Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms

Step Away From The Computer Wed 08 Jul 09

Don't Let Technology Inhibit Communication

E-mail, instant messaging and social media tools such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter have dramatically changed the way we communicate. While technology has made communication easier, it hasn't necessarily improved the quality of our communication.

The reason: We can hide behind technology and avoid the human interaction that is essential for good communication. But this doesn't mean we should abandon our technology. Rather, we need to strike a moderated balance in our use of technology.

Saying Why Is A Powerful Tool Wed 01 Jul 09

Adding An Explanation For Our Policies Can Improve Their Effectiveness

Most IT policies are written like the Ten Commandments.  Thou Shalt Not…  Thou Shalt Not…  Thou Shalt Not…  When you read them you almost expect them to be accompanied by a roll of thunder and a flash of lightning as the rules are laid down by the IT god.

Sometimes a more enlightened IT department will write policies in a more positive fashion.  Instead of Thou Shalt Not… they write it as Thou Shall… 

12 CIOs Who Love Social Media Mon 29 Jun 09

Michael Eggebrecht on CIOZone published an article on the adoption of social media, 12 CIOs Who Love Social Media.  He writes "Sticking your head in the sand and ignoring social networking technology, as some large enterprises have opted to do, probably isn't the solution. But there are many CIOs who don't need to be told that -- they're already out there, blogging, twittering and networking on sites like CIOZone and Facebook."  Eggebrecht was kind enough to include me and this blog on that list.  Thank you, Michael.

What IT Needs To Give Up Wed 24 Jun 09

The best IT governance in tough times involves giving up some control--and a lot of information

Balancing requests for more services has always been a challenge but it is especially tough during tough economic times when adding more resource is no longer an option. It is in situations like this when the word "no" can be very powerful.

This may seem contradictory to my previous suggestions that IT should put more effort into saying yes but it really isn't.  The concept of saying yes is about finding ways to help rather than looking for reasons why you can't help, why something can't be done or why something won't work. I still think we should look for ways to say yes in that context.

Are You A Leader? Mon 22 Jun 09

There really is a difference between being a manager and being a leader

Arun Manansingh over at a cio's voice recently had a great post.  I was going to include it in one of my Interesting and Useful Links post but I liked it so much that I thought it deserved a special mention all of its own.

Manansingh has done some excellent research and for his post Are You A Leader? (but don't go there quite yet).  He list characteristic traits of manager and leaders in a comparison fashion which really highlights the differences.

In reading this, it struck me that many organization have the same characteristics as they take on the traits and characteristics of their managers or leaders.  It is common to hear IT folks complain of being thought of as cost centers (and we all want to minimize cost) rather then value adders (where we should invest).  I think that if you look at the list you'll quickly recognize cost center IT groups as managers and value adding IT groups as leaders.  Ok, now go take a look (but come back, I'm not quite done yet).

I'll close by adding my own comparison which is not too dissimilar to Manansingh's next to last comparison:

Manager (cost center IT): Concerned with process

Leader (value adding IT): Concerned with results

What do you think distinguishes a leader from a manager?

Interesting and Useful Links Mon 22 Jun 09

If communication is so important... on Better Projects by Craig Brown reminding us we need to do more than just talk about how important communication is.

Whose Fault? Yours. on the The Effective CIO by Chuck Musciano about taking ownership of what we work on.

Alan Mulally's Mind Map Doesn't Include Lean? on Mark Graban's, The Lean Blog.  An interesting reminder that we all need to keep Lean concepts in mind in all we do.

Your Name is Safe in My House on Jonathon Babcock's Practical Analyst which discusses the importance of relationships as we work with various people and groups and most importantly the importance of not betraying a trust.

Do you have a ‘go to’ person on your team? on Technology, Strategy, People and Projects by Eric D. Brown.  We all have our "go to" person but we need to make sure we don't burn them out and we need to work on making everyone on the team the "go to" person.

How Social Networking Can Pay Off for Enterprises by Judy Mottl on CIOZone - a good discussion of how companies can use social networking tools.

Breaking the Paradigm Wed 17 Jun 09

How Do You Get People To See The Possibilities Of New Technologies?

