horses for courses › sites › ...mar 29, 2018 · j.w.m. turner. the fighting temeraire . 1839....
TRANSCRIPT
The Compelling Metaphor
for Business was “White Water
Rafting”
stretches of tranquility
punctuated by periodic moments
of chaos.
30 Years Ago…
OSU Men’s Hockey Rafting Trip[September 2017]
5 Years Ago…
OSU Men’s Hockey Rafting Trip[September 2017]
James K. Galbraith, “Cloudy With No Chance of Normal,” Pacific Standard [January/February 2013], 36-38.
https://psmag.com/social-justice/economic-recovery-fiscal-cliff-recession-50674
Today
Post-2018, the primary condition of leadership “is not just rapid change, but constant change.”
The Environment is Complexifying
Not only is the environment in which leadership happens changing, it is complexifying.
Leaders must deal with multiple interdependent landscapes simultaneously
[e.g., the technology landscape, the economic landscape, the cultural landscape,
and the competitive landscape].
Changed during
your tenure at your current
employer?
5 minute exerciseHow has:
What the Organization
Expects You to Do
as an
IT Leader
Report
Backs
What Patterns/Trends[if any]
do youperceive in your
responses?
Stephen Cimini, red zone
Where [Physically] Work Happens
LS Lowry, Returning from Work 1929
Just Showing Up is No Longer
Good Enough
National Archives c. 1943
When [Temporally] Work Happens
IT was not EXPECTED to Lead;
In the “Old Days”
IT was expected to MANAGE
We [the business] CALL; YOU [IT] HAUL
“On time, on budget & at expectations”
IT was EXPECTED to “Go Unnoticed”
Like an Otis Elevator
The term“CIO “
was coined
In 1981 This Changed
For the past 37 years, some of the smartest people
in the world have been trying to figure out
what that “strategy component” should be
After 1981 IT had a
“strategy” component
For the past 10 years I have sort of /kind ofbeen starting to /attempting to / thinking about
Writing a book about the “Ideal” IT Leader
An “Ideal” IT Organization meets and/or exceeds Expectations
Hypothesis
Herein Lies the Kerfuffle
Cecil Collins, The Quest 1938
Observation
EVERY organization has different expectations of IT
Tatsuro Kiuchi
Observation
Not every expectation is rational
Observation
Laurie Simmons, Walking Camera I (Jimmy the Camera), 1987
EVERYExecutive
has different expectations of IT
“CIO Balancing Act,” Harvard Business Review [29 September 2017]
EVERY Executive has different expectations of IT
24CIO Practicum Dinner at THE Ohio State University
12 August 2014
My name is Bill Taylor.
I am the NEW CIO at the Department of Transportation at the State of Ohio.
Everybody has an opinion about what the CIO & IT
should be doing
I have just listened to four conversationsabout what CIOs should be doing.
And I am the ONLY CIO at the table.
Observation
Not everyExecutive is rational
Hypothesis
Rodin Museum, PHL [8 May 2017]
EVERY “Ideal” IT Organization
MUST HAVE:
a mechanism to articulate what expectations are
Hypothesis
Every organization
Needs a Mechanism
to:
Rodin Museum, PHL [8 May 2017]
re-mediate “crazy”
Expectations Exercise
28
2 minute exercise
What Mechanism[s]are you currently usingto capture & articulate
expectations?
Report Backs
Osgemeos
Paul Kremer
What Patterns/Trends[if any]
do you perceive in your
responses?
BonusExpectations
Exercise
31
3 minute exercise
What Mechanism[s]are you currently using
to remediate
Irrationalexpectations?
Report Backs
Osgemeos
Alastair Morton (1910–1963) Opus 9 Red and Blue Stripes 1937
What Patterns/Trends[if any]
do you perceive in your
responses?
Full Potential IT Realities
Source: CIO Habitat Study
Total Population
PoorIT Shops
22%
AverageIT Shops
39%
GoodIT Shops
23%
World-ClassIT Shops
16%
Not All IT Organizations Are Alike!
Is a moving target
Giacomo Balla (1871-1958), Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash [1912]
The “Ideal” IT Organization
Observation
Hypothesis
To Sustainably RealizeIT’s Full Potential
[be “Ideal”] requires the ability of
shaping expectations
x
xÜber Themes2012-2013
Knowing about trendsis not a source of advantage
Point One
Point Two
Being Preparedfor Trends
IS a Source of Advantage
THE ModernChallenge
Balancing change &
continuity
Something to Think About
x
Lag between apprehension & adoption
Time, Expense & Distraction Associated With
Getting to“Full Potential”
Technological Presbyopia
A sharp vision of thedistant technological future
coupled with inability to clearly see the nearer portion of the transition path toward that state
“IT has once again become the source of ‘a ha’ and ‘ooh.’
We are just now entering a 15 year window of unprecedented opportunity to create competitive advantage with technology.
The key differentiator being whether the IS team can crawl out from under the ambition-crushing,
innovation-sucking, soul-destroying minutiae of just keeping the digital lights on.”
