Getting your company/organization/unit to collaborate better

van Essche & Associates

Paul van Essche is the founder/owner of the independent management and tech consulting firm van Essche & Associates. He is a Swiss and South African citizen with qualifications in electronic and industrial engineering as well as project and business management. He has 29 years experience gained in over 20 countries on five continents in multiple industries, serving a range of blue-chip firms and international organizations. One of his specialities is Change Management: he has successfully effected radical change in some of the most resistant business environments. Paul has been independent since 1999, is an accomplished public speaker and negotiator, and is bilingual (English-French).  ...

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I'd like to share some interesting lessons learned from an exercise in improving collaboration conducted recently in a large public-sector organization. While this précis is not short, it really just scratches the surface, so contact me if you want to chat about it in more detail - I'd be happy to share. 

The order came from the top - find out why we're not collaborating enough and fix it! True, people were working in isolation much of the time, hiding work from others, re-inventing the wheel continuously, especially when possession of that work's outcome (a) gave them power over co-workers and/or (b) gave them value in the eyes of seniors. But in general the nature of the work lent itself well to collaboration, and most people really wanted a better quality of interaction with colleagues. And yet, despite efforts to fix the situation, such as the development of thematic portals, and the installation of IM and video chat facilities, really effective collaboration remained low. What we found out was this:

1. To improve collaboration, define it in a way that brings value to your organization, and aim for that definition.

"Collaboration" in the abstract is just too nebulous to go out and "improve" on. In our context we defined it as actions of cooperation between colleagues that improve outcomes, provide learning experiences, and institutionalize knowledge. In other words, working together (a) produces deliverables that are better than if done alone (greater than the sum of their parts), (b) allows information and techniques to be transferred from one person to another, and (c) through that transfer allows knowledge to permeate into the fabric of the organization - its people and its products. Of course we know that  committees can produce outcomes that are poor compromises, so it's not just about getting in a room together - its about collectively aspiring to better quality through a sense of common purpose. And please note that purpose is a key word here - collaboration efforts need to be centred around a real business purpose or they won't take hold. 

2. Collaboration must be built on a solid infrastructure

What is this infrastructure? We divided it up into four layers of "foundational elements":   

Starting bottom left and working up:

Incentives: Be careful how your organization* is incentivized - too many large organizations have periodic evaluation frameworks which favour individualism, while smaller companies are ad-hoc. Group collaboration must be part of any incentive/reward structure.

Practices and Policies: Practices are the informal but engrained ways of doing things that make their way into the way we work, until we think they are actual rules. Once entrenched, they're difficult to break away from, but any working practices that favour individualism need to be identified and changed. Policies are the actual written rules, and also need to be identified and changed.   

Leadership: The biggest success factor of all. The senior most people in the organization need to demonstrate collaboration and require it of their reports, ensuring permeation through the ranks. Interestingly, the leadership isn’t all senior: natural leadership at all levels needs to be nurtured too. Some call them "Champions", but either way, find the individuals that will run with a new concept and pull others along with them, and make sure they get your full support – and get rewarded. 

Integration: Organizations structured in silos will always work that way, and information systems that are disparate and support the silos with little to no inter-connectivity will exacerbate the problem. Collaboration thrives in environments that are integrated both structurally and informatically. Yes, that’s now a word! 

Connectivity: Global organizations need the tools and telecoms bandwidth to communicate fast and effectively. If it's hard to speak or IM with someone far away, or even ten cubicles away, people will tend to try and solve problems alone. 

Desktop and Mobile: All elements, including hardware, desktop programs and mobile apps need to be of quality and performance comparable to that which employees now enjoy in their personal lives. Hoping that people will connect and collaborate with the aid of a lousy phone or tablet app is a dream, not a hope. The quality of experience out there is too great now for anything less than excellent to take hold. 

The Data Layer: Whatever your business, the information supporting it needs to be of high quality and highly available. Information about financial and material resources, about projects (the things we're working on) and about people (the skills and other characteristics of our staff) are primordial to generating collaborative links that would not otherwise have occurred. For example, "Oh, I know a guy in sales who can do that..." just isn't enough any more. We need to consult our internal skills base and find the best person, anywhere in the company, whether for a quick piece of advice or longer-term assignment. 

The Tools Layer: As soon as we say “tools” everyone thinks about an enterprise-social tool like Yammer or any one of its 100-or-so (literally) competitors. We'll come back to that shortly but for the time being the tools infrastructure elements we're talking about include: a mature portal structure, a comprehensive enterprise search facility, and the established use of (what should be) core technologies in your business such as workflow engines and wikis. Plonking in a "Facebook for companies" without being able to search your own company's information with an engine at least as effective as Google is not going to support your definition of collaborative value.  

Bottom line: Any fundamental weakness in any of the foundational elements will critically hamper collaboration.

