Strategy Is Boring by Kneale Mann on One Mann’s Opinion

Are you stress testing your IT strategies? by Christina Torode on TotalCIO

Innovation and the Future by Jeffrey Phillips on Innovate on Purpose

IT Leaders: Building the Next-Generation Bosses By Thomas Hoffman on CIOInsight

Teaching Entrepreneurship – By Getting Out of the Building by Steve Blank

Strategy Basics: It’s Really all about having a Plan by Jaan Orvet & Andreas Carlsson on Carsonified » Blog

Learning to be genuine by John Moore on Random Thoughts of a Boston-based CTO: John Moore’s Weblog

Business and IT file for divorce citing irreconcilable differences by Mark McDonald on the Gartner Blog Network

Humanising the Enterprise for Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness by Ross Mayfield

Data: The New Capital of the Digital Age by Ted Morris on 4ScreenCRM

Smarten Up, and Feel the IT Love by Susan Cramm on HarvardBusiness.org

A war for talent or for dead wood? by Nic Paton on Management-Issues : News

Failure is a Success in Learning by Angela Maiers on Angela Maiers Educational Services

Gene asks “Is Cloud Computing part of your Strategic Plan?”

While Gene’s question is a fair one, I have to ask a much simpler question….do you have a technology strategic plan? Or at the very least, do you discuss technology and/or IT in your organization’s strategic plan?

I know its a simple question….but its an important one.

Last year I spent some time working with a medium sized organization’s CIO and IT group.  They had just finalized the organization’s strategic plan for the following year and wanted someone to come in and review for completeness and see if there were any holes.

When I met with the team, they were extremely pleased with their work and they were excited to have been included in the strategic planning process.  They were ready and raring to get to work on the new strategic plan.

I received the plan and reviewed it.  It wasn’t bad…it fit the organization well.  The culture fit the strategic plan.

There was only one problem.  At no point was there any discussion of using technology to reach the objectives listed in the plan.

A good portion of the strategic plan revolved around technology but there was little discussion of any strategy to actually acquire, implement and utilize technology

So…back to Gene’s question – is Cloud Computing part of your strategic plan.  Based on my experiences, organizations forget about technology as part of their strategic plans.

Have you included technology in your strategic plan?

Talent: Develop Strengths or Weaknesses? Yes. by Steve Roesler on All Things Workplace

5 Tips for Improving the Synergy between Marketing and IT by Jenn Steele on HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

Learn to Ask Better Questions by John Baldoni on HarvardBusiness.org

The IT Security Balancing Act by Mike Schaffner on Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms

Does the CEO Care About IT? by Chris Curran on CIO Dashboard

The Rise of the Innovation Ninjas by Mitch Ditkoff on The Heart of Innovation

Social Business and Next-Generation CIOs – The Impact of Technological Change by Dion Hinchcliffe on Enterprise Irregulars

Global Warming, IT and Christianity – the Law of Infallibility by Martijn Linssen on @MartijnLinssen

Marketing & Business: It’s all about the people! by Jim Connolly on Jim’s Marketing Blog

Weaving innovation into the corporate structure by Jeffrey Phillips on Innovate on Purpose

How IT-Smart Is Your Organization? by Susan Cramm on HarvardBusiness.org

Are you innovating or imitating?

Anywhere you go these days, you’ll find someone talking or writing about Innovation.  Most of  the stuff I’ve been reading is great stuff.

In the discussions I’ve had with folks around the world, I’m hearing a lot of talk about innovative ideas and ‘new’ ways of doing things within the IT group to help the organization innovate. When I hear what these new ideas are, I’m told about the latest CIO magazine that was read or the seminar that the CIO went to and heard how XYZ company is doing things.

This makes me ask the following question:  Are you innovating or imitating?

I recently actually asked that question to a local CIO and she responded with something that kind of threw me for a loop.  Lisa’s response?

She said “Does it matter?”

Lisa told me that she could care less about developing a “new idea”…she’s perfectly fine with taking someone’s idea and implementing in her organization.  Sometimes she takes an idea and implements it directly (imitate) and other times she puts her own spin on an idea that is either generated internally or found externally idea (innovate).

I thought about Lisa’s answer and responded back with an equally surprising response (to her) with: ‘yes…it does matter’.

I asked Lisa whether she set out to innovate or imitate.  Her answer?  Innovate when possible, imitate when it makes sense.

You see…Lisa WAS innovating in the areas that she should be. Was she imitating other organizations?  Absolutely.  But the key was that she was innovating as well by taking an idea and twisting it to be something new.  She was also imitating those organizations that were ‘doing it right’ in areas that she felt would fit her organizations.

What Lisa didn’t realize is that innovation isn’t always ‘creating something new from scratch’….innovation can be taking an already existing idea and tweaking it to fit your needs/wants.

Why does it matter whether you’re innovating or imitating?

While doing some research on this topic, I ran across this quote by Cass Pursell in an article titled “Mimicking Innovation” where Cass writes:

Creativity and imitation are opposing concepts. By beginning with a strategy of imitation, I would argue that you are in danger of dooming your innovation program to failure before it ever begins in earnest. My advice – proceed, but proceed wisely

While imitation may work and might deliver results, if you approach your strategic planning process with the goal of imitating others, you’ve lost before you even get started.

In your role as The New CIO, you can imitate what you see working for other organizations, but be sure to keep some of your focus on innovating.  Ask yourself the occasional “are you innovating or imitating” question….if you never answer with ‘innovation’, you may want to rethink your approach to leading IT into the future.

If your strategy is imitation, you can only be as good as the company you plan to imitate. But…if you’re like Lisa and have a strategy to innovate when possible and only imitate when you can you’ll be light years ahead

Five by Chuck Musciano on The Effective CIO

The Splinternet means the end of the Web’s golden age by Josh Bernoff on Groundswell

Run IT Like a Business, Not As a Business by Chris Curran on CIO Dashboard

Why the CIO Loves Agile Development by Isaac Sacolick on Social, Agile, and Transformation

Are you keeping your standard in view? by Tim Walker on What I’ve Learned So Far

Can I get some social strategy with that Big Mac? by John Moore on Random Thoughts of a Boston-based CTO: John Moore’s Weblog

Social In a Corporate (And Agency) World by Lauren Fernandez on Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Is It Time To Say Goodbye To The CIO? by Dr. Jim Anderson on The Accidental Successful CIO

Lessons in Strategic Communications from an Admiral by Charles H. Green on Trust Matters blog

Quality: You Don’t Get What You Don’t Measure by Jurgen Appelo on NOOP.NL: Managing Software Development

How to Encourage Small Innovations by John Baldoni on HarvardBusiness.org

Better User Experience With Storytelling – Part One by Francisco Inchauste on Smashing Magazine

Stop thinking like a CIO by Patrick Flynn on Clear IT Leadership

The Burning Drive to Never Settle: Refuse to Compromise by Louis Gray on louisgray.com

Sunday Morning Reflections: All the great things are simple… by Skip Cohen on Marketing Essentials International

“I hate consultants.”

When I heard those words spill out of my lunch companion’s mouth as soon as we sat down, I knew it would be a long lunch meeting.

Some background

When I was an independent consultant I spent a lot of time in business development mode.  Lots of time going to networking events and meeting new people.  I enjoyed that (and should be doing it now even too)…but some of the people you meet while out and about can be very surprising.

Take “John” (name changed) as an example.

I met John through a friend as a request by me for an introduction.  Upon an introduction during a luncheon, John was pleasant, cordial and professional.  We seemed to have a lot in common and we knew a lot of the same people in town.  After the luncheon, John and I exchanged emails and agreed to meet for lunch the following week.

