A new video over on the Enterprise CIO Forum with Bill Laberis in apost titled Are we setting CIOs up for failure?.

Bill’s video is embedded below for your viewing. Its short but asks a good question – Are we setting the CIO up for failure?

So…are we setting CIOs up for failure?

Bill thinks the answer is “Yes”. He points to all the things that a CIO is now being asked to do as proof…and says that the future CIO (and IT) must step away from a good portion of IT operations and put more focus on the ‘strategic’ activities.

Sound familiar? It should (if you are a regular reader).

That said…I believe operations is important.  Just as important as every other part of the organization. But…should the CIO be focused on operations?  Or…a stronger question…should IT operations go the route of rest of the operational staff within organizations (you know…the electricians, janitors, plumbers, facilities, etc)?

I don’t think so…but with the focus of most CIO’s on governance, processes and metrics, how do these CIO’s move away from operations and into the “C Suite” to talk about strategy and tactics instead of their focus on operations?

Do we see that split between operations and business technology that I’ve written about before? Or…do we see CIO’s stepping out of the operational mindset and allowing their staff to focus on operations?  I know many CIO’s who would have a hard time ignoring IT operations, budgets and the minutea of ‘running IT’ but I think they’ll have to do it.  That…or allow the business technology functions to run away without them.

What do you think? Are we setting CIO’s and the IT group up for failure by asking too much? Or…are we assuming that the IT professional / CIO cannot change their mindset and focus to  adapt and deliver what the organization needs them to deliver?

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

• Don’t Underestimate the Quiet Ones by Mary Jo Asmus on Aspire-CS

  Quote: In the end, we need all kinds of people in leadership. Don’t overlook those who are quieter than the rest. Get to know them, understand their strengths and determine whether your assumptions are correct. You might be pleasantly surprised at what the quiet can do for your organization when they are encouraged to lead.

• The Diffusion of the Consumerization of IT by Jim Harris on OCDQ Blog

  Quote: From my perspective, traditional IT departments are just now crossing the chasm of the diffusion of the consumerization of IT, and are conflicting with the business units that crossed the chasm long ago with their direct adoption of cloud computing, SaaS, and mobility solutions not provided by the IT department.  This divergence caused by the IT department and some business units being on different sides of the chasm has damaged, and potentially irreparably, some aspects of the IT-Business partnership.

• Why Authenticity Works In Social Media by Ali Goldfield on ADR Social Media

  Quote: So I’m here to stress that while it is important, as a Brand or business, to create an air of authority in your field, it is just as critical to really interact with your audience on their level. If that means asking questions on Facebook to create engagement or allowing comments on your blog in order to generate  a healthy discussion of your customers’ needs and wants, then so be it.

• Honing Twitter’s Power to Improve Healthcare Communication by Brian S. McGowan, PhD on Social Media Explorer

  Quote: If you ask physicians what they like best about the continuing education courses they take, they’ll tell you that they enjoy engaging with other doctors in the hallways; they love the interactivity of the sessions. If you followed those same physicians back to their workplaces and asked how they answer the questions that are raised over the course of a normal workday, they’d tell you that they consult with a colleague. What they won’t say, probably because they lack the perspective, is that the majority of learning that occurs over a medical career is social learning. My proposition is that social media applications, like Twitter, are the natural evolution of the social learning that takes place in hallways and lecture halls throughout the country. The added benefit is that social media can extend learning across time and space so questions can be posed, and answered, by broader audiences of healthcare professionals.

• Understanding Which Investments Should go to the Cloud by Mike Walker

  Quote: The truth is, most companies significantly underestimate the scope of change required to establish cloud services until it’s too late. In the traditional model, companies buy technology from a vendor as a capital investment, and continue to invest in maintaining and servicing it over time. With the cloud being a service, however, the financial model should be treated more like a utility, requiring the reallocation of budget from capital expenses into operating expenses.

I shot the heck out of old-faithful erupting and got lucky with this shot and got the rainbow I was hoping for. Captured with Canon 5D and Canon 24-105 L.

See more photos in my flickr photostream and/or my Zenfolio portfolio (where you can buy images). If you like my photography, feel free to support my addiction habit by visiting Adorama (affiliate link) to purchase new or used photographic gear. Or, if you are interested in renting gear before buying, try out my favorite camera, lens and gear rental site -  Borrowlenses.com (affiliate link) - the folks at Borrowlenses are awesome.  All proceeds from clicking the above affiliate links go to more photographs. 

EXIF: 1/1000sec, f/4.5, 45mm, 100ISO, 0EV

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

Martin Davis wrote a nice piece titled Is Consumerization of IT” really “Shadow IT” in disguise? where he asks a really great question….Is Consumerization of IT (which is something many people are talking about today) just another version of Shadow IT?

I’ve written about Shadow IT many times in the past and will most likely continue to write about it in the future.

In this article, Martin writes:

CIOs have long battled against Shadow IT and how to prevent, control, deal with or remove it. The arguments for doing this have usually revolved around security, compliance, supportability and business risk. Although IT’s fear of losing control has been an underlying theme.