3. The Three Biggest Issues

Once we'd figured out our foundation model and experienced its relevance, we realized that there were a couple of other pieces to the puzzle that merit separate mention:

A. The biggest enemy: EMAIL. Email is the quintessential necessary evil. While we can no longer live without it, it's also one of the biggest barriers to collaboration - in our definition. Email so nicely compartmentalizes exchanges, with the power of inclusion and exclusion, the politically charged order of addressees and cc's, and the real sting in the devil's tail, the blind copy. Email also fosters the ridiculous proliferation of documents through attachments, making a complete mess of versioning and any reasonable control. Email is a barrier, a cage, a hole to hide in, a place to plot in and a weapon to wield, all over and above its clearly valuable uses and the positive-transformative effect it's had on our lives. Unfortunately it has over-stepped its usefulness into double-edged sword territory, and behaviours need to be changed for it to support real collaboration, and that means NOT using for many of it's current purposes. 

B. Poorly configured Office Space is a collaborative killer, whether rooms or cubicles are overly compartmentalized (rabbit-warren style) or so open and uncontrolled that all privacy and the right to think quietly are destroyed. This is not the place for an architectural treatise, but there are good solutions out there, and organizations would be well advised to examine this issue closely. See for example http://myturnstone.com/blog/21-inspirational-collaborative-workspaces/ and the link therein, http://myturnstone.com/blog/office-zones/.

C. Culture is so difficult to define and to change, yet so essential to understand and to tackle. Like people, organizations develop habits, good and bad, and for their own health and well-being, the bad habits need to be turned around. Parts of our framework address this (incentive, leadership..) but it's worth being aware of culture as a single and large piece of the puzzle. It’s also a large enough subject in and of itself for another post!    

4. Degrees of Social

In the Facebook age, we tend to think of collaboration in Facebook terms. So let's return to "Facebook for companies" as promised. Firstly we need to recognize that different kinds of collaboration require different levels of sociability to be effective. For example, great collaborative work has been done by scientists across continents exchanging handwritten, sail-ship-carried letters. Was that efficient? Maybe not, but was it any less effective? No, it was arguably just as effective or even more so, as it allowed for pause and reflection in between communications - something we do so rarely now. Anyway, the point is that social can be good, but needs to be applied in line with the objectives. Consider the five elements in this diagram (yes the elements are pretty random, but hopefully no less illustrative)

A high-social environment is like a party: conversations are active, traffic is all over the place, nothing is moderated or structured, and most everything is transparent, music volume permitting. A low-social environment is like our inter-continental scientists, but imagine them being careful about how much and what they share. The question is this: according to our definition of collaboration, how social do we need to be? Of course there is a time and a place for everything (every party eventually winds down and we have to sleep) but we found that one of our major issues was that we were not social enough, and were stuck on the lower end of this scale. Even the tools I mentioned above (IM and the like) were under-used because they were too disconnected, and didn't "get the party going". With obvious pieces of the analogy aside, a good party is like good collaboration in that it needs leadership to happen in the first place, has energy and enthusiasm, helps form new relationships, and can be a lot of fun! The difference of course is in the outcome - we want a good product, a result we can be proud of, and not a hangover.   

Can Enterprise-Social tools help here? Can they make the truly collaborative conversations and interactions happen? Yes they can, but they will also fail without the right culture and without ticking all the boxes we've mentioned above. Correctly implemented, they can support our objectives, and, for example, get colleagues to know more about each other, and to "meet" and work with colleagues that they might not otherwise have known about. But they remain a tool amongst others, and not a single means to an end, and it’s with that in mind that we’ve taken the leap with one in particular – which one is not important, it just has be the right one for the context.

5. Quick A-B-C-D

We’re still in the early days and I’ll publish more later about the longer-term results. But in the meantime this is how I suggest you proceed if you are contemplating a similar adventure:

A. Get your ducks in a row. The ducks are described in some detail above.

B. Don't jump into tools for their own sake – work out what degree of social is appropriate first, and what functions you really need the most. Treat it like any other well-run software selection, but put that social element high on the list.

C. Find enthusiastic pilot communities to get things going; learn from their lessons and adjust as you go. Also, consider letting the first pilot run the tool selection, and be prepared to switch tools if the one you choose isn’t absolutely great, especially in the early phases. Treat the early days as a “collaboration lab”.

D. Lead, lead, lead. Get the seniors on board and offering incentives and showing the way, while you enable the natural leaders at all levels.

I hope this helps the many CIOs and others who I know are being asked to tackle the collaboration question, and who are under pressure to implement something, anything, which makes the organization more “social”. Unless you understand exactly what kind of social is going to do it for your organization, social will remain a buzzword, and likely become a bad memory too. Please beware of the software vendors (as usual) who promise that their solutions will have you all collaborating in no time, regardless of other factors. It just isn’t true.

