Author Archives: cmartial

The biggest challenge an organisation will face is: It’s own success!

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Sometimes I go back to listen to Simon Sinek. Remarkable.

Here he analyses the split. Meaning the moment when old timers say “It is not like it used to be” or “When the company is focusing more on what the competition is doing and worrying less on what they are doing” or “When they start to ask outsiders: Who should we be?“.

It is what happened at Apple, Starbucks, etc… and now to USA.

“In the 1980, we started to see something that we had never seen before: companies using people to balance the books”…”People to make numbers work“…

“I actually saw a Bank advertising that you could talk to a person” and when “I reached the highest status on my miles program with my airlines, they offered me a phone that I could talk to a person”.
“Since when a person is a luxury?”

Did I tease you well enough? Watch!:
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What Do IT Specialists Know about Managing Change?

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There used to be a discussion going on about ICT and change management.
Some say that change management is a truism when it is linked to technology. Some says that it is key. The “truism-er” is convinced that if the technology works, the change management is unnecessary. Some say that change management is key in whatever situation.

Of course, if technology fails, then the project has failed… change management is out. But, in reality, to which extend change management is known by ICT professional?

There is one document (ref below) that analysis this issue. I read it for you!
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“If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business!”

Simon Sinek is pretty much on vogue. No wonder why.
It feels great, yes it feels great to hear this. This will to humanize what we have been taking years to robotize.

Ourselves.

This talk is about you, your company and society at large. But not every society, not every company, not everyone…

In a world that is more and more complicated to a point where it is actually becoming complex, we need to have a sort of higher I or a WE that is not just a sum of every I… To achieve that, we should get back to basics: try to do something or collaborate (-but really-) with your colleagues, help your friend or relatives.
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How to give a useful feedback?

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Have you ever received a feedback such as you simply don’t understand what to do with it? Never…? Me neither!

See some samples:

– You need to delegate more!
– I’d like you to be more committed
– You are not strategic enough
– I heard that it was said that you…
– … you list them!

This evaluates, interprets, judges … but does not describe the actual behavior to improve!!!

Cc Smashing magazine

Cc Smashing magazine


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IT and productivity gap

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IT does help to bridge the gap. Of course!

You remember the article that went like: “IT Doesn’t matter (Click)“. Published in May 2003 in the HBR.

The point in that article was simple: If your IT does not provide an edge that your rivals miss, then you are not taking any competitive advantage over that rival. Today every company has email, data storage, networks, etc… Therefore, IT, in the article was compared to electricity, you need it, but it is only a cost for a commodity.

There was something important missing there: Electricity is not evolving, I mean 220V are 220V! IT wise: what was true in 2003 turned obsolete few years later. The point is to be able to adapt and jump onto the right new technology! Electricity is ubiquitous, IT is not. I have never seen a company not having an IT bottleneck somewhere; that situation where the company’s digital organisation is simply below expectation.

As this article suggests Read More →

Leading – Trust – Management

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I was writing about Leadership here (Click). While I still agree about the word cloud (Scottish humor included!), a much simpler definition came through Simon Sinek: “A leader has followers {periode}”. And that is simply true, all the rest is management!
Watch:

Great leader can be really bad at management! And the way round of course is also true, these are simply different things.

So what about trust then? Read More →

Edward Snowden & the NSA @ TED

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We are having a long debate with some colleagues about Edward Snowden: Hero or Zero? No in between choice, a sort of binary attitude! Of course, it is not that simple, but it is sometimes good to choose side… What do you think?
We did not reach an agreement, and in the end of the day, it only shows the level of people’s trust in the institutions at large.
Listen to him:


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