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Pearl Zhu's Blog, page 1453
February 23, 2015
To Celebrate the #1600th Blog: A Success Mind
How we define success is like appreciating art, it's in the eye of the beholder.
The literal meaning of Success is "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose" (Oxford Dictionary). There is no ambiguity here; we are all clear of what "Success" means. Now, what is confusing is the term "aim." The definition of "aim" is largely influenced by other individuals in the news, in our organization - who have achieved their "aims."
Success is being “who you are -a unique you-there is only one of you.” This goes very well with the first belief of the success mindset which is: Success is personal. Most people don’t understand this and mistakenly pursue not theirs but other’s success. When they realize it, it is generally too late. The question to be asked is “Am I trying to achieve their aim or mine?” Realizing my aim should be my first success, and it can be as simple as reading a good book or writing a meaningful blog. And achieving that is another success. Thus, each day, each hour, each moment can make one successful. Of course if you get the opportunity to discover the purpose bigger than yourself, which benefits others significantly, that could make your success more meaningful and long-lasting. So being an authentic YOU is a significant success of life.
A success mind is progressive, paradoxical and multi-dimensional: Without success, human existence is wasted. The very purpose of human existence is to accomplish something worthwhile, continue to grow, and contribute to the success (satisfaction and happiness) of others. Success is both personal and shared; situational and earned. Success means different things at any given time depending on circumstances, it makes sense if you are looking for a circumstantial success, which is one time gratification or instant intuitive feeling of happiness. However, if you want to pursue true success (boundless satisfaction and universal happiness), which is lasting and peaceful, success seems to be also paradoxical, sometimes you have to be bent over in order to move forward; you have to make sacrifice in order to shape a solid path; you have to feel humbled in order to be proud; you have to stay cool in order to fill up the passion; or you just have to let the life flow effortlessly by staying focus on the aim as well. Success might just like a ray of sunshine, you embrace it, but you can’t fully touch it through.
A successful mind can groom more success minds: "Success is developing others." Organizations are the vehicle of people, not otherwise. As a leader, success is also defined by the skill and ability of the people who can collaboratively achieve the common purpose. By taking the time develop and train people, share knowledge and wisdom, you are setting not only your own, but also your company’s success. Not only it provides you great satisfaction, but also is the source of your intuitive happiness. Since success is earned rather than given, this belief increases your own ability exponentially to achieve the goals much faster and better. So at corporate level, success is all about collaboration, team effort, synergy that brings business success.
A successful mind is a growth and discovery mind: Success mindset is a combination of cautious optimism, passion, and using the resources available to the highest extent possible. Success is as simple as taking the next step. Each step is a success. Once you see success from this perspective, you will learn to enjoy every milestone along the way. This makes the journey just as enjoyable as the destination. Although you might alter the strong beliefs in the wake of the traumatic or unexpected life experiences/events, nothing is accident, you can always learn to test the beliefs, or refine them. This will put you in a growth and discovery mindset so essential for achieving success in the rapidly changing world. What is required is humility to test your current beliefs and openness to learning. It’s important to separate the rewards from success itself. Success is merely the distance between where you are today and where you want to be.
Success is an individual's instantaneous mental state rather than a fact. It would depend upon many factors which differ person to person. Objectively, success is planned and considered continuous improvement in the life of self and others by increasing knowledge, insight and taking personally perceived right and justifiable actions at any specific moment. The targets of success are the wisdom and understanding of the strengths and abilities of powers of knowledge in reasons, objects, activities, actions, nature of struggle, service and construction of self to achieve success; it is important that we take such wisdom, and understanding as said; necessary from the glory, brilliance and the intelligence of the minds of the propitious world; those which give or indicate a good chance of success.
Success is more in the nature of a journey than a destination. Each step is an opportunity to move forward. Even going backwards can be seen as a learning experience. Success simply requires taking the effort to create a vision of the path you would like to take and having the courage to take one step after another. Success is fagile. The true success makes your humbled as it is bigger than yourself.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The literal meaning of Success is "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose" (Oxford Dictionary). There is no ambiguity here; we are all clear of what "Success" means. Now, what is confusing is the term "aim." The definition of "aim" is largely influenced by other individuals in the news, in our organization - who have achieved their "aims."
Success is being “who you are -a unique you-there is only one of you.” This goes very well with the first belief of the success mindset which is: Success is personal. Most people don’t understand this and mistakenly pursue not theirs but other’s success. When they realize it, it is generally too late. The question to be asked is “Am I trying to achieve their aim or mine?” Realizing my aim should be my first success, and it can be as simple as reading a good book or writing a meaningful blog. And achieving that is another success. Thus, each day, each hour, each moment can make one successful. Of course if you get the opportunity to discover the purpose bigger than yourself, which benefits others significantly, that could make your success more meaningful and long-lasting. So being an authentic YOU is a significant success of life.
A success mind is progressive, paradoxical and multi-dimensional: Without success, human existence is wasted. The very purpose of human existence is to accomplish something worthwhile, continue to grow, and contribute to the success (satisfaction and happiness) of others. Success is both personal and shared; situational and earned. Success means different things at any given time depending on circumstances, it makes sense if you are looking for a circumstantial success, which is one time gratification or instant intuitive feeling of happiness. However, if you want to pursue true success (boundless satisfaction and universal happiness), which is lasting and peaceful, success seems to be also paradoxical, sometimes you have to be bent over in order to move forward; you have to make sacrifice in order to shape a solid path; you have to feel humbled in order to be proud; you have to stay cool in order to fill up the passion; or you just have to let the life flow effortlessly by staying focus on the aim as well. Success might just like a ray of sunshine, you embrace it, but you can’t fully touch it through.
A successful mind can groom more success minds: "Success is developing others." Organizations are the vehicle of people, not otherwise. As a leader, success is also defined by the skill and ability of the people who can collaboratively achieve the common purpose. By taking the time develop and train people, share knowledge and wisdom, you are setting not only your own, but also your company’s success. Not only it provides you great satisfaction, but also is the source of your intuitive happiness. Since success is earned rather than given, this belief increases your own ability exponentially to achieve the goals much faster and better. So at corporate level, success is all about collaboration, team effort, synergy that brings business success.
A successful mind is a growth and discovery mind: Success mindset is a combination of cautious optimism, passion, and using the resources available to the highest extent possible. Success is as simple as taking the next step. Each step is a success. Once you see success from this perspective, you will learn to enjoy every milestone along the way. This makes the journey just as enjoyable as the destination. Although you might alter the strong beliefs in the wake of the traumatic or unexpected life experiences/events, nothing is accident, you can always learn to test the beliefs, or refine them. This will put you in a growth and discovery mindset so essential for achieving success in the rapidly changing world. What is required is humility to test your current beliefs and openness to learning. It’s important to separate the rewards from success itself. Success is merely the distance between where you are today and where you want to be.
Success is an individual's instantaneous mental state rather than a fact. It would depend upon many factors which differ person to person. Objectively, success is planned and considered continuous improvement in the life of self and others by increasing knowledge, insight and taking personally perceived right and justifiable actions at any specific moment. The targets of success are the wisdom and understanding of the strengths and abilities of powers of knowledge in reasons, objects, activities, actions, nature of struggle, service and construction of self to achieve success; it is important that we take such wisdom, and understanding as said; necessary from the glory, brilliance and the intelligence of the minds of the propitious world; those which give or indicate a good chance of success.
