3. 3
Table of Contents
Intended Audience.....................................................................................................................6
Requisite Knowledge..................................................................................................................6
Acknowledgments......................................................................................................................6
Foreword ..................................................................................................................................7
Loving Life in the Sea of Systems ...............................................................................................10
1. Pitfalls .................................................................................................................................12
1.2. Moving Forward = Slowing Down ....................................................................................14
1.3. Developing Sustainability in IT.........................................................................................14
1.4. Developing a Learning Culture in IT..................................................................................16
1.4.1. Learning From Mistakes ...........................................................................................17
1.4.2. Understanding the Greater Holistic View ...................................................................18
1.4.3. Recognizing Patterns Throughout Systems.................................................................18
1.5 A Brief Introduction to the Systems Paradigm in IT.............................................................19
1.5.1. Context – New Back-up System.................................................................................20
1.5.2 What Does Systems Thinking Tell Us About the Upgrade?............................................20
1.5.3 Fit for Purpose Back-up System..................................................................................21
1.5.4 The Unanticipated Effect of Demand..........................................................................21
1.5.5 Intrinsic Organizational Complexity ............................................................................23
1.5.6 Lesson Learned.........................................................................................................23
1.6 A Brief Introduction to the System Archetypes ..................................................................24
1.6.1 The System Archetypes of IT......................................................................................25
1.7 Balancing Process with Delay ...........................................................................................26
1.8 Shifting the Burden .........................................................................................................26
1.8.1 Lesson Learned.........................................................................................................28
1.9 Fixes that Fail..................................................................................................................29
1.9.1 Lesson Learned.........................................................................................................32
1.9 A Better Approach ..........................................................................................................32
1.9.1 Mapping out systemic influences ...............................................................................33
1.9.2 Inside-out → Outside-in ............................................................................................34
4. 4
1.10 The Importance of the Systems Paradigm in Innovation ...................................................35
1.11 Reflection.....................................................................................................................35
2. Innovation ...........................................................................................................................38
2.1. The Changing Role of Management .................................................................................40
2.2 Transforming IT by Enabling Innovation ― a Case Study.....................................................42
2.2.1. Context...................................................................................................................42
2.2.2. Innovative Potential.................................................................................................43
2.2.3. Enabling by Participative Initiatives ...........................................................................44
2.2.4. Expected & Unexpected Benefits ..............................................................................46
2.2.5. Lesson Learned........................................................................................................46
2.2.6. Systems Thinking Exercise ........................................................................................47
2.3. Developing the Innovative IT Management Style ..............................................................49
2.3.1. Time to Rethink Innovation.......................................................................................49
2.3.2. Innovation the New Power of the People...................................................................50
2.3.3. Are Your IT Managers Enabling Innovation? ...............................................................51
2.3.4. The New Objective for Innovative IT Managers...........................................................51
3. Leverage..............................................................................................................................53
3.1. Sustained Competitive Advantage ...................................................................................55
3.2. Proverbial Foot Shooting (Limits to Growth).....................................................................56
3.3. The Learning & Living IT Organization ..............................................................................57
3.3.1. Team Learning.........................................................................................................59
3.3.2. Shared Visions.........................................................................................................60
3.3.3. Mental Models ........................................................................................................60
3.3.4. Personal Mastery.....................................................................................................61
3.3.5. Systems Thinking .....................................................................................................62
3.4 Understanding IBM's Three Roles for CIO Success..............................................................63
3.4.1. Driving Technology Innovation to Make it Reality .......................................................64
3.4.2 Raising the ROI in IT ..................................................................................................64
3.4.3. Expanding the Business Impact of IT..........................................................................65
3.5. How to Tackle IT?...........................................................................................................66
3.5.1 Kick-off ....................................................................................................................67
3.5.2 Personal Mastery = Personal Choice...........................................................................67
3.5.3 Engage Shared Visions...............................................................................................67
3.5.4 Focus on Team Learning............................................................................................68
5. 5
3.5.5 Upgrade Mental Models............................................................................................68
3.5.6 Understanding Interconnectedness............................................................................68
4. Outcome Through Orchestration ...........................................................................................70
4.1. Bringing it all Together ...................................................................................................71
4.1.1. The Big Picture ........................................................................................................73
4.1.2. How to Use PDCA Effectively ....................................................................................74
4.2. Organizational Learning and Systems Thinking ― Foundation............................................75
4.3. Change-Platform ― Change ............................................................................................75
4.4. Participative Initiatives ― Focus ......................................................................................77
4.5. IBM's Three Roles ― Balance ..........................................................................................77
5. Phased Approach .................................................................................................................79
5.1. Phase One ― Increasing Business Focus...........................................................................80
5.1.1. Responsive Indicators ..............................................................................................81
5.1.2. Responsive Symptoms..............................................................................................81
5.1.3. Phase one Focus on IBM's Key Roles..........................................................................82
5.2. Phase Two ― Increasing IT Value.....................................................................................83
5.2.1. Aligned Indicators....................................................................................................83
5.2.2. Aligned Symptoms ...................................................................................................84
5.2.3. Phase two Focus on IBM's Key Roles..........................................................................84
5.3. Phase Three ― Increasing Innovation ..............................................................................85
5.3.1 Enabled Indicators ....................................................................................................85
5.3.2. Enabled Symptoms ..................................................................................................86
5.3.3. Phase three Focus on IBM's Key Roles .......................................................................86
6. Building our Ship ..................................................................................................................88
Index ......................................................................................................................................90
Useful Links .............................................................................................................................94
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§ We also institutionalize a way to mitigate the risk of a further
recurrence of the same mistakes throughout the IT organization
1.4.2. Understanding the Greater Holistic View
Understanding the holistic view within the wider frame of the greater
Business organization should always be paramount:
§ We understand the concept of de-fragmentation and de-duplication of
data, yet we seldom understand the concept of systems thinking in IT
§ Business organizations consist of a complex set of systems that are
ultimately designed to serve one purpose (to survive)
§ IT organizations usually consist of a complex set of services designed
to serve the purposes of individual Business systems
§ What has happened here is that we have intrinsically introduced
fragmentation into the approach of IT
§ This limits an IT organization's ability to serve the one purpose of the
Business
§ Until we can achieve a true systems thinking approach at all levels in
the IT organization we cannot serve the Business
1.4.3. Recognizing Patterns Throughout Systems
Recognizing patterns of events that recur within whole systems as opposed
to isolated individual episodes is fundamental in making real progress:
§ Decisions made in Business organizations often have far-reaching
consequences that we rarely understand in IT
§ Given that a Business organization is like a living ecosystem we should
realize that its interconnecting complexity cannot be simply
fragmented into individual Business systems, without possessing a
'complete' and whole understanding of how the ecosystem thrives
§ To be truly effective IT organizations must start to recognize the
patterns of events that take place throughout Business organizations
§ This goes hand in hand with slowing down and understanding systems
thinking
34. 34
§ Application strategy
§ Asset lifecycle plans
§ Business and IT strategies
§ Change, problem and incident
management history
§ Cloud computing and server
hosting
§ Datacenter strategy
§ Demand management
§ Facilities management
§ IT budget
§ License costs
§ Maintenance costs
§ Operations strategy
§ Outsourcing
§ Power consumption and
Green IT
§ Procurement policy
§ Project portfolio and
program management
§ Software as a Service (SaaS)
§ Technology roadmap
§ Vendor performance
management
It's not as simple as switching-off boxes or racks in the datacenter, it is a
complex decision with many variables and unknown factors that can
impact the end result.
1.9.2 Inside-out → Outside-in
When we are in the system of change it is sometimes very hard to take a
different perspective and all too easy to keeping forging ahead, absolutely
determined in our conviction to succeed. Sometimes however we simply
must take stock, and typically we look inwards, with the attitude 'right, let's
sort ourselves out'.
How many times have you heard people say 'we've got to fix ourselves first
before we start to fix the external environment'?
It's an honorable intention, but it isn't very likely, given the state we are in.
Remember: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose―we must look from
the outside-in.
The key we often forget when we are under-fire is to divorce ourselves
from the system and to examine it from the outside-in and from every
conceivable perspective and dimension.
It is the interconnectedness of the system that is paramount and often we
find the interfaces and relationships between the objects of the system and
the objects of other systems to cause us pain, not the system itself but
rather the way in which the system interacts with the sea of systems
around it and vice versa.
It is when we have a complete understanding of these interrelationships
and interactions, especially in the dimension of time, that we can say with
any degree of certainty we are making high-leverage interventions. Then
51. 51
2.3.3. Are Your IT Managers Enabling Innovation?
The questions we can ask IT leaders to determine whether they might have
innovative leadership potential and abilities may include the following
themes:
§ Ability to identify, acknowledge and use innovation regardless of where
it originates
§ Ability to mentor and coach people in developing their Innovations
§ Ability to unambiguously position the value of innovation within the
frame of achieving operational and strategic objectives
§ Ability to clearly position innovation in terms of strategic, customer,
and financial contributions (productivity)
§ Ability to identify and remove negative systemic influences and
organizational barriers that often prevent innovation
§ Ability to support risk taking and encouraging experimentation
throughout the organization, both in Business and IT units
§ Ethos of not using failure as a means to punish, but as a means to learn
as a whole organization
§ Ability to share and publicize creative and innovative endeavors
throughout the organization
§ Ability to openly reward and encourage innovation for instance by
inaugurating and holding an award ceremony
2.3.4. The New Objective for Innovative IT Managers
The new-age IT manager's goal in applying leverage to innovation should
be to embed and strengthen innovation within the organizational culture
itself, to institutionalize innovation by making it clear to the organization
that this is the attitude expected.
The culture-shift must be facilitated carefully at all levels
and especially systemically in order for innovation to
become reality and this is what makes an IT manager truly a
great leader in innovation