Executive Advisory Program

Reading

Posted by: Jack Santos

It occurred to me that it has been a while since I blogged about some notable books that I've recently read.  So let me focus on 3.

"Accidental Billionaires" by   Ben Mezrich   . Quick read about the early days of "TheFacebook".  College meets entrepreneurship. I was particularly engaged because my son was an early pariah of Mark Zuckerberg - got banned because he used Facebook as a marketing tool for an election campaign.  Today that wouldn't be frowned upon;  BTW -  my son has been reinstated.

"The Future of Management"  by Gary Hamill.  Now about 3 years old, this is destined to be a classic. Me thinks Gary goes a bit overboard about the impact of social computing/crowd-sourcing/democratization...but his points are valid.  For anyone interested in management strategies - this is a must-read.

Finally, "The Opposite of Luck; Achieving IT Service Quality" by Chris Oleson, Mike Hagan, and Christophe DeMoss.  Scorecards, SLAs, OLAs, Goals Matrices, managing maintenance.  A pretty good primer on IT service best practices, comprehensive, lots of examples.  I have read a similar self-published manual on IT management from a good friend (Bill Davis - former CEO of Cabletron, called "The Foundation Guide - Management Tools for the Serious Executive").  Along with other, similar, books (Like "The First 90 Days", or "The CIO Handbook"), I found this manual to be detailed, and a good desktop reference for ITIL-like efforts.  Through the examples, it provides some really good insight into ways of addressing metrics and the day to day operation of an IT department. 

From amusing, to high level, to detailed...Happy reading!

Cognitive Dissonance

Posted by: Jack Santos

 I just finished reading “Management Rewired”, which purports to take recent brain science and explode management myths.  I’ll expand on my thoughts about that in another post, but suffice it to say it was worth the read – as much as I had issues with some of the examples (weak), and the minimal treatment of actual brain science implications.

But a recent incident certainly made me acutely aware of how complex our brain is, and almost cost me my life.

I was hurrying out of the Amsterdam central train station, and quickly glanced at the walk light across the street.  In plain sight was the red signal, and a number counting down.  Having seen this many times, my brain said “go – 10 seconds left!”.  I ran across the intersection in the remaining seconds of time  allotted….

…and was met by screeching tires, as a car abruptly pulled to a stop to this mad man crossing against  the green light!

No harm done, no rear end collisions, no actual bodily impact.  But a deep breath and “’what did I do wrong?” was in order.  Apparently, a countdown in Amsterdam means time left before you can walk across, and a countdown in the US means time left to walk across.  A situation in dire need of standards.  But what about the symbol?  I quickly assumed that the red symbol in Amsterdam was correct, and that the countdown in the US MUST be accompanied by a green symbol,

Twenty four hours later in Boston, I was in the same situation.  A street to cross, a countdown, and (surprisingly) a countdown accompanied by a red symbol!  So in both countries, the signals are the same, but mean completely opposite things (red symbol + seconds left before you can cross (EU), and red symbol + seconds left to complete a crossing (US)).

 No wonder I was confused.  This incident also shows how quickly we can convince ourselves that prior experience was not remembered correctly, and how our brain tries to correlate multiple experiences, creating a new reality.

The lessons for managing IT are obvious: data quality, standards, conventions, and the political and human limits around those efforts.  This little incident shows that the way our brains works is critical for management and for transformation, topics which Charles Jacobs goes into in “Management  Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn't Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science”.

A lesson I learned with little harm.  Fortunately, cars weren't coming from the right, like in London. Then it might had been worse…

What I learned during my blogging hiatus: observation #3

I am posting a series of short “What I learned during my blogging hiatus” pieces that maybe be thought provoking, and an indication of what is on my mind…

#3 : Summer reading will never be the same

Three books that I have been alternating between this summer:  The classic (and plodding) Kurzweil’s '”The Singularity is Near”, the intriguing and challenging “The Future Arrived Yesterday” by Michael Malone, and the “Tyranny of Dead Ideas” by Matt Miller, a tome that could be the bible for liberals in Washington.

Singularity…: must reading for the computer cognoscenti.  Not something done in one sitting, but a touchstone that can be read in slurps.  A book that is not only challenging in thought and word, but probably coming true as we speak.

The Future …: Malone should have stopped at describing his thesis, and saved the implementation for another book.  This is groundbreaking in terms of how he captures what is happening in most corporations (and which most are resisting through legacy inertia alone). A must read for technologists AND Human Resource types.  But take his attempt at a detail redesign of the modern corporation with a fair amount of skepticism.

Tyranny…: Recommended in a recent talk at our Catalyst conference by The CEO of Citrix (Mark Templeton).  I found Mark to be engaging and authentic.  His wholehearted endorsement of this book betrays a core that must make his peers at the country club want to revoke his membership (not unlike corporate reaction to FDR in the 30s).  This is the definitive guide to the Obama presidency, without political compromises.

The latter book was an experiment for me; I did it on the Kindle reader on the iPhone. 

Not only did I find the experience a plus over having a book in my hand, it was easily readable, even better than "paper pages” (shorter snippets that could be consumed at a sitting, and easily retrieved for picking up where I left off or rereading an idea), totally convenient -  pocket size and perfect for planes, park benches, home.  Since this was on the iPhone, it wasn’t the real Kindle (which I suspect, may provide an even better experience).  But it was good enough for me.  I may still use the physical book for the occasional fireside read, but I can easily see how most of my future reads will be on the handheld kindle-like device.  The only downside (for me) was the eBook pricing.  I found the price for eBooks to be outrageous, considering that there is no middle man, no physical distribution (paper, shipping, trucks, stores, inventory).  The cost of “Tyranny” rivaled (and often was worse than) the price of the book at the bookstore.  I think that will be the leverage – once there is a large base of eBook/kindle readers, competition will see pricing drop to app-store like levels – 99 cents and up.  I only hope that day comes sooner rather than later; IMHO that is the only factor preventing an eBook Tsunami.

Kindle/eBooks.  The new generation of e-reading has achieved singularity, arrived yesterday, and is killing a dead idea.

Reading List...

Posted by: Jack Santos

...and now a word from my reading list.  I am not totally boring…"Loving Frank" (about Frank Lloyd Wright’s love life) has been sharing reading time with "The Last Lecture", and "Mrs. Astor Regrets".   But I do read business books, too.

For me, when the words “IT alignment with business” come up, I need to stop the urge to throw the source out the window.  Often a consultant, sometimes a book. Like the chart on the right: simple alignment? NOT! Arrrggghh!

Occasionally a business book hits the shelves that stands out.  In February, it was “The Three Laws of Performance” by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan. By March my copy (sorry, no Kindle here) had its share of sticky notes, underlines, and highlights.  For a leader looking to change the organization, it’s a mix of old and new insight, and a quick read at first. Its advice extends far beyond the work world, based on some old fads:  Werner Erhard’s EST, and the “Forum” (now Landmark’s Forum). But don’t let that turn you off.

The laws are solid, the examples good, and the approach excellent.  It’s the kind of transformational thinking that we need in these economic times.  Best of all “alignment” is not in the text.

It's Official. The US is in a Recession.

Posted by Chris Howard

Moments ago, the NBER announced that the US has been in a recession since December 2007. No surprise, eh? Jack wrote tellingly about it way back then.I know that there are academic reasons to avoid sticking the R-label on the economy before it is time. But, there's value in labels.

Naming something, giving it a label, presents the opportunity for better control. This is well-known in cognitive psychology vis a vis behavioral issues. It is just as true when we collectively face obstacles. Naming the obstacle allows us to converge our efforts in overcoming it. The avoidance of a label only prolongs our ability to surmount difficulties, causing us to debate the merits of our positions and definitions. External affirmation of the recession should focus us on its resolution.

With the endless spin of news and opinion, coupled with the incessant shopping mantra of the holiday season, I needed to get regrounded. I pulled Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics" off the shelf and reread the opening pages. It's worth reminding ourselves that the economy exists as a framework for the effective use of finite (scarce) resources. If resources were infinite, there would be no need for an economy. Sowell writes:

"It apparently seemed strange somehow that there should be such a thing as scarcity and that this should imply a need for ... personal responsibility in spending. Yet nothing has been more pervasive in the history of the human race than scarcity and all the requirements for economizing that go with scarcity."

This recession — and its related detritus of collapsed companies — is part of a necessary harmonic motion, as painful as it has been and will be for months to come. Our collective denial of scarcity led us to overextension, and the economic engine is reeling us back in.

The recession is now named, we have been in it (along with our global partners) for a year, and it will eventually end. When it is proclaimed "over", our companies, relationships, resources, and opportunities will not look the same as they did prior to its beginning. They cannot. We need to be in the process of reimagining ourselves and our business models in preparation for a post-recession reality.