Saturday, December 9, 2017

The Monthly Digital CIO Spotlight: CIOs as Chief Improvement Officer Dec. 2017

Modern CIOs have many personas and face great challenges.

Modern CIOs have many personas and face great challenges. It is not sufficient to only keep the light on. Regardless of which industry or the nature of organization you are in, being a digital leader will need to master the art of creating unique, differentiating value from piles of commoditized technologies. What are the digital CIO’s next digital practices for leading changes and drive digital transformation effortlessly? Here is the monthly spotlight of the CIO as “Chief Improvement Officer.”
                   
 CIOs as Chief Improvement Officer
  • CIOs as “Chief Improvement Officer”: How to Apply Maslow’s Hierarchy to IT management? Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist, who stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising different tiers of human needs, at the bottom is the basic "surviving" needs to the middle tier for" belonging" to the top tier of "self-actualization." In fact, it is an invaluable theory not only for understanding and managing people with empathy but also for providing the insight to the multitude of management discipline. Nowadays, organizations rely more and more on technologies, IT organizations have more and more to offer, it also has a lot of obstacles to overcome for achieving the high level of business maturity. So, CIOs as “Chief Improvement Officer”: How to apply Maslow’s hierarchy in IT management
  • CIOs as “Chief Improvement Officer”: How to Run IT as the “Digital Energizer” of the Business?? Digital is about hyperconnectivity, change, fierce competition, and people-centricity. A digital business ecosystem is open, fluid, dynamic and energetic because the speed of change is exponentially increasing, and closer to reality is that 'change' is continuously happening in such a dynamic environment of a company. IT plays a crucial role in digital paradigm shift because IT can weave all important business factors into differentiated organizational competency, information is intangible and becomes the most precious business asset in digital businesses. Traditional IT organizations are often perceived as a cost center, money sucker, and change laggard, but modern digital IT organizations today can streamline digital flow, refine, energize, and innovate business to reach the high level of business maturity.

  • CIOs as “Chief Improvement Officer”: "Continual improvement" as the Digital IT mantra? CIOs as “Chief Improvement Officer” is one of the proper titles IT leaders need to play, and "Continual improvement" is the IT mantra in the digital era; there is never an "enough" to optimize IT operations and do more with innovation. Continuous improvement is by tweaks of things in the old fashion way to bring efficiency. But, even a very small improvement leveraging a new way of doing things, bringing an outside view, shifting the paradigm, to get digital ready.

  • CIOs, Are you the Fiercest Critic to Yourself?: Due to the disruptive nature of technology and exponential growth of information, the role of CIO has to be reinvented for adapting to changes and re-energized for leading digital transformation. Digital CIOs are not just tactical IT managers, they are strategic business executives and inspirational digital visionaries. To lead effectively, the CIO should have both self-awareness and digital awareness: Knowing who you are and how you react and respond to different situations can help you discover the true self, present authenticity, understand leadership substance, stimulate creativity, and build differentiated professional competency. It takes cognitive understanding, courage, and practice. CIOs: Are you the fiercest critic to yourself?

  • CIOs as "Chief Improvement Officer" What are Digital CIOs' Skill Matrix? Due to the disruptive nature of technology and overwhelming growth of information, the role of CIO has to be reinvented for adapting to changes and re-energized for harnessing innovation. Digital CIOs need to develop a broad set of skills beyond technology and have the differentiated competency and recombinant professional capabilities and skills to lead the organization up to the next level of the business maturity. Here is the digital CIO’s skill matrix.

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