Success is more in the nature of a journey than a destination. Each step is an opportunity to move forward. Even going backwards can be seen as a learning experience. Success simply requires taking the effort to create a vision of the path you would like to take and having the courage to take one step after another. Success is fagile. The true success makes your humbled as it is bigger than yourself.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Why Strategy Execution Unravels
Making the strategy a living thing, which can breath life into people and the culture.
Strategy execution is difficult. A recent executive survey indicated that executional excellence was the number one challenge facing corporate leaders globally, heading a list of business issues, including innovation, geopolitical instability, and top-line growth. The studies have found that two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel and how to improve strategy execution success rate?
Successful strategy execution is directly related to real leadership from the top down. The important leadership skill is the ability to see ahead. To read the future and align for opportunities that will exist when your team needs to arrive. And that ability is fraught with perception problems galore. One of the key elements missing in dysfunctional organizations is the leader not taking personal responsibility for his/her role. Without taking responsibility, fear, distrust, and agendas are bred---and it's impossible to argue with fools not taking responsibility. The real leaders lead. They guide, they direct, they own it, they hold themselves and managers accountable, they listen, they communicate with purpose, they rally the team for the cause! It's not just about strategic ideas, but making the strategy a living thing. The strategy when executed has a breath --- and it can breath life into people and the culture. Who doesn't want to work for a company that really makes a difference?
The process of moving something from outlier to acceptance usually takes a long time and involves risk. It seems logical the more ambitious the strategy one undertakes, one should expect high-levels of friction to capture (inside and outside the company) those high rewards. It is describing a more egalitarian (or distributed and coordinated) social structure to strategy execution. How will this arise without overcoming the very problems they describe regarding risk/reward? What’s the perception of success and assumption of risk. Change is borne from outliers - whether that be a perception, an emerging demographic, technology, etc. More often, outliers are the trend which represents the future, the hope and the progress.
One key practice is driving highly intensifying collaboration sessions across the management team at an appropriate frequency. This isn't accomplished through normal operational meetings, but can be through periodic cross-functional problem-solving and innovation sessions. The key is to get stakeholders to periodically "zoom out" and coordinate as an extended team with their peers across other co-dependent functions or groups, mutually working to address gaps and issues. These need to be systematic working and action planning sessions, professionally facilitated with proper methods and care, and with accountability for following-through, to be effective.
It is far easier to proactively structure and manage superior execution, than to deal reactively with the ravages of execution dysfunction. Not only that, but it’s much more fun and uplifting. And on productivity theme, the properly structured using "organizational focus" and authentic communication, productivity can triple. Every employee wants in their hearts to win, to achieve something significant. If leadership can define a compelling vision, structure execution, support and guide it, celebrating wins along the way, employees will dedicate all over themselves to produce. The processes and necessary techniques are simple, practical, and free executives to be more strategic in their roles. However, it is human nature to get distracted and lose sight of the ultimate vision. Quarterly reviews are very helpful. Sometimes these need to be scheduled more frequently.
The tipping point is to create "execution culture;" driving ownership, commitment, collaboration and creativity out into the organization. Most of managers spend very little time addressing crumbling paradigms, or basically would not know where to start to addressing crumbling paradigms. The superior execution requires the leaders’ inquisitiveness to dig through the root cause; also with some willingness to set aside personal interest; willingness and desire to serve the greater good and uplift the human spirit. Play big or stay in a box of incrementalism. The cultural richness and cross-the-board life satisfaction derived from achieving goals is night and day different. Although the teams are the engine, leadership must put that engine in place and care for it in a cohesive way. The single greatest threat is leadership's willingness and ability to collaborate, breakdown the silo, share power and open their functional agendas.
From effective leadership to execution culture; from rigorous, or even anti-fragile processes to highly engaging talent; from proactive planning to accepting outliers via education and influencing; the super execution is the result of synchronization of all key business factors; organizational agility & intelligence and strong disciplines and management pract.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Strategy execution is difficult. A recent executive survey indicated that executional excellence was the number one challenge facing corporate leaders globally, heading a list of business issues, including innovation, geopolitical instability, and top-line growth. The studies have found that two-thirds to three-quarters of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Why does strategy execution unravel and how to improve strategy execution success rate?
Successful strategy execution is directly related to real leadership from the top down. The important leadership skill is the ability to see ahead. To read the future and align for opportunities that will exist when your team needs to arrive. And that ability is fraught with perception problems galore. One of the key elements missing in dysfunctional organizations is the leader not taking personal responsibility for his/her role. Without taking responsibility, fear, distrust, and agendas are bred---and it's impossible to argue with fools not taking responsibility. The real leaders lead. They guide, they direct, they own it, they hold themselves and managers accountable, they listen, they communicate with purpose, they rally the team for the cause! It's not just about strategic ideas, but making the strategy a living thing. The strategy when executed has a breath --- and it can breath life into people and the culture. Who doesn't want to work for a company that really makes a difference?
The process of moving something from outlier to acceptance usually takes a long time and involves risk. It seems logical the more ambitious the strategy one undertakes, one should expect high-levels of friction to capture (inside and outside the company) those high rewards. It is describing a more egalitarian (or distributed and coordinated) social structure to strategy execution. How will this arise without overcoming the very problems they describe regarding risk/reward? What’s the perception of success and assumption of risk. Change is borne from outliers - whether that be a perception, an emerging demographic, technology, etc. More often, outliers are the trend which represents the future, the hope and the progress.
One key practice is driving highly intensifying collaboration sessions across the management team at an appropriate frequency. This isn't accomplished through normal operational meetings, but can be through periodic cross-functional problem-solving and innovation sessions. The key is to get stakeholders to periodically "zoom out" and coordinate as an extended team with their peers across other co-dependent functions or groups, mutually working to address gaps and issues. These need to be systematic working and action planning sessions, professionally facilitated with proper methods and care, and with accountability for following-through, to be effective.
It is far easier to proactively structure and manage superior execution, than to deal reactively with the ravages of execution dysfunction. Not only that, but it’s much more fun and uplifting. And on productivity theme, the properly structured using "organizational focus" and authentic communication, productivity can triple. Every employee wants in their hearts to win, to achieve something significant. If leadership can define a compelling vision, structure execution, support and guide it, celebrating wins along the way, employees will dedicate all over themselves to produce. The processes and necessary techniques are simple, practical, and free executives to be more strategic in their roles. However, it is human nature to get distracted and lose sight of the ultimate vision. Quarterly reviews are very helpful. Sometimes these need to be scheduled more frequently.
The tipping point is to create "execution culture;" driving ownership, commitment, collaboration and creativity out into the organization. Most of managers spend very little time addressing crumbling paradigms, or basically would not know where to start to addressing crumbling paradigms. The superior execution requires the leaders’ inquisitiveness to dig through the root cause; also with some willingness to set aside personal interest; willingness and desire to serve the greater good and uplift the human spirit. Play big or stay in a box of incrementalism. The cultural richness and cross-the-board life satisfaction derived from achieving goals is night and day different. Although the teams are the engine, leadership must put that engine in place and care for it in a cohesive way. The single greatest threat is leadership's willingness and ability to collaborate, breakdown the silo, share power and open their functional agendas.
From effective leadership to execution culture; from rigorous, or even anti-fragile processes to highly engaging talent; from proactive planning to accepting outliers via education and influencing; the super execution is the result of synchronization of all key business factors; organizational agility & intelligence and strong disciplines and management pract.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
February 22, 2015
How to Shape a Digital CIO
Digital CIOs are “designed for changes.”
