We’ve had it wrong all along. It’s not social media, but “media, social”. What we consume is media first, social second. We still consume news, facts, tips, advice, marketing, videos and other media primarily but as a benefit, we now get a social aspect as well. Therefore, it’s Media, Social and not Social Media.

It’s Not About What People Had for Lunch

I still laugh when I hear someone suggest that Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms are all about personal “stuff”. My favorite is, “I don’t want to know what people are eating for lunch.”

Sure, there are people with too much time on their hands, sharing useless information. I can’t tell you how many there are though, because I don’t follow them. You probably should not follow them neither.

Consuming the Same Media with a Social Attribute

As I wrote almost 2 years ago, “social media” now makes the the computer one of the most personable mediums ever.  Ironically, this technology that was once bashed for depersonalizing the office, can now be hailed as one of the best methods to be more personal with stakeholders.

The same media, content, message, marketing or other communications you received before are now personalized, targeted, specific and therefore more relevant.

How You Use It Governs Your Perception

You’re right, social media can be useless at the office. However, have you tried Media, Social?

Before Online Reviews

In the old days, selling your product or service consisted of developing the item, selecting a market and screaming your message as loud and often as you could. Whether your message traveled on TV, Print or Radio, the model was consistent – a one-way message.

There was no real discussion or sharing of that information or individual experiences among consumers. Sure, word of mouth existed, but it was still one consumer to one consumer. There was no mass-channel. That has all changed. Welcome to the world of mass dialog.

Mass Dialog

Through online reviews, sentiments about you and your company are shared, substantiated and escalated. This happens at lightening-fast speeds. Releasing a new product that has a flaw? One user posts it, then overnight 100 others see it and many comment on it. The comment traffic escalates the page ranking on Google. Now, anyone who searches for your product online is immediately presented with your marketing page and the feedback by 100 users about this flaw.

In the old world, that one person would have called your support center, explained the problem and likely been satisfied with your response. You controlled the message and, to some extent, the consumer experience. End of story. In the new world the man behind the curtain is exposed for the world to see – ugly boxers, beer belly and all.

Will You Engage?

With this negative potential, why would you want customer reviews? Because this conversation will happen with or without you. If the feedback is not on your own website, it will be in other public forums. The only question is this: will you engage in the dialog? If you don’t, the result will not be positive. That much is guaranteed. If you do participate in the mass dialog, you have the ability to:

1. Learn and grow – improving your products and services.
2. Listen and hear – understanding your consumers better than ever before.
3. Respond and react – showing your consumers you care and choose to support them.
4. Inform and influence – educating your consumers and driving a more positive message.

Good News for Quality Products and Services

I hope you have a quality product. I hope you desire candor and transparency in your consumer messaging. If so, the new world is a great place to be. If not, your days are limited.

Those with the best products and services, supported by candid, transparent and consistent communication will benefit. After all, isn’t this the best way to serve your stakeholders anyway?

Question: How have customer reviews influenced your consumer behavior?

We all have a growing number of accounts, websites and other security measures which require an endless number of passwords. However, a primary rule of good password practices is to never use the same password twice. Another standard password practice is to reset your passwords every 30, 60 or 90 days. So how in the world do you keep all those passwords straight?

I learned some great tips over the years that helped me remember my passwords and when to change them. More important, I learned a way to make password changes creative and actually enjoyable. Here are some of my favorite tips:

1. Objectives as Passwords

Make your password relevant. Make each password a personal objective to remind and inspire you at each sign in. It is important this objective is not something an external party could guess (such as an objective you state publicly). Here are some sample objectives:

- Weight loss goal
- Debt reduction target
- Someone you want to build a strong relationship with
- A project you want to launch
- Sales goal for the quarter

2. Include the Time

3. Substitute Numbers for Letters

4. Rotate on Key Dates

5. Group According to Risk Exposure

Examples

January 2011 could not pass without sharing my appreciation for these Tweeters. The list below are the top 5 Twitter accounts for servant leadership content in 2010. I’ve gained a lot from these sources and recommend them to anyone interested in new content and ideas for the only real form of leadership. You can follow these and many servant leadership practitioners, in my Twitter Servant Leadership List.

