Welcome to our blog, the digital brainyard to fine tune "Digital Master," innovate leadership, and reimagine the future of IT.

The magic “I” of CIO sparks many imaginations: Chief information officer, chief infrastructure officer , Chief Integration Officer, chief International officer, Chief Inspiration Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Influence Office etc. The future of CIO is entrepreneur driven, situation oriented, value-added,she or he will take many paradoxical roles: both as business strategist and technology visionary,talent master and effective communicator,savvy business enabler and relentless cost cutter, and transform the business into "Digital Master"!

The future of CIO is digital strategist, global thought leader, and talent master: leading IT to enlighten the customers; enable business success via influence.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Best “Holiday” Quotes of “Digital Master” Dec. 2019

The holiday season is the time to reflect and refresh, it is also the time to share and give. But doing a few good deeds is just the practice to be kind. The true kindness is a state of mind.

"Digital Masteris a series of guidebooks (28+ 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, provides advice on how to run a digital organization to unleash its full potential and improve agility, maturity, and provide insight about Change Management. It also instructs the digital workforce on how to shape a game-changing digital mindset and build the right set of digital capabilities to compete for the future. Here is a set of “Holiday” quotes in “Digital Master."

1 It is the holiday season and it is the New Year’s Eve. Take some time to reflect the spirit of the holiday.

2 Once again, it is the holiday season and it’s almost the end of the year, it is not just the time to spoil your appetite, but also the moment to open your mind, and connect more dots to discover the new meaning of holidays.

3 The holiday season is the time to reflect and refresh, it is also the time to share and give. But doing a few good deeds is just the practice to be kind. The true kindness is a state of mind.

4 Sympathy reflects the holiday spirit, and empathy lifts up the holiday spirit and brings new perspective for the upcoming new year.

5 Be kind both from the bottom of the heart and the top of your mind. Practice to think kindly before doing good deeds during the holiday season, and make kindness as a state of mind.

6 Holiday is not just the time for shopping or relaxing, but also the time to recharging and doing some introspection.

7 Holiday season is the time for blessing and prediction! reflection and celebration.

8 The New Year’s Eve is the time to reflect on what we did in most of the year, recharge the energy and rekindle the passion for opening the new chapter of life journey..

9 It’s almost the end of the year, and it’s a holiday week, it’s not just the time for shopping or relaxing, but also the time to recharging and making New Year's Resolution. It is not just the time to gain a few pounds but also doing more PONDERING.






The New Year's Eve

The New Year’s Eve is the time to dig within, and make a wish…

The New Year's Eve is the time to reflect:

It’s the moment to bridge the end and beginning, old and new, past and future, reality and hope.

The New Year’s Eve is sweet and bitter; relax and tough; it's time to wash away your frustration, remove your burden, and rejuvenate your inner self.

As tomorrow would be another day。



Every New Year is a fresh beginning, and open a new chapter of our life journey.

The New Year’s Eve is the time to dig within, and make a wish…

What’ve you been done? And what will you like to accomplish?

Have you broken down some old? And can you keep renewing your dream?



The New Year is around the corner, bringing up the fresh eyes to observe

And appreciate the new new year ahead of us..

Even though it's the same sun, the same moon, the same sky, and the same flowers,

People have come and gone promptly….

Still, New Year is full of hope and dreams, also uncertainty and velocity....


The New Year Day keeps on chiming;

Keep positive thoughts on and recharge your energy.

Do not promise too much, but deliver as best as you can…

Wear the new attitude and pursue the art of possibility…..

Make your New Year fulfilled wholeheartedly….



Every New Year is a piece of unique puzzle fitting for your life theme;

The flat, curve, circle or square, put them in the right place, and glue them into the coherent whole….

The blue, red, yellow, orange, purple, green, black, and white, every color reflects your mood and make your life colorful as it could be…

The New Year’s Eve is peaceful. Tomorrow would be a new, new day.. Make every new year a special time to unleash your potential…..










The Resolution of Digital Paradigm Shift

It’s the end of the year, and it’s the time to do some reflection and resolution, individually or at the organizational level.


Business transformation is the change but on a grand level. The digital paradigm arises out of the emerging trends to reinforce the very characteristics of the digital business such as enlightenment, innovativeness, and people-centricity.

The organization has to explore digital in all directions, change the fundamental business model, culture, or other critical business factors, avoid varying pitfalls on the way for reaching the next level of organizational growth and maturity.






From Incremental change to transformative change: Change can be classified into long term business transformation, mid-term organizational change capacity building or short-term sprint to reach certain performance goals. Successful organizations see changes coming and with pre-planning to overcome the resistance before it even manifests. Digital transformation is a journey and needs a clarified vision, a larger strategic investment, well-defined goals, and a step-wise change scenario.

The insight-driven digital transformation can create the synchronization of all functions running seamlessly. Some factors that could be used to evaluate digital transformation impact within a company could be resources invested (human and financial), employee motivation, challenging activities being involved, number of business initiatives being launched, and organizational culture, etc. The more stakeholders can impact a change capable of seriously affecting their lives, the better chance the change will achieve or exceed the target.

The spirit of the organization comes from the top: Change or transformational leaders can provide direction as vision, mission, strategy, as well as leadership skills such as delegation, decision-making, and monitoring. During the digital transformation scenario, it becomes much more powerful if you first change your intention, also the collective thinking behind it.