A recent industry survey showed that Boards are still looking at IT more and more as a tactical function- keep the lights on, and CIOs as technical experts, rather than more and more looking to CIOs to be a real part of the executive team and strategic driver of business growth and empowerment. Much of this is indeed because so-called CIOs are malfunctioning (command-control, silo thinking and mis-communication, etc.). The highly effective CIOs know about these malfunctions and how to deal with them - given the chance, more importantly, they have the learning agility to grow into the role of digital CIO with the following characteristics.
Creative communicators: Modern digital CIOs have to play different roles and communicate with different audience such as boards, business partners, customers, vendors, etc. CIOs who practice creative communication with openness can help others contextualize better as well as demonstrating the trust. (1) Language translator: The CIO must be able to translate between the board / business speak and technology in both directions. (2) Art critique: The CIO has to promote IT as an equal business partner by selling the business solutions. The CIO must also be able to unpick the big picture and sell that to IT department as well. (3) Culture master: The CIO can gain in-depth understanding of corporate culture and sub-cultures, leverage technology tools to harness business communication and share collective wisdom.
Business strategist and technology visionary: The CIO role is both a business strategist and a visionary technical professional. They need to be self-aware and know that they possess those skills, not just from external observation. They should also be actively practicing those skills and learning the nuances of them from inspirational leaders, a qualified mentor or other resources. The CIO role is a visionary technical professional who is curious and able to predict and ride above the technology trends, but also a business strategist who can co-create business strategy because more often technology is the innovation engine and business disruptors in the digital age.
Customer-centricity: It is the era of consumerization of IT, IT organizations need to be more aware of how to empower users before they ask for it. There is a method, albeit a bit self-serving to those pushing it, called user-centric IT. The hard core of IT is becoming more and more ubiquitous and as a result, CIOs need to transform IT from a controller to a business enabler, to empower users with the right tools and information to make decisions at the right time; IT also needs to be transformed from an order-taker to rule co-maker, not just fix the problems to keep the light on; but also set the governance principles, not rigid processes, to improve IT and overall business maturity for the long term.
Digital CIOs are “designed for changes,” they are the change agent to promote the culture of innovation; they are the customer advocate by providing tailored customer solutions; they are the talent master who can empower employees to unleash their potentials, to encourage cross-functional communication and collaboration; and they are the governance champion who can manage and measure risks effectively. But first and foremost, the CIO role is shifting from an IT manager to a leadership role in driving business’s digital transformation journey.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
A recent industry survey showed that Boards are still looking at IT more and more as a tactical function- keep the lights on, and CIOs as technical experts, rather than more and more looking to CIOs to be a real part of the executive team and strategic driver of business growth and empowerment. Much of this is indeed because so-called CIOs are malfunctioning (command-control, silo thinking and mis-communication, etc.). The highly effective CIOs know about these malfunctions and how to deal with them - given the chance, more importantly, they have the learning agility to grow into the role of digital CIO with the following characteristics.
Creative communicators: Modern digital CIOs have to play different roles and communicate with different audience such as boards, business partners, customers, vendors, etc. CIOs who practice creative communication with openness can help others contextualize better as well as demonstrating the trust. (1) Language translator: The CIO must be able to translate between the board / business speak and technology in both directions. (2) Art critique: The CIO has to promote IT as an equal business partner by selling the business solutions. The CIO must also be able to unpick the big picture and sell that to IT department as well. (3) Culture master: The CIO can gain in-depth understanding of corporate culture and sub-cultures, leverage technology tools to harness business communication and share collective wisdom.
Business strategist and technology visionary: The CIO role is both a business strategist and a visionary technical professional. They need to be self-aware and know that they possess those skills, not just from external observation. They should also be actively practicing those skills and learning the nuances of them from inspirational leaders, a qualified mentor or other resources. The CIO role is a visionary technical professional who is curious and able to predict and ride above the technology trends, but also a business strategist who can co-create business strategy because more often technology is the innovation engine and business disruptors in the digital age.
Customer-centricity: It is the era of consumerization of IT, IT organizations need to be more aware of how to empower users before they ask for it. There is a method, albeit a bit self-serving to those pushing it, called user-centric IT. The hard core of IT is becoming more and more ubiquitous and as a result, CIOs need to transform IT from a controller to a business enabler, to empower users with the right tools and information to make decisions at the right time; IT also needs to be transformed from an order-taker to rule co-maker, not just fix the problems to keep the light on; but also set the governance principles, not rigid processes, to improve IT and overall business maturity for the long term.
Digital CIOs are “designed for changes,” they are the change agent to promote the culture of innovation; they are the customer advocate by providing tailored customer solutions; they are the talent master who can empower employees to unleash their potentials, to encourage cross-functional communication and collaboration; and they are the governance champion who can manage and measure risks effectively. But first and foremost, the CIO role is shifting from an IT manager to a leadership role in driving business’s digital transformation journey.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Digital Master Tuning XXXXV: Learning agility
Learning agility will directly impact the speed of digital transformation, the effectiveness of digital leadership, the creativity of workforce, and the overall organizational maturity.
Today’s workforce is more global, flexible and virtual as the world becomes so hyper-connected and over complex, especially the speed of change is accelerating in the digital era, learning agility is not only the very quality of digital leaders, but also the fundamental requirement for all digital professionals, in order to keep the mind open; make the skills updated and continue to build the dynamic digital capabilities to compete for the future. So how can digital leaders cultivate a working environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded, and creativity flourishes? What is the best way to create an environment where innovation can blossom? Is there a global solution, or is every organization different?
Learning agility means to learn, de-learn and re-learn all the times; and then apply those lessons to succeed in new situations. A collective learning capability is strategic for a company’s long term success. Learning is not just about the formal education one receives in his/her earlier year. Limitations on learning are barriers set by human themselves, as learning is a continuous process and everyone has enormous capacity to learn. Digital learning is also multidimensional, dynamic, interactive, informal and integrated.
Creating a culture of learning starts from the top: Altering how executives think and act is challenging. The most effective approach to organizational culture change is for the executives to have a personal philosophy shift. This changes the most important thing -- leadership mindset and behavior. It also flows into what they pay attention to and how they prioritize, lead their team, and deploy management processes. An agile culture is not the result of scalable processes, but of scalable behavior via the amplified leadership influence.
Harness learning agility via social platform: The rigid organizational structure stifle innovation and in many large legacy organization, there're layers upon layers of bureaucracy ensuring that agile methodology will go nowhere. No matter how much the enacting company pays lip service to their ability to support and build toward innovation. In the end, the entire structure of the large business is designed to reject such things because they don't contribute quantifiably to the execution of their current business model. The emergent digital technologies such as social platform provides flexible way to learn, share and collaborate, the digital tools and apps make learning informal, but more cost effective and interactive, with the very goals to groom future leaders and foster employee engagement and development.
Improving learning agility via the view of knowledge ecosystem: It incorporates the multi-faceted aspects of the knowledge system, innovation and intuitive behavior. Empower learning champions, finding a volunteer at the top of the organization or grooming an agile expert for the top role. Agilists are phenomenally disciplined in focusing on value, prioritizing, executing, and collaborating. It is important to cultivate the learning culture that has awareness and understanding plus setting a new behavior expectation of proactive participants. Learning agility at both individual and business level is a digital capability and culture shift, it will directly impact the speed of your digital transformation, effectiveness of digital leadership, creativity of workforce, and overall organizational maturity.