Two footnotes for enthusiasts:

1. The way we learn is changing

Let’s remember again that information transfer and sharing can indeed be done off-line, and formally (“low-socially”), but the issue is that behavioural evolution in our societies means that we take much less time and care to sit down and read or write. Therefore the more interactive and social learning and knowledge transfer paths are gaining importance, and in general people will learn more in an interactive session than alone. When you think about it, that's not really new: it's why we go to school as opposed to sitting at home reading books! But classrooms too are evolving, and on-line experiences are now part of them, and the best schools are evolving away from a lecture format into a round-table "learn from each other while you discuss" style. See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harkness_table. (One of our self-imposed challenges was to create a Harkness-like environment, both on-line and in person.) If the goal of collaboration is to promote information sharing and the institutionalization of knowledge, we have to look carefully at learning and information transfer mechanisms as processes.

2. Knowledge transfer and repositories: man vs machine

This study led us to believe that “knowledge-bases” and “institutionalized knowledge” live primarily within the employees of an organization and not in databases. Computer programs, document and audio/video repositories, wikis and yes, collaboration tools, are all helpful pieces of the support structure. But in the end, the most meaningful transfer of knowledge happens not in writing/reading or recording/listening, but in the interactive telling of and participation in stories and experiences one person to another. Leveraging this reality in the pursuit of collaboration (and our defined benefits) means supplying a “high-social” experience, and that's part of what our solution aims to deliver. 

* For “organization” please always read “company or organization”

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Social Discovery: An Interview With Howard Williamson

X1

Barry Murphy is the Senior Vice President of Product Marketing and Strategy at X1.  In this role, Barry leads X1's product marketing function, aligning X1's offerings to market needs for search and information access, eDiscovery, cloud and virtual search, and social discovery. Barry joins X1 from eDJ Group, where he was an analyst and thought leader in information governance, eDiscovery, records management, and content archiving. Previously, Barry was Director of Product Marketing at Mimosa Systems, a leading content archiving and eDiscovery software provider. He joined Mimosa after a highly successful stint as Principal Analyst for eDiscovery, records management, and content archiving at Forrester Research. Barry received a B.S. from the State University of New York at…...

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This week’s blog is something new for X1 – a Q & A with Howard Williamson, the General Manager for X1’s market leading Social Discovery product.  Howard is an experienced digital forensics expert and began his career in law enforcement, which gives him a unique perspective on the practice of social discovery.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Howard this week on what is a very hot topic – social discovery.

Why Social Discovery?

Howard:  I remember back in the mid-1990’s there was a real feeling of excitement around digital forensics.  It was the cutting edge of the forensics field and the work was really fun.  Social media is now what digital forensics was in the mid to late 1990s – it’s the cutting edge of where investigation and intelligence is right now.  The work is fun because there are lots of challenges; the fun part is taking the practice from good to great.  That is what attracted me to the opportunity at X1 – because X1 Social Discovery can make the practice great because the product addresses the challenges of defensibly collecting a high volume, diverse data set like social media.

How does the law enforcement background complement this role?

Howard:  Ultimately, the goal of social discovery is to collect data in a manner that allows it to be used in criminal or civil litigation.  Knowing how that process works is critical.  The law enforcement background gives that experience of defensible collection across many different types of digital evidence.  And, on the criminal side of things, the standards of defensibility are quite high, so carrying that over to the civil side means that X1 will always meet high authenticity standards.  I bring that high bar from the digital forensics world to this brave new world of social media.

What’s new about this practice?
Howard:  The nice thing about now versus the mid-1990s is that we are now using purpose-built tools like X1 Social Discovery rather than co-opting system administration and network tools like we did in the early days of computer forensics.  That makes the process more efficient and more complete.
Rather than using a sledgehammer to put a nail in, we are using a hammer.  The tool is built specifically for social discovery and therefore makes the practice more efficient.  Whereas in the early days of digital forensics, collection procedures where often made up on the fly, with Social Discovery, the approach is much more structured and systematic.  At X1, with our experience, we are certainly able to think and react on the fly to new challenges, but with a purpose-built tool, we can do so much more efficiently.  And, in the eDiscovery world, efficiency and defensibility are two very important things.

Are you seeing social discovery specialists pop up? 

Howard:  What we are seeing is that digital forensics professionals and intelligence professionals are implementing social discovery into their processes and procedures.  There are not “specialists” in social media; rather, the social discovery tool allows more people to collect this type of data as part of a broader job.  They are also doing things like mobile forensics and other digital forensics.  Thus, X1 Social Discovery has become an important tool in their toolkit.  The tool actually makes it easier to bring social media content into the collection because the professional doesn’t have to dive deep into things like mobile operating systems.  It becomes easier to be an expert in social collection because the product makes it simple to collect and analyze.

Do you think that Social discovery is a mainstream practice now?