5. Kelvin Redd (@KelvinRedd)

Twitter Bio: Author, Speaker, Servant Leadership Consultant and Certified Emergenetics Associate
http://www.iLead2Serve.com

Kelvin is the Director of the Center for Servant Leadership at the Pastoral Institute in Columbus, Georgia. He is the author of the book “Stand Tall: Essays on Life and Servant Leadership.” Kelvin’s Twitter posts include content from his personal blog as well as updates on Servant Leadership from the Pastoral Institute and Greenleaf Centers.

4. The Greenleaf Center (@GreenleafCenter)

Twitter Bio: The Greenleaf Center promotes the awareness, understanding, and practice of servant leadership by individuals and organizations. www.greenleaf.org
http://greenleaf.org

The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership and is the non-profit named after the man who coined the term, “servant leadership”. The updates from their Twitter account include news from the organization and servant leadership updates in general. For the latest on events, publishing and the center’s other activities, follow this account.

3. Ken Blanchard (@KenBlanchard)

Twitter Bio: Speaker, Business Guru, and Author of over 50 books, including The One Minute Manager.

http://www.kenblanchard.com

Dr. Ken Blanchard is the cofounder and Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, an international management training and consulting firm. Blanchard is also the author of many great leadership books, including “The One Minute Manager” and “The Servant Leader“. His Twitter posts span a variety of servant leadership, spiritual and motivational topics.

2. JT Jackson (@ServantTweeter)

Twitter Bio: Servant First, Leader Always; Life Coach; Inspirational Speaker; Good Guy

Mr. Jackson is an excellent example of a servant leadership proponent who practices what he preaches. He wins the award for the most creative leadership Twitter name (ServantTweeter) and introduced me to a key phrase I’ve referenced many times – “Serve first, serve always.” The updates from his Twitter stream encompass a variety of servant leadership topics, good management practices and motivational topics.

1. Dr. Jack King (@DrJackKing)

Twitter Bio: We are put in this world not to be better than the next man but rather help him be better than he was when we met. HS Dad (4 little ladies). Love is the answer.
http://www.NorthForkCSL.org

Where to begin? Dr. King is a great proponent of servant leadership and the founder of the NorthFork Center for Servant Leadership (link above). In his work at the center, King established Servant Hearts Thursdays - a program of guest blog posts from servant leadership proponents in different circles. Specific to Twitter though, he is a regular re-tweeter of great content from many sources. He’s also famous for his positive rants – when he gets something on his mind, you will receive a great flow of quotes, links and original insights into a given topic, such as motivation, selflessness and love. Thank you, Jack, for all you contribute to servant leadership awareness and adoption through Twitter.

My thanks to all of you for your great many contributions!

Question: Is there anyone you would add to this list?

In our increasingly technical workplace, it seems we fail to carry over basic principles from the industrial era. Although our tools evolve, the quality of our tools, the capacity of these tools and maintenance of the equipment still impact the morale and effectiveness of our teams. As a leader in your organization, are you ensuring your employees have the tools and support they need to be effective?

Equipment Quality

If you ran a machine shop, would you give the operators dull blades, slow machines or poor lighting? Of course not. Doing this would result in unhappy employees, decreased output and higher overall costs. Then why do so many companies run outdated software on older, slower machines? You may have a top performer who is limited by their equipment. It’s like putting a lawnmower engine in a Porsche.

Workspace

If you ran an engineering company, would you limit your drafting tables to 15 inches wide? Doubtful. Your architects would be incredibly frustrated by the confined space within which to review large drawings. Therefore, why do so many companies still only offer 15″ screens or even a single monitor, rather than dual screens? Desktop space is desktop space, be it physical or virtual. The more you have, the easier it is to do your job. The cost for virtual desk space is even less than the physical desk space when you account for installation and maintenance.

Technical Support

Finally, if you ran a transportation business, would you contract all your maintenance work to a service provider several hours away who does not understand your equipment? Then why do so many companies outsource IT support to the lowest cost provider, without any value placed on performance or service levels? When your employees encounter problems with equipment, performance is impacted.