Digitalization is like a flywheel, and Digital Masters are the one riding above it. Surf more Information about Digital Master:
Digital Master Wikipedia Introduction
Digital Master Kindle Version Book Order URL
Digital Master Book URL
Digital Master Author URL
Digital Master Video Clip on YouTube
Digital Master Fun Quiz
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Today’s workforce is more global, flexible and virtual as the world becomes so hyper-connected and over complex, especially the speed of change is accelerating in the digital era, learning agility is not only the very quality of digital leaders, but also the fundamental requirement for all digital professionals, in order to keep the mind open; make the skills updated and continue to build the dynamic digital capabilities to compete for the future. So how can digital leaders cultivate a working environment where learning is encouraged and rewarded, and creativity flourishes? What is the best way to create an environment where innovation can blossom? Is there a global solution, or is every organization different?
Learning agility means to learn, de-learn and re-learn all the times; and then apply those lessons to succeed in new situations. A collective learning capability is strategic for a company’s long term success. Learning is not just about the formal education one receives in his/her earlier year. Limitations on learning are barriers set by human themselves, as learning is a continuous process and everyone has enormous capacity to learn. Digital learning is also multidimensional, dynamic, interactive, informal and integrated.
Creating a culture of learning starts from the top: Altering how executives think and act is challenging. The most effective approach to organizational culture change is for the executives to have a personal philosophy shift. This changes the most important thing -- leadership mindset and behavior. It also flows into what they pay attention to and how they prioritize, lead their team, and deploy management processes. An agile culture is not the result of scalable processes, but of scalable behavior via the amplified leadership influence.
Harness learning agility via social platform: The rigid organizational structure stifle innovation and in many large legacy organization, there're layers upon layers of bureaucracy ensuring that agile methodology will go nowhere. No matter how much the enacting company pays lip service to their ability to support and build toward innovation. In the end, the entire structure of the large business is designed to reject such things because they don't contribute quantifiably to the execution of their current business model. The emergent digital technologies such as social platform provides flexible way to learn, share and collaborate, the digital tools and apps make learning informal, but more cost effective and interactive, with the very goals to groom future leaders and foster employee engagement and development.
Improving learning agility via the view of knowledge ecosystem: It incorporates the multi-faceted aspects of the knowledge system, innovation and intuitive behavior. Empower learning champions, finding a volunteer at the top of the organization or grooming an agile expert for the top role. Agilists are phenomenally disciplined in focusing on value, prioritizing, executing, and collaborating. It is important to cultivate the learning culture that has awareness and understanding plus setting a new behavior expectation of proactive participants. Learning agility at both individual and business level is a digital capability and culture shift, it will directly impact the speed of your digital transformation, effectiveness of digital leadership, creativity of workforce, and overall organizational maturity. Digitalization is like a flywheel, and Digital Masters are the one riding above it. Surf more Information about Digital Master:
Digital Master Wikipedia Introduction
Digital Master Kindle Version Book Order URL
Digital Master Book URL
Digital Master Author URL
Digital Master Video Clip on YouTube
Digital Master Fun Quiz
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
February 21, 2015
Digital Master Tuning XXXXIIII: How Can Big Data Make the Organization Digital Fit
A company that is dysfunctional in digital analytics is going to struggle to make the transition to the digital paradigm.
Big Data and Predictive Analytics are at the top agenda in the majority of organizations. However, most of businesses are still struggling to provide their users with timely answers to new and changed requirements, relevant, consistent information of sufficient quality at acceptable costs. How can Big Data make the organization digital fit from getting fundamental right, and ultimately grow into Digital Master?
Data baggage symptom: Many organizations are indeed struggling to provide the right information to the right people at the right time, but the same organizations are also looking at new initiatives like Big Data and Predictive Analytics in the hope that they will somehow be easier and will make their users happy. Why are there so many businesses can’t make the basic right? That's because most organizations come with data baggage or some call it the "databesity", which is what costs time and money in terms of integration, performance, risk management, data governance, data lineage etc. The foundation of getting the Big Data lies in keeping the basic right. Gathering the relevant, consistent and actionable information lies in business processes and structured methodology. A lot of information will end-up being relational as opposed to transactional, and making sure that sanity checks are done regularly on information gathered by varying resources is crucial.
Data Quality is a big issue: In most companies where the data quality is poor, it has to do with definitions, if you don't know what you mean by "profit"or "cost price," and you let everybody define it their own way in their own spreadsheets, then you are never going to produce information that makes any sense -It doesn't matter if it comes from Big Data or Small Data. The data blending facilities in some of the new products don't help the information quality much either - they create their own version of virtual reality. And it would help if the CIO would take up the responsibility for the design, implementation and exploitation of a value-added information management process based on a solid framework, as exist for the logistics of "non virtual" assets. This is the only way to avoid silos. But with all the analytical capabilities that current technology has enabled, corporations would increasingly place their decision making on what these analytical tools come up without applying some good old managerial judgement.
Data governance as part of business governance. Data governance (master data definitions, business rules definitions and data quality rules) would be a great help, but as long that is done whilst extracting, blending and integrating data "between source and BI," it remains carrying water to the sea. Unless the business initiates real support and takes the responsibility for data governance, the situation will remain as it is. And on top of that, there are way too many IT people doing BI, who don't understand the first thing about BI. Many organizations deal with compliance-related data, captured through a system put in place over 10 years ago, when the focus was on automating workflows through web interface. At the time, reporting requirements and expectations were minimal compared to what they are today, not to mention that the regulatory burden keeps growing. Starting small, by examining a subset of data elements will help answer relatively simple but pertinent questions around compliance and process performance. The idea is to develop a bottom-up pilot project, starting with developing metadata and ending with reliable reporting. And it will be done with the tools at hand until you understand the path forward well enough to make a business case for scaling up.
Quick wins: In order to make Big Data more “visible” for shareholders, the companies need to investigate areas where they can have "quick wins" with new approaches of big data. Targeting customers is such an area where it is relatively "easy" as it - in general - does not require an integrated 360 degrees approach over all data sources as BI for a proper execution of the planning & control process to support strategic and tactical decision making does. However, the balanced analytics approach by focusing on long term goals with some quick wins is optimal on the Big Data journey.
A company that is dysfunctional in digital analytics is going to struggle to make the transition to the digital paradigm. These same organizations typically don't have good governance or data quality processes in place that a more mature analytics practice would. Or it will fail to develop them during their Big Data journey. Some companies will learn and adapt. But starting the journey is not contingent on having established processes, if they are not solidified in time then the likelihood of reaching the massive potential of Big Data will diminish to the point of no return. What can be done? The more that the enterprise adopts Big Data via logical steps and talented analysts, the more Big data practices will mature.
Digitalization is like a flywheel, and Digital Masters are the one riding above it. Surf more Information about Digital Master:
Digital Master Wikipedia Introduction
Digital Master Kindle Version Book Order URL
Digital Master Book URL
Digital Master Author URL
Digital Master Video Clip on YouTube
Digital Master Fun Quiz
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Big Data and Predictive Analytics are at the top agenda in the majority of organizations. However, most of businesses are still struggling to provide their users with timely answers to new and changed requirements, relevant, consistent information of sufficient quality at acceptable costs. How can Big Data make the organization digital fit from getting fundamental right, and ultimately grow into Digital Master?Data baggage symptom: Many organizations are indeed struggling to provide the right information to the right people at the right time, but the same organizations are also looking at new initiatives like Big Data and Predictive Analytics in the hope that they will somehow be easier and will make their users happy. Why are there so many businesses can’t make the basic right? That's because most organizations come with data baggage or some call it the "databesity", which is what costs time and money in terms of integration, performance, risk management, data governance, data lineage etc. The foundation of getting the Big Data lies in keeping the basic right. Gathering the relevant, consistent and actionable information lies in business processes and structured methodology. A lot of information will end-up being relational as opposed to transactional, and making sure that sanity checks are done regularly on information gathered by varying resources is crucial.
Data Quality is a big issue: In most companies where the data quality is poor, it has to do with definitions, if you don't know what you mean by "profit"or "cost price," and you let everybody define it their own way in their own spreadsheets, then you are never going to produce information that makes any sense -It doesn't matter if it comes from Big Data or Small Data. The data blending facilities in some of the new products don't help the information quality much either - they create their own version of virtual reality. And it would help if the CIO would take up the responsibility for the design, implementation and exploitation of a value-added information management process based on a solid framework, as exist for the logistics of "non virtual" assets. This is the only way to avoid silos. But with all the analytical capabilities that current technology has enabled, corporations would increasingly place their decision making on what these analytical tools come up without applying some good old managerial judgement.
Data governance as part of business governance. Data governance (master data definitions, business rules definitions and data quality rules) would be a great help, but as long that is done whilst extracting, blending and integrating data "between source and BI," it remains carrying water to the sea. Unless the business initiates real support and takes the responsibility for data governance, the situation will remain as it is. And on top of that, there are way too many IT people doing BI, who don't understand the first thing about BI. Many organizations deal with compliance-related data, captured through a system put in place over 10 years ago, when the focus was on automating workflows through web interface. At the time, reporting requirements and expectations were minimal compared to what they are today, not to mention that the regulatory burden keeps growing. Starting small, by examining a subset of data elements will help answer relatively simple but pertinent questions around compliance and process performance. The idea is to develop a bottom-up pilot project, starting with developing metadata and ending with reliable reporting. And it will be done with the tools at hand until you understand the path forward well enough to make a business case for scaling up.
Quick wins: In order to make Big Data more “visible” for shareholders, the companies need to investigate areas where they can have "quick wins" with new approaches of big data. Targeting customers is such an area where it is relatively "easy" as it - in general - does not require an integrated 360 degrees approach over all data sources as BI for a proper execution of the planning & control process to support strategic and tactical decision making does. However, the balanced analytics approach by focusing on long term goals with some quick wins is optimal on the Big Data journey.
A company that is dysfunctional in digital analytics is going to struggle to make the transition to the digital paradigm. These same organizations typically don't have good governance or data quality processes in place that a more mature analytics practice would. Or it will fail to develop them during their Big Data journey. Some companies will learn and adapt. But starting the journey is not contingent on having established processes, if they are not solidified in time then the likelihood of reaching the massive potential of Big Data will diminish to the point of no return. What can be done? The more that the enterprise adopts Big Data via logical steps and talented analysts, the more Big data practices will mature. Digitalization is like a flywheel, and Digital Masters are the one riding above it. Surf more Information about Digital Master:
Digital Master Wikipedia Introduction
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Digital Master Fun Quiz
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How Can Big Data Make the Organization Digital Fit
Big Data
Big Data and Predictive Analytics are at the top agenda in the majority of organizations. However, most of businesses are still struggling to provide their users with timely answers to new and changed requirements, relevant, consistent information of sufficient quality at acceptable costs. How can Big Data make the organization digital fit from getting fundamental right?Data baggage symptom: Many organizations are indeed struggling to provide the right information to the right people at the right time, but the same organizations are also looking at new initiatives like Big Data and Predictive Analytics in the hope that they will somehow be easier and will make their users happy. Why are there so many businesses can’t make the basic right? That's because most organizations come with data baggage, which is what costs time and money in terms of integration, performance, risk management, data governance, data lineage etc. The foundation of getting the Big Data lies in keeping the basic right. Gathering the relevant, consistent and actionable information lies in business processes and structured methodology. A lot of information will end-up being relational as opposed to transactional, and making sure that sanity checks are done regularly on information gathered by varying resources is crucial.
Data Quality is a big issue: In most companies where the data quality is poor, it has to do with definitions, if you don't know what you mean by "profit"or "cost price," and you let everybody define it their own way in their own spreadsheets, then you are never going to produce information that makes any sense -It doesn't matter if it comes from Big Data or Small Data. The data blending facilities in some of the new products don't help the information quality much either - they create their own version of virtual reality. And it would help if the CIO would take up the responsibility for the design, implementation and exploitation of a value-added information management process based on a solid framework, as exist for the logistics of "non virtual" assets. This is the only way to avoid silos. But with all the analytical capabilities that current technology has enabled, corporations would increasingly place their decision making on what these analytical tools come up without applying some good old managerial judgement.
Data governance as part of business governance. Data governance (master data definitions, business rules definitions and data quality rules) would be a great help, but as long that is done whilst extracting, blending and integrating data "between source and BI," it remains carrying water to the sea. Unless the business initiates real support and takes the responsibility for data governance, the situation will remain as it is. And on top of that, there are way too many IT people doing BI, who don't understand the first thing about BI. Many organizations deal with compliance-related data, captured through a system put in place over 10 years ago, when the focus was on automating workflows through web interface. At the time, reporting requirements and expectations were minimal compared to what they are today, not to mention that the regulatory burden keeps growing. Starting small, by examining a subset of data elements will help answer relatively simple but pertinent questions around compliance and process performance. The idea is to develop a bottom-up pilot project, starting with developing metadata and ending with reliable reporting. And it will be done with the tools at hand until you understand the path forward well enough to make a business case for scaling up.
Quick wins: In order to make Big Data more “visible” for shareholders, the companies need to investigate areas where they can have "quick wins" with new approaches of big data. Targeting customers is such an area where it is relatively "easy" as it - in general - does not require an integrated 360 degrees approach over all data sources as BI for a proper execution of the planning & control process to support strategic and tactical decision making does. However, the balanced analytics approach by focusing on long term goals with some quick wins is optimal on the Big Data journey.
A company that is dysfunctional in digital analytics is going to struggle to make the transition to the digital paradigm. These same organizations typically don't have good governance or data quality processes in place that a more mature analytics practice would. Or it will fail to develop them during their Big Data journey. Some companies will learn and adapt. But starting the journey is not contingent on having established processes, but if they are not solidified in time then the likelihood of reaching the massive potential of Big Data will diminish to the point of no return. What can be done? The more that the enterprise adopts Big Data, the more Big data practices will mature. Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Does A Highly Effective Leader Create Discomfort?
The very goal of creating constructive discomfort is to spark creativity by getting out of comfort zone.
Leaders plays pivotal role in driving organization’s growth and leading societal progress, how to walk the talk and lead effectively? Should a high-effective leader get liked by all or create discomfort to provoke talent growth? Getting respected or being popular, which one is more important?
Outward future focus: Leaders need to focus outward on the horizon for future opportunities and pitfalls. A leader is a person who is focused outward scanning the horizon, looking for future opportunities or possible perils. Leadership, in this case, is not just a matter of traits—persona, tough mindedness, or bottom-line thinking. It’s about vision, direction, alignment, and inspiration—developing a purpose and future perspective, bringing together people in a common and committed effort, and moving people in the right direction despite many obstacles. Leadership at its core is concerned with outward thinking that embraces a future perspective; it inspires followers to establish a sense of ongoing direction. It’s about creating meaningful results with the help of many others who chose to subordinate a portion of their individually so all will benefit. The job, therefore, means flexibility and experimentation, developing a set of capabilities that are extensive, recombinate, and have been tested over time in different settings. A leader gets admiration and support from employees when he or she undertakes planning with their full involvement.This participatory planning provides a sense of comfort to all interested parties that the exciting road ahead is reality based and not just the unbridled ego of its architect. It enables them to confirm how major initiative are being undertaken as a logical extension or evolution of its business essence rather than a haphazard reaction to conditions as they arise.
