Did You Know is not enough: Business intelligence is about context and relevance not flash.

More and more we see presentations like this one. I like to call it the Chicken Little phenomenon. There is a tendency for self-proclaimed experts to compile trivia and imply relationships and consequences that "proves" the world is changing so fast, we're going to be left behind. Reality is, of course, that the telephone, the internal combustion engine, television, even the Cotton Ginny had as much effect on society, the economy and our futures, as the Internet. The Internet is already twenty years old. Life has not ended as we know it; mostly because human being are the most adaptable and change friendly species on the planet. It's really why we don't live in caves chasing Mastodons anymore.

Change is what we make of it. Strategy is how we use time, resources and effort to collectively succeed. The question is not "Did you know"; it is as we see at the end it's really "What does it mean?" and furthermore "Why is this important?". Does your business have a Vision that lets you separate the trends form the trivial? This is the new business strategy, not about how to solve or cope, but how to transform. Jumping and reacting to hasty conclusions from "facts" like these - that led to the Internet bubble of the '90s and the credit crunch. Look how well that turned out.

Life is about to change again: This is what a moment of innovation looks like.

Cute video of a girl band playing with gadgets or a wailing siren warning you that there is an emerging digital lifestyle that's going to completely change your customers' expectations and how you'll have to demonstrate value to them? Do you have a strategy for that?

Back after a long time away

Well, there was a death in the family and a lot happened, but I'm hoping to be on the other side of the hill and I'll be posting pretty regularly now.

Sorry about the lack of posts

There have been a dearth of posts, I know, but I've spent that last few months dealing with a family illness. I'll be back posting pretty soon.

It's all Greek to me: Surprised that employees react negatively to the lastest management brainflash?

Okay, this one is a little esoteric.

Thousands of years ago the Greeks laid down the foundations of what we call logic. Logic is basis of how we think and draw conclusions in the Western world. In doing this, they identified several errors of logic that continue to bore first year university students to this day.

There are two, however, that should be of interest to business leaders. The Error of Construction and the Error of Division.

The Error of Construction tells us that you cannot assume that the characteristics or interests of the individuals that make up a group are also the characteristics or the interests of that group. Simply said, a company made up of all hard-working people isn't automatically making great progress. All the individuals may be hard-working, but they could be working hard on the wrong things or working hard against each other.

Conversely, the Error of Division tells us you cannot assume that the characteristics or interests of a group are necessarily the characteristics or interests of the individuals that make it up. So, a company may have a great business plan, but that doesn't mean that it has great managers or even great planners.

Now just because you can't assume, doesn't mean it can't be so. There are companies that make great progress and have all hard-working employees, but it means that this was thought through, planned for and managed to be that way. The error would be thinking that all you have to do is to hire hard-working people to build a great company. You have to give them structure and process, rewards and recognition, strategy and vision to link them to the success of the company.

Also, don't be surprised if a great decision for the company is resisted by its employees. One client decided that it would be easier to lock down the desktops of its workstations to better and more easily manage its computer assets. Overnight, all the pictures of family, handy little shortcuts, even where icons were placed disappeared in favor of a generic desktop. The next morning, management was faced with a minor mutiny by all the support staff. A change might be a good thing, but it needs to be planned, communicated, even adjusted and the transition needs to be managed.

Take it from the ancient Greeks. The challenges of management have existed for a long time.

Nice Backswing, No Follow Through: A Culture of Implementation

Nice backswing, no follow through, that's the way a client described his organization. There are plenty of reasons that an organization can plan well, develop ideas well and not implement those initiatives well. The problem is usually that the planning process in the organization is well developed, but there is no implementation process, especially when implementation requires cross functional cooperation.

Typically, then, management meets and decides, "That's a good idea; lets do it". Unfortunately, that's the extent of the implementation process. At the next meeting, someone asks, "Whatever happened to that idea?", and the matter dies at the meeting table.

Implementation is a different activity from planning or idea generation. Organizations that are successful in implementation have a set of tools that they use to carry it out. And to be most successful, these tools need to be customised to each organization's unique culture. The hallmarks of a good implementation process though, are:

1. The process should have visible Executive support and active interest.
2. It respects the nature of authority and accountability. If someone is accountable for a project, that person must have the authority to muster resources, found a work team and lead the work. Conversely, that project should have a budget, a timeline and defined deliverables and that leader should be accountable to that.
3. The project should be supported by frequent and comprehensive communication especially about any changes that affects employees, functional areas or business processes.
4. Successful implementations should be celebrated and the key players should be recognised for their effort.
5. The process has to be in harmony with the business culture. A good business culture not only helps employees make hundreds of correct decisions every day, but should also be the source of trust in the organization. Most implementations are also change initiatives. Change is usually seen as a threat.

Good ideas can be stillborn in your organization unless you have a process to bring them to life. Capitalize on the strength of your culture to empower execution and change and the whole effort will seem natural, easy and successful.

What did I buy these damned machines for? Don't blame the tools look to the craftsman.

Many business owners see technology as a neccessary evil that is a potential black hole of cost. You have to have a computer because your customer and vendors want to email you. Your books are electronic. Your employees need tools. But, the system is always down, there is always an update to buy and your IT people speak a different language.

Keep three priniciples in mind to manage your technology and your IT staff:

1. Stability, are your systems secure and running as you need them?
   
2. Predictability, when you make a change to the system, do you know how it will react?
   
3. Exploitability, does technology give you a productivity gain?

There is a tendancy in IT to combat boredom by investing a different set of principles:

1. Upgradeability, are we running the latest version or technology even if it is untested?
2. Expandability, are we running the biggest and latest machines?
3. Novelty, do we have the newest gadgets?

Technology is very seductive to those who are comfortable with it. What is cool and exciting is new and "bleeding edge". Unfortunately, it is also not fully tested nor bug free and creates a little too much excitement for a business environment. The reliable machines that will turn on, boot up and process your work are often a generation behind the suped up box that your network guys are tweaking at home. The software that doesn't crash and is resistant to hackers is an older version than the beta version that IT is "testing". There is a time to upgrade, expand and invest in the new, but these activities are in support of the first three principles of using technology for business.