Project Management Newsletter
 
NEWSLETTERS
 

CIO.com updates, insights and advice on technology, management and your career.

 CIO BlackBerry News and Tips
 CIO Research and Analysis
 CIO Microsoft
 CIO Insider
 
 
 
LEADERSHIP
 
CIO Executive Programs
The Leader in Face-to-Face Education for Senior Executives

Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »

 
CIO Executive Council
A Peer-Advisory Service and Professional Association for CIOs

Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives

Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)

Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.

Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices

Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)

Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.

Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices

This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.

More / Register »

Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »



 
 
RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
 

IT Innovation Demands Discipline

"Embrace change" is one of those awful, managerially correct Hallmark aphorisms celebrated in corporate-speak PowerPoint propaganda. The Give Change a ...

 

November 15, 2006CIO

"Embrace change" is one of those awful, managerially correct Hallmark aphorisms celebrated in corporate-speak PowerPoint propaganda. The Give Change a Hug crowd swears that successful change management requires welcoming arms and open minds. They’re wrong. Skepticism is best practice.

Enterprise change hugging should be done with the same level of care as swimming with sharks or playing with porcupines: It’s going to hurt no matter what you do. Change management is pain management (see "The New Science of Change" at www.cio.com/091506). Tiny process nicks and subtle service cuts can lead to organizational inflammation and septic shock. But, hey, no pain, no gain, right?

IT’s accelerated innovation rate has spawned an enormous body of change management literature for CIOs. Almost all of it addresses how to turn change management into a reliable, robust and cost-effective process. Change is not an event. Change management—like pain management—is really process management, and change leadership is really process leadership. That’s true for people, systems and apps.

So where does successful process leadership come from? An IT Process Institute study provides compelling if counterintuitive insights that ring disturbingly true. Ordinarily, I dismiss self-reported IT shop surveys as self-serving drivel—for example, "Do you have a formal change management process?" "But of course…doesn’t everyone?" "Are you a good boy?" "Yes, Mommy." There’s good reason why so many CIOs view quasi-academic IT research with contempt.

This survey was different. Questions were ruthlessly specific and difficult to cheat on. Inconsistent or contradictory answers would quickly surface. This survey had baked-in, value-added skepticism. Moreover, the researchers had selected key performance metrics that would quickly separate the weasels from the winners. I bit.

The findings quantified distinctions between IT shops that live for the average and the few that take process leadership seriously. Elite IT performers weren’t just two or three times better than median performers—they were seven or eight times better. High performers—roughly 13 percent of the 98 sampled—contributed on average eight times more projects, four and a half times more applications and software, four and a half times more IT services, and seven times more business IT changes. They implemented 14 more changes with half the failure rate.

We can quibble over the specifics, but that misses the central point: There were undeniably huge performance differences between the top quartile and the quartiles below. Why? What were the essential ingredients for process leadership?

How the Elite Innovate

There was a simple, powerful and persuasive answer: foundational controls. That is, strict rules that clearly governed how change would be defined, monitored and thus led. Top-tier performers weren’t change embracers or innovation huggers. They identified and enforced "process commandments" that constrained wasteful behaviors while reinforcing productive discipline. The researchers had picked a unit of analysis illuminating the core process values of their surveyed firms.

 
 
Loading...
 
WHITE PAPERS

Adobe for Business Process Automation

Companies must be able to react to customer demands, competitive threats, and compliance requirements.
 

Increase Customer Satisfaction and Lower TCO

With Adobe® LiveCycle® Enterprise Suite (ES2) software, organizations can easily deploy intuitive user experiences.
 

Upgrading to VMware vSphere with vWire

Learn how vWire can help ensure the success of your upgrade from ESX 3.x to vSphere.
 

Using ERP To Gain Competitive Advantage in a Tough Economy

For midsize enterprises, now is the perfect time to invest in a significant IT expansion - despite the economic climate.
 

Powerful Software Solutions for Midsize Companies

Now, midsize firms and even start ups can benefit from Oracles Accelerate program, which is a fixed-scope/fixed-price approach that ultimately lowers your software costs and speeds time to value.
 

