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Category Archives: Technology
In Our Systems We Trust
Why do we place so much faith in our software systems? Is it that we feel that they are without flaw, or that we are comfortable working around the flaws? Continue reading
Posted in Management, People / Talent, Process, Technology
Tagged defects, end user computing, EUC
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Where Are All the Tribes?
Over the last few weeks there has been no end to the drama which has been unfolding in the health care debates. Debates of course being a very generous term. What we are seeing is pent up outrage over what people believe they are going to lose, or not going to gain. If there is one thing we can all count on, as much as death and taxes, is that the more a group of people has to gain or lose, the more they will fight to capitalize or preserve their situation. In the case of the US health care reform / health insurance reform there are plenty of groups to “go to work.” Continue reading
30x: Personal Effort vs Corporate Effort
“”…And a weekend-scale implementation on a personal site usually translates roughly into a 90-day implementation cycle in a business context, which is a reasonably approachable project size. (In tech, three days in personal effort often translates to three months of corporate effort.)”"
I’ve always intuitively believed that there is a significant productivity improvement which can be found when sufficiently motivated and talented individuals work on their own projects compared to when they work on corporate projects. But this statement implies a 30x productivity gain. Can this be true? Maybe so… Continue reading
Posted in People / Talent, Technology
Tagged corporate, innovation, inspiration, pareto, personal, productivity
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Physics of IT – Mass (of Assets)
Conceptually, we can think of mass as the collection of quantitative and qualitative attributes that can describe not only the size of an organization, but also the ability to deliver results to their customers. Mass connotes weight and with it inertia. Those people who have plied their trade in organizational change are all too familiar with the joys and pains of the inertia which allows organizations in motion to stay in motion, and organizations at rest to stay at rest. Continue reading
Posted in Consulting, Technology
Tagged application portfolio, assets, communications, computers, service catalog, telephony
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Technical Architecture – Static or Active?
What happens when the technology platform which you have adopted is eclipsed by newer more efficient or effective technology? It is easy for this to happen. The decisions made today will have a shelf life. Vendors of software platforms are frequently purchased leaving the acquired platform in limbo. Different technologies and platforms which perform similar roles can gain more market traction leaving the chosen platform in question. Continue reading
Posted in Technology
Tagged architecture, decision, decisions, information, obsolesence, technologies
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Playing to Win
I see many sports organizations consistently, year after year, playing to win – as opposed to playing to not lose. They will make the extra effort to ensure they have the right players are in place, but much more than that they will ensure the management talent is in place. They will have extensive recruiting networks, deep management talent at all levels (both at the professional and feeder teams), and cultivate a culture of success throughout the organization. In short, they have made the conscious decision to “play to win.” Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Technology
Tagged actions, business drivers, decisions, fudamentals, Leadership, strategy, success criteria
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E2.0 Fundamentals
Over the last few years I’ve been connecting dots, data points actually. These data points relate to innovation and the opportunity presented by Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0) technologies. While there is a tremendous amount of evidence from companies who have started navitgating down this road that these technologies, individually and collectively, provide great benefits and are seen as potentially game changing. With these new technologies companies are learning why and how to best make use of them within their organizations. Continue reading
The Problem With Ease of Use
Ease of use is something which is highly desired. Industries are built around it. Intellectual property laws allow entrepreneurs to innovate to make almost anything easier to do. In the 1980′s and 1990′s companies would spend a great deal of time and money on business process (re)engineering. The end goal was to have processes and systems which were easier to perform and easier to use. While it was recognized that this would be expensive, the elusive “ease of use / ease to perform” was thought to be well worth it when all was said and done. Continue reading
Posted in Technology
Tagged BPE, BPR, ease of use, end user computing, EUC, information architecture, simplicity
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Types of Meetings – It Depends on Your Perspective
The marketing guru Seth Godin describes three types of meetings which occur in business – Information, Discussion, and Permission meetings. I found this very interesting and somewhat of a parallel universe.
In the business world that I am familiar with, management of Information Technology, I am used to four primary types of meetings, and a different set than Seth describes. Continue reading
Posted in Management, Process, Technology
Tagged efficiency, meeting, productivity, protocol, workforce dynamics
3 Comments
Memories
Recently, Seth Godin made a great point in Personal Branding in the Age of Google that while checking into applicants for a babysitting position he “Googled” each applicant and learned a lot about them through posts they had made on Facebook and other social sites. [A good read on this is Oh, What a Tangled Web Print We Leave, by Brett Popplewell] This is a great example of how people’s behaviors on-line mirror their off line identities. At least for those people that use their own identities on-line. Continue reading
