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This is part III of the Competency Dictionary series. This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am continuing the interview distinction series with a sub-series called the competency dictionary. In this new series I will be going through a set of competencies that can be added to the core and leadership competencies as you develop your performance expectations for the roles you create and recruit for in your organization. In episodes 107 and 108 I cover the core competencies and leadership competencies.In each of episodes 109 and 110 I introduced ten competencies and I have listed them below for your reference: Analytical thinker Assertive Big picture thinker Building partnerships Building strategic working relationships Building trust Building effective networks Business process expert Champion of succession management Confident presenter Delegating responsibility Detail oriented Employs marketing/sales knowledge Energy Facilitator Fiscally responsible Follow-up Formal presentation Impact Influential This week's selection from the competency dictionary add ten more competencies to the list above Information Monitoring Information monitoring is setting up ongoing procedures to collect and review information needed to manage an organization or ongoing activities with it. Initiating Action Initiating action is taking prompt action to accomplish objectives; taking action to achieve goals beyond what is required; being proactive. Innovation Innovation is generating innovative solutions in work situations; trying different and novel ways to deal with work problems and opportunities. Keen Competitive Awareness Keen competitive awareness is staying abreast of who the competitor is and the strategies that competing organization employs. Keen competitive awareness is looking for and identifying new competition emerging from unlikely industries and market segments. Knows Products and Services Knowing products and services is acquiring and demonstrating a strong understanding of both internal and external products and services. Knowing products and services is effectively utilizing this knowledge in project  planning, product development, and other activities. Knowing products and services is seeking out information regarding how products and services will be utilized and implemented, now and in future situations. Knows the Business Knowing the business is being proactive in understanding the market and industry trends in order to develop technology initiatives and business relationships that help achieve competitive advantage. Knows the Customer and the Market Knowing the customer and the market is acquiring and demonstrating a strong understanding of customer issues and relevant market knowledge. Knowing the customer and the market is effectively utilizing this information in project planning, product development, and other activities. Knowing the customer and the market is constantly working to maintain a high level of expertise in and to remain current on technology and customer issues. Leverages the Organization A person who leverages the organization displays knowledge of the various functions of departments, specifically as they relate to overall project objectives and requirements. A person who leverages the organization networks within the organization in order to meet work objectives. A person who leverages the organization builds cross-functional teams that share information, build synergies and achieves results, in order to integrate functional perspectives for meeting client needs. Logical Thinker A logical thinker follows a direct line of reasoning when making decisions. A logical thinker gathers information forma  wide variety of resources, encourages intellectual disagreement, and analyzes all relevant factors to make decisions. A logical thinker takes a reasoned,, ordered approach both sort-term and long-term perspectives. A logical thinker, when making decisions,

This is part II of the Competency Dictionary series. This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am continuing the interview distinction series with a sub-series called the competency dictionary. In this new series I will be going through a set of competencies that can be added to the core and leadership competencies as you develop your performance expectations for the roles you create and recruit for in your organization. In episodes 107 and 108 I cover the core competencies and leadership competencies.In episode 109 I covered ten competencies listed below: Analytical thinker Assertive Big picture thinker Building partnerships Building strategic working relationships Building trust Building effective networks Business process expert Champion of succession management Confident presenter This week's selection from the competency dictionary add ten more competencies to the list above Delegating Responsibility Delegation responsibility is allocating decision-making authority and/or task responsibility to appropriate staff member to maximize the organization's and individual's effectiveness. Detail Oriented A detail oriented person values and maintains a high level of attentiveness to the intricate actions that support projects. A detail oriented person works to ensure that steps and requirements for action plans are clearly understood and acted upon. Detail orientation evaluates and pursues the consequences of changes to verify consistency throughout. Employs Marketing and Sales Knowledge Employing marketing and sales knowledge is understanding the concepts, methods, and theories of marketing. Employing marketing and sales knowledge is the application of various sales techniques. Energy Energy is consistently maintaining high levels of activity or productivity; sustaining long working hours when necessary; operating with vigor, effectiveness, and determination over extended periods of time. Facilitator A facilitator enables effective working relationships by managing interactions between individuals and among groups working on collective tasks. A facilitator promotes collective work between associates and groups with differing skills and perspectives to produce more inclusive and effective results. Fiscally Responsible A fiscally responsible person develops systems that mandate careful budgeting and close attention to financial resources. A fiscally responsible person encourages creative use of resources and careful accounting to ensure that project budgets are not overrun. Follow-up Follow-up is establishing procedures to monitor the results of delegations, assignments, or projects; taking into consideration the skills, knowledge, and experience of the assigned individual and characteristics of the assignment or project. Formal Presentation Being able to formally present is the ability to present ideas effectively to individuals or groups, delivering presentations suited to the characteristics and needs of the audience. Impact Impact is creating a good first impression, commanding attention and respect, showing an air of confidence. Influential An influential person convinces others to support an agenda or position based on valid data and the impact it will have on all. An influential person helps others see alternate perspectives beyond their personal or functional position. An influential person creates a specific, purposeful impact on others. Competency Dictionary We will continue working through the competency dictionary in the next post. Notes: Photo credit via flickr.com: Peter Wurst 44 Extraviewing: Innovative Ways to Hire the Best; Arthur Bell Interviewing: More Than a Gut Feeling; Richard S Deems Hiring the Right Person for the Right Job; Cecelia Dobrish, Rick Wolff, Brian Zevnik Effective Interviewing for Managers: Sizing Up People; John D Drake Interviewing for Managers: A Complete Guide to Employment Interviewing; John D Drake

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am continuing the interview distinction series with a sub-series called the competency dictionary. In this new series I will be going through a set of competencies that can be added to the core and leadership competencies as you develop your performance expectations for the roles you create and recruit for in your organization. In episodes 107 and 108 I cover the core competencies and leadership competencies. I am listing them below as a refresher before we dive into the select competencies I will be sharing over the next few episodes. Core Competencies Active Dedication Change Agent Collaborative Decision Maker Customer Commitment Ethics and Values Interactive Communicator Partner for Results Strategic Achiever Leadership competencies Active Dedication Building a Successful Team Coach Collaborative Decision Maker Customer Commitment Effective Communicator Ethics and Values Navigator for Change Self-Awareness and Development Strategic Driver The Competency Dictionary Analytical Thinker An analytical thinker works to understand a complex situation, issue, or problem by breaking it down into smaller fragments. An analytical thinker traces the implications or consequences of a decision by using a step-by-step approach. Assertive An assertive person actively maintains beliefs and opinions. An assertive person is willing to express what is on his/her mind in the face of external pressures or opposition, without becoming disrespectful. An assertive person believes in their own capability to accomplish tasks and select effective courses of action. Big Picture Thinker A big picture thinker works to coordinate with short-term and long-term strategies, goals business practices, and values. A big picture thinker makes choices based on information gathered within and outside the organization, and recognizes the interdependencies and effects of other systems, business partners, customers, and the organization. Building Partnerships Building partnerships is identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one's area, team, department, unit or organization to help achieve business goals. Building Strategic Working Relationships building strategic working relationships is developing and using collaborative relationships to facilitate the accomplishment of work goals. Building Trust Building trust is interacting with others in a way that gives them confidence in your intentions and those of the organization. Building Effective Networks The action of building effective networks is utilizing your own networks and relationships to break down barriers to accomplish work; maintains frequent contact with key players; manages relationships by creating "win win" situations and seeking mutual benefit for all individual involved. Championing Succession Management Championing succession management is knowing the key roles in the organization for which successors must be identified, including your own role. Championing succession management is knowing who the high potential employees are across the organization. Championing succession management is investing time and resources into planning for the development of your high potential staff. Confident Presenter A confident presenter conveys poise, clarity, and self-control in stressful, ambiguous, and emotionally demanding situations. A confident presenter builds credibility and rapport through honest and direct communication. A confident presenter gives concise presentations that capture the interests and addresses the needs of the audience. Competency Dictionary We will continue working through the competency dictionary in the next post. Notes: Photo credit via flickr.com: Elliot Brown Extraviewing: Innovative Ways to Hire the Best; Arthur Bell Interviewing: More Than a Gut Feeling; Richard S Deems

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I will be discussing the power of team building using the insights from Nir Eyal author of “Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products” and Mike Myatt the Chief Strategy officer of N2growth.  Mike Myatt, t...