Organizations usually reflect the personality of the top leadership. Personalities are about mindsets, traits, emotions, attitudes, or behavior. Effective, inclusive, sharing and trusting leadership is combined with effective situational or personnel management and planning in the high-performance organization. Highly effective digital leaders have more balanced or adaptive personalities to fit in different circumstances, and demonstrate the very characteristics of authenticity, character, vision, creativity, empathy, humility, and wisdom, etc.

 Transformational leaders have the ability to help the organization develop a vision of what it could be, mobilize the organization to accept and work toward achieving the long-term business vision and institutionalize the changes that must last over time. It's also critical to assess responsibilities and competencies required to achieve strategic goals, define who you need to have those responsibilities and talent, forecast the skills and roles you need to navigate the changes driven by digital trends and ensure calculated business results being achieved seamlessly.


Create and measure well-defined goals of change initiatives: Digital transformation is a journey. Change impact measurement is multifaceted because the associated change benefits can be achieved via financial, market share, productivity, speed or innovation perspective. 

You can only manage what you measure. Change indeed is difficult to measure unless all parties involved in the change take ownership of the change and see why and what the change is about. They must define the “why and what” the change outputs will look like, and drive a seamless digital paradigm shift.

To manage end-to-end change performance, it requires the necessity to establish clear, understandable and easily calculable metrics. The goal is to ensure people are working on the right things and producing multifaceted business value and measure things matter to ensure that the value of change will be realized and delivered by the adoption and dedicated effort.

It’s the end of the year, and it’s the time to do some reflection and resolution, individually or at the organizational level. The journey of strategy-driven digital transformation means that the company needs to reinvent itself, change its fundamental business model, culture, or other critical business factors for reaching the next level of organizational growth and maturity.

Monday, December 30, 2019

The Monthly “Change Agent CIO” Book Tuning: Are Digital CIOs Well Grounded to lead Change Dec. 2019

Understand your organization’s strategic goals and initiatives and rejuvenate digital leadership to reach the next level of maturity.

Change is inevitable, organizational change has become a common practice within an organization, but too often changes are made as a reaction to outer impulses, crisis, and demands. This is the bureaucracy’s way of meeting the challenges. A digital transformation is achieved via dynamic Strategy-Execution-Change lifecycle management, though it is not all linear steps, but an iterative, ongoing and upgoing change continuum. What are digital CIO’s profiles and how to reboot IT to get digital ready and cultivate the culture of learning and innovating?

      

Are Digital CIOs Well Rounded to lead Change 



Is Digital CIO Well Grounded to Lead Change and Innovation With the increasing pace of changes and fast growing information, organizations across industrial sectors declare they are in the information management business; information nowadays is the invaluable resource and asset of organizations, technology is the force behind digital disruptions. Clearly, the role of IT and that of the CIO is going through significant changes, IT leaders must understand the business from different angles and well grounded to lead change and innovation masterfully.

The Interoperability, Changeability, and Visibility of Digital IT IInformation permeates into every corner of the business and technology makes an impact on how we think, work, and live. The pace of changes in IT would force more CIOs to shift into transcendent digital leadership roles because IT plays a significant role in driving change and digitalization of the company. CIOs need to work closely with the IT management team to develop a solid IT Management framework that matches the needs of the business, to “walk the talk,” and achieve the art of the possible.

How can CIOs “Walk the Talks” to Lead Change and Digitalization With fierce competition and overwhelming growth of information, IT plays a critical role in building the business competency. Thus, the expectations for CIO have grown multifold, and they are expected to be visionary and change agent for business strategy and growth. There are different types of organizations at the different cycles in their maturity, the requirements of the Chief Information Officer are also vast and varied. In practice, how should IT leaders shift their role from the tactical manager to the strategic business executive? And how can CIO earn their stripe as transformative digital leaders?

How to Set Right Priorities for IT Digital transformation With the increasing speed of changes and overwhelming growth of information, IT can no longer keep static to run as a support function only. Today's IT plays a more crucial role in discovering a path to strategy building, implementation, and innovation. Business/IT leaders should also realize the breakthrough success in digital businesses requires not only forward-thinking strategies but also having a step-wise approach. But more specifically, how to set the right priorities for making a digital transformation of the company?

Three Roles of CIOs to Accelerate Digital Transformation  IT plays a pivotal role in the digital transformation of many forward-looking organizations today. CIOs must set the principles, guidelines, and rules to run a digital IT. IT is in the middle of a sea change, it is important to realize that there are basic principles and rules that make it work. But the self-centered "our jobs are hard" line only isolates IT more. How can IT reinvent its tarnished brand, and reimagine its role to accelerate changes? Make sure that nothing is dismissed due to out of date beliefs or natural human emotions. Understand your organization’s strategic goals and initiatives and rejuvenate CIO leadership to reach the next level of maturity.

The blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thought; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making influence through touching the hearts and connecting minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 3 million page views with about #6300 blog posting. Among 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating 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 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.

The Best “Phenomenon” Quotes of “Digital Master” Dec. 2019

 The earlier we start seeing life with right kind of attitude, the better will our stay on this beautiful planet, these all the phenomenon of "Attitude."

"Digital Master is a series of guidebooks (28+ 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, provides advice on how to run a digital organization to unleash its full potential and improve agility, maturity, and provide insight about Change Management. It also instructs the digital workforce on how to shape a game-changing digital mindset and build the right set of digital capabilities to compete for the future. Here is a set of “Phenomenon” quotes in “Digital Master.


1 The digital transformation is not an overnight phenomenon but a step-by-step business evolution.

2 Creativity is a phenomenon, creativity is all around us, we just need to get connected with it.

3 The renowned metaphor of the caterpillar that becomes a butterfly demonstrates the digital transformation vividly and beautifully.

4 The bandwagon effect is characterized by the probability of individual adoption increasing with respect to the proportion who have already done so. According to this concept, the increasing popularity of a product or phenomenon encourages more people psychologically to "get on the bandwagon" too.

5 The earlier we start seeing life with right kind of attitude, the better will our stay on this beautiful planet, these all the phenomenon of "Attitude."

6 In a phenomenon known as group polarization (the group of people more often “think the same”), deliberation can intensify people’s attitudes, leading to more extreme decisions.

7 The brain is the hardware and the mind is the software with the totality in action, so the brain with the mind is the hardware plus software. The mind is probably not the brain in action alone. It may also be a whole-body phenomenon, with inputs from the environment as well.

8 The hyperconnected, and highly innovative digital business or world can be analogized by the pollination phenomenon in the natural world -pollination is needed for plants to reproduce in the natural world, and so many plants depend on bees or other insects as pollinators.


Design for Problem-Solving

Leveraging digital mindset such as design thinking is about embedding art into science to explore the “art of the possible.” and solve problems creatively.

Either for individuals, organizations, or society as a whole, the problem-solving capability is crucial for surviving and thriving. Design thinking is a type of problem-solving mindset. What is significant about the rise in Design Thinking is that it provides a counterpoint to the analytical, to help solve problems creatively.

Problem-solving has a very wide scope and takes an interdisciplinary approach which involves multifaceted disciplines such as psychology, engineering, art, principles, condition, social norms and group behavior. The main emphasis is in doing "better pre-work" - defining the situation and the "success criteria," taking a logical scenario and enabling a consideration of the range of options - rather than the traditional "jump to solution" problem-solving methodology.

Define the right problems: We live in a hyperconnected and interdependent world with blurred boundaries and extended dimensions. Framing the right problem more often needs to step back, or get out of the box, take multidisciplinary lenses, in order to look at the problem from a different angle, understand what is exactly wrong - the exact description of the problem, and diagnose the root cause of the problem.

Truly understanding a problem is one of the most critical steps in solving it. Any problem is the right problem if there is an attempt to find a solution for addressing the correct need, as well as how to identify the need at the right level. Design thinking is not a process, but a collection of methodologies to visualize and frame the right problems, keep asking “Why is that a problem” at each successive stage. Design Thinking as a philosophy helps to diagnose the underlying issues as one of understanding the application of creativity rather than identification of a situation that demands a specific solution.

Brainstorm potential solutions: Design Thinking is very reliable at producing valid solutions. Having brainstorm enables creative problem-solving by spending as much effort on problem identification as they will do in solution discovery. Let participants experience the comprehensive business problems and opportunities associated with creating ideas and come up with potential solutions.

The facet metaphor has a potentially illusory advantage of brainstorming potential "grade" or "range" solutions by reinforcing coherence. The powerful digital technologies including social platforms and learning tools provide a loose structure for employees to connect, collaborate, and generate bottom-up ideas, issues, and solutions, each with different results and budgets and risk profile.

Identify constraints: Having constraints provides guidelines for creative problem-solving by providing anchors to explore from. It’s importance of building a comprehensive problem-solving framework to integrate all important components of problem-solving management, access the maximum number of potentially good ideas for designing and developing innovative solutions. More specifically:
(1) specifying the constraints on problem-solving methodology and techniques;
(2) identifying the information needed for decisions and problem-solving; and determining how to collect relevant information.

In most cases, you don't understand your business environment because you have never looked outside the boundary of the problem. It is important to discover the containing system has social, ecological, economic and political elements and you must advance the development of all of these factors in order to solve problems creatively and holistically.

Select the best approach: The journey of problem-solving is not to pursue a perfect solution, but to explore a better way to solve the problem and make continuous improvement. With a greater understanding of the problems, the trick is to increase the influence and be part of the solutions. Never think there is a short list of solutions you can pick from. You have to ask yourself whether you are offering something in your dialogue that really helps customers see how they can differentiate themselves or their business practices.

Fair to say, customers don't want solutions that level the playing field and equalize them with their peers, they want something that elevates them. The power of design thinking can help them reach the high vision. It's also important to put together a complete solution that works in the best interest of all related constituencies in the business. The results of those alternative solutions depend on the insight that fuel them, as well as the ability of the company to select the best ones, develop them and implement them.

Make design proposal and do prototype: Design decides nothing on the basis of semantic completeness or conceptual neatness. If you cannot afford to fail, you cannot apply design techniques alone to solve the problem. Companies need to filter, prototype, and validate potential solutions. 

Rather than focus on one method, as a team with broad expertise across a range of disciplines, there are choices of design tools or appropriate methods for managing business initiatives, making design proposals and doing prototype, and customizing tools and methods for the challenge will always yield a more desirable outcome.


With an increasing pace of changes and shortened knowledge life cycle, there needs to be a mind shift in order to master problem-solving and push the business and the world forward. Leveraging digital mindset such as design thinking is about embedding art into science to explore the “art of the possible.” and solve problems creatively.


Sunday, December 29, 2019

The Monthly Insight of Information Management: The Characteristics of Information System Dec. 2019

With the fast pace of changes, the information management challenges will only intensify.

The aim of modern Information Management has often been described as getting the right information to the right person, in the right format and medium, at the right time, in order to make the right decisions. The value of information is qualitative, measurable, and defined uniquely by an organization.

    


The Characteristics of Information System 



Information System vs. Digital Ecosystem Information is permeating into every corner of the business and becomes the lifeblood of digital organization.Digital technology is lightweight but more powerful. Information Technology System is the "nerve system "of the digital business which is like the switch connected to the dynamic ecosystem continually evolving and expanding in the modern world.

Holistic Information Management Digital is the era of information abundance, information provide significant opportunities for business growth, also brings unprecedented risks when mismanaged and cause the business failures all the time. With the fast pace of changes, the information management challenges will only intensify. Managing information and the information position of an organization is what ought to be called Information Management. Information doesn’t stand still, but permeating into every corner of the business. Thus, Information management life cycle is complex, it’s important to take a holistic approach for processing and refining information to improve the organizational decision effectiveness and achieve its business value.

Three Characteristics of Information Management System A system is a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole. A system has a purpose to perform a set of functions to achieve well-defined goals. A system which is composed of interacting and interdependent pieces has a specific structure which is defined by its components and processes - the interrelationship between components. Managing information and the information position of an organization is what ought to be called Information Management. Information Management is a system with interdependent processes, technologies, and a set of interdisciplinary practices for moving the business to a dynamic, iterative, integral and interactive digital flow.

The Transcendence of Information Management Besides people, information is the most invaluable asset in businesses today. Not only is information interesting economic goods, but the value is also difficult to determine, it could be utilitarian, intrinsic, extrinsic, hedonistic, social, practical epistemic, etc. Managing information and the information position of an organization is what ought to be called Information Management. The tricky bit with information is that, depending on the level of granularity and aggregation, you can use it for multiple purposes. The transcendence of Information Management into various business management accelerates business performance and unlocks business potential.

Three Perspectives of Information Management? Information is growing exponentially, and become one of the most invaluable business assets of the business. However, in many companies, the organizational modern data environment is fraught with inconsistency, redundancy, and multiple data and knowledge platforms, it causes confusion and decelerates business speed. Digital IT organizations should take an integral and holistic approach to manage the information cycle, and ensure that reliable information has been provided to the right people for making the right decisions at the right time. Here are three perspectives of information management.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 3 million page views with about #6300th 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. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating 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 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.

The Best “Structure” Quotes of “Digital Master” July 2019

The new organic, self-organizing system approach to organizational structure could become a reality, and that will be a true evolution of digital transformation.

"Digital Master is a series of guidebooks (28+ 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, provides advice on how to run a digital organization to unleash its full potential and improve agility, maturity, and provide insight about Change Management. It also instructs the digital workforce on how to shape a game-changing digital mindset and build the right set of digital capabilities to compete for the future. Here is a set of “Structure” quotes in “Digital Master."

1 An organizational structure carries inherent capabilities as to what can be achieved within its frame.The right structure is the one that allows the right mentality and culture to bloom.

2 There are both official structure and unofficial structure in the organization. They can coexist harmoniously. Ideally, the unofficial structure that has emerged over time is the formal structure you should have.

3 Organizations should incorporate and leverage what official and unofficial structures one might have into the journey's end-state, but only as long as they are practical to where you want to go.

4 Going forward, it may well require changing both official and unofficial structures into a hybrid structure that can support an innovation journey in the direction you are heading, rather than where you have been.

5 In traditional organizational structure, business processes and structure are formal and even overly rigid. The digital dimension of organizational structure is enjoying a powerful tailwind.

6 The new organic, self-organizing system approach to organizational structure could become a reality, and that will be a true evolution of digital transformation.

7 Within a well-aligned structure, that dedication and effort may be spent on innovation efforts rather than overcoming organizational hurdles and pushing against structural boundaries.

8 The organization structure and its impact on efficiency and innovation could play either a positive or negative impact. The goal of digital organizational structure tuning is to strike the delicate balance between solid and flow, control and autonomy.

9 Ideally, the digital organizational structure needs to be solid enough to “keep things in order,” but also fluid enough to interact with the expanded digital ecosystem seamlessly.

Competence, Vision, Communication, and Enthusiasm in Shaping a Superior Digital Organization

Digital management is fundamentally an iterative cycle to design, prototype, build, scale, and optimize business competency and achieve the desired effect.
The unprecedented opportunities brought by digital information technologies and increasing speed of change can lift up a fast growing business promptly, also reinvent a well-established organization to reach the next level of business growth or organizational maturity.

There are many elements of digital competency that are foundational to an almost any foreseeable digital strategy to be implemented. Here are a couple of interwoven elements for running a superior digital organization.


Competence with a vision is a good thing: The vision thing is not just about the simply “seeing,” it is the perception about the future. Vision without competence is perhaps like the mirage which you simply cannot reach. Competence with a vision is a good thing for moving toward the future and rolling vision into a reality. High competitive business has two sets of competencies: the necessary competency to run the business as others do, as well as differentiated business competency to stand out as the industrial leader.

Historically, technology stimulates mankind's imagination, to make the impossible possible. The exponential growth of information brings new opportunities for companies to capture business insight or forecast customers’ demands. Thus, today’s digital leaders need to be dynamic with open, intelligent, and growth mindset, have high abilities to handle changes, enforce creative communication to suit varying situations so as to make things happen and develop organizational competencies.

Keep in mind, a well-established vision not only needs to be based on a realistic expectation, but also high enough that inspires people to excel and challenge the organization to thrive. The digital vision shouldn't be a fixed target, it needs to be stable enough to make it worthwhile for making a concerted effort to attain it and dynamic enough to be able to react to any change in business direction or context proactively.  It’s important to leverage unique knowledge and expertise to build business competency for the organizational long-term growth and maturity.

Competence, vision, and an ability to communicate is great: Vision keep people inspired, competence enables strategy implementation, but it is the communication as a threshold to connect minds and hearts, local and global, today and future frictionlessly. Digital dialogue is a means of coordination based on expertise and responsibility.

Change is expedited when people can understand what is communicated and are able to translate it into action or expertise. Miscommunication gaps decrease productivity, further cause mistrust and decelerate business speed. There are both hard communication barriers such as ambiguous or outdated processes, management procedure bottleneck, practices or soft obstacles such as leadership style, culture, or politics etc. To shorten the time cycle and save the cost of building business competency, it is critical to enforce cross-functional communication, develop dynamic business capabilities interwoven by all crucial organizational ingredients into differentiated business competency and shape a great digital organization.

Competence, vision, communication, and enthusiasm for the business are superior: Vision helps the business steer in the right direction, competence-based strategy has a much higher success rate, and communication keeps digital business flow and brings harmony, but it’s the passion to kindle the inner abilities of people and help them achieve more and drive progressive changes. 

Always have a passion for discovering new things, for probing in depth of the subject we are interested in. There are people who argue for their limitations, and there are people who cast aside their fetters to explore and make progress. Building the bridge between today and the future requires enthusiasm, belief, determination, hard capabilities, soft touches, and commit to a more responsive way of working in general. 

Enthusiasm aligned with vision, focus, capabilities and meaningful work is a destination for both individuals and businesses. It enables determination, creativity, strategy, and talent. From a leadership perspective, if a leader has a clear vision and is passionate about a certain goal, then, it has the potential to be contagious and spread throughout the team to achieve a well-defined vision. In fact, vision is crucial to sustaining passion. Enthusiasm following a good positive chain of thoughts followed by positive actions often brings good results and leapfrogs progress for shaping a superior digital business.

There is no magic formula or prescribed solution to digital transformation. Digital management is fundamentally an iterative cycle to design, prototype, build, scale, and optimize business competency and achieve the desired effect under specified performance standards and conditions through the combination of talent and resources, processes, and technologies to perform a set of activities and achieve high-performance business results and unlock collective potential.

Saturday, December 28, 2019

The Monthly CIO Debates Collection & “Digital IT” Book Tuning: Why is it so Hard to Run Innovative IT Dec. 2019

Debating is not for stimulating conflicts, but for brainstorming better ways to do things.


Due to the changing nature of technology, IT leadership role also continues to involve & shift the focus, to move up the maturity level. More and more CIOs are requested to take more responsibility and many CIOs present the breadth of leadership competency. The proactive IT debates help IT leaders to brainstorm better ways to do things and improve management capabilities. Here are the monthly CIO debates collections about envisioning digital IT leadership and running high-performance digital IT organizations.



                 Why is it so Hard to Run Innovative IT 



Why Is so Hard for Running IT “Out of the Comfort Zone” Technology is pervasive, information is growing exponentially. Business transformation or change initiatives today nearly always involves some form of information and technology. All forward-thinking organizations across the industries claim they are in the information management business. To adapt to the increasing speed of change, organizations have to be more nimble about updating technology and managing information effectively. Hence, IT organizations today can no longer get stuck at the lower level of maturity to keep the lights on only or get struggling to make an alignment with the business. Digital IT organization must get “out of the comfort zone,” to explore better ways of running IT as a trusted business partner, proactive change agent, and hyper-connected innovation hub. "Continual improvement" is the IT mantra in the digital era.

Are you Running IT Organization as a “Magic” or a Trendsetter? IT plays a critical role in modern businesses today, however, most business leaders and professionals lack the in-depth understanding of IT organizations, often times, the “magic” thinking of IT is one of the root causes to divide business and IT and create gaps for the digital transformation. In practice, digital IT organization needs to become an integral part of the high mature digital company, to gain competitive advantage or differentiated capability for the business’s growth. To improve IT maturity, CIOs should ask themselves: Are you running IT organization as a “Magic,” or a “trendsetter”?

Why is So Critical for Running IT as a Change Agent In the industrial age, IT is often perceived as the department which is slow to change, acts as a controller only, and gets stuck at the lower level of maturity. However, nowadays, with the increasing speed of change and exponential growth of information, IT is like the business's digital engine, CIOs are accountable for critical part of the business that is constantly changing and evolving and IT is also in a position to dig through underlying functions and processes of the businesses. Therefore, it is imperative to speed up IT and run it as a change organization of the business for accelerating digital transformation.

What does Business Expect from IT? High-performing IT is leading with empathy, to understand business customers' frustration and pressure points from their perspective and find a way to move the business issues forward in a way that is advantageous to the entire enterprise. First of all, what does the business expect from IT?

Three Aspects Why C-Level Business Executives Should Learn more about IT “Magic”? IT becomes so pervasive in today’s enterprise, however, for most of the business executives, IT is just like a costly “magic” they know little about, that's why they don't trust it so much. Should CIOs keep on fighting C-level's "magic" with rational means or should the other C-level execs be trained to understand technology to defeat the unhappy mixture of ignorance and faith? Indeed, C-level execs are getting more involved in the technology aspect of their business, As some make the joke: IT is just too critical to leave it to the CIO alone.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 3 million page views with 6300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. blog posting. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating 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 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.

The Best “Hierarchy” Quotes of “Digital Master” July 2019

"Digital Master” is a series of guidebooks (28+ 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, provides advice on how to run a digital organization to unleash its full potential and improve agility, maturity, and provide insight about Change Management. It also instructs the digital workforce on how to shape a game-changing digital mindset and build the right set of digital capabilities to compete for the future. Here is a set of “Hierarchy” quotes in “Digital Master."


1 Every system has its position in the hierarchy of systems. However, system hierarchy is different from the command control hierarchy. The highly complex and dynamic system needs to be elaborated in a well-organized effort.

2 The more nonlinear, interconnected, and interdependent is the environment, where uncertainty and emergence become more prevalent, hence, accelerated rates of change, the less likely ordered hierarchical systems are to be the answer due to the rigidity.

3 In the emerging digital age with the nature of hyperconnectivity, nonlinearity, and interdependence, the overly rigid hierarchy becomes the very obstacle to stop the digital flow and stifle innovation.

4 To be a highly functional system, the hierarchy must balance the welfare, freedoms, and responsibilities of the subsystems and total system, there must be enough central control to achieve coordination toward the large-system goals, and enough autonomy to keep all subsystems flourishing, functioning, and self-organizing.

5 Every system has its position in the hierarchy of systems. System hierarchy provides the system stability and resilience.

6 To run a highly functional digital business, the business hierarchy must balance the fluidity, freedom, and responsibilities of the substems (functions) and the total system (the eco-business environment), to enable information fluidity, workforce creativity, and management holism.

7 Organizations, like individuals, need to be in flow to communicate fluently and operate smoothly. Thus, to break down silos or overly rigid hierarchy, organizations need to be in flow to keep up with the speed.

8 To run a highly functional digital business, the business hierarchy must balance the fluidity, freedom, and responsibilities of the substems (functions) and the total system (the eco-business environment), to enable information fluidity, workforce creativity, and management holism. A hyperconnected organization can approach the flow zone when the positions in its hierarchy have clear and accountable tasks. Balance is key.

Leverage Critical Thinking to Make Change Management Inquiries

Digital is all about rapid changes, blurred functional, business or industry territories, or expanded organizational horizons, It is a continuous journey to adapt to the new world of businesses, faster, always on, hyper-connected, interdependent, and fiercely competitive. It’s important to leverage critical thinking to make Change Management inquiries. The following questions should be answered before any change is started, but they should also be validated and perhaps adjusted "every day" of the change journey as the current situation and its net value changes. The insight-driven digital transformation can create synchronization of all functions running seamlessly.

What's the current situation and the future if it's not changed? Change is the new normal. In the digital era, any business can be at risk for survival at any minute due to continuous digital disruptions. Greater awareness of some critical issues can provide insights from a hidden part of the organization that might actually help to fine-tune change objectives and increase inclusiveness of influential individuals or groups. Make sure there is dissatisfaction with the current situation. People who make up the organization must see a compelling need to change from risky practices, obsolete ideas, or outdated processes and do so proactively before issues materialize. Organizations could miss the opportunity if they get stuck in the comfort zone, only focus on operations in low-risk territories and incremental enhancements only. Change impact analysis and business readiness are two key processes that need to be conducted to give the management a glimpse of what’s the current situation and the future if it’s not changed. Coach people to shift from the belief that change is "loss" to a belief that change leads to "growth" and growth leads to organizational viability, relevance, and long-term prosperity.

What's the vision (future situation) and the net value of this in the future if there is a change? Change happens seamlessly when change is easier than maintaining the status quo. Change leaders must have a clear vision about change, not vision clouded and distorted by rosy colored glasses or narrow-minded perspectives, and the net value of change in the future if there is a change. The range of emerging digital technologies foster a deeper sense of vision and digital connections to changes,when people enjoy learning, spend more time on creativity. Generally speaking, the key driving factors of transformative changes are organizational culture reinvention, information management optimization or innovation, etc. Digital transformation is a journey and needs a clarified vision, a larger strategic investment, and a step-wise change scenario.


What's the robustly trustworthy plan to change from the current situation to the future situation? 
Change is never for its own sake, there are both hard values that can be measured by dollars of cost saving or improving efficiency and soft values such as culture innovation and employee satisfaction. From digital transformation perspective, change is simply a shift from the “Old Way - Chaos - New Way” to do things. Change is inevitable, but the success rate of change is very low, especially for the large scale of digital transformation. Changes are best when they do not look like changes. Enabling and motivating teams to select the best options and providing framework or tools help organizations align all the options from all teams so that organizations can leap forward as a "natural outcome" of every individual's effort. It is important to apply simplicity as a management principle, sometimes Change Management needs to be changed when necessary in pursuit of simplicity. Change Management needs to make the robustly trustworthy plan, allow the cross-functional change community to have a voice for feedback, build strong relationships with stakeholders, in order to change from the current situation to the future situation.

We are living in a complex world in which changes and conflicts are continuously changing and that make it impossible to have complete knowledge and understanding of many issues facing the business today. Change Management is both science and art. Clearly identify where you want to be once the change is complete. Leading businesses across the vertical sectors are the ones that can adapt to the digital new normal and manage the proactive change continuum smoothly.




Friday, December 27, 2019

The Monthly “Digital Boardroom” Book Tuning: The Corporate Board’s Digital Maturity Dec. 2019

The directorship in any organization must be able to make influence from mindset to behavior and evolving to what is needed next for radical changes such as digitalization and societal advancements. 

Modern corporate boards play significant roles in guiding businesses in the right direction and achieve expected business results. Due to the “VUCA” characteristics -Complexity, Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and Velocity of the Digital Era, the directorship in any organization must have the agility to adapt to changes and build abilities to advise, inspire and motivate a group of people toward accomplishing shared visions and goals. Here are the multiple perspectives of shaping a strategic boardroom with digital acumen.






             The Corporate Board’s Digital Maturity 




The Progressive View of the Corporate Board The modern society is a dynamic continuum with collective human progress. Progress represents change. Without change, one cannot even stagnate. The corporate board must exemplify progressive leadership to help build an ultra-modern digital organization. The progressive view of the corporate board in a collective setting can sustain a balance of diverse perspectives, creativity, discipline; opportunities and risk; individualism and teamwork, democracy and unification; science and art, intuition and of course, forward-thinking and situational leadership.

High-Mature Digital Boards with “Cool-Headed” Directors Due to the complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, and volatility of the digital era, the BoDs as the senior leadership of the organization or the society are like the steering wheel to ensure their ships are moving in the right direction towards the uncharted water. The directorship in any organization must be able to make influence from mindset to behavior and evolving to what is needed next for radical changes such as digitalization and societal advancements. High-mature digital boards with “cool-headed” directors are driving force for changes and exemplary of contemporary leadership.

An Accountable Corporate Board Due to the complexity of today’s business, faster-paced changes, and continuous disruptions and distractions, there are a multitude of organizational gaps existing in today’s organization. It is important to articulate the strategic rationale behind the business venture, make leaders accountable for implementing the strategy.

Three Perspectives of Shaping Up the Digital Ready Boardroom Digital era is volatile, complex, uncertain and ambiguous, organizations today are hyper-connected and interdependent. However, many say that the multitude of gaps, such as thinking, knowledge, innovation, strategy execution, etc., are enlarged because different industries, organizations, functions, and individuals evolve change with varying speed. The modern corporate board as one of the most important leadership pillars in the business, plays an important role to inspire, innovate, improve, interact, interpret, influence, exemplify, and orchestrate change and digitalization. Here are three perspectives to shape up the digital ready boardroom.

The Digital Board with Global Competency Global competency is the ability to understand and act on issues of global significance or solve complex problems which have a global impact. Collectively, at the board level, global competency represents the global leadership, mindset, knowledge, insight, expertise, attitudes, skills, and behaviors necessary to thrive in today's hyper-connected and interdependent world.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 3 million page views with 6300+ 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. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking; 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 time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify your voice, deepen your digital footprints, and match your way for human progression.




The "Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As" Slideshare Presentation


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The "Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As" Introduction


The "Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As" Chapter 1 Introduction: The Digital Board's Composition Inquiries

The "Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As" Chapter II Introduction: The Digital Board's Digital Inquiries

The "Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As": Chapter III Introduction: The Digital Board's Strategy Inquiries

The "Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As" Chapter IV Introduction: The Digital Board's IT Inquiries


The "Digital Boardroom: 100 Q&As" Chapter V Introduction: The Digital Board's Leadership Inquiries

The Best “Acceleration” Quotes of “Digital Master” July 2019

 To differentiate and accelerate, every competitive organization needs to have a unique set of core competencies to achieve business goals.

'Digital Master is a series of guidebooks (28+ 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, provides advice on how to run a digital organization to unleash its full potential and improve agility, maturity, and provide insight about Change Management. It also instructs the digital workforce on how to shape a game-changing digital mindset and build the right set of digital capabilities to compete for the future. Here is a set of “Acceleration” quotes in Digital Master."



1 It takes a lot of energy to break habits and outdated thought processes, but change is happening with accelerated speed.

2 It is the time to break down the organizational bureaucracy inherited from the traditional management discipline, and develop the holistic digital management practices to harness cross-functional communication and accelerate digital transformation.

3 To differentiate and accelerate, every competitive organization needs to have a unique set of core competencies to achieve business goals.

4 It is the time to keep eyes open for emergent digital trends, keep minds flow via learning and equipped with a positive mentality to accelerate transformative changes.

5 There are so many pitfalls on the way to fail changes - fear of unknown, unhealthy competition, comfort with the status quo, complacency, poor judgment, lack of big picture, or blind to a need or a path. Hence, it is the time to reduce the unnecessary pains, 'seeing' the context you are 'part' of, inspire innovation and accelerate the speed of change.

6 Develop a digital organization that is flexible to accommodate rapidly changing business strategies and requirements, unleash its full potential to accelerate innovation.

7 Digital transformation isn’t just an extension of continuous improvement of the current business but a quantum leap with radical change and accelerate speed on a grand level.

8 Digital leaders should first understand what it needs to drive future business growth, put the framework in place to map the strategic objectives into performance measures and then determine what technology investments will accelerate the changes you want to see in your performance indicators and manage change effortlessly.

9 Although we have to change with the "tide," companies that lead in digital transformation, are much more likely to have a top leaders who understand digital opportunities and threats and who can enforce the business growth forces for the strategy execution and accelerate digital business performance.




Creative Synthesis

The matter is that the dynamic digital organization needs to get away from letting things fall through and start practicing creative synthesis to generate fresh ideas or solve problems alternatively. 

Creativity can be defined as the collision between different perspectives, internal programming, mind-states of possibility and necessity and thought patterns that result in novel ideas and innovative solutions.

Creativity has two parts: the spark of inspiration which plants a fresh concept in our heads, and then the building of a structure of associations and relationships between that "seed" concept. Creative synthesis could be a procedure to integrate separate creativity elements or components in order to solve problems creatively via the perception of a coherent whole.

Creativity is the synthetic process of divergent thoughts:
Creativity is about exploring the space for stimulating divergent thoughts and catching diverse ideas via open-ended and contextual inquiries and synthesize into alternative problem-solving. It sometimes demands the possibility of the wrong in order to explore in free ways. In many circumstances, being creative means getting out of conventional thinking or normal consciousness in order to perceive the other way.

Creativity is a seamless combination of divergent and convergent thinking, a systematic and synthetic process. Creative synthesis is about perceiving the wholeness by tiering up the divergent thoughts into creative ideas. Creativity has a language, but it is altogether different from the one found in the conventional business environment.

Thus, creativity in the workplace requires the deliberate creation of original and invaluable ideas when they are needed. You have to be determined to get better results somehow and it will help to try unconventional thinking and synthesize all necessary thought blocks into fresh ideas. The process of creative synthesis necessitates the need for an ability of divergent thinking, a novelty-seeking behavior, and a “putting together” convergence scenario.

Creativity is a synthesis of imagination with which you create new ideas and the concreteness with which you can transform ideas into valuable work: Knowledge is fundamental. But without the imagination to "believe in the art of the possible," perhaps there are not enough dots to connect for stimulating creativity.

Curiosity stimulates a need to gain knowledge and knowledge is not just book knowledge, but intuitive knowledge that feeds imagination. Imagination flows freely when supported by the fluidity of thoughts. Imagination leads to discovery. Discovery is both an event and a process. Knowledge can be useful in trying to understand if what's imagined can be achieved. The higher the level at which we are engaged and stimulated to imagine, the more likely we can generate novel ideas.

At the highest level of imagination engagement, we become driven to leverage our imagination into creative ideas; and then the next step is the “concreteness” process of setting digital principles and standards, developing the best or next practices of transforming fresh ideas into real work for achieving their commercial value.

Diversity is a facilitator for merging building blocks of new ideas and increasing the probability of creative synthesis and innovation success: Creativity is the one which deals with any sort of necessary ideas to solve a situation that requires critical and creative analysis and synthesis skills. Diversity catalyzes creativity and facilitates brainstorming and building blocks of new ideas. 

The powerful digital platforms and collaboration tools provide unprecedented opportunities for businesses to innovate by building invaluably intellectual processes to boost the organizational innovation capacity and increase the probability of creative synthesis.


Technically, creative synthesis involves not only putting the bits and bytes together but blending them in such a way that the merging blocks of ideas generate great values. Sociology brings much more depth to our knowledge with interdisciplinary understanding of businesses empowerment over control, engagement over command, and dynamic over static. Winning in the digital dynamic means engaging innovative thinking and creative synthesis. People have to be ready for moving to a more fluid structure by overcoming change inertia and stepping out of the “comfort zones.” The unique thoughts, emergent trends, and updated knowledge, etc, are all that captivates digital professionals with high curiosity to learn and quickly absorb and adapt, and improve the organizational innovation competency.

The matter is that the dynamic digital organization needs to get away from letting things fall through and start practicing creative synthesis to generate fresh ideas or solve problems alternatively. Organizations need to allow time for a number of different creative activities or opportunities to suit different types of people. In the same way, people have different learning styles, they also have different innovation styles, are able to create an “integrated wholes” by utilizing correct processes and harmonizing the underlying business relationships for achieving “the art of the possible.”




Thursday, December 26, 2019

The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 12/27/2019

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

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 3 million page views with 6300+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The Digital Master book series includes 28 books to share insight from the multidimensional digital lens and perceive the multi-faceted impact the digital era upon us is making to the businesses and society. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of digital leadership, IT Management, and Talent Management.


Three Perception Shifts to Deepen Understanding of Systems Thinking Systems Thinking is about understanding interrelationships between parts and the whole. It helps digital leaders and professionals discover the interconnectivity and interdependence of the digital business ecosystem, help them get behind the "surface" validity and give them deeper insight into the nuances of why and how, and ensure that the digital business as an organic system growing and evolving with its environment in harmony. Here are three perception shifts to enforce understanding of Systems Thinking.

The “Superconscious” Board of Directors The digital era means increasing pace of changes and unprecedented uncertain. To figure out the business or the world as a complex adaptive system requires an in-depth understanding of how things have come together, being "built," as well as why change is needed. It’s imperative to awaken the super consciousness of senior leadership at the board level through metacognitive lens and determine which competencies or capabilities should be used in combination, and with what level of weight for each, for every different situation, in order to improve digital leadership maturity.

Manage Enterprise Knowledge to Fit Business Strategy Knowledge is power. The successful companies large or small think that Knowledge Management is essential to their long term business success. More specifically, Knowledge Management (KM) is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organizational knowledge to either solve business problems or build unique business advantage. It refers to a multi-disciplined approach to achieve organizational goals by making the best use of knowledge. Here are three perspectives on managing enterprise knowledge.

CIO as Innovation Provocateur Technology is often the disruptive force behind innovation and information is the gold mine all forward-looking organizations across vertical sectors dig into. Information Technology is the linchpin of digital transformation which starts with the realization that where you currently no longer can deliver the strategic business goals and reach the long-term business vision of your company and shareholders.

The Monthly Digital Principles/Practices Summary: A Set of Thinking Principles Dec. 2019 Digital principles define why one make a decision one way or another. Principles are statements of values. Things that define why one make a decision one way or another. These core decision values guide the behavior of individuals within an organization.

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking about 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 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.