I've been following a lot of the conversations about Twitter in the blogosphere/twittersphere and it is amazing the range of opinions.  There are those that see no value in it and feel it is a passing fad and then there are those that think it is the greatest technological innovation ever and then there are many opinions in between.  This all got me thinking about how people react to new technologies.

Twitter's Dilemma Wed 10 Jun 09

Has the popular microblogging service become a victim of its own success?

I started using Twitter five months ago with some reluctance. I wasn't sure if I'd like it or if I'd be willing to put up with the inane commentary. Since then, I've learned that Twitter is really about conversation that you can make as trivial or serious as you desire. I've even suggested that Twitter has a place in the corporate world.

Although I still see the value in Twitter, I am beginning to wonder about its long-term viability. Twitter is growing exponentially and has reported an astounding 1,382% year-over-year growth. This growth has, however, apparently caused scalability issues and may also cover up some disturbing trends that could adversely impact its long-term user base and possibilities for monetization.

Interesting and Useful Links Mon 08 Jun 09

Twelve things every IT professional must know about their enterprise by Mark McDonald on Garter.  A great reminder of what we need to keep in mind if you want to have a successful corporate IT organization.

Got a Halo or Horns? First Minutes Last by Liz Strauss about how are actions are perceived based upon how well people know us.  A great illustration of why it is just as important for IT to get close to our customers users as it is for the salesforce to get close to their customers.

Who owns Master Data in your company? by cazh1 on the importance of working with the business in controlling and maintaining master data.

Can You Lose Your Fingerprints? on Scientific American.  This really doesn't have anything to do with IT but I found it interesting.  If it hasn't already I'm sure this will show up on CSI at some point.

This is a first…News site sued for the way Google summarised one of its pages (updated) on "the Next Web".  We may be responsible for what we write but also for how Google summarizes it. - Scary.

Connecting to the Internet with a 1964 Modem on "the Next Web".  An amazing story of connecting to the Internet with a 45 year old modem.  I wonder is this is what Al Gore used when he invented the Internet.

Twitter Management on Thinking Faster on the need to employ tools such as Twitter and Facebook in the workplace as a new generation enters.  I struck a similar theme in Why Companies Need Web 2.0.

Pondering Google, Facebook And Wasting Time by Andrei Codrescu on NPR presents an interesting perspective on social media in our life.

Identity Protection Goes Beyond Technology Mon 01 Jun 09

We need to include the "human element" in our identity protection schemes

Identity theft and security is always in the spotlight through the constant stream of news stories about companies losing confidential customer or client data, such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, health histories and so forth. These "breaking news" stories now seem to happen so frequently that we scarcely pay attention to them unless, of course, we are directly impacted by them. They have, however, heightened the public awareness and have even spawned new identity protection businesses.

IT companies rightly react to this by developing new technologies to improve security and eagerly market these to CIOs as a way to protect the personal information of their customers and clients. While we should use these appropriately we can't rely just on technology for identity protection.

Writing policies with an attitude Wed 27 May 09

I received an email the other day that was offering to sell me pre-written IT policies to use rather than writing them from scratch.  Using a template may be a good way to develop policies as long you review them carefully and adjust them for your particular situation.

But I'm not writing about policies.   Although I think we in IT sometimes have too many policies for the wrong reasons I'm really all in favor of them and I also support the idea of enforcing them.  With that behind us I wanted to point out what really got me about the way this particular company decided to market their product to IT people.

Interesting and Useful Links Mon 25 May 09

An Expectation of Online Privacy on Schneier On Security blog presents an interesting discussion about online privacy.

The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming on Coding Horror presents some excellent "commandments" to remember when programming projects.

Chrome 2 announced, 30 percent faster - on FierceCIO's Tech Watch.  I like Chrome,  It's my default browser and now even faster - fantastic.

Gulags, Nukes and a Water Slide: Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil on the Wall Street Journal.  This article demonstrates the power of the internet both in finding information and in the collaborative potential of the internet.

Shell and Chevron plan storm Tweets from the Houston Chronicle outlining how some oil and gas companies are starting to experiment with Twitter for getting out communications.  It's a start.  It's especially interesting in light of the ExxonMobil Twitter hoax.

Fellow Twitterati @DougGtheBA has a guest post Making it Work Between Business and IT: Why and How to Reach Across Boundaries to Dissipate Potential Attitude Issues on Laura Brandau's Bridging the Gap between Business and IT Blog.