In episode #94, I talked about turning your Project Management Office (PMO) into a Results Management Office (RMO). This week I will talk about taking the RMO a step further by adopting the CityStat and TechStat models to your organization. The Stat Model is about tackling the problem of performance by implementing a data driven decision-making culture through systematic analysis of the data and regular review sessions with IT managers to assess overall department performance; using many of the basic technologies and tools you already have in place. Managers of each IT team will report to the CIO their performance data and answer questions from the CIO’s office. By carefully monitoring performance, the IT department is able to zero in on problem areas, spot trends, and allocate its limited resources more efficiently to improve service to the IT end user community. What exactly does this mean? What does it entail? What do you need to do? What can your stakeholders expect? What would the CEO expect? Is your staff up to the task? What mental, strategic, tactical, and/or operational changes would your teams need to make to produce more? What kinds of changes can be expected to produce improvement? Combining research into the CityStat Model and the TechStat model, I will be discussing the benefits of leveraging a Stat model for your organization. This discussion is designed to help get you in the mindset of recruiting the right staff, creating the infrastructure, and achieving success. The idea behind a Stat Model is to create a durable performance strategy that can motivate your technology team to produce the kind of results that you want. Setting up a Stat Model based on the CityStat and TechStat model will depend on outside influences including what your stakeholders expect you to accomplish, the capacity of your team and your leadership style. I am not proposing that you just copy an existing "model" rather mold your tool set to what is expected from your constituents. You will need to recognize the core needs of each area and figure out how to leverage these into the Stat Model in your organization. What is a CityStat or TechStat The Stat Model is a leadership strategy based on performance, driven through the holding of regular meetings during which the IT leadership team analyzes team performance and establishes the next set of objectives. These ongoing discussions of performance include following-up on past issues, actions, and commitments to fix specific problems. The key aspect of this way of thinking about leadership is the focus on performance outcomes. This approach places the priority on learning what the data reveals about achievements, shortcomings, and future targets for your team. The requirements for this leadership strategy is more than just attending meetings and conducting data analysis, it involves ten steps as set forth in the IBM/Harvard CityStat article: Setting organizational goals to determine success and failure Operating an approach that focuses the organizational efforts on achieving organizational goals Collection of performance data points Analysis of the data and the approach to determine what worked and what didn't work Asking insightful questions to reveal what is being done and not done in the effort to achieve your organizational goals Executing training and leadership development from the analysis, questions, and answers Collaboration amongst various team members to determine the next best actions to take Experimentation to determine new ways to achieve success Review sessions to assess progress against targets, analysis, and strategy Thinking time to determine how and when to change or improve the current approach Each of these ten steps are designed to improve the team performance through motivation and public pressuring of managers and their respective teams to achieve more and better results Setting Targets

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am interviewing Lew Knox from the Financial Technology Forum and Institutional Investor. Lew Knox is executive director of Trader Forum and Financial Technology Forum, Institutional investor’s membership groups for buy side equity traders and investment management chief information officers, respectively. Lew is responsible for product content and event programming. Before joining Institutional Investor’s members, he was assistant managing editor, technology and development at institutional Investor magazine, where he was responsible for technology coverage and for developing new research features. Before taking over the technology beat, Lew was the research editor at the magazine, where he was responsible for the editorial components of Institutional Investor’s signature research rankings, including the All-America Research Team. He is on his second tour at Institutional Investor: from 1984 until 1997, he worked in various divisions of the company, including a 10-year stint in Newsletters, where he was part of the team that launched Global Money Management and Derivatives Week. Lew has an A.B. in romance languages and literatures from Princeton University CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley is a podcast dedicated to the development of technology leadership hosted by Jeffrey Hurley, a seasoned global technology leader who has held positions with Fortune 500 companies throughout the world including diverse countries: Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, United Kingdom, and the United States. He is currently based in Toronto, Canada.