In “Full Potential” IT Shops…
Thornton May[Jacksonville, Florida May 2007]
The Balance Question
44
How do you deliver “Full Potential” IT
in the current period
while simultaneously
laying the ground work for the
“Ideal” IT organization of the future?
The Balance Question
45
How do you simultaneously
InnovateAnd
Operate?
46
“I think it is a good idea to aim far
and travel incrementally.”
GutierrezOn Balance
Louis Gutierrez, Executive Director Massachusetts Health Connector;CIO Emeritus Commonwealth of MA & Harvard-Pilgrim Healthcare
47
Ability to create quick early versions of
innovations, with the expectation that later success will require
early failures.
How can you do rapid prototyping that allows
you to fail early, fail often and fail cheaply —
while learning along the way?
Leadership Skills for a V.U.C.A. Environment [Volatility; Uncertainty; Complexity; & Ambiguity]
Hypothesis
In the absence of institutional
assistance/guidance organizations are going to have to figure out how to
manage and exploit the value of
information on their own.
The Ideal IT Organization of the Futurewill invest to create the capability to design
testable hypotheses
A Book You Have to Read
5X5 X-Team Challenge
Give a diverse team of 5 people no more than 5 days to come up with a portfolio of 5 business experiments that cost no more than $5,000 (each)
and take no longer than 5 weeks to run.
5X5 X-Team Challenge
The results are then presented to a senior management board, and the best ideas get more funding to continue.
The goal is to build a portfolio of experiments, but the problem is that most organizations just don’t know how
to design or manage a portfolio of business experiments. The 5x5 methodology quickly gets you up and running.
52
A Problem You Can’t Solve but one You Must Win
[e.g., Wal-mart is simultaneously a competitor
AND customer of P&G]
Ability to turn dilemmas into advantages and opportunities.
How can you improve your skills at dilemma flipping so
that you succeed with challenges that cannot be
solved and won’t go away?
53
Calm the SituationReframe the Conversation
Ability to bring people from divergent cultures toward constructive engagement.
How can you calm and improve tense situations
where people cannot agree?
54
Situation Where the P&G Symbol was thought to
represent Satanism
55
Ability to be open and authentic about
what matters without being overly
self-promoting.
How do you lead so that you inspire
credibility and trust?
GutierrezOn Balance
56
Ability to seed, nurture and grow shared assets that can benefit other
players.
How can you create settings within which both cooperation and
competition may occur?
GutierrezOn Balance Scalable Reciprocity
57
58
Maker instinct. Ability to exploit your inner drive to build and grow things, as well as connect with others in the making. How can you
draw out your inner maker instinct and apply it to your leadership? Future leaders — working with others — will need both a can-do and
a can-make spirit.
Clarity. Ability to see through messes and contradictions to a future that others cannot yet see. How can you communicate with clarity in
confusing times, so you are simple without being simplistic?
Immersive learning ability. Ability to immerse yourself in unfamiliar environments and to learn from them in a first-person way. Do you
have what it takes to learn by immersing yourself in new physical and virtual worlds that will take you out of your comfort zone?
Bio-empathy. Ability to see things from nature’s point of view — to understand, respect and learn from nature’s patterns. Can you learn
from nature and use that wisdom to inform your leadership?
Smart mob organizing. Ability to create, engage with and nurture purposeful business or social change networks through intelligent use of electronic or other media. How can you organize smart mobs using a range of media, choosing the best medium for each communication
challenge?
59
“I think it is a good idea to aim far
and travel incrementally.”
GutierrezOn Balance
Louis Gutierrez, Executive Director Massachusetts Health Connector;CIO Emeritus Commonwealth of MA & Harvard-Pilgrim Healthcare
Futuring is harder than it used to be
Yoshitomo Nara, Cat 1993
“I will tell you that as someone who does this professionally,
my job has become a lot harder in the last few years,” said Amy Webb, a futurist who runs the Future Today
Institute, a firm that helps big companies think about the possibilities of tomorrow.
“There are just a lot more variables in play,”
NYT [3 JAN 2018]
How do you describe / measure the landscape you lead in?
Landscape at Centre Pompidou
French-Algerian artist Kader Attia, Holy Land 2006
Bonding Capitalbinds people
within communities
Bridging Capitalbinds different communities
together.
Hypothesis
We need a unifying narrative
that brings executives with differing expectations
together.
Hypothesis We need to create Changemakers
people who can:
see the patterns around them,
identify the problems in any situation, figure out ways
to solve the problem, organize fluid teams,
lead collective action and then continually adapt as situations change.
Metrics & Assessments
Yoshitomo Nara, Cat 1993
Are Leaders Too Smart?
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/being-too-intelligent-can-make-you-a-less-effective-leader
Boomers Have Must More to Contribute
WSJ [6 March 2018]
John Stuart Mill and his sister Helen Taylor
Eras Vary
Mill lived in a Victorian moment when the chief problem was
claustrophobia —the individual being
smothered by society.
Modern Moment where the chief problem is agoraphobia —
too much freedom, too little cohesion,
meaning and direction.