Effective technologists implement good technology; effective technology leaders enable others to do this. These are two very different roles. Most technology leaders usually start their careers as “line level” technologists. Over the course of my career, I have found three essential skills that technologists need to make this transition to become effective technology leaders…
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Tags: beckhard, carnegie, communication, Estimation, freakonomics, harris, Kawasaki, kotter, mcconnell, Motivation, Schein, truss, yager
Posted in Development, Leadership, Motivation | No Comments »
Before any organization can begin to actively manage risk, it must first change its culture to one that openly and freely discusses risk at all levels. This is not easy. It requires commitments from management and staff at all levels. However, it will pay off in many ways: higher trust, increased respect and better...
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Tags: Change Management, Force Field Analysis, Lewin, Risk, Roger Bacon, Veterans Affairs
Posted in Change Management, Leadership, Motivation, Program Management, Risk Management, Status & Reporting | No Comments »
In response to the explosion of use of social media over the past 12 months, many leaders are developing formal Social Media Polices to guide their staff in approved use of these tools inside the enterprise. By using bottom-up design principles, leaders can create Social Media Policies that productively encourage creativity—without risking their enterprise's...
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Tags: Collaboration, Creativity, Crowdsourcing, Dawkins, Design, Embryology, Mashup, Social Media Policy, Social Production, Wikification
Posted in Emerging Technologies, Leadership, Motivation, Social Media / Web 2.0 | No Comments »
This is the time of year when we are wrapping everything up, reflecting and celebrating. When you are doing this, remember one important thing: thank you teams (and their spouses and significant others) for all their work and support over the past 12 months...
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Posted in Leadership, Motivation, Responsibility | No Comments »
I have heard metrics that indicate that anywhere from 50% to 75% of all projects and programs are late or fail to meet their business objectives. However, I repeatedly see Program Dashboards that indicate that everything is “Green.” They key to avoiding this is picking Dashboard Metrics that create incentives for forward-looking behaviors that...
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Tags: Cost, Dashboard, Metrics, Resourcing, Schedule, Six Sigma
Posted in Due Diligence, Governance, Motivation, Portfolio Management, Program Management, Risk Management, Scope Management, Status & Reporting | No Comments »
So you have decided to create a Program Dashboard. The first thing you do is build a spreadsheet and start using it to collecting data. At the end of the month you brief your results to your executive team – and it falls flat. Why? Because you did not first look at your stakeholders...
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Tags: Dashboard, Stakeholder Analysis
Posted in Decision-making, Due Diligence, Governance, Motivation, Portfolio Management, Program Management | No Comments »
Online social media communities are living ecosystems. Unmanaged, they can evolve into something undesirable or simply die out. To avoid this, tend your community just like you would attend a garden. This will take just as much work as managing a successful garden but – when successful – will yield just as pleasing results…...
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Tags: American Express, AOL, Belly-off, Community, Ecosystem, Men's Health, National Dialog, OPEN Forum, White House
Posted in Emerging Technologies, Motivation, Social Media / Web 2.0 | No Comments »
We all have far too many accounts to maintain. We all know this. However, too many communities ask us to join YET ANOTHER NETWORK to participate. To be effective, communities should let me members be themselves, not just in how they express themselves but also in how they identify themselves...
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Tags: AIM, Altimeter, AOL, Authentication, Facebook Connect, Google, Groundswell, LinkedIn, Live ID, Open ID, Registration, Twitter, Yahoo
Posted in Emerging Technologies, Internet (1.0), Lead Gen & CRM, Managing Technology, Market Analysis, Motivation, Privacy, Security & Identity Management, Social Media / Web 2.0, Speed & Re-use, Systems Engineering & Integration | 3 Comments »