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am discussing the Results Management Office. Changing your project management office into a results management office will improve your client relationships and further your IT transformation. Many organizations have made a significant investment in project management offices without seeing the expected results. Programs continue to run over budget, miss timelines, and disappoint the sponsors and stakeholders. PMO's struggle with bureaucracy focused on documentation over delivery and strategic vision for the organization. The shift in technology demand requires the modern PMO to be the agent of organizational change. Moving toward a lean approach to delivery in cross organizational project/program needs. With the average program missing its timeline and budget targets, the PMO is the organizational tool set up to improve program delivery. Addressing the limitations inherent in the design of the PMO. Results Management Office Deloitte outlines the key differences in a results management office from a project management office: PMO                                       RMO Output driven                          Outcome driven Administrative                         Strategic & Agile Reactive                                  Anticipatory & proactive Efficiency-oriented                 Effectiveness oriented Cost & schedule focused        Collaborative & communicative Performance focused             Risk intelligent A RMO will move away from the more academic approach to the delivery of projects and more toward an adaptable model that enables outcomes better suited for business success. If we take a deeper look at the differences between a PMO and an RMO we can see some fundamental shifts in thinking. Output vs Outcome The usual measure of the PMO is rooted in reporting and documentation often taking the best documentation project manager and placing them in charge of the PMO. Resulting in reams of standards and processes disconnected from the reality of what it takes to actually deliver a project. The project managers responsible for the delivery complain that they are measured on the efficacy of their paperwork over the satisfaction of their stakeholders. Versus measuring outcomes. Outcomes require better understanding of business targets and alignment of a project to these targets. Project stakeholders are actually measured on the success or failure of their business objectives thus a tighter understanding of the business discipline will contribute to tighter project results integration with the broader business need. Administrative vs Strategic & Agile The administrative PMO is known for providing a the weekly and monthly project dashboard with the stop light or Red/Amber/Green status. This report while important for technology professionals often is difficult to understand by business leadership. The traditional PMO focuses on time, cost, and quality as measures of project success. Strategic RMOs ensure that projects are aligned with company strategy and create value in terms of business outcomes. When people, process and technology are operating in a solidarity the right projects will support the corporate strategy. Reactive vs Anticipatory A time, cost, and quality approach to measuring projects often misses key drivers of project success and thus projects that are problematic continue to move forward a what feels like their own momentum. Staff all believe there are issues with the project, yet little is done to address these issue because the reporting says the project is within guidelines. The RMO is focused on execution and measurement of the business value being generated. Thus project teams remain focused on activities that keep a project aligned to the overall objectives. The result is more projects will be stopped early, and this is a good sign. Projects that are not meeting the organization's objectives are consuming valuable resources.

This week in CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I am discussing the application of lean principles in technology. The concepts of lean originated in the manufacturing sector and these principles include: Eliminating work that is not directly value added Optimization of operating procedures Optimization of management systems Optimization of organizational structure Optimization of mindsets and behaviors Improve productivity, quality, and satisfaction while reducing risk Build and improve upon capabilities Instill the concepts of iteration and continuous improvement I recommend a high-level four step approach to building a strategy for deploying lean principles into your technology organization: Stabilize Standardize Visualize Improve Stabilize Lean principles originated in manufacturing where processes tend to be consistent and repetitive. In the service world that information technology occupies it is often difficult to determine what the request inflows will be. Thus creating difficulty in delivering consistent results. The source of these inconsistent results can often be tied to lack of understanding of the customers needs. Stabilization starts with understanding the voice of the customer. When you have poorly designed processes for meeting customer needs you staff is left to figure out how to perform a problem solving process. The "tribal knowledge" of staff causes variability depending on who performs the process. Resolution  starts in small ways through better documentation, process definition, and training. Standardize You find that some of your processes are providing consistent delivery and by standardizing them you can develop a foundation to build upon. the standardization will create practices that can be consistently followed by all staff who perform the activities associated with the process. By streamlining the work efforts can be simplified through the reduction in variability. Staff will begin adhering to the standardized processes because they will know the approach is the simplest and most effective. Visualize The next step is to improve transparency into work and outcomes. Lean enterprises look to consistently improve organizational performance.  To improve upon your practices metrics should be developed to measure baseline capabilities and set goals for improvement gains. A visual organization is  easier to manage over time with instructions and prioritization posted reducing the time needed accomplish activities. These techniques can improve visibility into performance and provide opportunities to identify problems and issues with performance. Improve As a leader you a critical to this next steps which is to instill a culture continuous improvement.  First you will want to establish an environment that is safe for experimentation. Second, put in place a personal development program that will develop the next set of lean principled leaders. Third, build into every staff members objectives a goal for contributing to improving the work they are responsible for. These steps will enable the breakdown of existing habits and the adoption of new ones. Lean Principles are About Removing Waste IT's ownership equation is labor plus hardware & software plus facilities. Improving the productivity of your staff represents one third of this IT equation and thus a key performance enabler. You can realize anywhere from a 10% to 55% improvement in productivity, quality, and cycle times through the implementation of lean principles in your technology organization. Lean principles target the removal of waste in the system or process. What are some of the typical wastes in technology? The seven most common wastes identified in lean analysis: Over production: Not properly identifying the specific and minimum viable product for the end user. The result is an over-engineered solution or a solution replete with  nice-to-have requirements

