I’ve seen this one. This is a classic.

Marty McFly: I’ve seen this one. This is a classic. This is where Ralph dresses up as a man from space.

Milton Baines: What do you mean, you’ve seen this? It’s brand new.

Marty: Yeah, well, I saw it on a… rerun.

Milton: What’s a rerun?

Marty: You’ll find out.

—  Back to the Future

Every now and then it’s interesting to look back, and on this, the occasion of my 25th post to CIO.com, I looked back at the past 15 months or so and came up with a handful of groupings of my posts. I reread them and thought they formed a nice reflection point on my blogging journey.

Leadership

I talked about the elements of succeeding by making hard things look easy but said that the activities that got you to the CIO role will not keep you there. I commented on the kind of leader you want to be and how all IT people are business people.

Staying current

I gave some hints about how I keep up to date on the world as a whole and on IT trends specifically.

Interviewing tips and techniques

Many of us interview people fairly regularly, and I gave my perspective on interview questions and on critical behavior interviewing.

Managing end-user — i.e., rogue — IT

I suggested that end-user IT is not the issue, the IT organization that does not react to it is, and that you are fighting a losing battle if you try to resist. Then I offered advice on how to figure out what users really need and how to help your team help them.

Communicating effectively

I commented that listening to your users matters and that IT jargon can get in the way of understanding. I put forward the idea that sometimes there’s no substitute for seeing someone in person and took a tongue-in-cheek view of IT jargon itself.

Saying thank you

Finally, it is always good to say thank you to those who have helped you.

Thank you all who have read the last 24 posts! I hope you enjoyed this rerun.