Whether you’re a trader/investor or have no interest in the market, this book has some interesting insights into ‘process’ and ‘solutions’. While the author is writing for traders, some of what he says can be applied to all areas of life. The one passage that really hit home for me was this one:

There are no external solutions to your internal problems.

Seems pretty basic…but think about it.

How many times have you noticed a problem, then immediately set out to find a solution via the internet and/or via asking your friends / family? Many times that approach has worked fine.

Its easy to find solutions for problems that have been solved before. But…not every problem is the same. And…not every problem is one that can be solved with ‘stuff’ or by someone else.

Sometimes…there are no ‘external’ solutions. Sometimes, the solutions to your problems lie within.

Oftentimes, you are the problem and the only way to solve your ‘problem’ is to look within yourself and work through whatever issues you need to work through.

But…the majority of the time, we don’t want to look at ourselves. We want to blame others. We want to find that ‘perfect’ solution that ‘must exist’.   We look high and low for the solution but never find it…because we fail to look inside and see that the solution is an internal one.

This happens all time in life and business.  How many times has your organization spent millions of dollars to solve a problem…only to see that problem remain (or get worse)?  Happens all the time.

Remember…there are no external solutions to your internal problems. Before going outside to find a solution, take a look at yourself (or your team / organization).  You might find a solution staring back at you.

Image Credit: Introspective By KaosBrutal (Retorn) on flickr

I spend a lot of time talking to IT professionals, managers and CIO’s as part of my job and as part of my ongoing networking activities. During our conversations, we talk about various topics but the most discussed topic seems to be around ‘value’ of the IT group and how IT professionals can demonstrate true value to their organizations.

Now…value is a very subjective term.  Every person and oganization thinks about ‘value’ differently, but I think the basic tenet of ‘value’ is this: “how can I / my team help the organization succeed”.   Of course…’succeed’ can be defined many different ways as well, but let’s save that discussed for another day.

Myles Suer with HP writes a nice piece that touches on the ‘value’ discussion in an article titled Real IT managers speak out about management and measurement on the Enterprise CIO Forum.  In this article, Myles relates some interesting questions that he’s recently heard from IT Managers. A few examples are:

• Several folks discussed the need to better demonstrate the value of IT—both for running the business and changing the business
• How do we achieve best practice, and then how do we measure and demonstrate that it to the business?
• How do we make sure that we are delivering the right services?

Sounds like questions/discussions I’ve had as well.

Myles responds with the following as a means to solve these issues and show ‘value’:

These questions point to something we talk a lot about at HP: the need to create a service-cost model for IT as well as the need to evaluate IT services through a business lens. A performance management system provides the fact-based evidence of how IT supports the business. It can also – when combined with financial planning and analysis – provide the numbers that enable IT to partner with the business to make decisions on service delivery and prioritization. With a performance system in place, IT leaders have a picture of how and when IT is adding value to the business and begin to optimize, managing assets across their full lifecycle.

Emphasis mine.

I would agree with Myles. Some form of performance management system should be able to tell the business what type of value they are getting from their IT group and investments.  But…what about the more ‘ethereal’ value that is much tougher to measure?  You know… the softer side of things (people, etc)?

I’ve not seen an IT / Technology performance management system that incorporates these softer  value ideas into it…have you?  Can you even really measure many of these soft values?

At the end of the, at least for the people I speak with, what most IT professionals want is the ability to point to measures that the organization has said are important and say ‘look…we are delivering what you need’.  A good governance and measurement system is necessary…but many times the act of measuring and managing measurement takes precedence over delivering.

That’s the difficult part of working in IT and leading IT.  Showing value  while also delivering on that value.

Image credit: Measured Currency by By Brooks Elliott on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

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.

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.

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.

Focus.  Such a small word but with huge meaning.

In the world of photography, focus can mean the difference between creating a timeless photograph or an out of focus snapshot.

As a baseball player, focus is the difference between striking out and getting on base for the batter…and the difference between striking someone out and getting a homer hit on you as a pitcher.

As a business, focus is the difference between being profitable and going out of business.  Focusing on customers, focusing on a particular segment of the market, focusing on strategy and tactics.

That said, its hard to focus these days.

The Information Explosion and subsequent information overload that has occurred over the last few years is an awesome phenomenon.  This explosion has led to growth and competitive advantage for some,  untold riches for a few and for some, the death of their businesses and livelihoods.

At any moment during the day, you can open up your browser and find more information about a topic than you’d care to really know.  You can open up your employer’s intranet and find out more about your company and coworkers than you’d care to know (wait…you don’t have an intranet with real information on it? Shame on your company!).