With a global workforce your potential employees are looking for the same things your customers are looking for: -    A customized experience -    Fair pricing for fair services -    Flexibility in location selection -    Targeted opportunities for promotion -    A differentiated and memorable experience Any of your potential employees will begin asking for the same things. -    A customized role -    Negotiated compensation -    Flexible working environment -    Targeted and customized communication -    A differentiated and memorable employee experience. -    Fair but not necessarily equal treatment Almost all industrialized countries are experiencing a shrinking population. France, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy just to name a few. In the northern countries the percentage of the population that is age 60 and over will be above 20% by 2025. These countries include North America, Europe, Russia, China, and much of northern Asia. Our global population is experiencing increased life expectancy; this increased life expectancy is a recent phenomenon representing better nutrition, health care, and education. The work force that we interact with is complicated by our ability to attract, retain, and motivate the skilled people needed. The global workforce is diversifying in meaningful ways: -    Limited in availability, the workforce has been growing at an increasingly smaller rate -    Chronologically older, people over the age of 55 are making up a greater portion of the workforce -    Lacking key skills, shortages of needed talent, particularly in high skill areas, such as science, engineering and technology -    Globally enabled, talent can and must be sourced globally -    Diverse workforce race, gender, age, religion and cultural identity; including individuals with widely differing values and assumptions about work itself The work we ask our global workforce to do is also changing: -    Technology is empowering small firms who are able to bring competitive capability and customized engagement -    The virtualization of both technology and the work force; people are increasingly comfortable with interacting via technology: instant messaging, video, mobile, etc. -    Rapid deployment based upon experimentation through minimum viable product. "Give it a try" has become easier with ubiquity and instant gratification being demanded. -    BYOD and personal technology has become ubiquitous within organizations. Raising issues of where does IP ownership start and stop. How do you control what is produced for your organization and what the employee produces for themselves. This creates a new medium for work. The younger generations and older generations are looking at work differently. The original model was get a job and work your way of the career ladder. However, the younger workforce has observed patterns of their parents working for companies and realizing layoffs in mid-career. Dedication to a company is not reciprocated and as a result many in the younger generations now realize they want more balance in their lives. They are not willing to commute long distances to work for the dream of owning a home. They are not willing to forego vacations. Rather the new workforce will expect more work life balance now. As the older generation is reaching retirement age, they are more physically fit than previous generations. Many are now saying they may never retire; instead choosing a work life that involves moving back and forth between periods of working and not working. Choosing to make money then take time to spend the money on life experiences including travel. When the time comes, they will return to work for a period before choosing to take time off again. The Career Ladder is now a Bell Curve Previously we saw a trend of building your career from your 20s through your 40s with a peak in your 50s just before retirement. Now with the increased life expectancy your 50s is just a mid-point in your career.

Managing technology in the shifting winds of rapid evolution is a new challenge. Never before has managing technology been a greater challenge to the IT leadership team.  While we continue to focus on: Simplification Doing the "right" things Do thing ...

How do you separate market leading teams from the followers and failures? How do you stop wasting time and money and create great solutions your partners want, that solve problems and make people's lives better? By becoming a tuned in leader. Studying research conducted on CIO dialogs on company culture, organization, and process improvement involved in the creation of real world solutions including strategies for optimizing development plans and best practices in measurement. I have found sharp leadership results in organizations that are 31% more profitable and twice as fast to market through their technology. These same organizations are twice as likely to lead in their segment and enjoy 20% higher customer satisfaction ratings. Research evidence suggests that the typical technology organization creates failures through its inside-out thinking creating solutions that don't meet the actual business need. The development and creation process is often bloated with the stuff department insiders think is cool, but the end-user community was not prepared to use. The Outside-in vs Inside-out View Changing your focus to an outside-in view, paying attention to the needs of your clients will result in the creation of breakthrough solutions. Often solving unmet market issues and ones that your clients will be happy to invest in. There is evidence of technology organizations following a predictable pattern. The success of the initial business solution is a rush. It is intoxicating for everyone involved, the business partners the IT staff and end customers. However, this is often a short-lived feeling. In most organizational evolution, technology organizations begin to slow in the second and third revision of the product. Almost always realizing a feeling of, this may take a bit to find an equivalent excitement to the first solution."  The result is failure in delivering effective solutions. This is often because of the entrepreneurial or loose approach that many technology organizations us to understand of the client's problems. Or more often than not getting lost in the details of running the organization that has sprung up around the new product or solution. The organization begins to obsess on the details of regular business management like budgets, office space, hiring/firing staff and the like rather than staying true to the business needs. These outside forces pull the organization away from outside-in focus and back toward inside-out focus in their thinking. Innovation is sparked by a need, a pain point, something wished for that you don't have. In this early stage, you are working in the vast potential of the client's problems looking for opportunities. You can learn and validate what the market is doing. Is there an opportunity to add a feature to an existing product? Or is there an opportunity to create a new product. Or are we talking about an entire new group, similar to what many organizations are doing with data? Our problems begin to happen when the enterprise IT organization moves on from its initial successes, becoming influenced by the larger organization bureaucracy they operate within. Existing demands and existing customers provide their view to challenges, yet if you are only spending time with your current internal connections you are not getting the full picture. Approaching other business partners, within the organization, will give you a sense of the broader technology needs. For example if you are talking to your finance organization only about their ERP system you will need to understand that the issues raised will only be applicable to the ERP system and those impacted by it. The Tuned in Leader After speaking with several CIOs I found similarities between those who are winning in their companies and those who are struggling. There are seven successful actions that became evident. Most of us will see how practical these secrets are and thus we may be tempted to wave them off.

Are you delivering value? Do you have a value proposition? Do your partners believe you are providing them with a real meaningful value proposition? Have you thought about what your value proposition is to your organization? Do you want to make an impact? Enterprise Technology Transformation What is your value proposition to the organization and how much time have you invested in understanding your value proposition? Technology transformation is a lot like personal transformation. You have to start with an understanding of what you have to offer. A value proposition is a product, service, or feature intended to make a company, product, or person attractive to customers. Enterprise technology organizations have a unique set of value propositions that can be leveraged for their clients. I have observed eight value propositions: Enterprise IT Value Propositions Investment Balance: A balance of investment upside, risk management, and cost savings Strong Analytics: Knowledge and understanding of the power of measurement Solid Data Management: Collecting, sifting, and analyzing information Integration: The power of merging and leveraging process with technology systems Flexibility and Scalability: Technology is built upon modular, adaptable systems and is continuously innovating. Customer/Client Focus: IT is the group best positioned to deliver value to the overall organization. Roles and Responsibilities: Project management skills lend to understanding the importance of defining roles and responsibilities. Organizational Agility: Understanding change management and continuous improvement demands. These eight value propositions can be leveraged for greater IT value within your organization. What we can do is go into more detail for each of these and bring on or more into focus within your organization. Investment Balance A balance of investment upside, risk management, and cost savings. Not enough funds are available to do all of the opportunities. Yet because IT has to balance project workloads, IT has the ability to identify the investment upside associated with a project or business line. An issue faced by all businesses. There are always more opportunities than there are funds available to accomplish them. This is why business case development is vital in the decision-making process of how to spend scarce resources. Not every opportunity is the same and thus must be evaluated with a combination of hard dollar and soft dollar analysis. The IT organization has to do this on a regular basis and can be leveraged creating a value proposition to your business. Strong Analytics Knowledge and understanding of the power of measurement.Lack of transparency into what really drives IT costs. What does it really cost to run IT. IT will increasingly move to a metered infrastructure that will enable better cost transparency. Cloud and Software Defined services will all be a pay for use model enabling better show back and charge back based upon actual utilization. Giving the ability to pay for what you consume and not more. Today IT organizations typically charge their costs by the number of employees and allocate that way. This doesn’t translate into value to the organization. IT organizations have health checks and other monitoring capabilities within the organization. Learning to leverage the monitoring tools to create a business layer. Rather than focusing solely on the health status of the enterprise T systems. Creating a more business focused layer of metrics and analytics. Solid Data Management Collecting, sifting, and analyzing information. Your technology organization has the ability to collect and analyze metrics on numerous systems and applications. This data when categorized in business terms can provide. The technology organization already deploys algorithms in multiple areas within IT. Can these algorithms be brought forward to business terms.