John was the CIO of a medium sized manufacturing business in Dallas.  The company had been struggling for years to break even each year with some years seeing a profit while other years found the company loosing money.  During our initial introduction and subsequent emails, I made it clear to John that I was a consultant focused on technology strategy and IT and had helped many organizations like his use technology to meet their strategic goals.   So…he knew I was a consultant but I was also very clear that I wasn’t having lunch with him to try and sell him my services.

I met John at a local restaurant for lunch.   We met at the front door, shook hands and traded banter and waited for our table. While waiting, John told me more about his company, the troubles they’ve had for years and how difficult it was to keep the company afloat.

We were shown to our table and ordered and picked the conversation back up.  I asked John if he’d brought in any consultants to help him understand what changes might be needed to help the business become more profitable.

His answer?

“I hate consultants”.

He continued to describe consultants as a plague (his word!) and cheaters/liars and thief’s.   Strong words.

I asked John why he felt this way and was informed that he had been burnt by consultants in the past and after hearing the backstory, I can understand why he had strong feelings against consultants.

The Spark

The story I heard from John was a familiar one.

A consultant was hired to come in and help with technology selection, implementation and development of custom functionality.  The consultants role was to provide guidance during the selection process and manage the development and implementation after selection.

John tells me that the entire engagement was a debacle.  He hired a consultant that had a great deal of experience implementing this particular type of software but little experience with technology selection.  First mistake.

The consultant comes in and helps work up a technology requirements document and helps the company select and purchase the software platform.  John tells me it just happened to be the software platform that this consultant was most experienced with.   John also tells me that the platform they chose didn’t really fit that well but, because the consultant told them it could be easily customized, it would eventually fit the organizations needs.  Second mistake.

After selection, the implementation phase began with the consultant acting as the implementation manager with a focus on implementation as well as software development for customization.  The development was done by the software vendor and managed solely by the consultant.  Third mistake.

John tells me that the software project took twice as long as originally expected/planned and cost three times more than originally budgeted.  And it didn’t do what he needed it to do. About half-way through the project, John fired the consultant and the developers and brought all development and implementation in-house.

This project was the spark and kindling for John’s hatred of consultants.

Revisiting the Project

After John finished his story, I nodded and told him I’d heard it many times before.  I politely asked if I could revisit the issues and point out some errors that might have contributed to the project failure.

Thankfully, he gladly accepted the offer and listened intently (or at least pretended to!) while I pointed out the three main errors I saw in this technology selection and implementation project.

First, I pointed out the issue of hiring a consultant with zero technology selection experience and tons of implementation experience on one platform.  This is bound to lead to a bias towards a particular platform, especially if the consultant(s) don’t have a wide range of experience on platforms and a strong background in technology selection projects.  

Secondly, I pointed him to the selection of a platform that didn’t really fit the organization’s needs but ‘could be customized to fit’. Everyone knows this is BS and that the approach fails 90% of the time.  If you’re selecting a platform, select the one that fits the best…you may need to customize the software (or change your process) but do your due diligence to pick the platform that is the best fit for you.

Lastly, I pointed out the biggest mistake of letting the consultant choose the out-sourced development partner and manage the development without any involvement by John or his IT staff. This is a huge mistake as it takes the IT organization out of the driver’s seat completely.  Where’s the oversight? Where’s the project governance?   Oversight isn’t something you do for 30 minutes every Tuesday morning during the status meeting.  Have a project manager managing the consultant and/or developers.

When I finished my quick review, John said something that surprised me.

He wanted to bring me on (as a consultant) to help him reorganize and rebuild his IT group.   I accepted of course…but I told him I’d be just as honest and forthcoming while working with him as I’d been during lunch.

A bit of an ego stroke (for me)

Over the next six months, I helped John fix his biggest issues and helped him plan for rebuilding his IT group.  These  plans included building proper project management skills and procedures as well as increasing his team’s ability to efficiently manage IT Operations.

