytics are finally starting to get some attention and should be a huge growth field in the coming years. Any company that ignores their HR analytics will be shooting themselves in the foot! Established workforce analytics takes time and patience while getting the collection correct, cleaning the data, and setting up automated feeds from the data source systems. However, the time and energy is worth the effort if it can achieve the expected result. Workforce information can be used to determine talent movements, benefit preferences, reward program acceptance and cost - just to name a few of the benefits.
Companies need to craft a 3-year analytics plan before they can achieve meaningful analytics result. Expectations of a faster turnaround in most cases doesn't yield great outcomes. (1) Year 1: Analytics Implementation phase: Define the requirements and identify the right software. Implement it and communicate aggressively such that it is used by all employees and managers. (2) Year 2: Data integration phase: Refine the data metrics being collected and integrate external data, such as financial or production data. Year 3: Communication phase: Teach managers how they can use the different dashboards and reports and help them inculcate these in their daily decision making and planning.We have found that most companies start getting significant payback third year onwards in improved and data based decision making, higher visibility and greater transparency and all levels.
A person having an analytical ability can achieve his/her goal easily. But few in the HR field have had the knowledge and ability (including resources) to undertake value-added analytics activity. The missing element is objective (rather than observational) data about the individual which has explanatory power over performance, retention etc; Knowing and understanding the numbers for HR are critical for the effectiveness and influence of the function. The other functions such as sales, marketing, manufacturing, etc. have to know and understand their numbers as well; why should not HR? Excellent HR leaders understand the importance of the numbers and uses that knowledge to enhance the department's contributions to the organization. HR people have to become business people too. The talent analytics success depends on a company’s ability to unleash initiative, imagination, and passion of employees at all levels—and this can only happen if all those folks are connected heart and soul to their work and their company, and to discover the purpose, achieve autonomy and pursuit mastery.
The talent analytics and metrics should help build trust, not the opposite way. In the information age there is an over abundance of metrics which not only confound potential users, but also have a serious defect related to their ability to measure what they claim to measure. So the aspect of a metric is its VALIDITY, and if it’s not constructed valid then it could have toxic effects. That being said, the metrics should help bring tangible results and build the trust relationship, not the opposite way. When employees trust you have their interest in mind they will passionately exceed expectations, they become empowered. If they trust the management, they will be engaged as well. How does this impact HR analytics? Because the only reason processes, memos, meetings etc exist are to improve the engagement of employees so they innovate product and services to exceed demand of customers. When you have trust, you have a culture of innovation. Not in products, but rather in strategy, change programs, attracting and recruiting. That is the function of HR. The currency, the essence of HR is: trust and engagement. No organization can remain competitive unless employees ardently believe they can trust you. Data is important. However you have to recognize that analytics is only a tool to deliver excellence, not impede the progress. Regardless of circumstance, the most effective talent managers understand their first obligation is to think in terms of the individual and how they arrange things to make the individual experience better, which will ultimately transfer into better service and products for customers. But the Analytics will only indicate the where and how the things are not going according to plan, and the biggest challenge is how HR get the people related to the figures, to upskill and perform.
Perhaps the most important reason for analytics is to make a compelling case to improve the lives of people. That is frequently overlooked. Analytics demonstrates their worth when employees believe the purpose of such feedback is to promote the benefits of the employee instead of merely the firm. For all success goes through them. Analytics is just the tool to provide you the numbers, and humans are the masters to capture the insight from it. Every leader and manager are in the people growth and development and success aspiration of excellence business. You only grow when they, and that includes all of them are growing.

Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

What are Effective Vehicles for Retaining your Top Talent

People spend significant time in the workplace. However, statistically more than two-thirds of employees don’t feel engaged; and people also have a different expectation for their work. Talent retention is one of the most critical challenges facing in any fast growing and forward-thinking organizations today. So how do you bring the wisdom to the workplace, and what are effective vehicles for retaining your top talent?
Ask “What’s In it For Me” question: The most effective vehicle for retaining top talent is for them to always be able to positively and appropriately be able to answer one question for them whenever they ask themselves it. That question is - What is In this For Me? People work for a 'Living' that certainly relies on salary, but that’s not the only measure. There are other important factors, Respect, Challenging opportunities, Chances of career progression, Work-life integration, Transparency and visible leadership qualities in your management. You need to like what you're working on, you need like who you are working with, and you need to feel there's something in it for you. If you’ve got 3 for 3, you have a great job. So to the last point that's where there are many options - such as compensation, recognition, and opportunity are all important.
Create a culture of trust that makes the organization an agile and enjoyable place to work. Build a team of exceptional people who believe that together they are better than any individual on the team. Once they are a team, let them experience what it is like working at poor performing organizations that are full of silos and politics. And keep tuning the business processes to enforce cross-functional communication and collaboration. As the leader, care about their personal and professional success. Provide education opportunities for people to advance their careers. Give people the ability to manage their own time and productivity. Let them know that they are part of something bigger than just keeping the trains running on time. Listen to your team. Be open to change. Stay engaged and passionate about their and your contributions to the success of your clients and organization. As the leader, be open to changing how you work and who you need to be as the executives to drive engagement, value, and success. Constantly focus on developing your physical, intellectual, and spiritual strength to be an effective leader. Recognize micro achievements daily and macro achieved always. Primary Motivators is feeling that contributions are aimed at the goal of the corporation and that decisions and efforts directly affect the products or productivity of the Company. If this philosophy of effort with alignment to corporate goals, needs and personal impact were understood, there would be little need for further coaching or morale improvement. Emotional climate of organization has an impact on how people feel and on how they perform. People in an organization also want to feel secure that there are others who support them in accomplishing their tasks. For example, the motivator for all self-directed IT professional has always been the challenge - the opportunity to work on the new, consequential and challenging initiatives. They vibrate to opportunities in an IT organization that they see as respected and supported in the business.
Different employees may have different expectation for the work they do and the workplace they go, but overall speaking, the effective vehicles for retaining the top talent are effective leadership, agile mindset, culture of learning, robust (not rigid) processes, and cool technology tools; the wisdom in the workplace means positive atmosphere, growth mindsets, intellectual stimulation, culture of learning, open-minded leadership, and collaborative & professional working relationship to both unleash employees’ potential and drive organizational maturity seamlessly.


Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

How to Amplify Digital Leadership Influence

People tend to make leadership very complex, but in its most simple form, leadership is an influence. Now we live in the hyperconnected digital age with always-on businesses and multi-level communication channels, but how do you gain influence? And how do you grow your influence effectively?
Amplifying digital leadership is not about how loud you can speak, but how profound you could go. The systemic thinker using coping mechanism that handles today's complexities is often more introvert, but has an ability to see the whole, and speak the language of the less complex coping mechanisms, thereby exerting influence and change. There are an increasing number of complex thinkers. The degree of leadership influence is much more complex than if a leader is introvert or extrovert. How they influence is dependent on the active coping mechanisms that they use to survive in a given set of life conditions. Also, it is affected if they are analog or digital thinkers, being transactional or transformational; entrepreneurial or status quo, and their states of minds.
Digital Leadership amplification is based on the color of the character. Focusing on influence alone to attract the followers is, at best, a short-lived adventure. True leadership is a reflection of who you are at the core, your real character, from the bottom of your heart.  Leadership is complex, and although it has many facets, at its core, the foundation of leadership is the character. There is absolutely no denying that. The leader is the biggest shaper of organizational culture. If s/he espouses and exhibits certain characteristics, then it will be picked-up by other members of the organization. The followers imitate their leaders. The point is that something can be trained such as a good habit or a right attitude; but some are more innate, such as character or personality; hence, we need to encourage talent people to be “who they really are,” to compete via uniqueness, not compete for everything.
The leadership amplification is not to focus on "attracting" people, it is to focus on adding value to people. And in order for you to add value to people you need to become more valuable. And in order to become more valuable, you need to grow yourself. In the words of Jim Rohn, "if you want to achieve more, you must become more."  Focus on growth. Leadership develops daily, not in a day. It's a process. Leadership is also like investing, it compounds. It is about leading others the way you would want to be led. It is about developing leaders who can then develop other leaders. It is about leadership Pride. Personal Responsibility In Developing Excellence; Personal Responsibility in Developing others; Personal Responsibility in Developing Ethics; and Personal Responsibility in Developing Empowerment. The spirit of organizations come from the top, leaders are the big culture influencer.
The most critical and yet overlooked foundation to being a real leader is in choosing a destination that creates a better world! Keep adding value is a key component to amplifying leadership influence, and in order to keep adding value, you need to keep growing. Leaders are learners, they consistently want to keep growing and constantly want to help others grow. Leadership across the entire world, across cultures, and across all times, should be the same, it is about helping the world become a better place, it's about future; it’s about innovation, it's about progress, it's about irrefutable values and laws that help our society become more. It is about contributing to our organizations and society and building a foundation for future leaders to grow. Real leaders leave a legacy for our next generations to build on.

Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

Three Aspects of Agile Scaling

There is no doubt that agile techniques can be scaled at the enterprise level. However, an organization that hasn't matured in equipping with a customer-centric mindset, collaborating cross-functionally, implementing portfolio and program management principles along with sound governance processes will always face challenges in implementing agile at higher levels. It's very difficult to introduce all of those are techniques in one go. Such maturity takes both the right approaches and sufficient time.
The true highlight of SAFe is its ability to scale across the enterprise and encompassing all programs in the portfolio. It is so refreshing to hear someone else who practices Agile saying that you need to plan. This is one of the key aspects that people get wrong. Agile does not equal chaos! In fact, when you implement SAFe you have a more concrete and realistic plan than waterfall could ever provide. It's also true that agile can easily be used in a distributed model. It has been used successfully in onshore/offshore models for many years now. The requirement is to have sound governance processes instituted along with strong management dashboards that can provide constant visibility to the overall business value being rolled out through the projects and programs.
One of the biggest challenges in scaling Agile is in retraining IT Management and transforming IT Project Managers to team facilitators (Scrum Masters). Individuals who have been trained by PMI, etc. with a focus on control and using a heavily planned methodology; frequently struggle in adopting and moving to Agile techniques and adaptive methods. The more sinister part of the question is, "Are project managers happy letting teams run large projects?" Do the PMs get their reports? Do they need to have meetings? Escalations? Often the project-managing-class are the ones that propagate the line of questioning because it threatens their positions. To the extent that middle management (aka project managers) do not buy into using Agile, it does not scale, but then, neither does waterfall. It's simply a foreign concept in many cases, and it takes months or even longer to transition.
You can scale agile in several dimensions. It's not only the number of developers. There is also the number of teams, the number of sites (including onshore/offshore), the number of timezones, the number of products or values streams the developers work on, and so on.When we say "scale," it means there are many teams working on the same code, the same project. The problems are the same whether you use Agile or Waterfall. The difference is that Agile usually creates shorter feedback loops, so, it's better, faster, cheaper. Scaling up one dimension at the same time may work, scaling up more than one will probably not work.Scalability in agile ecosystems depends on communication and architecture: given that the agile approach requires unmediated collaboration, adjustments are needed when impacts are distributed or tasks are divided. With regard to communication, that can be achieved with models. With regard to architecture, all will depend on the modularity of features.

The agile approach requires a different mindset, which drives different architecture, different approach. Organizational maturity is key since the methodologies and guidance are based on incorporating into the organizational culture, it is likely to conflict with current governance and compliance policies, not to mention a cultural determination to adhere to the basic principles through a number of complete product cycles. It provides organizations with numerous ideas on how to overcome every one of these myths and challenges in scaling Agile techniques.


Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

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 is one of the most important governance bodies, defines governance principles and practices, oversees business strategy, resource provisioning, and also sets business culture tones, how to build an Agile Board that help lead business’s digital transformation successfully?
Agile philosophy: Agile is more a "direction," than an "end." At Board level, Agile needs to be the philosophy to perceive multidimensional business values. Make the effort at the leadership and portfolio level to qualify and quantify value in terms of both strategic value and tactical value; direct revenue and indirect (mission/vision/values) terms is the first step to crafting high-level strategic intents. Transforming to Agile culture means the Board set the right tones and advise the business for the direction they want to go on, and as the people start “putting on” the agile mindset, discover new ways of working, collaborating, delivering value, they inspect and adapt in that journey by overcoming the frictions and challenges. Transforming to Agile culture means the business knows the direction they want to go on, and Definitely measure and test the direction continuously to make sure the business is on the right course. As the people discover new ways of working, collaborating, delivering value, they inspect and adapt in that journey. In order to manage a smooth agile culture shift at Board level, consider such factors as Mindset, Communication, Technical Maturity, Capabilities, Collaboration Tools, etc.
Agile leadership. The Board and CXOs have to be able to articulate where the company is now headed and what is required from employees. Hence, the foresight is essential. To do this, a director must anticipate the conversational direction and decision-making voices in a dynamic boardroom brainstorm. An interesting exercise is to ask Board members to recite the company ‘elevator speech’ – what do they say in less than 10 seconds in the elevator when someone asks, “What does this company do?” Surprisingly, few can do it unless they have been through some kind of ‘culture change’ program. However, without clarity at the top, it’s hard to expect agile transformation would be shifted successfully. The Agile leadership at Board level also means the BoDs will continue to learn the latest digital trends that could have a huge impact for business’s long-term growth, being learning agile to adapt to changes. Then communicate them often – a strong and cohesive leadership can sprout them easily and often. Repetition = penetration = impact.
Agile GRC: At Board Level, what the top management concerns is all about “Being Agile,” with effective risk management and governance discipline. The board considers risk in order to ensure that the risk appetite applied by management is consistent with its views. That resources are applied as required. That management is actually managing risks. The high-level Agile framework is a tool which should provide visibility, alignment, ensure resource allocation and provide an aid to management. It is not risk management itself. Risk management comprises the actions that people take every day. Many risks eventuate and are dealt with or become a loss in an instant or period of time and never hit a register. Risk management involves competency, systems, processes, culture etc. And it is done every day by all employees and every day. But the board monitors it. And at the tactical level, follow Agile principles to deliver customer value is the core in Agile management and methodology.
Agile is the mindset and the philosophy. An Agile Board advocates the multidimensional business value, once the values have been impregnated into the corporate culture, the next step seems to come naturally for the whole organization adopting agile seamlessly, with strong agile leadership and clearly annunciated values comes higher staff morale. When the Board follows the Agile principles, sets the positive tone about the culture of learning and customer-centricity, people will feel good about ‘the way we do things around here.’ The good thing about ‘feelings’ is they can be measured, benchmarked and measured again. This step is more a benefit than an ingredient. If people ‘feel’ good about the company, they deliver more. That’s the beauty of being Agile, to unleash both talent potential and business potential.

Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

Goals vs. Objectives

Business strategy, goals, and objectives are all relevant and important concepts in business management, usually the goals and objectives are set to achieve business strategy step by step in a measurable way. According to businessdictionary.com, “business goal is an observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe. Synonym.: object, aim, intention, end, purpose. The objective is a specific result that a person or system aims to achieve within a time frame and with available resources. Synonym includes goal, aim, intention, purpose, design.”