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I will be comparing the fable of the six blind men and the elephant to our roles as technology leaders. Six blind men wandered into a village and heard there was an elephant in the village. Having never experienced an elephant before the blind men asked if they could feel the elephant. As you are probably aware elephants are rather large, so each blind man touched the elephant in a different place. The first man touched the elephants leg and said, "an elephant is like a tree with a such a large solid girth" The second man, touching the elephant's tail said, "no not a tree a rope" "Oh, no! it is like a thick vine," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant "An elephant is more like a large fan"  said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant The fifth man who touched the elephant's belly argued that it was like a huge wall The sixth man who touched the elephant's tusk said, "it is like a solid pipe" Each of the men then began to argue insisting their interpretation of the elephant was right. When a child listening to the argument said, "all of you are right. Each of you touched a different part of the elephant and the elephant has all the features you are arguing about." "Oh!" they all said and they all were much happier knowing that they were each right though they didn't have the whole picture. Why do I bring this story in? Because each of us has a different perspective, yet there is  truth in what someone says even if we do not agree. Rather than arguing as the blind men did we would be better served understanding others may have their reasons. As technology professionals the businesses we support are often as large and broad as the elephant the blind men encountered. Are you spending time exploring all parts of your business. meeting with them in a less structured book of work approach. To often we meet with our businesses and ask them what projects they want to do. And of course we have the potential to miss an opportunity to find out what is on the minds of our business partners. when you hear what they are thinking about what is important to them at the moment. For the next week I want you to think of the six blind men and the elephant when you engage with your business partners and think about perspectives. Be the peace maker and understand where each of your interactions are coming from and find the common ground to create forward progress. Notes: Photo credit via flickr.com: Sarahemcc CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley is a podcast dedicated to the development of technology leadership hosted by Jeffrey Hurley, a seasoned global technology leader who has held positions with Fortune 500 companies throughout the world including diverse countries: Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, United Kingdom, and the United States. He is currently based in Toronto, Canada.

This week on CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I will be talking about how to improve your business partner relationships. Using the story of a dog on a nail I hope to bring a better understanding to how we interact with our clients, customers, and user...

This week on the CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I have the opportunity to share with you the power of building your professional network and how and what to do with your network. I will share with you how a high performer builds their structure, how to leverage relationships and the behaviors that build your network. What Does the Network of a High Performer Look Like High performance individuals know the importance of their network in being able to accomplish their objectives. If you have a lot to accomplish working with and through others is the key to achieving your success. A typical high performer has an open structure to their network. Positioning themselves as a connection point between groups. For example they would be a conduit for a business unit or a location be it a branch office or the central office. Targeting diverse perspectives and opinions to expand the opportunity for creative solutions and avoid the risks of group think and navel gazing. Breaking through the typical traps of networks being to formal in nature or bottle-necked through a single communication point. [Tweet "High performance individuals know the importance of their network"] Leverage these relationships to promote learning through diversity staying away from concentration in any one group or business entity. Networks are flush with expertise and high performers know where the experts are and how to leverage them for goal accomplishment. Opportunities abound for a self-aware individual to leverage their weaknesses through their network avoiding isolation risks when their weaknesses are in demand they have experts and skill set members they can seek out to balance their weaknesses and leverage into strengths. This becomes especially important in leadership roles where unconscious bias can prevent opportunities to learn. The behaviors of these successful networks are in the quality over quantity of the relationships. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have given us the ability to add large numbers of people to our on-line networks. Can you leverage this network to create relationships that you can rely upon to help when you need them. Building a sense of trust and reciprocity are critical to developing the relationships that will be of long-term value. And finding people with alignment in your network to development the momentum for effectiveness in the work efforts you are seeking to leverage. Build a Diverse Network Take a moment and think about the names of up to 14 people who are important to you in your professional network. Think of people who you provide with information or resources to do your job. Think of the people who help you process complex problems, or work with you on personal development or provide a support framework. These people can come from within or without your place of work. Think about colleagues at other companies, parents at your children’s school, or your religious institution. Take a blank page placing your name in the center and then place these names in a circle around your name. Think about the relationship you have with each of these names. Now start by drawing a line between you and each of the names on the page. Then take the next step and consider the relationship these people may have with each other. Draw a line between two people if they know each other personally. Only draw a line of they do know each other more than as an acquaintance. Now that you have spent some time understanding how your network is already connected. Let’s take the step of identifying how you interact with your network. Categorize the your interactions Professional Related: interactions that are focused on the day to day of doing your job Judgment Related: interaction that are focused on making decisions with your job Innovation: interactions that help you to think outside of the box Mentorship/Personal Development: interactions relate to gaining specific advice on your personal goals