Howard:  It absolutely is.  The evidence of that is our business.  X1 has nearly 500 paid install sites and nearly 4,000 end users conducting social discovery.  These users got ahead of the curve and have social media integrated into their processes.  The growth opportunity is still huge because it is inevitable that case law will force everyone to take social media more seriously, in the way that the Enron case put a spotlight on electronic discovery in general.  Law enforcement got the importance of social media evidence early on.  Even though a more typically cautious industry, police departments see that social media is a critical form of evidence and have built it into collection processes.  This is how most areas of forensics have evolved.   There is an attitude that, if it’s good enough for criminal law, it’s good enough for civil court.  That is part of what’s exciting for X1 – we have a great base of law enforcement customers putting the product through the paces.  X1 Social Discovery is truly battle-tested and no other solution works quite as well.  We are nicely positioned as the social discovery leader in a mainstream market with high growth potential.

What should we look for in the next year of social discovery?

Howard:  I would expect to see the big social networks continue to gain traction.  I don’t foresee a new behemoth social network to challenge the popularity of Facebook and Twitter.  From an app perspective, self-destructing messaging looks to remain popular as privacy becomes more of a concern.  Forensics will play a large role in determining whether those messages are truly destroyed or actually discoverable.

X1 will continue to build out connectors to more and more social networks and improve reporting and deliverables.  There will be more ability to analyze the data within the investigation platform.   What X1 wants to enable is people to do their jobs within a given workflow.  Some users will want to collect and review social media directly within X1, and the tools enables them to do that.  Others have examiners collect the data, but then move to a review tool where litigators can look at it.

Big thanks to Howard Williamson for sharing his time with us.  If you have questions about social discovery, please contact us at [email protected] for more information.

_________________________________________

Catch Howard’s lecture at HTCIA’s Annual Conference, Tuesday, August 26, where he will cover Social Media Collection and Review 

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Monday's Musings: Who Gets To Be A Chief Digital Officer?

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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The Chief Digital Officer Navigates Digital Disruption…

Chief Digital Officers serve as a leader who is wholly responsible and ultimately accountable for driving digital business transformation.  As identified by Constellation in its’ recent report on the “Case For the Chief Digital Officer”, Constellation expects this executive to report directly to the CEO and bridge the gap between marketing and IT at a corporate level, rather than report into either existing function. Why? The CDO needs to maintain focus above the legacy responsibilities of marketing communications and enterprise technology architecture. Current C-suite residents may argue that a CDO would be assisted by the guidance and patronage of a more established department; however, the organization needs an unencumbered leader to drive a digital-first mindset into business units and all the way to the front lines of retail and customer service. A properly chartered CDO should have responsibility for:

• Formulating digital business strategy. The Chief Digital Officer needs to determine how to incorporate digital approaches into the company’s business model, which may vary based on industry. But all CDOs must have subject matter expertise and also need to draw upon a background in general management and competitive strategy. In order to lead transformation, a CDO must determine how to evolve long-standing analog business elements into digital assets and capabilities, ultimately creating customer value.
• Activating operational initiatives. Effective CDOs are not mere evangelists or thought leaders; they earn their keep by translating strategy into actionable programs. A CDO will introduce new ideas into existing work methods, which requires a holistic point of view, attention to detail, and an integration mindset. A company’s current value chain will require reexamination for new value creating opportunities. The CDO’s role is to leverage operations and development expertise to identify areas of potential change and turn them into value capturing solutions.
• Managing the organization’s transformation. To be effective, a CDO needs to directly lead a team with diverse skill sets that can serve as a digital catalyst in varied situations. For example, assignments might include helping a business unit take advantage of a new market opportunity, working with external partners to drive the offering of innovation, or helping establish an internal workforce collaboration platform to accelerate knowledge sharing and increased digital awareness across regions. A CDO must understand how to work within the parameters of organizational governance, establish rights management processes, and be sensitive to a culture in transition by building relationships and evolving mindsets across different levels of digital proficiency.

Chief Digital Officer Resources

How to Make the Case for the Digital CXO webinar - August 13, 2014

Research Report: The Case for the Chief Digital Officer

…Yet The Evolving Lineage Of The Chief Digital Officer Depends On Industry

Lately, one may notice the proliferation of appointments to the chief digital officer role.  A question often arises as to what lineage do these roles come from.  Is it a CMO going digital or is it a CIO taking a business model digital, or is it a CTO becoming digital?  Boards seeking to appoint a Chief Digital Officer remain confused as to who or what role should be elevated.  Which skill sets should be valued or emphasized.

