Innovativeinsight

Blogging is about pursuing the digital way to continuous communication, brainstorming and innovation.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 7 million page views with 9300+ blog postings in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. 

The “Digital Master” book series includes 29 books to share insight from the multidimensional digital lens and perceive the multi-faceted impact the digital era upon us is making to 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 innovation leadership, IT Management, and Talent Management.

Ingredientsinleadership As we live in the hyper-diverse and interdependent world, leaders today should lead by influence, not via brute force. They can bridge a variety of gaps, facilitate innovation agenda, and orchestrate business transformation insightfully.

Integralcompetency Today’s business is dynamic and complex than ever; digital professionals should keep building unique professional capability by developing their talent and unlocking potential, integrating professional skills and expertise for making certain achievements in a consistent manner. Each of these same capabilities may be combined in different fashions to yield multiple core competencies. Business leaders and professionals need to periodically make an objective assessment of their professional competencies, identify skill gaps, build a professional profile with a strong capability portfolio, in order to fulfill their career goals and reach the next level of the growth cycle.

Illuminatereflectionlogic People are complex either as a condition of human beings or as a state of energy. Knowing who you are and how you react and respond in different situations can help you understand and improve yourself. Step out of the routine transactional activities for a while, and reimagine the new possibility.

Initiatelogicalargument The world is still full of arguments artistically, scientifically, economically, politically, and religiously. An argument with clarified logic underneath seeks to change a concept, perspectives, ideas, intended to persuade and provoke actions, with or without a final satisfying outcome! There are some logic underneath the augments.

Initiatecreativeconnectivity Creative energy connects the dots and generates fresh ideas. A creative person is the one that offers others a different perspective to look at the world and reinvent the world. Creativity as the ability to work and produce, requires a certain degree of independence and mental balance, the proper psychological level of inner security and genuine self discovery, autonomy, and mastery. We are at the intersection of knowledge and creative economy. It demands the creative eye to look at things and discover innovative ways to handle problems smoothly.

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking of new ideas; sharing and innovating. 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.

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InitiativesofBoDs

Contemporary corporate boards play significant roles in guiding businesses in the right direction to achieve higher than expected business results consistently.

In face of the "VUCA" reality, organizations need to keep optimizing their management discipline to survive the fierce competition and thrive with the long-term business advantage. 

Corporate boards as one of the top leadership pillars should practice open-minded leadership, oversee the business strategy, create the space for cross-boundary dialogue and debate, take initiatives to enhance GRC disciplines effectively.

Corporate board leaders take initiatives for actively advising the management, connecting with stakeholders, to ensure strategy management is on the right track: Strategies really are not meaningful unless they include an implementation plan, developed by the varying stakeholders and the executive team together, overseen by corporate boards. The corporate board of directors should take an outlier's lens to criticize the business strategy by questioning wisely and bringing up fresh perspectives continually, scrutinize business prioritization and processes to improve asset/resource management, ensuring the strategy management is on the right track to produce expected results.

The BoDs take initiatives to facilitate stakeholders conversations, set the right cultural tones, and build up a positive emotional climate to improve the success rate of strategy execution. They identify promising big ideas for investment that will accelerate strategic change, continue to prioritize and adjust the strategy, to leverage growth potential of the company. Doing this will pay huge dividends and build long term competency of the company.

Initiate practices for the organization's leaders to actively ensure the organization is walking the talk of its values: Corporate BoDs should work closely with management to clarify vision, purpose, value, principles, which are part of corporate ideology/philosophy that shapes a unique culture and a corporate brand. A corporate board of directors duty to shareholders encompasses the need to effectively manage stakeholder issues so they do not become a risk to shareholder values. The whole value chain needs to be aligned, engaged, and contributing so different stakeholders get their fair share, define the ideal business model, products & services, distribution, and business brand.

Corporate value is a multi-dimensional concept; it could mean different things to different people. Shareholder values do not begin and end with financial profit only. Smart corporations and shareholders know that focusing only on short-term economics can lead to negative values that may outweigh finances in the long-term. With boardroom oversight, all parties can agree on the common value proposition, keeping a clear business value stream. The BoDs oversee critical strategic investment. To demonstrate value, it is important to convince the shareholders of new initiatives with solid business justification, showing them the potential business benefits to meet the strategic goal of the company.

Initiate BoD practices to ensure active leadership in developing and monitoring coaching/training programs to realize the vision: Leadership is about developing people, not managing them. It is a mindset that requires commitment at the very top of an organization, from the boardroom all the way to the bottom without exception. Your leadership development interventions and learning journeys will do well to be strongly aligned with the strategic direction of the organizations. Leadership training approaches need to be vertical and developmental moving forward

If there is a quality leadership shortage in your organization, it is a strategic imperative that "leadership" needs to be re-imagined, explored, understood and embraced for it to be of any value. Great plan to integrate coaching into leadership development practice could be made more impactful. Begin with re-designing a strategy, rediscovering the talent pipeline, and re-training leaders with strong character and differentiated professional competencies to close the gaps and make differences.

Contemporary corporate boards play significant roles in guiding businesses in the right direction to achieve higher than expected business results consistently. The effective functioning of a board depends on a number of factors, including the mix of cognitive differences, knowledge and experience among the directors. Running a high-performance corporate board is not an overnight sensation, but a finely-planned journey and continuous improvement in setting the right risk-taking appetite, taking logical steps for practicing GRC disciplines proactively.

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Isntadvancementreacheable

Advancement implies-all sorts of qualities: accountability, discernment, value, autonomy, creativity, empathy, enlightenment.

Advancement is -

cool,

trendy,

elegant;

connects-

the mind;

touches-

the heart;

unfolds -

the future,

brightly;

unlock potential,

effortlessly…

Advancement reaches -

the next level,

when things are designed,

from functioning,

to firm,

to delight;

people are becoming -

intelligent,

innovative,

influential..

life is shifting-

from surviving to -

striving to thriving,

upwardly…

Advancement implies-

all sorts of -

qualities:

accountability,

discernment,

value,

autonomy

creativity,

empathy…

enlightenment.


Advancement becomes-

reachable

when we embrace-

difference,

inclusively;

think-

holistically;

look-

sophisticated;

understand -

each other,

empathetically;

inspire-

change

proactively

appreciate talent,

gratefully;

make-

Influence,

profoundly;

contributes to -

common good,

human progress,

collaboratively.

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Ingredientsin“Advancement”

 The more complex our world becomes, the more sophisticated mindset and the more complex skill-sets we need to practice varying professional works.

Organizations are faced with fierce competitions, constant disruptions. High level of professionalism is an important quality for today’s multigenerational, multicultural and multi-devicing workforce to produce high performance results and unleash their potentiality. 

It is a foundation to build a healthy workplace with an open atmosphere, growth mindsets, intellectual stimulation, culture of learning, and innovative leadership. Being professional means you present a high level of excellence & value, and essential character. A digital professional can be ripened to maturity by recognizing and cultivating the following “ADVANCE” ingredients.

Accountability: To produce great outcomes, professionals across industries should be accountable to themselves, to their company, or their conscience. As a leader, accountability is to be wise and brave enough to remove obstacles and change in time before the problem becomes overwhelming. Technically, shared accountability or collective accountability involves shared ownership, empathetic communication and frictionless collaboration. Accountability is teamwork, people are accountable for their own words, and their own commitments. True accountability focuses on learning, practicing, improving. Accountability can be harnessed by motivating your employees to achieve higher than expected results, and build a culture of learning, trust, and professionalism.

Discernment: Discernment means the ability to judge objectively, requiring the ability to be the witness in situations; observing deeply, using both perception ( experience or intuition) and research/analysis to make the best decision you could. Leaders and professionals need to continuously examine whether they have proficient knowledge and insightful understanding of the circumstances, situations, or people; make strong discernment and sound judgment, develop better sensing tools and then, to act from the greater dimension of knowledge, understanding, and awareness, bring wisdom to the workplace.

Value: Value is multifaceted nowadays, there is personal value, family value, customer value, shareholder’s value, professional ethic value, culture value, societal value, global value, etc. It’s critical to understand and unlock the total value of people - a total of what the employee brings to the organization and society, now and in the future via multi-dimensional lenses. The true value of an employee is demonstrated when the employee brings the advanced mindset, knowledge, skills, abilities and personal attitude that translates into expected performance outcomes. Business leaders have to dive deeper to see the hidden value of their people, look at all aspects of their individual traits, work ethic, influence, creativity, experience, ability, achievements and performance, and the hidden potential each employee has if given the opportunity to excel.

Autonomy: Autonomy rejuvenates authenticity, harnesses accountability, nurtures creativity. Accountability goes hand in hand with the delegation of authority or power. Let people take ownership, responsibility and keep focused to unleash their potential. Either individually or at the organizational setting, defining your true purpose is a helpful instrument to encourage self-reflection, self-assessment, and self-improvement, guide yourself, your team, your business, your relations along the other dimensions to inspire autonomy, enhance accountability and accelerate performance. High level of autonomy is the symbol of professional maturity.

Nonlinearity: Change is unavoidable and digital disruption is inevitable. The business world becomes complex due to "nonlinear" interaction and high level of uncertainty. Non-linear thinking emerges as a system thought process to handle changes and problem-solving in a structural and holistic way. When you have gone through the multidimensional analysis or synthesis processes, you practice nonlinear thinking, framing bigger thinking boxes, or working across the multiple boxes, to generate fresh ideas and solve problems systematically. Nonlinear understanding helps to see things from different angles and being inclusive to appreciate diverse viewpoints if ever they make sense, enable people to solve problems technically, philosophically, psychologically, sociologically, or simply put, holistically.

Creativity: Creativity is one of the most needed professional qualities to generate fresh ideas or capture fresh insight. Creativity process could be complex, but creativity is never for making things complicated, the opposite is actually true, creativity is to advance by simplifying things. To be creative, you must think or do something different. First, you need to embrace the unknown - thinking outside the box; second, you need to challenge the known -probe the paradoxes, blending different types of thinking processes to see things differently, and spur creativity. Creative people need a purpose to frame the right problems and solve them innovatively.

Empathy: Empathy means thinking through other people’s lenses, using the right language with the right people to gain mutual understanding and build trust. Empathy conveys the respect which is crucial in the binding of peer-to-peer relationship by connecting the minds; being non-judgmental, active listening and balancing between tolerance and respect to achieve that. It takes effort and we have to find our own words and our own way of saying them to become more persuasive in communication; empathetic for effective problem-solving. Empathy can be learned if we have an open mind and humble attitude, gain mutual understanding of each other, and present high-level Emotional Intelligence.

The more complex our world becomes, the more sophisticated mindset and the more complex skill-sets we need to practice varying professional works. Being professional means that the individual not only has the skill but also presents high-quality professionalism. Professionals with a fitting mindset, strong expertise and integrity, a unique set of skills to substantiate what they stand for, can reach the next level of professionalism.

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Isitinfluential

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

Due to the changing nature of technology, IT leadership roles also continue 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.

                    Is IT Influential

Is IT Reaching the Inflection Point of Digital Transformation Yet With disruptive digital technologies and fast growth of information, forward-thinking IT organizations are also speeding up for digital transformation, as well as becoming the change agent for the entire company. The emergence of potential opportunities for exploring digitization is likely to follow a nonlinear pattern with exponential speed, as the pervasiveness of an organization's digitization journey increases. So, is IT reaching the inflection point of digital transformation yet, and how to ensure it is in the right direction for improving its effectiveness, responsiveness and maturity?

Is IT 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 increasing speed of change and exponential growth of information, IT is like the business's digital engine, CIOs are accountable for a 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.

IT Transformation Debate: When Should IT Lead, When Should IT Follow More often than not, technology is the catalyst for driving business change and digital transformation, however, in most of the companies, IT is still perceived as an order taker and support function, and most IT organizations get stuck at the lower level of maturity for functional alignment or enabler. So IT is at a crossroad: Shall IT lead or follow? Should IT leadership rock the boat or just keep it afloat? And how to run digital IT at high speed and agility?

Is IT Organization 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, oftentimes, 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, a 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 an IT organization as a “Magic,” or a “trendsetter”?

IT Personalization: How to Run Digital IT with Differentiated Advantage IT is always at the center of change. The emergence of potential opportunities for exploiting digitization is likely to follow a nonlinear pattern at exponential speed, as the pervasiveness of an organization’s digitization journey increases. IT can no longer just “keep the lights on,” IT leaders need to think strategically and creatively about alternative solutions and ask themselves tough questions about how to personalize IT to gain differentiated business competency.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 7 million page views with 9300+ blog postings 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.

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Introduction

Chapter 1 Digital IT Leadership Q&A

Chapter 2 Digital IT Fitness Q&A


Chapter 3 Digital IT Innovation Paradox Q&As


Chapter 4 Digital IT Management Dilemmas

Chapter 5 Digital IT Potential Q&As

Chapter 6 Digital IT Priority Q&As

Chapter 7 IT-Business Gap Q&As

Chapter 8 Digital IT Performance Q&As

Chapter 9 IT Branding Q&As

Chapter 10: Digital IT Talent Management Q&As

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Initiatelevelsofleadership

Human society as an integral component of the natural world is dynamic, diverse, and keeps evolving, global leadership is complex because there are many variables in it.

We define most societies by shared patterns of beliefs, attitudes, and actions; and we live in a world where change is the norm with the very characteristics of hyper-diversity and interdependence. There’s no such universal formula to be an insightful leader with a high level of leadership maturity. What works for one region may not be as effective for the other. There is a delicate mix of multidimensional thinking, cross-domain expertise & experience, along with a lot of different attributes to improve world class leadership maturity. 

It’s crucial to keep learning agile, envision the future of the world, define the role you would like to play and how to accomplish it, at which scope, the level of responsibilities you've progressed to take, with the goal to amplify leadership influence and reach up the level of leadership maturity.

The level of understanding: Nowadays, knowledge is only a few clicks away, but sometimes misinformation or outdated concepts cause silo and confusion. It’s important to analyze and synthesize information, examine your thought processes and make sure you are open to true understanding, form your own opinion, and reach a high level of cognitive maturity. From content understanding to contextual insight, true understanding, it requires a person's ability to grasp or comprehend information, self-regulatory judgment, reasoned consideration to evidence, context, conceptualizations, etc. How deep your understanding is based on the mindset, logic, knowledge, lenses, and the methodology you leverage to interpret things, articulate your vision and be persuasive to accomplish the complex works and deepen leadership influence.

Profundity means being insightful and gaining holistic understanding of circumstances, taking step wise actions to solve difficult problems. if you only read the content without contextual intelligence, you are not profound; if you only capture the symptom, without digging through the root cause, you are not profound. Climbing Information-Knowledge-Intelligence-Insight-Wisdom pyramid is a thorny, but a necessary journey with all critical steps in deepening understanding and reaching the next level of profundity. Profundity is revealed via confidence, humility, and empathy accordingly. Be confident to share what you understand; be humble to be aware of and admit what you don't know, be empathetic to know others at the mindset level. Profundity is not for its own sake, but to be more persuasive or influential, to lead progressive changes collaboratively.

The level of innovation excellence: We live in the era with innovation, empathy and people centricity. Innovation is the process to transform novel ideas for getting multifaceted value. Being innovative is a state of mind, about thinking differently, solving problems in a better way. Innovation can happen from top down, bottom up, or middle out, and needs to become a “living process," with frequent evaluations, listening, and revision. Innovation, like most aspects of learning, is better started with small frequent improvements, then scale up, manage and sustain the widespread incremental innovation, as well as the rarer 'step-change' innovation in products/services/process, working methodology, business model. Breakthrough Innovation is disruptive and will change your organization in many fields. It has high potential to achieve high value, but also indicates high-risk. Beside “hard innovation,” there are soft innovations such as leadership, communication, culture, reinvention.

Moving up the level of innovation excellence means being innovative in what you think and being capable of producing innovative results. You have to systematically develop the integral capabilities to generate fresh ideas, prioritize and implement them successfully, and that is something you do not accomplish overnight, either individually or organizationally. There is a delicate balance of breaking down the overly rigid rules, processes, structures to experiment and tuning efficient processes for managing innovation. The broader the scope, scale, and impact of the innovation, the more one leans towards calling such innovation radical and sustainable. You are high mature innovator if you can keep thinking creatively and produce innovative outcomes consistently.

The level of global influence: We have moved from the industrial economy to the knowledge economy, now stepping into the hyper-connected and interdependent global economy. Global societies are complex and dynamic, global leaders and professionals are great in altitude, aptitude, and attitude for making a difference in the global world. They are open-minded to new concepts and ideas, not afraid to leverage contrarian views to shape a holistic picture, understand cognitive differences, reinforce the global characteristics such as inclusion, innovation, intelligence, present cultural intelligence to solve problems that have global impact.

At a broader scope, the intention of global leadership is to bridge the multitude of gaps from perception difference to priority preference. In a more volatile, uncertain, ambiguous and globally distributed world, it is important to gain interdisciplinary knowledge and strong cultural cognition, leverage global intellectual/social capital, clarify the common set of global value, enhance professional relationships with trust, and facilitate world-wide dialogues for harnessing cross disciplinary collaboration and innovation, leading global progress and making a better world. The level of global influence depends on the level of your knowledge fluency, fresh insight, variety of experience, unique competency, and physical/psychological resilience.

Human society as an integral component of the natural world is dynamic, diverse, and keeps evolving, global leadership is complex because there are many variables in it. The more complex the situation is and the world becomes, the more mature leaders are in demand to reach in-depth understanding, facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogues, bridge gaps and unify differences in leading transformative change smoothly.

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Initiategrcunderstanding

The flavor of GRC practices depends on the nature of the business and the level of the organizational maturity.

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.

The important characteristics of digitalization are over-complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Hence, GRC (governance, risk management, and compliance) becomes more critical than ever. Here's the context; how should GRC programs be approached? Should technology be a driver? Can you achieve any level of GRC without automation? Can you achieve any level of GRC without people? What is the real driver of GRC? Modern corporate boards play significant roles in guiding businesses in the right direction and achieve expected business results. Here are the multiple perspectives of shaping a strategic boardroom with digital acumen.

GRC Understanding

Initiatereputationconnectivity The dynamic business and global environment keeps throwing a new set of situations to deal with. The highly reputable organizations are held together by vision and inspiration rather than fear and control; by purpose and engagement rather than silo and distraction; by growth and learning rather than inertia and stagnation.

Innovationgovernanceaspects Governance is by definition a framework of principles, practices and indeed ethics; separate, different and outside the setting and subsequent control of business strategies, budgets, outcomes and metrics (in short, management discipline). Statistically, innovation management has a considerably low percentage of success rate and there are numerous learning curves and barriers on the way. Innovation has to deliver business objectives, but it needs the right kind of governance to thrive.

Initate Corporate Governance Clarity and Disciplines The business environment today becomes more dynamic and uncertain than ever, governance ensures business effectiveness by enforcing accountability and collaboration. The more diverse, the more regulated, the more geographically dispersed an organization is or becomes, the more important an integrated or federated governance discipline should be.

Insight Upon Governance Governance is to frame business management, it should orchestrate change, do it with trust and flexibility. It’s about how well an organization is being run and if set upright, it should effectively oversee the achievement of the business strategy. How to enforce organizational governance discipline depends on the nature, scale, and complexity of the organization, as well as understanding its risks and conduct. Governance is neither linear nor single dimensional nowadays, it should be understood via multidimensional lens and get enforced holistically.

Interwoven GRC Capability & Maturity The capability is the ability to achieve the desired effect under specified performance, standards, and conditions. There are multiple perspectives of organizational capabilities, and there are all sorts of capabilities. High mature capability can only be developed and sustained via strong governance discipline. There are a multitude of distinctions between corporate governance responsibilities and management responsibilities; such as governance structure, governance process, governance mechanisms, governance practices, and governance metrics, etc.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 7 million page views with 9300+ blog postings 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

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Initiatecreativeconnectivity

Creative people see further, observe underneath, perceive imaginably, connect dots intuitively.

Creative energy connects the dots and generates fresh ideas. A creative person is the one that offers others a different perspective to look at the world and reinvent the world. Creativity as the ability to work and produce, requires a certain degree of independence and mental balance, the proper psychological level of inner security and genuine self discovery, autonomy, and mastery. 

We are at the intersection of knowledge and creative economy. It demands the creative eye to look at things and discover innovative ways to handle problems smoothly.

Creativity & Critical thinking: Creative people think differently, solve problems unconventionally, judge the world for themselves, and they are skeptical of, but open with outside opinions. Creative people practice critical thinking, refuse to be limited by conventional thinking box, existing knowledge, common beliefs, define and create their own landscape that they live by in comparison to others who just accept or inherit their convention to live by.

Creativity and critical thinking are not opposite, but complementary, with some overlapping thought processes. In fact, critical thinking evolves a deep thinking process usually with creative thinking embedded. Creative thinking and critical thinking are two types of “out of the box” thinking to challenge outdated knowledge, traditions, rules, and bring up the new perspective for solving problems alternatively.

Creativity & connectivity:  Creativity is realized in the process of interaction with others and the world. Creative people always see the possibility in the world when most people only see the way that they have been told. Sometimes, creative people process so many connections that depend on unusual analogies and chains of thought that might be completely new to the world. They are learning agile, re-learn the updated knowledge for gaining insight on the changing circumstances, and to connect wider dots for sparking creativity all the time.

Creativity clicks at the intersection of the subconscious and conscious thinking. The crux of using our subconscious mind is to appreciate how different it is from our conscious mind. Sometimes, the subconscious mind seems to bring up the “Aha” moment to generate great ideas. But if creativity is the process of assembling previously disparate or unconnected ideas into a new whole, then it can only be a conscious act to do so.

Creativity & choices: Creativity is about thinking unconventionally, connecting wider dots, exploring unusual options. Knowing who you are, how you think, learn, react and respond to different situations can help you understand and improve the cognitive, relational and assertive actions you take on a day to day basis and spend more time on creative activities. Collectively, highly innovative organizations are people-centric, providing customers with choices, and delight them with personalized solutions.

The beauty of pursuing “unusual options” is about envisioning and enabling multiple paths to reach goals, select the products/services you prefer to work and enjoy life with personal styles, spur creativity and inspire innovation constantly. We are stronger through diversity, and become more creative through inclusiveness. Creativity allows us to perceive things via unusual angles, connect unusual dots, and explore abundant choices to do things.

Creativity is a flow, an abstract, an imagination, and an association. If we can live authentically, in a way that is true to ourselves, this in itself is creative. Creative people see further, observe underneath, perceive imaginably, connect dots intuitively to generate great ideas and capture fresh insight continually.

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Initiatecrossindustrialcollaboration

Global leaders and professionals develop many important skills such as learning agility, cross-boundary communication and collaboration, expand their horizon to look at problems holistically and solve them innovatively.

Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology, both horizontally and vertically. Digital becomes the very fabric of high performing business, being outside-in and customer-centric is the new mantra for forward-looking and high mature digital organizations today.

            

 Cross Industrial Collaboration

Initiatecrossindustrialcollaboration We live in a global society with enriched knowledge and cultural heritage, diversity of talent and beautiful landscapes. Digital organizations are inherently and intensely complicated with blurred territories, abundant information and frequent disruptions. Forward-looking companies are not just working within the industry, but expanding into adjacent territories, and permeating across industrial boundaries.

Initiatecrossboundaryleadership The world has been interwoven through the internet and the latest technologies, today’s workforce is multinational, multigenerational, multicultural, and multi-devicing. Leadership now becomes more open and trans-disciplinary, influential and innovative. Cross-boundary (cross-geographical, cross-industrial, cross-functional, cross-cultural) leadership is in demand to be able to facilitate and orchestrate the beauty of varieties, multifaceted values, enriched cultures, and gain a profound understanding of the business ecosystem to drive progressive changes synchronously.

Innovateviacollaboration Collaboration is at its essence, the intellectual harmony between humans. Nowadays, organizations become hyper-connected and interdependent. The functional, geographical, or industrial borders are blurred, collaboration happens in that space between people in relationships receptively and thoughtfully interacting with interest and caring for one another's needs and activities to unleash collective potential.

Initiatecrossboundarycommunication Now we are moving into the hyperconnected, interdependent digital era, business leaders shouldn’t continually practice “command & control” management style only; professionals can't just sit back, get stuck at the homogeneous team setting, and apply yesterday’s techniques to today's problems. Cross-silo or cross-divisional communication is crucial to bridge gaps and close blind spots in decision-making.

Innovateviacollaborator Human progress is achieved through three stages- dependent, independent, and interdependent. Thanks to emerging technologies and abundant information flow, the functional, geographical, or industrial borders are blurred, people are encouraged to break down silos, seek out help, brainstorm fresh ideas, and co-solve existing or emerging business problems collaboratively.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 7 million page views with about 9300+ blog postings 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.

Read More

Initiatelogicalargument

Logical arguments are indeed healthy and prove we are actively and proactively pursuing the truth.

The world is still full of arguments artistically, scientifically, economically, politically, and religiously. An argument with clarified logic underneath seeks to change a concept, perspectives, ideas, intended to persuade and provoke actions, with or without a final satisfying outcome! There are some logic underneath the augments. 

Critical thinking & reasoning: We all have a cognitive bias, it is no surprise to create the thinking gaps by imperfect people using imperfect processes via narrow lenses.  Argument is a communication style to voice out and debate with each other. If practicing critical thinking or creative thinking, a meaningful argument opens a new perspective; changing perspective will change your mind. One will show the high level of zeal and rigor of reasoning all around.

It is necessary most of the time, arguments are given for the sake of simply proving or leading to some valid conclusion based on facts and different logical angles. Logical argument intends to gain an in-depth understanding of certain topics. But some illogical arguments might bring unhealthy psychology, stifle progression. Whether individually or collectively, we need an opportunity to be able to really stand in our truth, to really speak for it, and have it witnessed. Eliminating biases or intentions of maligning or pulling down the other party, is vital to improve quality of argument.

Learning logic: It is important to create a trusted environment where we can openly share our thoughts without any fears and all statements are allowed. Argument is not just about winning, but about understanding, expressing, learning, and alternative problem-solving. Ineffective argumentation is in some way the result of the lack of sincerity of purpose, lack of clarity in communication, lack of openness towards viewpoints of others and the lack of humility in personality, lack of good intention to learn and grow.

Definitely, we can learn a lot from arguments, especially constructive arguments. It's about letting go of the "looking good" syndrome, there remains potential to learn very much, both of the opponent’s view and one’s own. Having arguments where you practice dissociating from your beliefs and your feelings about them are the ones that lead to learning, empathy, and self-awareness to reach the next level of knowledge proficiency.

Persuasive logic: ‘Persuasion' is a form of reasoning that some call a “planning argument” proposal (to do, accept, support something) by pointing out that doing so will have a consequence that should be accepted, adopted, aimed for. For example, arguments about a proposed plan or action, is a claim not about something as “it is,” but as the proponent feels ought to be, and wish to persuade themselves and others of this logically.

The persuasion aspect becomes quite legitimate in that people will try to get others to accept a proposal by showing how it will achieve OUGHT-consequences the others will also accept once these effects have been pointed out to them. Problems arise when this need and a process for dealing with it are not made mutually conscious and agreed on. It’s important to demonstrate emotional excellence to make arguments as a good communication tool to solve problems without generating more issues due to unsatisfied outcomes.

Logical arguments are indeed healthy and prove we are actively and proactively pursuing the truth. It is important to live by the principles of listening carefully, asking insightful questions, practicing critical thinking, and communicating honestly, caring for others, even when they disagree. The goals of argument focus on learning, understanding, reasoning, empathizing, and problem-solving.

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informationalgorithm

An algorithm is a procedure or formula for simulating or solving a problem.

Enterprises of the future are increasingly exhibiting the “VUCA” characteristics in various shades and intensity. Traditional business management is usually based on a linear logic which implies that the whole is equal to the sum of the parts; that generates silos, creates constraints, stifles information flow and creativity.

 Many believe we are in the digital era of the algorithm for analytics based problem-solving. Because nowadays running a successful digital business is based on information, the business ability to explore intangible assets such as information and knowledge has become far more decisive for running a real-time intelligent business with unique business advantage.

Information algorithm: Information is growing exponentially, a good algorithm needs to be developed through integrating knowledge-based data into analytic models simulation testing, implemented for improving problem-solving effectiveness. These algorithms require data and understanding the idiosyncrasies of these data is critical to model performance. Information quality directly impacts decision making quality. Understanding how to synthesize new predictors in a way that increases the predictive power of these data is critical to increasing model performance.

Even though people like to think they use objective information and explicit criteria for decisions, they often find out later there were unrecognized issues, hidden criteria and just estimates of the future, not objective facts. They made rational decisions based on what they knew and the beliefs they held at the time. Information-savvy business leaders and professionals should show humility to admit unknown factors, recognize the limitations of their expertise, so they can leverage the right tools and algorithms to do deep analysis, and partner with diverse experts to apply the analytical algorithms for improving problem-solving effectiveness.

Contextual algorithm: Understanding nonlinearity as the very characteristic of the digital organization and business ecosystem is crucial for decision coherence. Contextual algorithm is to leverage data analysis and contextual intelligence to generate formulas for solving complex problems effectively. Because you need to have a big picture thinking to understand the interconnectivity of the parts and the whole, also do analysis to understand past, present, and future contextually. It’s important to do data investigation or any attempt at understanding the business context. Diagnosis analysis helps you to learn from the past, discover patterns; capture insight; predictive analysis allows you to forecast future events with a certain degree of accuracy, prescriptive analysis helps to figure out some methodologies and practices for solving certain problems smoothly.

The context in and with the human experience provides data with meaning, which leads to enhanced insight. The application of nonlinear thinking has to do with complexity which comes in due to the very characteristics such as complexity, ambiguity, diversification, unpredictability, and increased flux working and impacting together. It’s a construct that involves the ability to recognize and diagnose the plethora of contextual variables inherent in the present circumstances, try to identify the parts of a system and how those parts are connected, look at things from different angles, evaluate the dynamic circumstances, decide and act, and identify potential unintended consequences of decisions and actions, then intentionally and intuitively adjust behaviors in order to exert influence in that context.

Learning algorithm: There are many different "deep learning" algorithms which would give different performance under many scenarios. Which algorithm is the one that you should trust? It has to be the one that has the most reliable prediction or performance. Unless you are generating a reasonable estimate of the confidence that one has in your predictions and it is fairly tight, you are probably playing the game with today's machine learning/predictive modeling. This is not science.

Data algorithms are indeed nice tools for data savvy business professionals. It aims to enhance human abilities to use more information without the limitations that the human mind might have, and it uses explicit criteria with an ability to calculate patterns from infrequent data that our brains may have missed. Either for learning, deciding, and problem-solving, a good algorithm needs to be developed through integrating knowledge-based data into analytic models simulation testing, implemented for problem-solving.

An algorithm is a model of the real world. It is a procedure or formula for simulating or solving a problem. The model depends on the nature/structure of the data of the questions that need to be answered. Also, you need to keep in mind that underlying these algorithms are models, models have their own assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses.

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Initiatereputationconnectivity

Always keep close monitoring of reputation management for transparency and analysis of potential long-term consequences, with ultimate goals to improve professionalism and run high performance business.

The dynamic business and global environment keeps throwing a new set of situations to deal with. The highly reputable organizations are held together by vision and inspiration rather than fear and control; by purpose and engagement rather than silo and distraction; by growth and learning rather than inertia and stagnation. 

The diverse, hyperconnected nature of the digital organization makes everything so transparent. The more regulated, the more geographically dispersed an organization is, the more important to manage business reputation in a consistent manner.

 

Corporate reputation and brand: Reputation management and brand protection become increasingly intertwined and crucial. The management needs to clarify what the brand stands for, what their reputation looks like, how the company wants its stakeholders to see and perceive the brand name and the connotation it wants its stakeholders to associate to, How to keep a consistent corporate reputation across the geographical or industrial boundaries. Can you take a set of primary activities through which the brand name gets communicated and the reputation gets established solidly.

A company's brand is one of its most invaluable assets, and like any asset, it is the responsibility of all peoples from top down to protect and nurture it. The strong business reputation and brand establishment are based on those interconnected elements from leadership and employees to process and technology. Individuals should be accountable to set a positive tone to communicate effectively, corporate managers need to become a strong reputation builder of their organization; the board directors should oversee corporate reputation as a critical soft asset to keep the business thriving for the long term.

Corporate reputation & culture: Corporate reputation and business culture are mutually reinforce with each other. An innovative culture nurtures a strong corporate brand and builds a long-lasting business reputation. Culture is collective mindset, attitude, and behavior. The corporate managers have to shift gears and mindsets to see the culture of an organization as a human organic system composed of uniquely diverse people who have much to offer to develop core competency of the business, continue improving & maintaining business reputation.

Growth mindsets sow the seed to respect self and others, build a strong reputation by getting an in-depth understanding of their brand in context - what's your brand reflecting to, the value, purpose, substance, and style. It’s critical to nurture a culture of accountability and respect, people are accountable to what they say and what they do. They take their own reputation, their organizational reputation seriously, They have intention to build a strong professional brand, and put effort into nurturing a great culture and building a strong corporate brand.

Corporate reputation and risk management: Reputational risk, customer perception, competitor reaction, financial markets responsiveness, etc, all have a risk factor which needs to be recognized, understood, and managed smoothly. The reputation risk goes beyond the post-risk processes of damage control and remedial steps involving corporate communication and public relations programs. We should realize that reputation risk starts with the “do's and don'ts” of a single person in a certain context and in a certain situation. Thus, it’s even more critical to predict, manage internal risks caused by silo, process friction, cultural or talent gaps, as well as economic, legal, political, social and human risks in the ecosystem environment to improve business resilience. 

You can't and won't be able to predict and manage every risk. It is important to make an objective assessment of overall risk management maturity, establish an effective risk, compliance and governance platform to identify vulnerability in the control, and determine the potential range of consequences ($, business interruption, litigation, reputation, etc.). By clarifying the nonlinear logic behind risk management, mapping and measuring complex interactions in real-time, the management can gain early warning with anticipatory awareness of possible negative impact on reputation management. They should shift mentality from “risk-avoidance” to “risk management” and risk intelligence, and take an integral approach to manage risk smoothly for maintaining a solid corporate reputation successfully.

Every staff has responsibility for their own reputation and corporate reputation; but sometimes reputation goes beyond their control. Either individually or in the corporate setting, a good reputation takes time to build. Always keep close monitoring of reputation management for transparency and analysis of potential long-term consequences, with ultimate goals to improve professionalism and run high performance business.

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Initiateinterdisciplinarycycle

The planning and implementation as iterative processes that balance each other can produce meaningful outcomes.

A digital strategy is cross-functional effort, multidisciplinary, multidimensional planning; it brings up new functions, roles, collaboration, demand for intuition and emergence, complementarities, philosophy, neutron sciences, and trans-disciplinary businesses. And digital strategy execution is not linear steps, but an iterative continuum.

Interdisciplinary Cycle of Strategy Execution

InitiatechangeviaAccelerating the Variety of Business Cycles Running digital organizations are all about information savvy, adaptation, people-centricity, high-performance, and speed. Business management often has to spin multiple plates and keep them synchronized. The more complex the situation is, the more different approaches and role gaming is needed to reach for effective pattern-finding behind the “VUCA” new normal and drive the organizational change effectively. Forward-looking companies across vertical sectors are at the inflection point of digital transformation, they need to accelerate the variety of business cycles for catalyzing innovations and accelerating business performance.

InitiateInterdisciplinarycycle In face of frequent disruptions, exponential growth of information, organizations across vertical industries need to constantly “push themselves” out of their comfort zone to improve business agility, keep reinventing themselves, and adapt to changing environments promptly. The more effortlessly you can guide, align, integrate, and optimize important business elements such as people, process, technology and culture, enforce the variety of business management cycles, the closer you can accelerate business performance, and lift the business up to the hyper-cycle of digital transformation.

Implementation Rapid change is the business new normal, there are many roadblocks on the way of strategic planning-implementation. Corporate leaders today should navigate through complexity, velocity, uncertainty or ambiguity in a dynamic business environment. The planning and implementation as iterative processes that balance each other can produce meaningful outcomes.

InterdisciplinaryManagement The business dynamic today is full of uncertainty, velocity, complexity, ambiguity, fierce competition, and continuous disruptions. The digital paradigm has many dimensions. It is like solving a jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces, easy to get lost. Thus, digital leaders and professionals need to develop critical thinking skills for making logical reasoning and practicing multidisciplinary management scenarios skillfully.

Initiatestrategyimplementation A good strategy helps the organization get a step closer to its vision, maintaining its core purpose, gaining a competitive advantage in the market to ensure all key/strategic stakeholders' expectations are balanced and met and improving long-term sustainability of the business. In specific, the strategy has to set out how the goal will be delivered: what levers need to be pulled internally and externally and what the impact will be on a whole raft of stakeholders such as customers, staff, suppliers, shareholders, etc?

The blog is a dynamic book flowing with your thoughts; growing through your dedication; sharing your knowledge; conveying your wisdom, and making an influence through touching the hearts and connecting minds across the globe. The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 7 million page views with about #9300 blog postings. 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.

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Innovationscorecard

Innovation management becomes more confident and accurately judges the upcoming curves and obstacles on the path.

Innovation has a considerably very low success rate because it’s risky and there is no “one size fits all” formula to do innovation. With a balanced scorecard, the management can become more confident and accurately judge the coming curves and obstacles on the path, facilitate information based communication, get into actions in a creative, positive and proactive way,

A “balanced” view of tradeoff variables: The scorecard contains a good mix of the outcome measure of long-term strategic value along with the operational progress in the mid or short term. It provides a balanced view of tradeoff, matching priorities and resources to ensure that management can see and agree on what has been done and what should be done next. A balanced scorecard is also the presentation of a mixture of financial and non-financial measures to a target value within a single concise report, helping the management understand results, setting metrics, fixing plans, and making decisions to improve innovation success rate.

An information-based story: The key variable in actively using a Balanced Scorecard is always the attitude and culture of the organizations, and leadership discipline. A balanced scorecard is very useful for facilitating discussions, telling a data based, persuasive, comprehensive, and powerful story about how well you implement innovation, sharing the important measurement data of all the relevant areas of innovation performance. The information or metrics supporting the story need to be reliable, get the management to sit down and connect cross-disciplinary innovation management dots to tell the full story with the business context.

A holistic picture on how to fix critical issues creatively and make a leap of innovation: A balanced scorecard approach defines the right set of measures which should cover all areas that contribute to business value creation, provides a holistic view of how smoothly you manage changes; how boldly you manage innovation, ensuring decision makers understand and making the overall strategic balance, setting the right priority, and focusing on fixing critical issues creatively. A balanced innovation scorecard provides a visualized view about how assets are being employed; how to cut cycle time, improve quality and develop innovative products and services, and also visualize the multifaceted business value that a corporation needs to realize.

Innovation management becomes more confident and accurately judges the upcoming curves and obstacles on the path. With the support of measurement and a well-designed scorecard, the management can clearly evaluate each stage of innovation, and point out clearly wherein the business gets the benefit of taking up the activities so far to form a stepping stone for catalyzing innovation and improving the innovation success rate significantly.

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