My proudest accomplishment while engaged with John’s organization is actually the easiest work I did with him.  I  introduced John to a young lady who would eventually replace him (after his retirement) as the next CIO of that company.

I’m happy to report that the company is doing well (reportedly because they are leveraging operations and technology for competitive advantage) and are happily using consultants and contractors to fills knowledge & skill gaps.  I like to think this success is in part due to my involvement…at least I’ll keep thinking so

The Moral of this story?

Think about the mistakes highlighted above….have you made any of them on projects?  Are you making them today?

Don’t blame the consultants for project failure.  Look at your involvement and try to understand what you could have done better to set those consultants up for success.

CIO’s in the past have loved using consultants and contractors because they could have someone to blame if the project went badly.  The New CIO can’t shirk that responsibility any longer….if an IT project fails, it’s on your shoulders.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself this question – Who hired the consultants?  They didn’t come in and work for free…they had some direction from the CIO and IT group….so both parties are equally responsible for project success or failure.

Next time you start to think (or say) something negatively about a consultant or a contractor because they couldn’t get the job done…think again.  Perhaps it’s as much (or more) your fault that they weren’t able to succeed.

Don’t hate the consultant….figure out what mistakes were made and move on.

Short post this week as I’m swamped and haven’t had time to work anything up….but I wanted to take a quick second to ask my readers to give me some CIO topics you’d like to read about in the future (or…if you’d like to write it up and do a guest post…feel free!).

Drop me a comment, @ me on twitter or send me an email with your thoughts.

Like I said…short post this week but I have an extremely important question to ask everyone in IT (and anyone else who wants to answer).  Here goes:

If you could start from scratch, would you build your IT group the same?  Would you build your governance models the same?  How about your project management processes?

If the answer is yes, excellent…you’ve obviously been doing things right.

If the answer is no…well…perhaps you’ve been doing things right…but you aren’t able to get the things done that you want to get done.  Why not make a change?

Isn’t the economy and environment we are in the perfect time to experiment?

What would you do differently?

Think about that…how can we do “IT” differently?  Just because it worked in the past, doesn’t mean it’ll work in the future.

I’ve been sitting at my computer staring at the screen for a few minutes trying to come up with a topic for my weekly “New CIO” article.   While waiting for inspiration to strike (i.e., surfing the web) I took a look at my Google Analytics account and noticed that the most visited article on my blog “The Problem(s) with Linear Thinking“.

Now…this is an article I wrote in January 2007…way back when I was a novice blogger. I still like it and still think that linear thinking is a huge trap of organizations to fall into.  It’s also a huge trap for CIO’s to fall into.

So…I ran a quick search for “Linear Thinking” and  “Linear Thinking CIO” and what did I find?  Me.   The couple of posts I’ve done on the topic are at the top of the list.  When I did the Search for “Linear Thinking CIO” my “Beware the Linear Thinking Trap” post is ranked #1.

Now…while I’m excited to be ranked #1 on Google for something, the question has to be asked – how many people are searching for those terms?  Not many based on the traffic I get from them…but enough to make a difference.

So..why another post on Linear Thinking?

Because I still see the topic as one that’s causing  a lot of problems withing organizations. I also see a lot of CIO’s and IT groups stuck in the linear thinking trap and unaware of their predicament.

Quick example:

The CIO commissions the IT group to create and implement a governance model & document to manage all IT projects.   This governance document is developed as a closed system with little input from the rest of the organization.  The model is put into practice and is now ‘law’ within the organization.

Based on the governance model, all new projects over $25,000 must go through the governance process.   Why $25K?   Very few projects can be completed for less than that…and those that fall under $25K aren’t really that important right?

So…the HR team is ready to implement a new system.  They come to IT and ask for some assistance and are told that the project will undoubtedly be over $25K and must go into the governance process and be subject to ‘proper’ project and portfolio management practices.

The HR team are good corporate citizens and begin the governance process.  They fill out the paperwork.  Determine an estimated cost for the project (and it is over $25K) and wait for the governance process to kick in.  And they wait.

A month after submitting the paperwork, a meeting is held to prioritize the projects within the organization. The HR team doesn’t get to attend this meeting…they have to rely on the IT team and submitted paperwork to make their case.

The project is deemed a lower priority than others and not authorized.  The HR team is furious.  The implementation of this system is a part of all of their performance goals for the year and it has to get done.

So….what happens?

You know what happens! The HR Team moves forward anyway.  They reach out to vendors and solicit bids for a ‘phased approach’ to the project. Perhaps they look for a SaaS model for the system to save implementation and initial upfront investment.

Jump forward six months.

The HR Team has fully implement a SaaS platform to do what they need to do.  The system does not integrate with any other platform within the organization (perhaps it can, it just hasn’t been integrated).  The HR Team is happy as they’ve met the need of their team and reached their goals.

The IT team is not happy.  They’ve now got another system in the mix and have to decide whether they support it or not.  The CIO isn’t happy because the governance model has proven ineffective.  The CIO takes the issue to the CEO and is told to support the platform…the HR team is ‘getting things done’ and the IT team better get on the ball or ‘heads will roll’.

More than a governance issue

There are a ton of problems with the above scenario.  There are governance issues, portfolio management issues, client management issues and potential security and IT integration issues.

But…they all stem from the fact that the governance model implemented within the example organization has been built with with ‘old’ thinking.  IT projects  no longer have to be expensive projects.  Organizations can go the SaaS route to get any number of platforms implemented much cheaper than in the past.  Sure, there are still the ‘big’ projects, but not every IT platform is a ‘big’ project these days.

Organizations can no longer work with an inflexible governance model that provides no relief for those projects that aren’t considered a ‘priority’.  Governance and portfolio management must be performed but we’ve got to find ways to be agile at the same time.

There’s a ton of work for CIO’s to do to create more flexible governance models, better project and portfolio management processes and generally provide better service to the organization.  But in order to create these new models, CIO’s and IT groups need to move out of the lienar thinking rut that we’ve been operating in for so long.  We’ve got to find ways to be more agile and responsive to the organization.

The ability to be agile and think differently is key to the success (and survival?) of the CIO and IT group in the future.

Linear Thinking and the CIO

In my “Beware the Linear Thinking Trap” post, I ask:

Are you doing the same thing the same way you were last year?

Many organizations still answer ‘yes’ because that’s all they can do. That’s all they know how to do.  They’ve fallen into the linear thinking trap and don’t realize it.

The New CIO must find a way to stay out of the trap that linear thinking can create.  In the example above the CIO used a governance model to manage the project portfolio.  This, in itself, isn’t a bad thing.  Governance is needed.  Portfolios are needed.

What’s bad about this situation is that the approach to governance must change in the Enterprise 2.0 world.  No longer can you control all applications within the organization. Shadow IT is rampant.   Rather than fight Shadow IT, use it to your advantage.  Work with those departments that have created their own shadow infrastructure to ensure they are governed and managed correctly.

Linear thinking is taking many CIO’s and IT organizations further and further into irrelevancy.  It’s no longer enough to use the same governance models you used five years ago or even last year.  The New CIO has to step in with innovative approaches to IT governance and project/portfolio management (and in all other aspects of IT) to provide the organization with the best opportunity to be successful.

Stop doing what you did last year. Stop doing what you did yesterday.  It won’t work tomorrow…heck…it didn’t work yesterday.

Climb out of that depression caused by the linear thinking trap and do something better.   Thinking creatively. If you want to be the CIO, you’ve got to think differently.

I just finished reading “Managing” by Henry Mintzberg.

Great book.

What’s so great about it?  It provides a good reminder that being a good manager is just as important as being a good leader.

Mintzberg does an excellent job of bringing the importance of managing well to the forefront.

Like I said…good book.  Buy it today at amazon (affiliate link).

CIO as Manager or Leader?

I ran a quick unscientific test on google and searched for “CIO as Leader” and “CIO as Manager”. The results weren’t surprising:

• “CIO as Leader” – 45,900 results
• “CIO as Manager” – 14,800 results

Not surprising to me since most articles I’ve read (and a few that I’ve written” talk about CIO’s and Leadership.  But there aren’t as many discussions about CIO’s and Management.

Mintzberg’s “Managing” book might help bring the art of managing back to the world of IT and the CIO’s office.

So which is it?

The role of IT is changing and the CIO must lead that change while also ensuring that the IT group is performing for the organization.

The CIO must be a both a Leader and a Manager to bridge the gap between strategy and tactics. Lead the strategic initiatives while managing the tactical operations for the organization.

Both sets of skills are necessary for The New CIO.

I’ve been sitting here thinking. Gene De Libero say’s I’m always thinking…not sure if that’s good or bad!

What have I been thinking about?  Lots of things…but as it relates to this post, I’ve been thinking about the one trait that CIO’s can improve upon for 2010. By improving this one simple trait, I believe the ability of the IT group to deliver real value to the organization will increase exponentially.

What’ trait am I talking about?  Listening

In the world of IT, we do a lot of talking.  We talk. And talk. And talk.

We do listen some.  We send business analysts and project managers out to talk to customers.  Did you catch that?  We send people to ‘talk’ to customers.  We don’t send people  to “listen” to customers.

The blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of the CIO and the IT group as a whole. We’ve built our processes and our procedures to be focused on IT issues, not user issues.  We’ve built our requirements gathering methods around what customer’s want and need and then we mediate those wants/needs to ensure that they don’t break any of our guidelines/processes. We’ve built our IT organizations to tell the rest of the company how things will be done.  While focused on talking, we’ve failed to listen.

In many organizations, users are going around IT to get things done.  In many cases (at least in my experience), this is because IT doesn’t hear the real needs of the business users.

I’ve got an example from a previous consulting gig that I’d like to share…I hope it drives the point home:

The IT group heard that the Marketing team needed a Content Management System so a project was started to buy and implement one.  But did we really listen to the need of the marketing team? Did we hear that they want and need to be able to make content changes on a whim?  Did we hear that they need to be able to do A/B testing (or some other testing/optimization techniques) on a regular basis?

I can tell you that the IT group didn’t those things.  All we heard was Content Management System.  We were the System experts right? So…we bought a CMS, implemented it and allowed the Marketing group to have access to it.  And…doing what IT does best, we put a convoluted change process around the CMS.  Lo and behold, within 6 months the team that asked for the CMS stopped using it because they couldn’t do what they needed to do with it.

And we wondered what was wrong with those ‘marketing people’.

Nothing was wrong with them.  It was us! We didn’t listen.  We heard ‘content management system’ and ran out and implemented one. We “knew” what they needed.

BTW – that marketing team got so fed up with us that they went around the IT team. They found a hosted platform that would allow them to do everything they needed.  Now, that organization’s IT team has been changed for the worse…they went from a team of 20 to a team of 5. They do nothing but keep the lights on now because they weren’t able to provide real value to the organization,  and have become irrelevant to that company. The IT team failed to listen and it cost them dearly.

So…do you see why I think ‘listening’ is the one trait CIO’s should focus on in 2010?    The world of IT is changing dramatically. I don’t believe the IT group has the ability to ‘tell’ the organization how things will be done any longer.  Unless you listen to the real business needs, the IT group and CIO might just become irrelevant in the future.

Here’s my plea to all CIO’s and IT managers:

If you only improve one trait in 2010, let it be this one. Listen well. Fail to listen to your organization’s real needs and you might find you’ve become irrelevant and unnecessary.