A closer examination by Constellation Research, reveals some patterns by industry.  Keep in mind job descriptions do vary greatly by industry which is why in most cases role based research often fails to produce the cohorts that folks hope to achieve.  For Chief Digital Officers, several splits have emerged, despite some non statistically significant surveys over the past few months that indicate more CDO’s are from X function versus Y function.  In over 200 discussion about Chief Digital Officers, here are four common scenarios and how the Chief Digital Officer may be selected:

1. The Chief Marketing Officer is selected to become the CDO Role.  In consumer facing and brand driven enterprises, a tech savvy marketing chief often makes many of the enabling and supporting technology decisions.  The focus on creating digital business models and new experiences is often a driver for selection of CMOs.  Constellation sees this in consumer package goods, hospitality and gaming, home building,  luxury and fashion rands, media, retail, and telecommunications.
2. The Chief Technology Officer elevates into the CDO role.  In many organizations where a chief technology officer has existed and an acceptance that the enterprise must move to a digital business model, the CTO will assume many of the requirements of a CDO.  In addition, many organizations creating a CDO role often include the CTO components with a focus on business model transformation. This is often seen in academia, creative agencies, financial services, insurance, media and entertainment, public sector, and professional service organizations.
3. The Chief Operating Officer takes on the digital business challenge.  In the transformation of traditional businesses, COOs can take on the CDO position.  Experience in business operations, business transformation, and general management position the COO to design, implement, and execute digital business models.  Traditional enterprise facing organizations such as Architecture, engineering, and construction; aerospace and defense, discrete manufacturing, industrial supply, oil and gas, and wholesale distribution often show COO’s taking the key role.
4. The Chief Information Officer is chosen as a CDO.  Organizations seeking a progressive and tech savvy CDO, often choose very innovative CIOs. Commonly known as the Chief Innovation Officer persona of the CIO, these individuals help organizations navigate the world of start-ups and their innovation while making sure innovations meet enterprise class requirements. These organizations have built strong business and IT partnerships.  Industries include financial services, high tech, insurance, media and entertainment, mining and exploration, pharma, and transportation and warehousing.

The Bottom Line: Digitally Enabled CXO’s Needed

While the existing patterns of CDO appointments may run by industry, Constellation sees three broader trends emerging:

1. The Chief Digital Officer role will continue to proliferate. Constellation expects that half of the Fortune 500 will appoint a CDO by 2016.  The roles and responsibilities may vary slightly but the emphasis on new business model creation and support will remain a key and common denominator.
2. Digitally enabled CXOs will emerge over time.  While the CDO will spearhead and rally the troops towards digital business transformation, all leaders inside the organization must gain a digital orientation.  More than technology, this shift involves both business and technology savvy required for CFOs, CEOs, CIOs, CMOs, COOs, Chief People Officers, and others.  Digital infusion is a requirement for the modern leader.
3. The Digital moniker will disappear before 2020.  As with cyber, social, e-business, etc, these monikers will go away as digital becomes mainstream.  However between nos and 2020, boards will see the largest change in requirements for their executive management team. Technology savvy and business acumen will no longer be isolated and separate requirements of future leaders.

?Ready to execute your digital strategy? Register for the Making the Case for the Digital CXO webinar or download the report, The Case for the Chief Digital Officer.

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Join us October 29th to 31st for Constellation’s Connected Enterprise: The Executive Innovation Conference For Digital CXO’s and Leaders. These leaders convene to discover, share, and inspire each other on how digital business can realize brand promises, transform business models, increase revenues, reduce costs, and improve compliance.

The 3-day executive retreat will include mind expanding keynotes from visionaries and futurists, interactive best practices panels, deep 1:1 20 minute interviews with market makers, rapid fire high-energy new technology demos, The Constellation SuperNova Awards event, a golf outing, and an immersive networking event.

Your POV.
Ready to begin your digital transformation? Still looking for a CDO? Let us know how you are getting there and what first steps have worked.  Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

The post Monday’s Musings: Who Gets To Be A Chief Digital Officer? appeared first on A Software Insider's Point of View.

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New Research: The Customer View on Oracle Sales Cloud

Constellation recommends Oracle Sales Cloud for select customers and partners. Find out why in the latest research report by R "Ray" Wang.

The Customer View on Oracle Sales Cloud
by R "Ray" Wang

After fielding many requests from potential Oracle Sales Cloud customers and partners expressing the desire to evaluate the accuracy of the claims Oracle makes about Sales Cloud, Constellation conducted extensive research of the product. The result of this research which included interviews with customers, systems integrators, and others with firsthand experience of the product, is a recommendation of Oracle Sales Cloud for inclusion on customer short lists.  

This research report includes three customer case studies and revals the direction of the sales and marketing cloud market via analysis of Oracle Sales Cloud's functionality.  

Find out if Oracle Sales Cloud is right for your organization. Download a snapshot of this report today.

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Easiest Way to Stand Out as a Leader

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Some things in life are counterintuitive. One of water’s lesser-known properties is that hot water freezes faster than cold water. It is not fully understood why, but the phenomenon, known as the Mpemba Effect, was originally discovered by Aristotle over 3,000 years ago.

Think about it, hot water freezes faster than cold water, who would have thought? This example of Aristotle’s discovery is the epitome of how many leaders stand out.