Mind the Gap: All difficult conversations share a common structure. Understanding the structure is essential to improving how you handle your most challenging conversations. Leaders need to understand not only what is said, but what is not said. Difficult conversations can be tough but be analytic and empathetic, peel the onion and look at why people resist, many of the problems stems from organizational culture. Sometimes it is not the conversation that creates the resistance, it may be the relationship between sender and receiver. You must seek to understand what people are thinking and feeling but not saying to each other. The gap between what you are thinking and what you are saying is part of what makes a conversation difficult. Relationships certainly impact conversations. Leaders have to create safe environments for followers to share openly and create inspiration among team members and to inspire them to make enthusiastic contributions.
Create discomfort: One of the leadership capacities is to get people out of their comfort zone to meet challenges and learn new skills. It is absolutely necessary for leaders to create discomfort and get others thinking differently. Some leaders use a counter argument in open discussions just to ensure multiple points of view are explored. However, there is always a right way to challenge others and it is never demeaning, always constructive. Life without challenges is boring and may lead to change inertia, negative attitudes and poor behaviors accordingly. Unleashing talent potential is extremely important. Talent fosters curiosity and curiosity fosters exploration; and it is that exploration that develops new products or new ways to delight customers. Appreciate and grow talent whenever you can, so the right dose of discomfort helps people out of comfort zone, encourage the “misfit’ thinking and spark creativity.
There’s no magic formula for leadership effectiveness, vision, influence, empathy, creativity and learning agility are all key elements of digital leadership, leaders themselves must get out of their own comfort zone first, before inspiring the team to continuously learn and grow, to create such constructive discomfort for sparking creativity, challenging the status quo, and take extra effort to delight customers and improve organizational maturity.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Leaders plays pivotal role in driving organization’s growth and leading societal progress, how to walk the talk and lead effectively? Should a high-effective leader get liked by all or create discomfort to provoke talent growth? Getting respected or being popular, which one is more important?
Outward future focus: Leaders need to focus outward on the horizon for future opportunities and pitfalls. A leader is a person who is focused outward scanning the horizon, looking for future opportunities or possible perils. Leadership, in this case, is not just a matter of traits—persona, tough mindedness, or bottom-line thinking. It’s about vision, direction, alignment, and inspiration—developing a purpose and future perspective, bringing together people in a common and committed effort, and moving people in the right direction despite many obstacles. Leadership at its core is concerned with outward thinking that embraces a future perspective; it inspires followers to establish a sense of ongoing direction. It’s about creating meaningful results with the help of many others who chose to subordinate a portion of their individually so all will benefit. The job, therefore, means flexibility and experimentation, developing a set of capabilities that are extensive, recombinate, and have been tested over time in different settings. A leader gets admiration and support from employees when he or she undertakes planning with their full involvement.This participatory planning provides a sense of comfort to all interested parties that the exciting road ahead is reality based and not just the unbridled ego of its architect. It enables them to confirm how major initiative are being undertaken as a logical extension or evolution of its business essence rather than a haphazard reaction to conditions as they arise.
Mind the Gap: All difficult conversations share a common structure. Understanding the structure is essential to improving how you handle your most challenging conversations. Leaders need to understand not only what is said, but what is not said. Difficult conversations can be tough but be analytic and empathetic, peel the onion and look at why people resist, many of the problems stems from organizational culture. Sometimes it is not the conversation that creates the resistance, it may be the relationship between sender and receiver. You must seek to understand what people are thinking and feeling but not saying to each other. The gap between what you are thinking and what you are saying is part of what makes a conversation difficult. Relationships certainly impact conversations. Leaders have to create safe environments for followers to share openly and create inspiration among team members and to inspire them to make enthusiastic contributions.
Create discomfort: One of the leadership capacities is to get people out of their comfort zone to meet challenges and learn new skills. It is absolutely necessary for leaders to create discomfort and get others thinking differently. Some leaders use a counter argument in open discussions just to ensure multiple points of view are explored. However, there is always a right way to challenge others and it is never demeaning, always constructive. Life without challenges is boring and may lead to change inertia, negative attitudes and poor behaviors accordingly. Unleashing talent potential is extremely important. Talent fosters curiosity and curiosity fosters exploration; and it is that exploration that develops new products or new ways to delight customers. Appreciate and grow talent whenever you can, so the right dose of discomfort helps people out of comfort zone, encourage the “misfit’ thinking and spark creativity.
There’s no magic formula for leadership effectiveness, vision, influence, empathy, creativity and learning agility are all key elements of digital leadership, leaders themselves must get out of their own comfort zone first, before inspiring the team to continuously learn and grow, to create such constructive discomfort for sparking creativity, challenging the status quo, and take extra effort to delight customers and improve organizational maturity.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Is there an End State of Agile
Agile is more as PRINCIPLES, not rules; Agile is more as a CULTURE, than a process.
Many organizations are on the journey to applying Agile as a management discipline and practices. In an organization on a path to agility, is there an 'end state'? Or a state that is just right for that moment in time? How do you assess that there was no significant waste in the organizational form?
Agile is the PRINCIPLE to make continuous improvement. The idea of an "end state" typically carries with it the notion that there is no such a thing as "100% Agile." Continuous Improvement is one of the key practices for Agile teams so, by definition, there can't be anything like "100% Agile" nor the idea of an "end state." Someone once said, "If you can't show me that you're better this month than you were last month, don't tell me you're Agile."
Agile is a CULTURE, not a process. End-state thinking comes from confusing agile with some process or another. Agile is not SCRUM, it's not XP, it's a culture within which those processes can flourish. There can be an end state to learning a specific process, but self-improvement is a significant part of the underlying culture. That culture says if something doesn't work, you fix it, and no practices (agile or otherwise) works perfectly all the time. There's always room for improvement, so the process is constantly evolving.
The 'end state' is when the organization no longer needs to repeatedly invest in expensive improvement projects. Instead the organization is able to constantly adapt to the changing environment. It's an ideal state, not necessarily achievable in perpetuity. The world keeps on turning and innovating around you and there will be new technologies, new approaches, new tools, new people that will have an impact on your team. Eventually you are spending time "trimming and paring," finding small things to improve and adjusting to immediately current conditions, looking for new ways to "see waste" etc.; this becomes a steady state but dynamic equilibrium rather than "End State."
“Sufficient" agility is an obtainable state. Nevertheless, eliminating waste and continuously improving should always be ongoing objectives even if you obtain sufficient agility since this can be easily lost as there are so many variables in the business environment. The more you improve in one area the more you will expose weaknesses in others. You improve literally by iterations. The hard part is not getting content with where you are, and always looking to improve. Another challenge is maintaining this momentum if a project ends. Keeping the focus after the individuals have returned to the "line" management teams will be the biggest challenge.
There are different purpose to achieve Agile, perhaps one ought to ask how much of an “End State” is needed. If the goal is to comply with an "agile" framework, then the end state is compliance with the chosen framework. If the goal is to establish a culture of continual improvement, and "agile" is one element that contributes to that culture, then there is no end state. Every experience was different, some organizations were more mature in terms of how they made use of Agile as an organizing framework. The thing that the more agile teams had over the others was transparency. People clearly understood their role in the organization, their goals and what was expected of them.
