Archive for August, 2008

Outer-vation - How To Get Innovation From the Outside

Although it is very true that the best innovation comes from inside your organization, sometimes it is preferable to seek outside help from unusual sources.
Innovation is about doing things better. It’s also about challenging one-self and the status-quo we find ourselves in, and it can result in major step-change as well as continuous improvement. Organization’s [...]

Take the CIO Project and Portfolio Management Assessment

I found a tool offered by Computer Associates which gives CIOs the ability to assess their organization’s Project and Portfolio Management (PPM). CA says:

68% of IT organizations are underutilizing their project resources - how do you compare? Take this opportunity to gauge the maturity of your own IT organization’s Project and Portfolio Management process with [...]

Alternative non-IT Careers for Tech Workers

I’ve just seen an article on CIO.COM which suggests 24 alternative careers for IT professionals. The article is off the back of the belief in the disappearance of tech jobs from the US, but this is true of Canada and Western Europe also.
The article, written by Meredith Levinson, looks at the skills and experience of common IT vocations [...]

A Review of meetingwave.com

Meetingwave.com is a fast-growing networking site that aims to connect business people (predominantly) offline. It helps you arrange meetings in the flesh with people in the areas you’ll be visiting. I found this to be an interesting concept, so I thought I’d review the site for my readers.
This is not a paid review!
Meetingwave.com is an [...]

The Penetration of Enterprise Mindmapping Tools & Technology

Have you used mindmapping as a communication tool? Mindmapping is not new (in fact it has been used for centuries), but it is becoming increasingly popular in business as a tool for organizing thoughts and ideas for personal use and more increasingly in teams over the enterprise. What’s more, the output of mindmapping tools are [...]

Web Outages - What is Your Story?

Last week I wrote an article about the really embarrassing issue of not knowing when your website is down - particularly before your boss does. Does this still happen to you?
Have you got a story along these lines? And how did you solve it?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my [...]

Brilliant Basics: When Good People Become Bad Bosses

As soon as the word bad boss is mentioned most people start imagining pictures of a wicked person, a crook, a tyrant, a scheming backstabbing individual, a selfish ogre, etc. And typical textbook definitions of a bad boss is one who screams, threatens, intimidates, grabs credit, fires people, throttles people’s necks and so on. While [...]

How to Piss Off IT Professionals: Misalignment of Objectives

One of my more popular articles recently has been ‘12 Behaviors Most Disliked by IT Professionals ‘ in which I shared the 12 things IT professionals hated the most about their leaders. In this article, I will be addressing one of these - when the objectives of different leaders are misaligned.
If you enjoyed this [...]

UPDATE: How To Ask Questions to get Great Results

Only last week I wrote that asking questions is one of the most powerful leadership tools there is. Since then I’ve connected with an aspiring IT Manager and Author, Thejendra BS. Thejendra is based out of Bangalore, India. Thejendra wrote a great article that compliments my recent post - so I am sharing it with you.
“HOW TO ASK [...]

Money Isn’t Everything, According to IT Professionals (who responded)

I’ve just read an excellent article, written by Ann All, on the IT Business Edge website that discusses the working environment that IT professionals prefer to work in.
What I like about it is Ann’s honest view about the conclusion that IT people like to work in a positive, challenging environment. I’m pleased that IT people see [...]