Thinking outside of the box

We’ve all heard of this expression, which means we should start thinking outside of our own area of expertise, role, job, comfort zone etc, but do we? Understandably we all like to think within our own area and comfort zone, mostly, I guess, so we don’t look stupid! However this has caused the Silo’s that we all too often work within, and it’s something we really need to stop. Not only are silos bad from an organisational point of view, they are disastrous to process lifecycles and service lifecycles, they create the “blame culture” the “throw over the wall” and hope for the best culture, and do nothing for Business and IT alignment, let alone integration.  Many organisations are still trying to implement ITIL v2 (which of course we all now know is subsumed into v3) and struggling with the alignment elements, yet still have to move towards Business Integration, especially when BSM makes so much sense, as does managing IT from a Business perspective.

This week I came across an article from Anne Zink of AZtech Strategies which is worth a read. Anne mentions extracts from Daniel Pink’s book “A whole new mind”. This year I heard Daniel speak at the Pink Elephant conference in Las Vegas, where he covered many points within the book, and they make a lot of sense, knowing how the market is moving and being driven. Most of us are in the Services environment, and so we need to think from a customers prospective, and transition from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. The Conceptual Age, Pink states, will be marked by a more artistic and holistic approach to every aspect of life. In order to differentiate ourselves and prosper in this new age, we will need to develop our softer, right brain oriented skills to enable us to connect with each other at a deeper level. Anne’s article reviews the issues having interviewed 300+ CIO in corporate America and lists a few of the main symptoms:
•  Internally focused meetings and tasks taking priority over customer focused and sales enabling activities.
•  Customers continually complain your IT capabilities (or lack there of) are hurting their businesses.
•  Restructuring or re-organization within 18 months of the last restructure and re-organization.
•  Cross functional initiatives designed to improve corporate alignment fail to meet their objectives or consistently miss milestones.
•  An endless parade of consultants down the executive corridor.
•  Etc, etc..

Now I can certainly relate to the Restructuring one, as within every large corporate I’ve worked for, indeed every 12 to 18 months they have carried out major re-organisation and re-structuring, normally before the processes are fully operational and embedded from the last one! Yet the business blames IT? The reality is that these re-orgs will continue to happen after each financial year has concluded and we do need to start thinking outside of the box for solution to ease transition from all levels, including IT and the systems that the business depends upon.

Finally! This week I start blogging on the ITP site as well, expanding both my audience and network and enabling a wider scope of conversation. Check it out and sign up!