Improvement is going from station to station. Agile never ends. The world is changing and continuous adaptation is the only way to survive in a competitive world. Agile is not just a business principle, but a life principle: stand still, fall behind is not what you want.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
Many organizations are on the journey to applying Agile as a management discipline and practices. In an organization on a path to agility, is there an 'end state'? Or a state that is just right for that moment in time? How do you assess that there was no significant waste in the organizational form?
Agile is the PRINCIPLE to make continuous improvement. The idea of an "end state" typically carries with it the notion that there is no such a thing as "100% Agile." Continuous Improvement is one of the key practices for Agile teams so, by definition, there can't be anything like "100% Agile" nor the idea of an "end state." Someone once said, "If you can't show me that you're better this month than you were last month, don't tell me you're Agile."
Agile is a CULTURE, not a process. End-state thinking comes from confusing agile with some process or another. Agile is not SCRUM, it's not XP, it's a culture within which those processes can flourish. There can be an end state to learning a specific process, but self-improvement is a significant part of the underlying culture. That culture says if something doesn't work, you fix it, and no practices (agile or otherwise) works perfectly all the time. There's always room for improvement, so the process is constantly evolving.
The 'end state' is when the organization no longer needs to repeatedly invest in expensive improvement projects. Instead the organization is able to constantly adapt to the changing environment. It's an ideal state, not necessarily achievable in perpetuity. The world keeps on turning and innovating around you and there will be new technologies, new approaches, new tools, new people that will have an impact on your team. Eventually you are spending time "trimming and paring," finding small things to improve and adjusting to immediately current conditions, looking for new ways to "see waste" etc.; this becomes a steady state but dynamic equilibrium rather than "End State."
“Sufficient" agility is an obtainable state. Nevertheless, eliminating waste and continuously improving should always be ongoing objectives even if you obtain sufficient agility since this can be easily lost as there are so many variables in the business environment. The more you improve in one area the more you will expose weaknesses in others. You improve literally by iterations. The hard part is not getting content with where you are, and always looking to improve. Another challenge is maintaining this momentum if a project ends. Keeping the focus after the individuals have returned to the "line" management teams will be the biggest challenge.
There are different purpose to achieve Agile, perhaps one ought to ask how much of an “End State” is needed. If the goal is to comply with an "agile" framework, then the end state is compliance with the chosen framework. If the goal is to establish a culture of continual improvement, and "agile" is one element that contributes to that culture, then there is no end state. Every experience was different, some organizations were more mature in terms of how they made use of Agile as an organizing framework. The thing that the more agile teams had over the others was transparency. People clearly understood their role in the organization, their goals and what was expected of them.
Improvement is going from station to station. Agile never ends. The world is changing and continuous adaptation is the only way to survive in a competitive world. Agile is not just a business principle, but a life principle: stand still, fall behind is not what you want.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
February 20, 2015
The Big Story of Big Data
Storytelling is nothing new, it's the integration of the art with the science.
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? Storytelling skills will continue to grow in importance for analysts to be effective in 2015. But this isn't really new, perhaps it's just that more organizations are going through the learning curve of what they need from a balanced analyst (the artistic scientist or a creative analyst) to tell stories and articulate well to tailor the interest of different audience.
Storytelling is nothing new, it's the integration of the art with the science. You really need both skills to tell a good Big Data story. This is a very important trend. It's been growing for sometime, but is beginning to get the attention it deserves. As technology - in all areas - becomes less siloed, and an even more integral aspect of the wider business - the need to communicate the insights of data as a clear, actionable story becomes ever more critical. So Data professionals, need to focus as much on those communication skills as on the "hard" aspects of data science. It calls out the need for both understanding of subject matter and data to gain insights. Too many times these perversely are on different sides of a wall. For the data analyst to be a storyteller requires that they well understand the underlying real world issue being studied. It's a good data analyst who possesses not only the technical skills needed to extract relevant data but knows what it means and can then tell the story. They are rare, and valuable.
The data is very important, but the interpretation of those data is equal of importance. We live in a world that wants to eliminate, or at least reduce risk through "hard" data. There's the implication that, with enough data, decision making could be almost risk free. But the data is just the initial basis for the decisions. Decisions still have to be made in a human way; and human beings have always been moved most by strong stories. Data is critical. But it's just a first step, the data is very important base, but the interpretation of those data is equal of importance. Just like the same news can be showed with different points of view by different readers, the Big Data can tell the different story from different angle. Avoid pitfalls of mistaking data for facts; knowledge for insight, and insight for wisdom.
Take Big Data approach by navigating top-down structure of Goals-Strategy-Execution-Outcomes. The conversation will move beyond Dashboards, Scorecards, data visualization. It will be about merging Big Data and traditional sources of data into a single interactive experience for the business user so they will be able to view and test different outcomes to "their story," and focus on business goals. Get from 'big picture' initiatives down to how individual efforts contribute to corporate goals. Having a good top-down narrative is an important component. If an organization's focus is only at a strategic level, then execution & outcomes are typically more 'painful' than leaders expect. If the focus is solely operational, (data & apps in this case) organizations typically have tactics but lack strategic direction.The logic steps to analyze data and tell a story include:1). Define the problem or opportunity 2). Problem/opportunity background 3). Options 4). Recommendation - based on facts or data 5). Next steps.
There are now tools that make it easier to tell stories with data. There are storyboards or 'points' built into their latest versions and is a great way of presenting findings; but the real problem will always be to make sense of data from a business perspective. When data analysis excites business executives, it is usually because of the story it is telling them about the underlying real world entity. This entity may be a person but can be any generator of data such as sensors. It is a pattern in a population or across time that is discovered in the data and becomes the story to be told. The challenge and skill is in the mapping of always imperfect data to the always complex underlying reality. The provenance of the information being presented must be readily available and a part of the story; such as using a few interesting and easy to understand graphs to picture the problem at hand and show outliers to define the focus of the story. Then options -- recommendations -- next steps - create a lasting effect of storytelling.
Big Data has to tell a good, not necessary big story to tailor audience. Storytelling is essentially one of the best ways to engage the audience. Data scientist can have all of the tools, technology, and skills - but understanding the business context of the data is equally as important in order to tell Big Data stories. Big Data analysts/scientists can grow into the subject matter expert and thought leaders by telling great Big Data stories or parables.
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? Storytelling skills will continue to grow in importance for analysts to be effective in 2015. But this isn't really new, perhaps it's just that more organizations are going through the learning curve of what they need from a balanced analyst (the artistic scientist or a creative analyst) to tell stories and articulate well to tailor the interest of different audience.
Storytelling is nothing new, it's the integration of the art with the science. You really need both skills to tell a good Big Data story. This is a very important trend. It's been growing for sometime, but is beginning to get the attention it deserves. As technology - in all areas - becomes less siloed, and an even more integral aspect of the wider business - the need to communicate the insights of data as a clear, actionable story becomes ever more critical. So Data professionals, need to focus as much on those communication skills as on the "hard" aspects of data science. It calls out the need for both understanding of subject matter and data to gain insights. Too many times these perversely are on different sides of a wall. For the data analyst to be a storyteller requires that they well understand the underlying real world issue being studied. It's a good data analyst who possesses not only the technical skills needed to extract relevant data but knows what it means and can then tell the story. They are rare, and valuable.
The data is very important, but the interpretation of those data is equal of importance. We live in a world that wants to eliminate, or at least reduce risk through "hard" data. There's the implication that, with enough data, decision making could be almost risk free. But the data is just the initial basis for the decisions. Decisions still have to be made in a human way; and human beings have always been moved most by strong stories. Data is critical. But it's just a first step, the data is very important base, but the interpretation of those data is equal of importance. Just like the same news can be showed with different points of view by different readers, the Big Data can tell the different story from different angle. Avoid pitfalls of mistaking data for facts; knowledge for insight, and insight for wisdom.