As a leader in your organization, don’t forget the lessons we learned from the industrial era. The right tools and support for your employees can make all the difference. As most organizations downsize and outsource the implementation and support of critical tools for their teams, you can differentiate by ensuring your teams have the tools they need to be effective. Don’t mistake all changes or outsourcing as bad. Instead, ensure your team has the right support from whomever your providers are. Conditions like Service Level Agreements (consider guaranteed response and resolution times) may cost a bit more. However, employees getting better tools and quicker resolutions of problems will be happier, more effective, save you money in the long-run and deliver greater results.

Question: How does technology impact your morale and effectiveness? What other tips do you have?

October is Cyber Security Month and a great opportunity for organizational leaders to educate the company on, promote implementation of and demonstrate their commitment to computer security. I can tell you from experience, this is an incredibly important topic for all organizations in the 21st century. Here are some ideas on how you can, in October or anytime, help promote best practices in information technology security.

Educate

Most serious data theft incidents are executed not by criminals with excellent programming skills, but by individuals convincing employees to offer up their passwords or by finding account information in the trash, on post-it notes or through similar, “low-tech” means. This is typically attributed to poor awareness of those employees. Believe it or not, comments like, “I never knew I should not keep my login and password on a post-it note attached to my laptop” are quite common. Here are some ideas for leaders to help educate their employees:

1. Posters: Eye-catching posters alerting employees to basic security practices can quickly communicate best practices to the team.

2. Flyers: Leave flyers at each employee’s desk reminding them of concepts like strong password tips, when to update anti-virus packages or other tips.

3. Login Prompts: You can have your IT department post reminders about security when each person logs into their PC. This is a good, constant reminder.

Promote

Promotion of important security practices is a great way to leverage Cyber Security month. Here are some ideas for leaders to directly promote IT security best practices.

1. Announce: Send out an announcement to the company. Include in this a list of the team members responsible for computer security and how much you appreciate their efforts. Ask those members to provide you with statistics on the number of threats blocked in the last year – their answers may surprise you.

2. Fair: My current employer does a great job of this – though it usually requires larger organizational resources. Try hosting a computer security fair. This includes bringing in security vendors to set up stands and discuss common issues with your employees.

3. Example: Chances are, you’ve experienced a computer security incident in your past. Whether it was a simple virus or a major breach at a previous employer. Share these examples and what you learned with your team. This real-world experience will help drive the point home and make the matter more real.

Demonstrate

Of course, as the leader, it is important that you lead by example. Here are some basic ways to ensure you’re not caught executing poor computer security practices:

1. Ctrl+Alt+Del: Lock your PC every time you step away. Leaving yourself logged on to a computer not in your sight, is like walking away from a safe holding all your corporate secrets with the door wide open. Lock it up every time.

2. Update: Make sure your software is up to date – especially your anti-virus application. Software updates often include security improvements to new and increasing threats. Software updates help you close these vulnerabilities.

3. Backup: While not directly a security concern, it sure would be embarrassing if your PC is ruined by a virus or other incident and you lose important information. As the leader, you should be sure you are treating the company assets you hold on your computer as the valuable items they are.

If you’re not familiar with these IT security issues or other computer safety trends, take this opportunity to speak with the IT leader in your organization accountable for security. Then, take the opportunity to educate, promote and demonstrate the important of IT security in the company.  Believe me, this small investment in computer security is well worth it!

Question: What other tips do you have for promoting computer security awareness in organizations?

Crashing Into a Ditch Teaches A (Leadership) Lesson

At 7:15 AM, I was already well on my way down the hour-long commute.  On that morning I drove “the wife’s car”, because my regular vehicle was in the shop.  It was a classic Midwest winter day, with plenty of lake effect snow, but the region was prepared for the conditions.  As such, the roads were fairly clear. Still, occasional sections looked suspiciously like ice.  As a result, I drove under the speed limit, but still passed a few people who “probably shouldn’t be on the road anyway”.

It was during one of those passes that I felt the back end start to slide out.  After several counter-steering attempts, the fishtailing continued and I realized there was no escaping it.  The car crossed from one shoulder to the other, traversing two lanes and back, before crashing into the median.  Thankfully, with the exception of my ego, there was virtually no damage.

I counted my blessings and pulled up the maps on my iPhone.  The GPS located me precisely.  I called AAA, which had me back on the road in an hour.  A quick inspection by my regular mechanic and I was still in the office by noon.

Making the best of an unfortunate situation, I realized there were several leadership lessons in this experience that were worth sharing:

1. Observe Warning Signs – Remember those people that “probably shouldn’t be on the road”?  Their caution was a warning sign.  They had experiences (or lack thereof) which caused them concern.  Don’t ignore the warning signs in your organization.  Nay sayers may not just be pessimists.

2. Manage Change – I drove a less familiar vehicle.  This should have created more caution, especially in poor weather. When have you treated a new environment in business as “the same old situation”?

3. Balance Risk / Reward - As discussed in Project Tailgaters and Brake Checkers, it’s important to understand the risks and rewards or cost / benefit of each decision.  Here, by passing other cars, I could arrive 15 minutes earlier.  I assessed the road and it seemed clear and safe, but was it worth the risk?

4. Monitor Progress - As I sat in the ditch, covered in snow, I had only a vague idea of my location and was not certain how to guide someone to me for the tow.  If your project goes awry, will you know the quickest route to recovery?

5. Have the Right Tools - Thankfully, I had the right technology tool (GPS) to support a quick recovery. Do you have the right technology to support your needs?

6. Have the Right Team - With a AAA membership, the right people were just a phone call away. I also had a trusted mechanic who fit me into his schedule quickly and provided an assessment I trusted. When you get into trouble at the office, do you have a team to do the same?

7. Learn From Mistakes - Hence this post.  If I end up in a ditch again, after sliding on ice, hopefully I can say I learned from these mistakes and it was something new, that caused the crash this time. Will you learn from mistakes at work?

Question: Now the fun part.  After looking at all the things I did wrong, what other lessons can you take away from my mistakes?  Go easy on my ego though, please.  I’m already doomed to months of jokes at the office for my failure to stay on the road.

I recently spoke about Servant Leadership principles to an audience of CIOs, CTOs and Data Center executives at the Next Data Center Conference. Attached below is a copy of the slides from that session.

From Servers to Servant Leadership - Data Center Leadership

The slides complimented the presentation and were not written to stand alone as an independent communication. However, if you have questions about the content or seek a speaker on the topic of Servant Leadership for your next meeting or conference, please contact me.

The best leaders today understand the power of relationships, especially when it comes to business. As a result, most leaders have a strong network of colleagues that, over the years, become friends. These friendships and business partnerships extend online as well. However, many straggling organizations still insist upon blocking traffic to “social sites”. In contrast, the best led companies do not fear social media – they embrace it. The strongest leaders leverage the benefits of social technology while addressing the risks in a manner that empowers their teams but protects the company. Below are 5 reasons great leaders should not fear social media and a balanced reflection on the risks.

1. Best Friends At Work
Who still believes that work is impersonal? When was it necessary to ensure that your business contacts are not also friends? Need we remind some organizations of the Gallup Organization’s findings from their study of high performing organizations:

Gallup… observed that employees who report having a best friend at work were¹:

• 43% more likely to report having received praise or recognition for their work in the last seven days.
• 37% more likely to report that someone at work encourages their development
• 35% more likely to report coworker commitment to quality.
• 28% more likely to report that in the last six months, someone at work has talked to them about their progress
• 27% more likely to report that the mission of their company makes them feel their job is important
• 27% more likely to report that their opinions seem to count at work.
• 21% more likely to report that at work, they have the opportunity to do what they do best every day.

2. Companies Don’t Buy & Sell, People Do
When it comes to major agreements and long term commitments, people do not simply buy something from a company. Instead, they build partnerships and gain understanding from those partners about that company and their products. Then, business partners create mutually beneficial, value generating agreements together. The net result, after years of success on both ends of those deals is a stronger relationship, often extending into friendships. Those friendships can generate trust and efficiency which transcends employers, creates stronger networks and brings value to the next company by which either partner is employed. No longer does a person bring only their experience and skills to a company that hires them, but they bring the skills, experience and trust of their network as well.

3. Who Do You Want in Your Foxhole?
When times get tough, who do you want in your foxhole with you? Someone you only know based on their numbers, contracts, functional requirements and other formalities? Do you really think such an individual will stick their neck out for you or go that extra mile, unless the compensation is there? Or, do you want someone you’ve known well, whose family you know by name and whose favorite charity you supported last year? If nothing else, it helps to know your business partner’s spouse will yell at them if they screw up a deal they committed to you on.

4. Innovation
Structured, internal, corporate innovation alone is too constrained for today’s global economy. Innovation does not work well in a vacuum. The more creative outlets and inlets you provide your entire staff, the greater the chance they will discover breakthrough innovations. As your staff listens to their friends complain about how the products your competitors make, fail to meet their needs, they will better understand the implications of your engineering, research & development. The more your teams hear their contacts mention the need for someone to invent a solution to xyz problem, the greater the chance your company will create and solve that new market problem.

5. Mass Dialogue
Never before in history, has the opportunity for mass dialogue existed in such a manner as what social media provides. Print media creates mass, one way communication. Television does the same. Static website are no better. Previous communications technologies equate to shouting at your customers. With social media, feedback mechanisms like rated reviews, number of views and frequency of comments provide a means by which leaders can proactively hear the unified voice that is their consumer mass. This creates, in essence, a platform by which leaders can carry on a mass dialogue, like never before.

Dark Side
Don’t get me wrong, their are risks inherent to social media as well. Yes, your employee could reveal some deep, dark, corporate secret. Or, someone claiming to speak on your organization’s behalf may slip and act unprofessionally in a business forum. There may even be a greater volume of technical risks, such as computer viruses, worms and social engineering in these mediums. However, the solution to these risks are the same they’ve always been: education, training, policy and appropriate network security. The solution is not cutting off your company from opportunities for fear of the unknown.

In the end, as technical leaders in your organization, it is up to you to set the expectations of the company with regard to innovative opportunities. This evolution in communication technology is no different. The next time you debate blocking the latest social media site, consider, instead, joining the site and putting your great staff to task in finding the right way to keep that channel open for the corporation to leverage all benefits, without exposing you to the usual risks.

1. http://gmj.gallup.com/content/511/Item-10-Best-Friend-Work.aspx July 10, 2009.

I was very fortunate to be offered a coveted pass to SAP’s Sapphire conference last week. This is one of the larger conferences in the IT industry and specifically targets senior managers and executives requiring large-scale applications. As a result, although I was there for my employer and focused my time on their solutions, I also observed some of the leadership styles by so many information technology executives attending this conference. The attendance was down – a sign of the economic times, but there remained a broad range of leadership styles represented by Speakers, Vendors and Bloggers. Below are observations on the leadership styles these individuals presented at the conference*.

Hasso Plattner file photo from SAP Sapphire 2007 / CC BY-NC 2.0

Speakers & SAP Executives (Positive)
While commitments back at the office prevented me from catching all of the keynote speakers and SAP executives presenting, I was able to get to most of the top keynotes.

Opening Keynote: Abbe Mulders & Steven Levitt (Neutral)
Major themes for this conference included clarity, transparency, Sustainability and, of course, advances in technology. A promising start for SAP Executive leadership and speaker expectations. The conference kicked off with Ms. Abbe Mulders, ASUG Vice Chairperson, Dow Corning Corporation CIO and Mr. Steven Levitt author of FREAKONOMICS. Abbe provided a good welcome and spoke of the power of ASUG, (the American SAP User Group). Again, a plus for recognizing the power of users, collaboration and support. Levitt provided a very revealing life history that included the fact that his father was not stellar in medical studies and practice, but chose the very uncommon field of intestinal gas. It worked for him – he became recognized as an expert in his field, even including a GQ article dubbing him “The King of Farts”. Following in his footsteps, in a manner, the younger Levitt found himself terrible at Math – a bad sign for economists. However, he focused on very unique circumstances in which very few “self-respecting” economists practiced. It worked for him as well. This emphasis on “anything’s possible” when you focus on the right area, was also a positive for leadership.

The only real negative from the opening Keynote was Levitt’s surprising factor that drunk walkers are 8 times more likely to die than drunk drivers. Shocking as this may be, he avoided addressing the risks to others in equivalent detail. One would think drunk drivers are far more likely to kill others than drunk walkers. A setback for transparency by speakers at the conference.