You can too, and it is called counter intuition …

I have been studying counter intuition for about five years, and I find it to be the single most effective way to stand out as a leader. A lot has been written about how counter-intuitive truths can open people’s minds to change. Neuroscience describes this as ‘cognitive dissonance’; stopping our mind from processing automatically and setting us up to restructure our thinking.

Mahatma Gandhi for example chose to meet violence with non-violence, breaking the cycle of escalation and opening a different dialogue for change.

Below are examples of applying counter intuition from other successful business individuals and world-recognized leaders that can help you stand out.

1. Build your strengths and forget your weaknesses …

Having leaders focus their development on their weaknesses is a traditional approach, widely accepted, but not very effective. This is because great leaders are differentiated by the existence of profound strengths, not the absence of weaknesses. Counter intuitive for sure. Focusing on fixing weaknesses may elevate a poor leader up to average, but it never made any leader exceptional.

Great leaders distinguish themselves by possessing and exhibiting significant strengths in areas that are important to their jobs. They don’t stand out because they’re perfect and have no weaknesses.

The paragraphs above are the courtesy of Bob Sherwin found here.

2. Hire those who have failed …

In the episode of Hacking the Future below, John Nosta and I discuss failure in depth, and cover the value of hiring those with “failure experience”. Counter intuitive? Yes!

In the past, the only companies keen on hiring a failed entrepreneur would be in the consulting, public relations, marketing and advertising space. However, now startups in various sectors are looking for former or failed entrepreneurs.

Aditya Narayan Mishra, president of staffing firm Randstad India.

3. Don’t think too big …

4. Publicly flog your biases …

When you hold a certain belief or unconsciously decide on something, you’ll have a tendency to focus on and favor information that supports your belief or decision, discarding anything that contradicts it. You do it without even realizing it. Psychologists call this confirmation bias.

While this is a fundamentally human foible to which neither the brilliant nor the principled are impervious, unchecked in a leader or decision-maker it could lead to damaging – even catastrophic consequences.

“Confirmation bias is one of the most difficult biases to overcome,” says Professor Iris Bohnet, Academic Dean at Harvard Kennedy School and faculty chair of the executive program, Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.

Warren Buffet [for example] counts on his vice-chairman, Berkshire Hathaway ’s Charlie Munger, to point out flaws in his own reasoning. “If I talk it through [with him], it’s because deep down I know I might be doing something dumb, and he’ll tell me,” Buffet shared recently on CNBC. [He flogs his biases publicly, counter intuitive? You bet!]

The paragraphs above are the courtesy of Maseena Ziegler found here.

5. Always seek the negative feedback …

6. Change your mind a lot …

7. Be embarrassed by your first version …

8. Go with your gut …

So how counter intuitive are you, or are you a part of the herd?

I write as a labor of love, in exchange I ask that you share this writing if you think others may find value,

-Richie

New C-Suite Future of Work Chief Executive Officer

How the Power of Cloud Will Reinvent Small Business

Sholto Macpherson

SME Tech Commentator
Digital First

Sholto Macpherson is a business technology journalist and expert on cloud software and services for SMEs. Since June 2011 he has published http://DigitalFirst.com, which explores how SMEs can use the latest cloud technologies and the impact of digital disruption on the accounting industry.Sholto has 14 years’ experience contributing to magazines and websites, radio and TV segments, webinars and conferences on enterprise and SMB technology and the cloud-led productivity revolution. His stories have appeared in national and regional Australian newspapers and industry websites such as CRN.com.au and iTnews.com.au.Sholto won a national IT Journalism award for Best Columnist in 2012 for his Cloud Channel column in CRN Australia magazine on the transition from server software to cloud software…...

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Why Enterprise Cloud is Just the Warm-Up

For years, headlines about cloud computing have focused on infrastructure for the enterprise. Stories typically focus on the vendors – Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google App Engine, OpenStack, etc. – or on the benefits such as scalability, reliability, cost efficiency and of course that enterprise buzzword, “agility”.

But there’s an equally large, if not larger revolution occurring in small business where the catalyst is cloud software more than infrastructure-as-a-service. The greatest improvement over desktop or server software is this – the cloud promises easy access to the latest business technology.

What does this mean? In practical terms, a business owner armed with just a credit card and an internet connection can use nearly any cloud program in the world. Often for free on a 30-day trial. The implication of this commonly accepted fact is so enormous that many fail to see the significance.

Think about the hurdles an SME faced in the past if it wanted to trial a customer database or inventory program. A test server had to be ordered and installed by a consultant paid on an hourly rate. The software itself needed to be requested separately and loaded onto the machine, with data exported from the existing application and imported into the new one.

Even a program on a desktop PC still required downloading, installing and configuring before a SME could put it through its paces. Money and time are always in short supply in small business, so why risk both testing out new technology?

The truth was that it was easier to stick with older software, patching its shortcomings with manual processes and workarounds, than to bother looking for a better fit.