Take Big Data approach by navigating top-down structure of Goals-Strategy-Execution-Outcomes. The conversation will move beyond Dashboards, Scorecards, data visualization. It will be about merging Big Data and traditional sources of data into a single interactive experience for the business user so they will be able to view and test different outcomes to "their story," and focus on business goals. Get from 'big picture' initiatives down to how individual efforts contribute to corporate goals. Having a good top-down narrative is an important component. If an organization's focus is only at a strategic level, then execution & outcomes are typically more 'painful' than leaders expect. If the focus is solely operational, (data & apps in this case) organizations typically have tactics but lack strategic direction.The logic steps to analyze data and tell a story include:1). Define the problem or opportunity 2). Problem/opportunity background 3). Options 4). Recommendation - based on facts or data 5). Next steps.
There are now tools that make it easier to tell stories with data. There are storyboards or 'points' built into their latest versions and is a great way of presenting findings; but the real problem will always be to make sense of data from a business perspective. When data analysis excites business executives, it is usually because of the story it is telling them about the underlying real world entity. This entity may be a person but can be any generator of data such as sensors. It is a pattern in a population or across time that is discovered in the data and becomes the story to be told. The challenge and skill is in the mapping of always imperfect data to the always complex underlying reality. The provenance of the information being presented must be readily available and a part of the story; such as using a few interesting and easy to understand graphs to picture the problem at hand and show outliers to define the focus of the story. Then options -- recommendations -- next steps - create a lasting effect of storytelling.
Big Data has to tell a good, not necessary big story to tailor audience. Storytelling is essentially one of the best ways to engage the audience. Data scientist can have all of the tools, technology, and skills - but understanding the business context of the data is equally as important in order to tell Big Data stories. Big Data analysts/scientists can grow into the subject matter expert and thought leaders by telling great Big Data stories or parables.
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
The Collective Creativity
The collective creativity has its own dynamic and flux.
Creativity is serendipitous; creativity is full of color; creativity has many faces. How many forms of creativity are there? How are they different? How are they similar? Isn't what makes them similar also what makes them creativity? Besides individual creativity, can creativity be manifested in the collective environment?
Creative thinking is connecting previously unconnected thoughts - a neurological event. Creativity is bringing the novel thoughts out into the world and expressing them in some forms such that others can experience them if they are there to do so at some point. Innovation is the process to transform creativity and achieve its commercial values. Creativity brought into the world in such a way that new value can be created. From a new strategy to a new product, it's innovation effect if new value is created. Many companies going through a period of introspection believe that they already and implicitly understand the nature of innovation.... Necessity is one of the parents of innovation. Vision, creativity, and thinking out of the box are important tools for inspiration. This can be achieved through diversity of cultures, through the arts, diverse experiences, relationships, and surroundings. By becoming mindful, fully aware of what we are doing, we remove mental distractions, it becomes easier to not see it as incompatible with creativity. An added advantage would be that as we look at the same task with fresh eyes, without the previous underlying preconceptions, we can use it as a springboard for new ideas/innovation. If we follow this approach, however, we have to be both persistent and gentle on ourselves. We have to do it not as a chore but with joy.Creativity can be manifested in a collective environment. While the individual contributions perhaps provide the 'building blocks,' it is the collective consensus on what to do with them that is exciting…Human interactions, emotional intelligence, transparency of management, staff engagement, recognition of effort and an optimized process flow is a start and does not require handing over the control of the company to anyone other than the existing team members. Such collective form of creativity is based on: -the intent of the event is to develop a tangible result that did not currently exist. -the nature of the result is deliberately expressive and improvised. -the interactions between participants is not premeditated or contrived. - the resulting 'product' is more than any one individual was capable of achieving. - the result is not something that any one participant could have conceived independently.
The collective creativity has its own dynamic and flux. The collective creativity is not just a sum of creative pieces; but a more meaningful achievement for problem solving, continuous improvement or breakthrough innovation. Any communal and expressive event will be made up of all the individual creative input from the participants. Separate to this prerequisite, it is another separate and tangible result - and that result is a collective creativity. It is not just a mere cumulation of the creative inputs of those involved. It is also not only a synchronization of their individual inputs to make something that no one individual would achieve. It is more than that. It has its own dynamic which is in a state of constant flux. It builds up a momentum that draws creative contributions from the participants that they did not previously conceive or understood they were capable of.Organizations build up the innovative culture via such collective creativity, innovation becomes the ongoing capability for organizations to thrive, in order to delight customers or engage employees. Businesses just have to have the objectivity and humility to leverage resources and talent to learn and experiment, scale and improve towards the creativity journey.
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Creativity is serendipitous; creativity is full of color; creativity has many faces. How many forms of creativity are there? How are they different? How are they similar? Isn't what makes them similar also what makes them creativity? Besides individual creativity, can creativity be manifested in the collective environment?
Creative thinking is connecting previously unconnected thoughts - a neurological event. Creativity is bringing the novel thoughts out into the world and expressing them in some forms such that others can experience them if they are there to do so at some point. Innovation is the process to transform creativity and achieve its commercial values. Creativity brought into the world in such a way that new value can be created. From a new strategy to a new product, it's innovation effect if new value is created. Many companies going through a period of introspection believe that they already and implicitly understand the nature of innovation.... Necessity is one of the parents of innovation. Vision, creativity, and thinking out of the box are important tools for inspiration. This can be achieved through diversity of cultures, through the arts, diverse experiences, relationships, and surroundings. By becoming mindful, fully aware of what we are doing, we remove mental distractions, it becomes easier to not see it as incompatible with creativity. An added advantage would be that as we look at the same task with fresh eyes, without the previous underlying preconceptions, we can use it as a springboard for new ideas/innovation. If we follow this approach, however, we have to be both persistent and gentle on ourselves. We have to do it not as a chore but with joy.Creativity can be manifested in a collective environment. While the individual contributions perhaps provide the 'building blocks,' it is the collective consensus on what to do with them that is exciting…Human interactions, emotional intelligence, transparency of management, staff engagement, recognition of effort and an optimized process flow is a start and does not require handing over the control of the company to anyone other than the existing team members. Such collective form of creativity is based on: -the intent of the event is to develop a tangible result that did not currently exist. -the nature of the result is deliberately expressive and improvised. -the interactions between participants is not premeditated or contrived. - the resulting 'product' is more than any one individual was capable of achieving. - the result is not something that any one participant could have conceived independently.
The collective creativity has its own dynamic and flux. The collective creativity is not just a sum of creative pieces; but a more meaningful achievement for problem solving, continuous improvement or breakthrough innovation. Any communal and expressive event will be made up of all the individual creative input from the participants. Separate to this prerequisite, it is another separate and tangible result - and that result is a collective creativity. It is not just a mere cumulation of the creative inputs of those involved. It is also not only a synchronization of their individual inputs to make something that no one individual would achieve. It is more than that. It has its own dynamic which is in a state of constant flux. It builds up a momentum that draws creative contributions from the participants that they did not previously conceive or understood they were capable of.Organizations build up the innovative culture via such collective creativity, innovation becomes the ongoing capability for organizations to thrive, in order to delight customers or engage employees. Businesses just have to have the objectivity and humility to leverage resources and talent to learn and experiment, scale and improve towards the creativity journey.Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu
