Leadership

Why Most Organizations Have Weak Visions

We do a lot of strategy work with organizations big and small. It is very curious to me that few organizations create strong vision statements. A powerful vision statement clarifies management’s aspirations. It sets broad direction and inspires people to go beyond…

Why the CIO Should Heed Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits

Steven Covey, author of the highly acclaimed management book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” passed away recently. I’m dedicating a post to him because his book and teachings were memorable during my early management training and his simple, but profound…

My New Adventure

Last week, I accepted a 2 year contract as the Director of Information Technology at the American University of Sharjah in the Emirate of Sharjah  in the United Arab Emirates.  Sharjah is one of seven emirates that are federated together to form the United…

5 Steps to Brighten Shadow IT

With the popularity of public cloud offerings, BYOD and personal productivity apps, rogue technology acquisitions (at least from IT’s perspective) are more pervasive than ever, creating a new focus on “Shadow IT.” Our 2012 Digital IQ study of 489 executives found that…

Should the CIO Ban Email?

I was at a conference last week where I heard about a CIO who is banning email. Looks like we’re not finished having a conversation about how email is hampering employee productivity. What tools and techniques can CIOs employ to improve enterprise…

THE FIVE “Vs” OF LEADERSHIP

There are lots of models around describing leadership characteristics and roles. Here is one I have been using for a number of years to introduce the role of the leader. While not a complete model, it does get across some of the…

Positioning an Enterprise Architect for Success

As I found in our Enterprise Architecture team in Microsoft, each time an Enterprise Architect is assigned to a specific area of the business, each one has a unique “engagement” with their stakeholders.  In very large organizations (like mine), there may be…

Conversational Antipatterns on Message Boards

Architects argue.  I have, over the past year, spent a good bit of time on LinkedIn Message boards.  I’ve watched a lot of people argue.  I’ve learned a great deal about Enterprise Architecture, and a few things about myself, as I’ve compared…

Six Attributes of a Powerful Business Architecture Practice

Business architecture is still new enough that highly successful practices are difficult to find. Most organizations are struggling to get off the ground and gain traction. However, we can learn a lot from the currently successful trail blazers. Powerful business architecture practices…

Shhh…. I’m talking, listen to me!

I just want to be heard. And, OK, maybe understood a little. Agreeing with me would be nice too, but honestly, most of the time I would be content with just being understood. And isn’t that what we all want – to…

Wicked Problems

In last week’s post ,The problem With Problems, I presented a framework for defining and solving problems. I described how symptoms are often presented as problems, how the immediate situation exacerbates the problem, and how the context provides fuel to keep the…
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