The cloud changes all that. A real estate agent in Sydney can test a CRM recommended by a peer in Chicago just by setting up a username and password one evening.

On a global scale, we should see SMEs make an enormous jump in their productivity and efficiency as they move off outdated software and onto the latest cloud programs, matched by a concomitant improvement in business processes.

Take that real estate agency. Imagine if it wanted to boost the number of bidders at auction. It could use an SMS broadcast service to contact all interested parties on auction day to remind them of the starting time and the address. A simple solution to a common problem, solved quickly with a cloud application.

The Rise to Enterprise

The kicker with cloud is that it gives SMEs access to the same tools used by multinational conglomerates. There are no barriers to using Salesforce.com, NetSuite, SugarCRM, Office 365, Google Apps, etc. in your three-person startup.

Enterprise concepts and practices go hand in hand with these technology platforms. As SMEs  automate their marketing and sales processes, or hire and manage staff in remote offices, or map strategies to KPIs – this digital revolution will create a global army of highly capable businesses operating at a far faster frequency.

I don’t doubt they will be more agile too.

Future of Work Matrix Commerce New C-Suite Next-Generation Customer Experience Tech Optimization Innovation & Product-led Growth SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief Customer Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief People Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer

Roundup Of Cloud Computing Online Courses

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Amazon Web Services, Coursera, Google, MIT Courseware and Microsoft are accelerating the depth and variety of cloud computing courses, courseware and learning materials they are freely making available online.

Over the last six months since the last Roundup Of Free Cloud Computing Online Courses, Amazon Web Services has added an additional series of free instructional videos, self-paced labs and selected free courses in the seven areas their AWS Training programs focus on. Microsoft’s Virtual Academy has grown to include more courses, training material and entire section of free downloadable books from Microsoft Press.  Google’s continual additions to the Developer Academy include online courses to learn more about Google AppEngine, Python App Engine and Google Cloud SQL.

Coursera and the University of Maryland, University of New Mexico and Vanderbilt University are all offering free courses on Android, mobile and web application development.  MIT Courseware continues to add useful courses across the broad spectrum of subjects they cover. The dominant theme of all courses is a new focus on creating and launching a new cloud computing application during the course.

Update on Cloud Computing Online Courses – Full Index Available For Download

One of the best indicators of how serious a software company is about their developer evangelism strategy is how much they invest in free training, easily accessible knowledge, and work to break down learning barriers.  Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft are each accelerating these areas quickly.  Each are choosing to freely provide valuable training videos, books and content in the hope of attracting and educating more developers.

In addition to these extensive evangelism efforts, there are several excellent courses and educational programs available entirely online at various price points.  You can find entire roundup of cloud computing online courses and programs here (in PDF) and also in Microsoft Word.

The following table compares the free cloud computing online courses.  Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

Key Take-Aways:

• Coursera & the University of New Mexico are partner to offer the free course Web Application Architectures starting next month. By the end of this course, students will be able to design, develop and deploy a modern web application. You can find more information about the course here.

• DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media is offering a Cloud Computing Technologies Program where students will build their own cloud applications.  Using Amazon Web Services, IBM, Microsoft and Salesforce cloud platforms, students will learn how to create and manage cloud-based applications.  The eleven-week in-depth program in the principles, methods, and technologies of Cloud Computing. The program provides a broad understanding of the different leading Cloud Computing technologies.

• Stanford University is offering CS309A – Cloud Computing one of the most sought-after online courses in this field, from September 23^rd to December 16^th, 2014.  This class includes discussions with cloud computing industry leaders and CEOs who share their vision of the future of software-powered businesses.  Previous guest speakers include Hamish Brewer, CEO, JDA Software, Godfrey Sulliva, CEO, Splunk, Human Shah, CEO, RMS, Rob Bearden, CEO, Hortonworks, Bill Ruh, VP & Corporate Officer, GE Global Software and Aaron Levie, CEO, Box.   The course is taught by Timothy Chou, a widely recognized pioneer in cloud computing.  He has been teaching introductory computer architecture at Stanford for 15 years.  He has an extensive background in cloud computing and is a high energy, engaging speaker.   You can find his LinkedIn profile here.

New C-Suite Tech Optimization SaaS PaaS IaaS Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP CCaaS UCaaS Collaboration Enterprise Service Chief Customer Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Information Security Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Executive Officer

What Do You Like and Dislike About Mobile Computing

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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Love it or hate it, mobile computing is (has) dramatically changed the way we work. In my opinion, working mobile means more than just using phones and tablets, it's any time you're doing your job away from your standard office environment. Being mobile could mean using your laptop in your backyard or at a coffee shop. It could be virtual desktops shared from one machine to another, or via a kiosk. It could mean a screen in your car or in an airplane. It could be wearable technology like glasses, watches, or clothing. Dream big!

So I have two questions for you:

1) What are the 3 biggest advantages mobile access provides in helping you get your job done?