This information explosion has had a by-product that most organizations haven’t thoroughly realized.

That by-product?  The ‘obfuscation‘ of focus.

The information explosion has obfuscated focus for many people/organizations by hiding relevant knowledge in irrelevant data and information.

This obfuscation has actually been an advantage for some. There are people that have been able to work through information overload to find those nuggets of knowledge and have built their careers, business and fortunes.   You see these people today building new businesses, designing new operational methods and creating new knowledge…which then leads to more information overload for others.

The key to successfully navigating the murky waters today is the ability to find the right information, analyze that information and then focus on delivery.  Whether as a small business or Fortune 500, the ability to sift through information and focus on the ‘right’ information is key.

Finding the right information is key.  Most organizations and people haven’t figured out how to work through the information overload to find the real, necessary knowledge. Most organizations are still operating under the assumption that their focus and the paradigm created a generation ago still works today. This paradigm has left many organizations stuck in a rut while others blow past them. Its left people stuck in a rut while others blow past them.

Surely these people have been focusing, right?

Surely these organizations have been focusing on being competitive and building strategy, right?

Yes. They’ve been focusing. But…many have focused on the wrong things. They’ve been focusing on the technology,  their competitors or the next great ‘strategy’ rather than on their clients and their employees. Many have focused on growth rather than sustained growth. Many have focused on the next ‘homerun’ rather than just getting on base.

Think about the book (and movie) titled Moneyball (amazon affiliate link) and the Oakland A’s attempt to turn baseball inside/out by focusing on something different.  They stopped focusing on the intangibles and started focusing on tangible assets that can be measured. They changed their mindset and their approach to the game.

Since the Oakland A’s did that…many other teams followed suit – including the Boston Red Sox…and many other organizations.  The Boston Red Sox took the approach popularized by the A’s and won the World Series because they changed their thought process by changing their focus. They were able to work through the obfuscation created by the years of focus on ‘baseball’ and move towards a more refined focus on those things that can be measured and managed.

Focusing is Powerful

Have you ever seen a crack addict?

They are focused.  But…I doubt anyone would call them successful in most measures…but they are focused. Focused on the next ‘rock’ and the next ‘hit’.

That same type of focus is found any many organizations today.  Everyone is focused intently on finding the next ‘hit’ rather than delivering honest value.

Take a step back and rethink your focus.  Are you focused? If so…are you focused on the right things? Do you know what the rights things are?  If you say no to any of these questions…you aren’t alone. Most people will say no to them as well.

To find the right things to focus on, we’ve gotta first wade through the murky waters of information overload to find the right knowledge. Only then can we focus.

And that, my friends, is where I see a real value for IT and the CIO of tomorrow.  

Rather than building ‘more’, designing ‘more’ and developing ‘more’…help the organization focus on the underlying knowledge inherent in the people within the organization.   The successful CIO of tomorrow will be the one that help’s the organization navigate through the information explosion and focus on the important things.

Image Credit: Focus By Michael Dales on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

I’ve been writing for months (years?) about the changes coming to IT and the role of the CIO.  My “New CIO” topic is littered with posts about the changes being seen today and those changes that are coming down the road.

Many others have been writing about it too. Joel Dobbs talks about topic (and his previous musings on the topic) over on the Enterprise CIO Forum in a post titled The times, they are a changin’—Fast!. There are many many others out there writing about the topic too. At last count, there were 976K results in google on the “changing role of the CIO”.

So…obviously there are a lot of people thinking about the topic and writing about the topic.

I just wonder…who’s doing anything about the changing role of the CIO?

Is the CIO and/or IT group taking the reigns in hand and driving their future?  Or…are we in IT allowing others to plot our course for us?

Reading some of the articles/posts out there…I see many instances where the organizational leadership is directing the changes being seen by CIO’s and IT professional. Take for instance, the description of the creation of the “Chief Digital Officer” by Starbucks. This doesn’t appear to be a CIO or IT driven change.  Also…take a look at the recent hiring of a Chief Technology Officer at JC Penney’s.  Again…doesn’t appear to be a CIO/IT driven change.  But…both changes will lead to a dramatic effect on IT and the CIO role.

These organizational driven changes are happening for a reason. For too long, the CIO has been focused on ‘keeping the lights on’. They’ve been plumbers and electricians doing what they are asked by the larger organization…and charging an hourly rate to do it.

