The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 10/28/ 2016

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking, brainstorming, and innovating.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.5 million page views with 3200+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight about digital leadership, IT Management, and Talent Management.

The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO”  10/28/2016

• Three Pitfalls in IT Digital Transformation:The majority of organizations are designed to improve functional efficiency in the industrial era; there is nature friction between different functions of the organization, because often they compete for the limited resources, or speak different business dialect. Different IT organizations are also at the different stage of business maturity, IT can be used as a tool, help desk, enabler, catalyzer, or a digital game changer to meet the ultimate goal of an organization's short-term quick win and long-term strategic advantage. There is no one size fits all formula to run a highly effective IT organization. Regardless which flavor of IT you are running, here are three pitfalls in IT digital transformation you should avoid in order to improve organizational effectiveness, agility, and maturity.

• Harnessing Digital Thinking to Build a “Mindful Board”: Modern corporate boards play a significant role in strategy oversight and business advising and monitoring. Business understanding is a prerequisite for being a board member in the first place, and to add to that you need different members to have important cognitive difference/experience/ competence in many other areas. Most directors are seasoned executives with a variety of experience. While mindset is critical to being an effective director is sometimes often overlooked. BoDs with cognitive differences can make better decisions and heterogeneous boards are more open-minded and set the right tone for the culture of innovation.

• Digital Master Book Series Thoughts & Quotes, Author Profile, Introduction: “Digital Master” is the series of guidebooks (9+ books) to perceive the multi-faceted impact digital is making to the businesses and society, help forward-thinking organizations navigate through the journey in a systematic way, and avoid “rogue digital.” It perceives the emergent trends of digital leadership, advises on how to run a digital IT organization to unleash its full potential and improve agility, maturity, and provide the insight about Change Management. It also instructs digital workforce on how to shape game-changing digital mindsets and build the right set of digital capabilities to compete for the future.

• Innovation Management Assessment and Measurement: For many businesses, creativity is the mystery and innovation is serendipity. In fact, innovation is how to transform novel ideas and achieve its business value. Due to the hyper-complexity of modern businesses, innovation is also about reducing the unnecessary business complexity to tackle the complexities of business dynamic. It can be managed in a structural way. If you can only manage what you measure, how to measure innovation effectively?

• Is Critical Thinking Domain Specific? Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to learn for career and life. There is evidence that organizations and managers/leaders who utilize critical thinking with an evidence-based approach to decision making do better than those that don't. The good thing for those that do is that they are in the minority, giving them a competitive advantage. Still, there are many puzzles about critical thinking, is critical thinking domain specific, or subject independent? Does one always need background knowledge about a given context to refer to? Is critical thinking in management different from thinking critically in psychology? Does domain-general critical thinking mean anything more specific than asking "Who"? "What"? "When"? "Where"? and "Why" in new contexts?  

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

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