Breaking Out Of The Box

Human behavior and organizational behavior have at least two major points in common. Both gravitate towards traveling in the same well-worn paths, favoring the feeling of safety that repetition brings over the feelings of anxiety and fear that often accompany change. A second point of commonality is that both humans and organizations can be steered in the wrong direction by subscribing too heavily into “groupthink” (described by psychologist Irving Janis as, “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.”).  Both behaviors can lead to flawed logic and / or incorrect underlying assumptions becoming institutionalized into our way of thinking.

Whether it is a result of groupthink or the result of resisting fresh thinking and new approaches, business strategies do suffer as a consequence of wrong-headed thinking.

The Role of the Internal versus the External Strategist

Can an external strategist be an asset to an established corporate strategic planning team?  There is clearly no substitute for the value provided by the internal strategist and the homegrown planning processes that fit the organization like an old well-worn baseball glove.  But can this value be enhanced by an outsider’s involvement? 

Technology Strategy: Mid-Year Checkup

Back in January 2010, we first published this article, dealing with top strategic goals for CIOs and technology leaders.  It is now mid-way through the year and time to revisit those goals and check our progress.  How's your progress?

Here is a re-post of the article.

Many IT executives consider 2009 to be the “lost year”.   Forward momentum slowed to a crawl where Information Technology (IT) spending was concerned. Businesses went into a holding pattern and focused on reducing overhead and hoping for flat growth in revenue at best. Enter 2010, a new year and decade full of exciting business opportunities for companies, but also coming with guarantees of fresh challenges for technology and business leaders alike. The CIO, now more than ever, must be focused on the revenue-producing activities of the business enterprise in order to add value and be viewed as a major producer within the organization. But what can we do as the CIO to stay one step ahead of the business and keep the CEO happy? This article discusses three goals CIOs should focus on during 2010.