November 30, 2008

Tellio’s InterWeb Notes 11/30/2008 (p.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Zotero Group at Diigo (weekly)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Tellio’s InterWeb Notes 11/30/2008 (a.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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November 29, 2008

The Age of Heretics


artkleiner.com

I am heretical and my doctoral work will be heretical.  But what does that mean?  Art Kleiner helps me figure this out below.

That was the beginning of the age of heretics. Slowly, tentatively,
and with a variety of sources, new ideas began to emerge. They were
simple ideas that ran against the grain of conventional management
wisdom–for example:

  • People
    are basically good at heart; they are fundamentally trustworthy. Only
    workplaces that give their members the chance to learn and add value
    through their work will succeed in the long run.
  • Aim for quality of work, and money will follow.
  • Industrial growth is not always desirable. Sometimes it can be destructive.
  • Predictions and forecasts are mechanistic substitutes for awareness, and substitutes for awareness lead to bad decisions.
  • There
    is no such thing as “just business, nothing personal.” Business is
    always personal, even if it isn’t supposed to be. And we are better off
    recognizing that.
  • Everything in business is connected to
    everything else. Business is a complex living system with many
    interconnections. No one can control the system; one can only learn to
    influence it.

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IT Leadership and Its Competencies


This description of a leader’s actions doesn’t necessarily reveal the leadership behaviors that allow some people to execute well while others have great difficulty. During the spring and summer of 2004, we conducted an informal survey of CIOs at a group of leading higher education institutions in order to build a list of those competencies needed to fulfill the leadership and management roles particular to university-based IT environments in the coming years. Through these conversations we identified 10 competencies that IT leaders need:

  • Strategic thinking from a systems perspective. The leader contributes to the organization’s development of a vision and priorities, anticipates the future, and builds scenarios based on explicit assumptions.
  • Shared leadership. The leader builds working relationships with co-workers and external parties, negotiates and handles problems without alienating people, obtains cooperation through influence, and delegates both responsibility and authority appropriately.
  • Communication and persuasion. The leader distills ideas into focused messages that inspire support or action from others and effectively communicates through presentations, recommendations, or writing. The leader uses appropriate interpersonal styles to guide and persuade individuals and groups.
  • Change management. The leader acts as a catalyst for the needed changes, develops plans, and follows through on change initiatives.
  • Decision making. The leader gathers and uses data and analysis to make decisions, including evaluating the long-term consequences, and makes decisions judged to be right for the university.
  • Financial and business acumen. The leader possesses financial savvy and demonstrates the ability to lead cost-efficient initiatives without sacrificing quality. He or she successfully leads projects and programs that produce favorable results (business and financial outcomes) and demonstrates understanding of the changing financial constructs supporting IT.
  • Working across the organization, developing strategic partnerships. The leader develops networks and alliances, collaborates across boundaries, and finds common ground with a wide range of stakeholders. He or she can maneuver through political situations effectively to get things done.
  • Managing complex projects. The leader maps and manages complex initiatives, continually adjusts plans and strategies based on new information, and identifies and coordinates appropriate resources to support objectives.
  • Building agreement. The leader recognizes different points of view, brings them out into the open, and builds on areas of agreement, exercising influence in ways that enhance the support needed to advance initiatives and building consensus when appropriate.
  • Self-knowledge. The leader knows his or her own personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and limits; seeks feedback; and gains insight from mistakes.

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