Martin continues with:

The bottom line is that it is becoming easier than ever for the business to procure cloud based services without IT involvement and more worryingly without IT even knowing about it. Unless IT adopts a different approach to servicing the business they risk being sidelined.

Emphasis mine.

Most people believe that IT’s command/control focus (via processes, procedures, frameworks, etc) has been put into place for the simple fact that IT likes to ‘own’ things and ‘say no’ to any request. While its fun to joke around that IT is the place that pessimists go to work, its an important aspect of organizational life.   IT IS a place where NO is staid more than Yes in most organizations.  Not because its fun to do but because its necessary.

But…a ‘no’ can be delivered in many ways. Rather than say ‘no’ and nothing else, a ‘no…you can’t do that but you can do this’ could go a long way to soothing the ruffled feathers of those who’s requests were denied. Control isn’t a bad thing. But approaching control with a ‘no’ attitude rather than a ‘no…but…’ attitude would help go a long way toward helping keep IT away from the sidelines.

Its this denial and lack of alternatives that make people think they need to go ‘outside’ to find other solutions. Hence, Shadow IT’s growth in organizations. The consumerization of IT is just another fancy name for Shadow IT.

Martin ends his piece with:

CIOs must accept that IT cannot control everything and need to embrace the Consumerisation of IT given the massive benefits it can provide. They must find a way to help the organisation whilst still preventing it from doing something stupid.

Well said.

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

How do they know they are important?

Did someone tell them? Or…do they just “know” they are? Maybe a combo of both perhaps?

Regardless of how, if you /your team / your coworkers feel important to your organization, someone is doing something right.

Take a look at this ‘welcome’ letter that’s reportedly given to Apple employees on their first day:

HT: http://www.rescuemarketing.com/blog/2012/05/08/swim-in-the-deep-end/

Whether that is a real letter or not is beside the point.  What’s important is some of the content within that letter.

Take a look at the line that states “They want their work to add up to something.” That’s big.

Imagine getting a letter like this on your first day at work.  Heck…imagine getting it after you’ve been working at your job for 10 years.  When you get this message isn’t as important as getting it.

Messaging like this tells you that you are important.  It tells you that you haven’t already been marginalized by the ‘organization’.  It tells you that someone, somewhere cares.

Most organizations don’t take this approach.

Most places on-board employees using a process designed to get that employee into the ‘system’ and get all the proper paperwork signed.  Then…they put them in a cube and start throwing work at them.

The really good managers / organizations then take time to understand their employees needs and aspirations. They try to help their employees grow. They care about their people.

Others…don’t.

The poor managers / organizations marginalize their employees by forgetting that these people have aspirations beyond doing the job they are stuck in today. These poor managers / organizations use their employees without really giving any thought to whether their happy and/or whether they could do more for the organization.

I’m not asking for utopia here. I’m not saying put your employees above profits or performance of the company. But…spend a few minutes thinking about how you can improve your team’s (or your own) opportunities.

By ignoring the aspirations you are marginalizing your team. You create an environment where people feel stuck and unappreciated.  You are marginalizing your team.

Stop doing that.

• The Simplicity Thesis by Aaron Levie on Fast Company

  Quote: When technology was inherently and unavoidably complex, it was forgivable that solutions weren’t elegant and simple. It was at one time understandable that finding and visiting a new doctor could take weeks, or searching for enterprise information wasn’t successful. But with a myriad of elegant and simple solutions entering the market, users are learning to expect far more from their products. Simplicity has become a virus that will either destroy you or catapult you to the front of the market.

• The Social Power of Sharing Mistakes by Daniel Coyle on The Talent Code

  Quote: Mistakes are good.  Struggle makes you smarter.

• Is Social Media Leadership Critical for a CIO? by Chris Curran on CIO Dashboard

  Quote: In an ideal world, corporate CIOs would blog compelling content consistently, tweet numerous times a day and chime into a few well-chosen LinkedIn discussions on a regular basis.  This would serve multiple purposes: help to engage his employees in the public forums, build corporate brand, build personal brand and increase the firm’s attractiveness to new recruits. However, that’s not realistic for most corporate CIOs. They are simply too busy. Just because a CIO doesn’t engage in social media we shouldn’t discount her opinions or direction on how to orchestrate social media initiatives in the firm.  You don’t need to be an avid ERP user to lead an ERP-driven transformation.

• Reconsidering decisions by Seth Godin

  Quote: …failure to reconsider long-held decisions is just as wasteful. Should you really be in that business? Should this person still be working here? Is that really the best policy?

• Barriers to Change: The Real Reason Behind the Kodak Downfall by John Kotter on Forbes

  Quote: As Kodak became more successful, complacency grew, leaders listened less to these voices, which made complacency grow some more. It can be a vicious cycle. It certainly was at Kodak. And if you don’t address it first… good luck.

See more photos in my flickr photostream and/or my Zenfolio portfolio (where you can buy images). If you like my photography, feel free to support my addiction habit by visiting Adorama (affiliate link) to purchase new or used photographic gear. Or, if you are interested in renting gear before buying, try out my favorite camera, lens and gear rental site -  Borrowlenses.com (affiliate link) - the folks at Borrowlenses are awesome.  All proceeds from clicking the above affiliate links go to more photographs. 

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• Stop Blabbing About Innovation And Start Actually Doing It by Aaron Shapiro on Fast Company

  Quote: If your business can’t innovate, it won’t survive when the startup in the garage across town that doesn’t have to answer to your shareholders does all the things legal has been telling you that you can’t do, all the things that you don’t have time for. It’s never been more urgent to stop talking about innovation and actually start doing things differently. And, with digital, the opportunities have never been greater. Instead of innovating on your weekends, overcome the structural impediments and time constraints to real change by approaching innovation from two directions: outside-in and inside-out.

• When good CMS projects go bad by Jeff Cram on The CMS Myth

  Quote: Perhaps the biggest site killer has to do with the people you put around a CMS. I’m always amazed to see organizations spend six (and seven) figures for a new platform and go through a 1-2 year process only to not invest in any full time content folks to oversee it. The editorial teams that keep the digital lights on are almost always understaffed and underfunded. There’s an incorrect thought that a CMS should reduce the amount of people who need to work on the web, when in reality it almost always requires more resources.

• Big Data = BI + ADD by Bob Warfield on SmoothSpan Blog

  Quote: The simple fact is that we are moving from a world of intuition and gut feel to a world of data and analytical thinking.  Before we had the data, intuition was all we had to fall back on when making decisions.  It’s better than nothing, but it can result in spectacular failures.  I’m fond of telling the story of a certain expensive marketing program that went very wrong that was based on someone’s gut feel.  It involved spending a lot of money without producing much of a result.  When my friend Marc Randolph, someone who is very analytical in their thinking, was asked why it failed, he said, “I don’t know, but it was tragically knowable.”  He meant the idea should have been tested at much smaller volumes before all that wood was put behind an arrow that was doomed to miss.

• Do you have a people strategy? by Seth Godin

  Quote: Figure out the people part and the technology gets a whole lot simpler.

• The business value of CIO and CMO partnerships by Harvey Koeppel on SearchCIO

  Quote: There’s this tremendous opportunity for CIO and CMO partnerships to be reimagined or reinvented. We definitely see an opportunity around many of the newer technologies — things like cloud computing or data analytics or mobility. These technologies are really changing the landscape of how companies are doing business and are still in many cases at an emerging state.

• People Need Community. Period. – Brian Shea

  Quote: It looks to me like we are once again trying to figure out what institutions we need to help build communities that bridge the gap between the personal and professional. And I suspect that social media and the Internet will have a big role to play in helping us organize those communities.

See more photos in my flickr photostream and/or my Zenfolio portfolio (where you can buy images). If you like my photography, feel free to support my addiction habit by visiting Adorama (affiliate link) to purchase new or used photographic gear. Or, if you are interested in renting gear before buying, try out my favorite camera, lens and gear rental site -  Borrowlenses.com (affiliate link) - the folks at Borrowlenses are awesome.  All proceeds from clicking the above affiliate links go to more photographs. 

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There’s a great video over on the  Enterprise CIO Forum  with Enterprise CIO Forum editorial director Bill Laberis describing how CIO’s can leverage the ‘anxiety’ present withing IT Staff today. The video, titled Leveraging the anxiety in your IT staff,  initially put me off…when anyone talks about ‘leveraging’ things like anxiety…I get worried that the wrong message is being sent.

Not to worry though.  Mr. Laberis does a fine job of ensuring that you understand that his use of the word ‘leverage’ is meant with all positive connotations.

I’ve posted the video below for your benefit…take a few minutes to watch it as there are some excellent tips here.  I have a few discussion points posted after the video.

Some good ideas here.

In the past, as Mr. Laberis points out, an IT professional could enter the profession and learn one or two main skills and be set for their career.   This isn’t ideal today.  How many pure COBOL developers do you know today? How many did you know 20 year ago? I’d bet the number was higher 20 years ago.

Today’s IT professional needs to be able to have multiple skills.  But…with that multiple skill set, are we asking these professionals to multitask and de-focus? Will this de-focusing lead to poor performance? Or…will the additional skills that IT pro’s help them work through the information overload and allow them to focus even more?

One of the most important things a CIO and/or IT Leader can do for their organization is to help the IT team members grow.  Whether that’s by offering them challenging opportunities, helping them improve their skill set or even helping them grow into more rounded individuals.

Leveraging the anxiety within your team can be an extremely useful method in improving skill sets…but just be careful how you ‘leverage’ that anxiety.  Rather than use anxiety as a means to drive development, perhaps a better approach would be to consistently and constantly provide growth opportunities for your team.

Image credit: anxiety By FlickrJunkie on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.