Oracle Business Brief

How can you sharpen your competitive edge? Read this white paper to learn how Oracle can help you.
 

WEBCASTS

Extending Client Refresh - 11 Steps to Maximize Savings

11 Steps to Maximize Savings
 

The Last Software You'll Ever Buy? The Platform Approach to Development

Torn between "buy" and "build"? There is a third option that can give you the custom fit of an in-house build and t...
 

Beyond Installing ITPM Software: How a global company reduced risk and successfully implemented ITPM

Hear directly from one of your peers who has reduced risk and successfully implemented ITPM in this Live Webcast. ...
 

Informatica 9: What it means for the CIO?

Hear from Informatica's CIO on how Informatica 9 will improve...
 

The Case for Data Protection for SMBs

Every business needs a data back-up and recovery strategy. Without it, a severe storm or power outage could result ...
 

Enterprise Capture: Your Onramp to Business Process Automation

Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Time: 11:00 AM PT/2:00 PM ET

Today more than ever companies are see...
 

Resource Alerts

Get instant email notifications by topic when white papers, webcasts, and case studies are added to our library.

 
FEATURED SPONSORS
 
 
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

Upgrading to VMware vSphere with vWire

IDC White Paper: CCM for IT Compliance and Risk Management

Tolly Group Lab Test Results: Cisco vs. ShoreTel

Enterprise Capture: Your Onramp to Business Process Automation

Focus Under Pressure: Why IT Governance Becomes Mission-Critical in a Down Economy

The Total Economic Impact of Network Security Intrusion Prevention

Seven Technologies for Advanced Mail Protection

How Consumerization of IT Will Make Your Business More Productive

Adobe® LiveCycle®solutions for intuitive user experience

Mind the Talent Gap: Global Survey on IT and HR trends and challenges

Seven Ways ITIL Can Help You in an Economic Downturn

Return on Information: Google Enterprise Search pays you back. Get the facts.

VMware. The source for Business Infrastructure Virtualization.

ShoreTel tells businesses to untangle from competitors' complexity and turn to its brilliantly simple UC solution

See how AT&T can help protect your network.

Streamline IT Costs. Boost Performance with WAN Optimization.

Build your 1st app FREE with Force.com

TDWI checklist helps define data readiness for analytics. Download report.

A Clear View Toward Virtualization

Virtualization Technology as a Business Solution

The rules of infrastructure management just changed.

A Clear View Toward Virtualization

Interactive Q&A helps you discover key ways to maximize IT assets.

Ready to virtualize tier one applications? Check your virtualization maturity.

Think you can't afford a Cisco Switch? Cisco Catalyst Switches are now more affordable.

Authentication as a Service by Forrester Research

Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the Tension Between Flexibility and Control

Build a Foundation for Unified Communications

Removing the Barriers to IT Governance: How On-Demand Software Changes the Game

Cloud Computing--What is its Potential Value for Your Company?

Seven Design Requirements for Web 2.0 Threat Protection

Learn about the growing threat of insider data theft.

Top to Bottom Performance Management Excellence at the City of Chicago

Architecting Business Intelligence Applications for Change: The Open Solution

Taking the Service Desk to the Next Level

Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the Tension Between Flexibility and Control

AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service. Expand on demand

Trend Micro ranked #1 against real-world malware. Read more.

Webinar: Jump-start your in-house e-discovery with Ringtail QuickCull from FTI Technology

Top Five CIO Challenges

Read the RSA report: Security for Business Innovation

64-page prescriptive guide to security, compliance, and IT operations.

Increase UPS efficiency without sacrificing protection.

eZine: A Roadmap to Reducing IT Complexity

Reduce risk, gain agility. See how Progress can help your business.

Virtualization Technology as a Business Solution

eZine: A Roadmap to Reducing IT Complexity

World-class trading technology solutions from NYSE Technologies.

If You're Paying for Telecom, You're Paying Too Much. Contact Asentinel Today.

Trade-In your old printer and save up to $1,000 plus free recycling!