Goals tend to the where they want to end up, the objectives tend to be the stepping stone to get there. Goals are high-level and Objectives are a part of the goal. They can be called subgoals. Now most people who are not used to this language would always argue the pedantic position. Now, very likely there will be something else out there will argue the use of the words and that's ok. The point is that words mean different things to different people. Whether it be a goal or an objective, the most important thing to the businesses is that we can create a strategic plan of action that will be the foundation for growth and success. For example, if your goal is to be the best customer services organization in the world, the  objectives will be to o have the best team customer service teams; to have high-rate satisfied customers consecutively for x number of years; to have an international accreditation for Customer Service; to participate and win global surveys for Customer Service. To get the top rating from 90% of the customers as compared to competitors. Objectives are a finer definition of a global statement. Goals are the targets/ ultimate. Goals are much broader either from individual, team or organization's perspective. Goals are split into objectives. The sigma of objectives is the goal. So, often objective and goal are different.
A goal is not necessarily measurable, and an objective is measurable. A goal itself is not necessarily measurable, even though it is a described future state. An objective, by definition, is both always measurable and always an outcome that has the purpose of supporting a goal. An objective is always a subordinate of a goal. A goal can be unchanging while many of its subordinate objectives are changing both in type and in execution. Also, objectives are meaningless if they are not assigned directly to a goal. In general, objectives are more specific and easier to measure than goals. Objectives are basic tools that underlie all planning and strategic activities. They serve as the basis for creating policy and evaluating performance. Some examples of business objectives include minimizing expenses, expanding globally, or making a profit. It is best to find out what the organization / team / department uses and work with that. Goals are - in most cases - expected to be less specific and/or less time-bounded than Objectives. The DRIVE Criteria is for Goal setting. The SMART Criteria is for Objective setting. There are a lot of things worth doing that are not called "management.
Ask the big WHY and discover the PURPOSE behind either goals or objectives: When are Goals and Objectives different thing? When do the Goals have a relationship with Strategy and the Objectives have a relationship with Strategic Goals. Goals are more associated with the end results, and Objectives are more associated with a specific result. When are Goals and Objectives the same thing? When the organization or business doesn’t have any formal strategy, Goals and Objectives are the same things. In short, Goals and Objectives are same or different thing depends on aims of organization or business and depends on leadership and maturity of owners & executives. So perhaps we could clarify it by focusing on the end result. But something's still missing and worth throwing out there for a future discussion point. The often overlooked element is "PURPOSE" when defining a goal or objective. Asking the question "WHY" we are pursuing something before and during our pursuit will always test whether the goal or objective being worked towards is a valid one. " For the purpose of management, however, differences in meaning are entirely purposeful and should not be allowed to just colloquially wander and morph. When you're not concerned about managing, then maybe you don't need to consider the differences.
The term OBJECTIVE really starts out in the publication of "The Practice of Management" by Peter Drucker. He defines the term ‘objective as the larger 'end point'.  He further defines OBJECTIVES as being achieved through a sub-collection of 'supporting goals' - the children of the parent objective; and then the story further illustrates that 'objectives' are 'owned' by the 'institution 'the team' and the corporation, the organization. Goals are owned by individuals as personal contributions to the 'collective achievement' of the Objectives. Either setting goals or managing objectives, don’t forget the very PURPOSE of business, to create customers.

Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

Are you an Analog or a Digital Thinker?

From management psychology perspective: the analogy to digital thinking shift is about transforming thinking from linear to nonlinear, from binary to Systems Thinking.

The analogy to digital conversion is an industrial evolution to change our daily life significantly. Analog-to-digital conversion is an electronic process in which a continuously variable (analog) signal is changed, without altering its essential content, into a multi-level (digital) signal....Digital signals propagate more efficiently than analog signals, largely because digital impulses, which are well-defined and orderly, are easier for electronic circuits to distinguish from noise, which is chaotic. This is the chief advantage of digital modes in communications. Computers "talk" and "think" in terms of digital data; while a microprocessor can analyze analog data, it must be converted into digital form for the computer to make sense of it. Analog is still a machine concept, it is the capturing of signals from the environment and the spectrums that have been cut into the plastic. (Whatis.com). To expand the lenses from the technical perspective to the management viewpoint, what're the difference between analog thinking and digital thinking though?

From technology advancement perspective, the "Digital Thinker" thinks much toward capturing the natural analog world around us and recreating it in digital form. Analog is either a noun or an adjective. It means "thing seen as comparable to another" or "relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position, voltage." From the Greek, it means "proportionate." Human beings have been designing machines & tools for 6000 years, perhaps much longer. Archimedes designed water screws and there were automatic door openers over 2000 years ago. So the argument can be made that there is analog thinking (the machine signals), just as there is digital thinking; one has to re-orient or change their thinking when selecting or deselecting systems. Since we are talking about both types of systems, there are many more that have been in use for a lot longer span of time. So analog is a form of capturing spectra via machines. It can be sound, light, heat, etc. how we as being ( not machine capturing) interpret these spectra is still a mystery. We still capture spectra via the old way in machines just convert that to digital using digital converters.

From management psychology perspective: the analogy to digital thinking shift is about transforming thinking from linear to nonlinear, from binary thinking to Systems Thinking. Analogy thinking is analogized as a type of binary thinking, just like the analog signals: 0, 1. A binary thinker is often embracing the two opposite sides of viewpoint, and take the two-dimensional lenses to perceive the multi-faceted world, they perceive things either good or bad, right or wrong, black or white, there're no shades in between; such extreme thinking can limit your view to observe the world more objectively; distort the picture of reality, restrict the scope of your thought process, and cloud your mind to make good judgment either in decision making or problem solving. The leaders or business professionals with binary thinking are resistant to listen to the diverse viewpoint; have no intention to understand the other side of coin; push the people to take the side, many times, they become the part of problems which they try to solve. In order to adapt to the new digital way, they need to adopt the digital thinking, to increase their cognitive agility and cultivate empathy by exploring alternative viewpoints and cross-disciplinary interpretations.

From talent management perspective, the digital minds are a full set of thinking processes that go beyond the analog signals, and embrace the full spectrum of colors (the different thought processes): from creative thinking to Agile critical thinking; from Systems Thinking to paradoxical thinking; from multidimensional thinking to hybrid thinking, etc. It’s the condensed human intelligence to adapt to the complexity of the world, see things differently, understand things profoundly; learn things via a holistic view and manage things and people via wisdom.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

Negative Feedback: Is it Constructive or Destructive

The quality of feedback is dependent on the QUALITY of feedback giver.

Nobody is perfect, we should always self-aware, including our flaws and shortcomings. We need always to welcome the constructive feedback which helps improve our professional growth and personal maturity. However, how can you discern which feedback is constructive, and which one is destructive? And what can you learn from it?
Accept feedback that is truthful and accurate, constructive with good intention. Those who give negative feedback on correctly assessing your flaws, should receive your gratitude and respect. However, those who give negative feedback based on ignorance, misinformation, misjudgment, or even rumors, envy or revenge, earn the scorn and contempt. As a feedback giver, you should take the responsibility of the words you say, and at the positive business atmosphere, those negative intentions or misjudgment needs to be discouraged or even penalized in order to build a healthy working environment and create a culture of learning and innovation.  


It depends on how sensitively the negative feedback is delivered and the mindset of the person receiving the negative feedback. Sometimes it works and has a good outcome, however, in other cases, the outcome is not positive and sometimes can even do irreparable damage to relationships. Negative feedback for its own sake can be utterly destructive, particularly to the bright, ambitious but not so political-savvy recipient. It all depends on how the feedback is given and what the intention of the feedback is. If the intent is to help the person grow, and information is given with empathy and as a conversation, it can be helpful. When it is given in a critical tone and with no opportunity for real communication, then it is only destructive or distracting. In a coaching and supportive atmosphere, the person has the opportunity to grow in a positive way and to be grateful.

It also depends upon who the person is giving the feedback. If the person is someone you trust and is a person who you know has only the best for you in their heart, you will accept it, and really try to ascertain the truth in what the person is saying - and use it to improve yourself. If the person is not well known to you - often you will not appreciate the negative feedback. That being said, the QUALITY of feedback giver is crucial to the quality of feedback being given, the QUALITY is about the person’s reputation, cognition, character, integrity, insight, and intention., etc. The quality of feedback also depends on which emotional status both sender and receiver have at the moment. So, there is a responsibility for both parties to consider the intention and attitude for sending and receiving. You do not have to say everything you feel, as a potential sender, as old saying goes: It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it matters. As a receiver, the responsibility is to try to understand the sender’s intention. So, if everyone tries with good intention, it is good, always, with input. There is a cultural element to consider as well, not only about corporate culture, but also about the metropolitan culture, national culture as well. Different cultures have different approaches to feedbacks, always understand the context besides content, and always capture the insight and wisdom from the knowledge.

The best thing about negative feedback with positive intention is that it calls to make a person much more self-aware and can fuel professional progress and personal growth. This is why mentors are so important at work. But the feedback must come from a trustworthy and valued source and high-quality givers. So treat feedback as information and their perception, but you have the choice what story you put to it. The excellent feedback gives you accurate information to improve; great questions to self-aware; positive intention to care with empathy and keen insight to help you grow and mature.

Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu

The Dynamic Thinking Mind

A dynamic mind takes more time to self-reflect, not less.

Everything is composed of energy, even our thoughts, and feelings. We can't see oxygen, but it is essential to life. We can't see our thoughts and feelings, but only the effect thoughts and feelings have an impact on our life at a daily basis. The result of all these activity is the mind: without the brain there can be no individual mind, yet it is conceivable that the brain produces something that  is greater than itself, and this is the 'mind.’ Metaphorically, the mind to the brain is like the music to the instrument. Nowadays, we live in the era with information explosion and knowledge abundance, the static mind which only stores the limited, or single domain knowledge and applying the linear thinking to reasoning, is no longer effective enough to adapt to the velocity, complexity and ambiguity of digital paradigm, so what is dynamic thinking and how to leverage it in problem-solving and decision making?

Dynamic thinking is the good combination of “Thinking Fast” - intuition, and “Thinking Slow” - analytics & synthesis. It runs multithreading thinking processes such as creative thinking (to connect the dots), critical thinking (to think the other side of coin), and strategic thinking (to keep the end in mind), also synthesizing multidisciplinary knowledge to create the new context with in-depth contextual understanding. A dynamic thinker is a person who continuously invests in adopting and adapting new habits of mind that allow them to think and respond to challenges critically and creatively. In doing so they are able to think profoundly about themselves, their team, their relationships with others, the organizations to which they belong, their work, and the environments in which they live and work. They are truth-seeking, willing to see the other side of the coin, change their point of views if needed and are accountable for their actions. Furthermore, they are robust and judicious in pushing down barriers to achieve the best possible effects.

The dynamic thinker is at a continuously curious mode, to make intellectual inquiries all the time. Change is the business new normal now. The static “we always do things like this” mentality is no longer effective to solve the complex problems and overcome the thorny challenges in the journey of digital transformation. We need to develop the "ASK mode" which is : First, the attitude means that you will create a new mindset of being curious, than just waiting for what things to happen; because by then, often it’s too late to respond to the circumstances. Digital professionals have to proactively accumulate the updated knowledge, be able to determine the skills that are required for them to deliver their outputs and finally develop the right set of capabilities to enforce the agility to adapt to the changes.

A dynamic mind takes more time to self-reflect, not less. Dynamic thinking doesn’t mean you make your brain saturated or keep your hands always busy, on the opposite, you need to take time for being quite, doing self-awareness and self-reflection. The paradox of technology is that, on one side, technology has enabled humanity to become aware of its thinking, now knowledge is only a click away; we are becoming hyper-connected through the power of the internet. As our connectedness increases, society is awakening, and we are becoming one again. On the other side, technology has been so effective to place in a complacent mode that no longer are we keen in being CURIOUS on what is happening and what might happen to affect an awareness that will lead to critical minds and therefore, emerge with a constructive and creative thinking. Our lives have become so busy that we do no longer have time to sit still, reflect and contemplate our place in the universe. But a dynamic mind flows with calmness and run fast and slow accordingly.

If we can learn to think more dynamically, then we’ll be better equipped to adapt and thrive in the ever-changing, increasingly unpredictable and uncertain world in which we live. Our beliefs not only affect our own physiology but also affect the people and the environment around us. Our thoughts/beliefs, even though we can't see them, influences change and lead digital transformations. Therefore, think positively and think dynamically.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu