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Everyone is familiar with the joke where a parent or grandparent is baffled by a new piece of technology, only to have a child solve the problem with the press of a button. It’s a nice reversal of traditional roles when it comes to technological competency, but this extends much further than a few laughs. In an article for the Enterprisers Project, Kevin Casey explains how “reverse mentoring” may be something IT will implement moving …

There seems to be an odd stigma when it comes to being called a manager as opposed to a leader. The truth is both skill sets have their place. It takes time and effort to help mold an individual into someone who is at the front of the charge. In a post at his website, Art Petty explains how we can focus on developing managers as solid leaders from the very beginning. Leadership Development The …

Homer Simpson ran for Sanitation Commissioner on a platform of, “Can’t someone else do it?” and he won. People love not having to do stuff. But automation is not always as instantly sound in practice as in theory. In an article for InformationWeek, Mark Dickson outlines why the return on investment (ROI) on automation will be underwhelming if you are not careful. History Is the Best Teacher Dickson uses an unusual but powerful example to …

Armed with extensive analytics, and being mindful of the many biases that affect our perceptions, business leaders should be better equipped to make decisions than ever. However, business complexity has also increased such that decision-making accountability has become too messily dispersed. The final result is a tangle. In an article for McKinsey, Aaron De Smet, Gerald Lackey, and Leigh M. Weiss comprehensively address how to clean up decision-making processes in your business. Piercing the Impenetrable …

Governance is a buzzword that naturally sounds like something pretty relevant, maybe because it reminds us of government or of the verb to govern. However, many people would find it difficult to explain what governance is in practical terms. On an organisational level, most of us may see governance as a board of directors making difficult and strategic decisions aiming to make the business successful. That is not wrong, but governance also involves processes and …

IT needs speed, speed, speed. ITIL is associated with structure, structure, structure. But to think that ITIL plays no part in modern ITSM would be a grave mistake. In a post for ITSM.tools, Dan McCarthy offers a brighter, alternative perspective to gloomy ITIL outlooks. Solutions Abound In some organizations, ITIL has practically become a curse word, somehow becoming a comprehensive sponge for all of IT’s problems. And criticisms are swift. For instance, McCarthy finds ITIL …

You deal with stakeholders on a daily basis through a variety of means. Have you ever tried blogging at them though? The idea actually holds a lot of merit. In a post at the Project Risk Coach, Harry Hall discusses how you can set up a useful internal blog that engages stakeholders. For the Self-Centered Projects Hall has used internal blogs as a mode of “pull communication” with stakeholders when implementing enterprise programs such as …

Project management and change management are two different dimensions, but they coexist and are always intersecting. In fact, many people are expected to play a hand in proper change management these days. In a post for A Girl’s Guide to Project Management, Elizabeth Harrin discusses the role of change management in projects today. Change Permeates All Harrin explains that change management is largely embedded into other roles and processes these days, and distributing it in …

Stormy times are upon us, literally, but also perhaps in the life of your project. A project sponsor is supposed to be your umbrella in the storm, in addition to the flashlight and the blinking directional signs. When the sponsor stops acting in any of those functions, you can get wet and lost real quick. In a post at Project Bliss, Leigh Espy explains the many benefits of great project sponsors—and what happens when they …