Books, blogs and research about technology and leadership The Innovator’s DNA Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators By Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen Book Christensen, author of the 2003 bestseller The Innovator’s Dilemma, returns to the topic with this follow-up. This time, he and co-authors examine how individuals, not companies, come up with successful innovations. He finds that the skills required to generate ideas can be learned, and identifies five behaviors that allow this creativity. Among them, carefully observing others’ behavior, and drawing connections between seemingly unrelated problems. Harvard Business Review Press, $29.95 The 11 Secrets of Highly Influential IT Leaders The Critical Path to Accessing and Succeeding in the Executive SuiteBy Marc J. Schiller Book After all these years of struggling for recognition, Schiller points out, many CIOs still don’t feel like other executives are really listening to them. To help change that, he lays out a road map for getting your ideas heard and your opinions respected. He gives tips on how to build credibility, then advice on how to avoid some common communication pitfalls, and finally strategies for how to share your vision and get the company to act on it. The book also comes with a pointer to an online influence assessment test, to help you see how well you’re doing and learn what your strengths are. Rain Partners, $49 Social Media Analytics Effective Tools for Building, Interpreting, and Using Metrics By Marshall Sponder Book Your company can’t afford to ignore what people are saying about it on social media, but the marketing department can’t do anything with all that data without IT’s help. To help you make this partnership effective, Sponder shows you how to figure out which services and individuals to pay attention to, how to pull out the relevant information, and what kind of analytics to apply to get your desired result. McGraw-Hill, $35 Defend Your Research: What Makes a Team Smarter? More WomenBy Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone Research Professors Woolley and Malone (of Carnegie Mellon and MIT, respectively) found that when people are sorted into groups by IQ and asked to perform certain tasks, putting smarter people in the groups didn’t make as big a difference as ensuring the groups included women. This research report, published online by the Harvard Business Review, theorizes that since women tend to be more socially sensitive than men, perhaps women are ensuring everyone’s ideas get heard, which maximizes the benefits of working as a group rather than individually. And, they add, the more women in the group, the more pronounced the effect. http://bit.ly/ltm8KV The Two-Second AdvantageHow We Succeed by Anticipating the Future—Just Enough By Vivek Ranadivé and Kevin Maney Book It will come as no surprise to you that data, when properly processed, provides a huge competitive advantage. This book breaks down how people and technology process information to figure out what will be the exact right thing to do a second from now and execute in time to take full advantage of the moment. Crown Business, $25 Related content brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks When your AI chatbots mess up AI ‘hallucinations’ present significant business risks, but new types of guardrails can keep them from doing serious damage By Paul Gillin Dec 08, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by Dell New research: How IT leaders drive business benefits by accelerating device refresh strategies Security leaders have particular concerns that older devices are more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. By Laura McEwan Dec 08, 2023 3 mins Infrastructure Management case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Generative AI ICT Partners feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe