Dateline: July 25, 2014
Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.
This week’s idea comes from Heller Search Associates guest blogger, Peter Waterhouse, Senior Marketing Executive at CA Technologies and co-author of a book on service management. Peter’s blog, A Digital World Calls for Counterintuitive CIOs, suggests that counterintuitive thinking is what is needed to move forward in today’s digital environment.
We live in a world full of counterintuitive thinking. He begins,
Not too long ago the act of renting a car without visiting the rental lot (a la Zipcar) would have been dismissed as silly, while the notion of a hitching a ride from your neighbor without calling a taxi would have only raised a cynical smile – certainly not the $258 million of VC funding netted by Uber last year, right?
…
The problem with counterintuitive is the disruption it causes. I’m not talking slightly annoying disruption in the ‘ignore and it’ll all go away technical category’, but rather, applications that operate in the business model ‘blind spot’, agile and powerful enough to drop a gear and overtake your own business.
I highly suggest reading this very insightful blog for all of his thoughtful ideas, but one was particularly thought provoking,
The traditional castle IT is dead, defunct and even derelict, so get over it. Mobile computing, social media and cloud is turning IT inside-out – but it’s not all Shadow IT doom and gloom. Rather than maintain the last bastion of control with rigid policies, spend time encouraging purposeful experimentation. That’s doesn’t just mean with department heads, but also with the geeky, dreadlocked guy sitting in the corner cubicle. Remember – resistance isn’t futile, it’s an opportunity.
What counterintuitive thinking can you bring to your IT department? How do you encourage purposeful experimentation?
That’s a WRAP! Have a fantastic weekend!
Speak Your Mind