2) What are the 3 biggest challenges you have getting your job done while working mobile?

Your answers could be technical, cultural, financial, or anything else.

Sign in and leave a response, or tweet your answer to @alanlepo. 

Thank you for your replies.

New C-Suite Future of Work Next-Generation Customer Experience Chief Customer Officer Chief People Officer

Customer loyalty goes beyond a plastic card in your clients’ wallets.

pending

Guy Courtin was formerly Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research covering Matrix Commerce and how the Internet of Things drives the evolution of commerce.  Guy has over 15 years experience in the technology space and specifically in the supply chain space. Most recently he was the Vice President of Research at SCM World. Where he focused on the service providers that empowered supply chains. Prior to SCM World, Guy held numerous senior positions. He was responsible for product marketing at RSi, a retail supply chain solution provider. There managed RSi’s go to market strategy around their leading cloud based supply chain solutions. He also spear headed Progress Software’s supply chain group. Where he was responsible for driving revenue and market share as well…...

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Customer loyalty is the holy grail for retailers, consumer product companies (CPG), airlines, credit cards, media, and so on and so on. Companies across the majority of industries are striving to understand why their consumers are willing to hand over their hard earned income for goods and services. Why or will these consumers continue to purchase from the same source? And how can these companies keep these customers coming back and hopefully spending more and more.

Companies have created and leveraged many creative means to gather and nurture information from their customers – whether it be loyalty cards you have at CVS or Shaws

grocery store or Vineyard Vines or Barnes & Nobles or Starbucks. These vendors know that for the most part they need to give you something for you to give over some information – usually they give you discounts, early views of new product lines, reward points etc. Airlines, of course, were one of the first movers to give you what was a highly sought after reward for your business – miles and status. Hotel chains were quick to follow. Anyone who spends time on the road, knows how vital is it to have “status” on an airline. While it still doesn’t beat flying private…so I have been told…having that status can usually make the drag of travel a little more tolerable.

All this information has added fuel to these supply chains – an insight into the most profitable client and demand. A view into a data source that can potentially drive the most profitable and desirable side of the supply chain. But are our supply chains getting a less than complete picture of what is really happening?

Looking at our consumers’ buying patterns for just our products is far from a complete picture. Grocery chains and drug stores are very aware of this. They work with vendors like IRI, Neilson, Orchestro or RSi to get a more complete view of the consumer basket. These software vendors will aggregate data across a category or across an entire store or region. This allows a more complete view of what is truly happening. But is that enough? No. Not if our supply chains want to be even more finely tuned when it comes to servicing our clients.

The reality is that our supply chains are no linear and they do not exist in a vacuum. They are all intertwined. The way to make sure our customers stays loyal to our supply chains is to understand how the interact with all the supply chains that are connected. This type of visibility cannot occur if we are only looking at that data that comes in from the loyalty program specific to my business. I need to understand how that customer interacts with tangential goods, potential substitute goods, services and even items that might not appear to be in the same cohort.

Companies need to step away from the loyalty card table…okay they still need to take in and leverage that information. But the data that needs to be added to the supply chain is information of how consumers behave when they are not giving you their information – meaning when they are doing other things with their time and money. Credit card companies have a leg up on this, they already have all that data. Smart supply chains will find ways to get access to that information. Just think about how much wiser your supply chain could be with true demand.

Matrix Commerce Next-Generation Customer Experience Marketing Transformation Revenue & Growth Effectiveness Innovation & Product-led Growth Tech Optimization Data to Decisions B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience business Marketing eCommerce Supply Chain Growth Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Enterprise IT Enterprise Acceleration Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps IoT Blockchain CRM ERP Leadership finance Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration M&A Enterprise Service AI Analytics Automation Machine Learning Generative AI Chief Customer Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Data Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Growth Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Product Officer Chief Revenue Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Supply Chain Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer

People, Places and Things

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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Everything old is new again...

In response to my Tweet

I find it amazing how many of the 2014 business goals for #socbiz are the exact same as the 1995 goals of the early Lotus Notes days.

- Alan Lepofsky (@alanlepo) July 31, 2014

Joel Demay pointed out to me that Facebook's Graph Search helps you search for people, places and things...



Which was the main focus of Lotus's ~1999-2002 Knowledge Management efforts. "People, Places & Things as the three essential ingredients of an effective Knowledge Management infrastructure"
I especially like how together they support relationships and community, all within the context of what you're working on.

Sound familiar?




 

New C-Suite Marketing Transformation Future of Work Innovation & Product-led Growth Next-Generation Customer Experience Digital Safety, Privacy & Cybersecurity X meta Marketing B2B B2C CX Customer Experience EX Employee Experience AI ML Generative AI Analytics Automation Cloud Digital Transformation Disruptive Technology Growth eCommerce Enterprise Software Next Gen Apps Social Customer Service Content Management Collaboration Chief Customer Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief People Officer Chief Human Resources Officer