Now…every organization needs someone to keep the lights on. We need IT operations…a much aligned and overlooked aspect to IT. But…IT operations is becoming a commodity (or has become a commodity).  Do we need a CIO focused on operations…or do we need a CIO focused on strategic initiatives and how the organization can use technology, information and knowledge to grow and be more competitive?

The answer…at least for me…is the latter.  In fact, I wrote a post last year titled Splitting IT – Operations and Innovation where I touch on this very topic where I wrote:

I see organization talking about, and moving to, a split between Operational IT and Strategic IT.  Most organizations have already done this to a point…but i see this split happening much more broadly in the near future. Operational IT contains much of what we see today with IT operations. Security, servers, infrastructure, Support and all those things that help ‘keep the lights on’ for organizations. Strategic IT contains the enterprise architects, business analysts and business technologists.   This is the team that drives innovation. This is the team where you hire extremely creative people and point them at the business problems and ask them to solve those problems.  Maybe the name of this team/group changes from Strategic IT to something more along the lines of Business Technology…because that’s what they need to focus on.

A lot of the changes I’m seeing today in organizations are following this same type of thinking. The old IT guard are being relinquished to the “operational IT” group while the more progressive and forward thinking of those in IT are being asked to help drive technology from a strategic standpoint. These people are being moved into other groups in the organization and given “non-IT” roles…which is sad…because they could just as easily have done their role within the IT group…if the CIO & IT group would have had the foresight / ability to drive real change and value.

CIO’s and IT Pro’s – what do you want to be in 2 years….the person/team that keeps the lights on…or the person/team that gets to play with all the new technology?  I prefer to be a part of the teams that get to play with the new stuff and I’m helping my clients move in that direction.

What about you…are you driving your change and complaining about others forcing change upon you?

Image Credit: change By busy.pochi on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

The Cloud.

We all know about it.

We are probably all tired of every blog talking about the Cloud.

Some call the Cloud a fad. Some call it the trend of the future. Others…call the Cloud reality.

So which is it… Trend, fad or reality?

All three. Yes…all three.

In a recent post titled Cloud, a trend, an opportunity or a must?, HP‘s Chief Technologist Christian Verstraete writes:

…the business is looking to become more agile and responsive and this is particularly important in the current, volatile, market environment. To do that, companies should have a better understanding of their marketplace, customers, competition, partners etc. And obviously they want to do that at lower cost while freeing up as much capital as possible. So, the CIO is confronted with a need to respond faster to ever changing requirements while providing an increasingly flexible infrastructure. And that is where cloud comes in. It provides the required infrastructure at lower cost…

Great paragraph that. The last sentence is one that many people might argue with though…although I’m not one of them.

The Cloud is a trend. We are moving toward a more robust, agile, “not here” infrastructure.  The cloud gives IT & organizations the opportunity to move, grow, react and deliver. The cloud is a trend just like computers were a trend when they first hit the business world…and that trend is still being ridden.

The Cloud is a fad.  We’ve heard about things like the cloud before. Those things that are going to “change IT forever”.  I don’t know how many meetings I’ve sat through  where’s I’ve heard “this is the next big thing”. Rarely…have those ‘next big things’ really been just that.  The cloud is a fad just like the computer was a fad when the first hit the market. Fad’s often morph into reality.

The Cloud is Reality. Yes…the cloud is here to stay.  But…let’s stop talking about it being the ‘next big thing’. The Cloud is simply another option for infrastructure for an organization. The cloud is here to stay…in a few years time it will be called ‘off-premise infrastructure’ or something…but its here to stay.

As Mr. Verstraete writes:

Cloud is there to stay, it may be called differently in the future, but the fundamental concept of running services on flexible environments owned either by the company or by service providers is a given.

Well said.

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

Myles Suer has published an article over on the Enterprise CIO Forum with a post titled IT Management should not begin and end with a spreadsheet and is now in contention for the Title of the Year.

In the article, Myles writes about attending an event put on by HP at which attendees where asked about performance management, IT management and measurement of performance within their organizations.

Myles writes:

…every person in each room was measuring and managing  the old fashion way—after the fact by manual manipulation of Excel spreadsheets. This is problematic at multiple levels.

Problematic is an understatement….but very true.

Myles’ provides a Top 10 list of Comments overheard at the conference and gives a really interesting look into what IT leaders and professionals are doing and thinking these days (and have been doing/thinking).   There’s not a single item in Myles’ Top 10 list that’s surprising….jump over and read through them.

One of the items on the Top 10 list is the #1 complaint that I hear from most of my IT colleagues.  Myles’ writes it as:

“Nobody knows what we do until it breaks.”

Every time I hear this, I have to count to 10 to keep from blowing my top at the person saying it…then I respond with something along the lines of: “well…why don’t they know what you do?”

Why don’t they know what you do?  

Why don’t they know what you do??

I’ve worked with many organizations where the people outside of IT really have no clue what IT ‘does’.  They know that the IT guys keep the computer running. And they know that the IT guys can get new computers for them. And they know that the IT guys ‘get new software’.

Needless to say, most non-IT people really don’t understand what the IT group does.  Why is that do you think?  Me…I think its because we in IT have spent our careers making our jobs seem mysterious and ‘harder’ than other jobs. We’ve spent our time building walls around ourselves and our jobs to create a black-box environment.

This black-box has been good to us in the past. We could hold people off by putting up our processes and procedures and saying ‘no’ more than we say ‘yes’.  Our black box worked in the past…but it doesn’t work any longer.  In fact, it never really worked that well in the past…we just thought it did.

So…when you hear things (or say things) like “Nobody knows what we do till it breaks”, your first instinct should be to immediately stop what you’re doing and find the nearest non-IT professional and ask them what you can do for them. Ask them how you can help. Ask them what their problems are and what you can do to solve them.

Spend time talking about what you do, what you can do and what they need from you. That’s how you solve the problem’s facing IT today.  Do that, and they’ll know what you do.

Image Credit: what do you do? By the|G|™ on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

We in the IT world like to talk a lot about the ‘new’ IT, the future of IT and the the need for IT to ‘change’.

Whether that change is focused on aligning with the business, being more agile, moving to the cloud or just plain providing ‘value’ to the organization….we talk about it as a necessary activity for the survival of IT.

And we talk about it.

I’ve spent many years writing about that change and helping organizations understand the need for change.

Seth Godin wrote a nice piece today titled We say we want a revolution… where he writes:

Of course, what we say doesn’t matter so much. What we do is what matters, and we have far more influence that we’d like to confess.

Very true.

We say we want change in IT. The business says they want change in IT.  IT Professionals want to see change in IT.

But…for the most part…we still see more of the same.

Over the past few months, I’ve been talking to many of my colleagues in the IT world across many different industries and many different countries.    I’ve talked with people from all areas of IT from Senior IT Professionals, Leaders all the way to entry level IT personnel.

What I heard didn’t surprise me.

From the people in senior leadership roles, I heard that their main focus was things like:

• Business/IT Alignment
• Delivering value to the organization
• Moving to a more agile environment
• Moving to the “cloud”

These are all valuable and noble areas to focus.

You would think these focal points would be the same throughout IT…especially within the same companies…wouldn’t you?

Not so much.

I also talked to mid-level managers and IT professionals within the same organization as the senior level leadership teams…and I get a different response.

What I heard from these people was the same thing I’ve heard from them for years.  I hear things like:

• We don’t have a focus. Next month, we’ll be going in a different direction than we were last month
• Our main focus…keeping the lights on.  Next…its jumping at whatever buzzword is en vogue
• While our managers talk about ‘alignment’ and ‘value’, we keep prodding along doing the same thing in the same way that we did 10 years ago.

The best…most damning response?  This one:

• Our focus? Firedrills.

Now…while these conversations and responses are anecdotal and non-scientific…they are a real world responses from real world IT Leaders and Professionals.

So…there seems to be a huge disconnect between the organization, IT Leadership and the IT Front-lines.

Why?

Is it that the current crop of IT Leaders don’t understand how to lead/manage?  Or…is it that the organization is asking for one thing while demanding another?

Personally, I think there are a lot of issues at play here.  But…I think Mr. Godin hits the nail on the head in most instances.   IT leadership talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk.

Don’t get me wrong…there are quiet a few good IT leaders / groups that are doing great things…but the majority of people I talk to fall into the ‘not so great’ camp.  I heard more responses about time being spent on ‘firedrills’ than i did about delivering something of value to the organization.

Its time to change this.  I know…there’s that word “change” again…but its time to do more than talk about it.    I don’t care of its a revolution in IT or an evolution of IT…but something needs to happen.

BTW – The good folks over at IDG and the Enterprise CIO Forum have just published a report on the need for IT to Burnish its image…perhaps there’s something worthwhile in that report that’s worth reading and touches on this topic.

What are your thoughts? Are you seeing a revolution, evolution or more of the same?

Image Credit: revolution By Peej’s Photos on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.