Léo Apotheker (Positive)
Well rehearsed and spoken, Apotheker presented the importance of clarity and transparency SAP provides its clients to their customers. Also surprisingly strong was this Co-CEO of SAP’s message on sustainability. Apotheker claimed the SAP sustainability roadmap is the first in their industry and set a goal for the organization to make every business process sustainable. Strong points for good leadership. Apotheker’s style tended toward a traditional corporate leader – befitting his role.

Ian Kimbell (Positive)
Mr. Kimbell, SAP’s self-proclaimed “Demo Boy” was first introduced at the conference while demonstrating solutions for Mr. Apotheker’s keynote. Probably the most polished of all presenters, Kimbell seemed more comfortable on stage than most people are simply in their own skin. Kimbell’s demonstrations, humor and general ease on stage was so good, in fact, that some people have questioned the reality behind his demonstrations and the effort required to achieve similar goals – was the demonstration too simplified? Still, Kimbell is to be applauded, especially for his later performance, balancing the ever-dynamic Hasso Plattner. Kimbell presented strong leadership through thorough preparation and charisma. A traditional leadership style, perhaps leaning a bit toward the hero-worship model, but positive nonetheless.

Hasso Plattner (Positive)
Co-Founder of SAP, he’s been called the company’s “Rock Star”. In a conference that touted transparency, there were none more transparent than Hasso Plattner. His presentation was very technical for the crowd, but still remarkably clear given his to-and-fro speaking points. With comments like, “SAP may not want to tell you this” or speaking to examples that were still in proof-of-concept phase, Plattner suggested the most down-to-earth mentality of those on stage that day. If you wanted the reality of a situation, you knew Plattner was your person. Whether he could be considered a servant-leader would take much more research, but Plattner’s ability to operate at a remarkably senior level while balancing in-depth technical details was very promising. One thing’s certain, he did not over-rehearse his presentation.

Vendors (Negative)
Vendors with positive leadership were too difficult to identify from brief interactions on the conference floor. Poor leadership, on the other hand, was all too easy to spot. A wide variety of vendors were represented. From behemoths like IBM and Accenture, to companies most have never heard of. One vendor surprised me by asking if he could scan my badge without even speaking to me (a practice which would only add my name and contact information to his undoubtedly growing spammer’s list). Also standing out on the floor were the obvious ploys to attract attention through any means possible. I remained disappointed by the number of “Booth Beauties” (other terms are more common). I still find it hard to believe that companies with quality products should have any need for these tactics and therefore, made it a point to avoid these stands. Milder marketing ploys, were also prevalent, such as the expensive sport cars, power equipment and sizable freebies. While there were undoubtedly plenty of well-led organizations on the floor, unfortunately, the negative still stood out. This resulted in a set-back for overall conference leadership impressions. (Note: I am pleased to say that the vendors I work with were all professionally represented at the conference).

Bloggers (Positive)
Contributing to the discussions and education was a great group of bloggers. Twitter was a popular means of sharing thoughts and feedbcak on the presenters, while other bloggers shared their proposed articles to come, following the conference. Watching these groundswells in action at any conference is always exciting. Within minutes of a presenter’s notable commitment, the quote and feedback on that quote, was already online for the world to see and being discussed. Yes, social technology has truly brought the power to the people. Throughout the conference, though disagreements arose, it remained constructive on Twitter and blogs – another positive for the good guys and strong leadership from the Blogging community.

Now the conference is over, we’ve returned to offices piled full with issues to be addressed and fires to put out, and what have we learned? Besides the excellent lessons on SAP technology, strategy and opportunities, what have attendees experienced from a leadership perspective? They saw a positive side to SAP’s executives, a negative side from many vendors, and a positive leadership example from the blogging community. Net result? Kudos to SAP for not only presenting their technologies, strategy and people in a positive light, but for also a providing a net-positive leadership experience.

* Observations are from the conference only, I did not take into account their character or broader leadership methodologies.

I recently spoke to a group of college seniors in IT management about some of the challenges they faced. Like most IT professionals today, they had a depressing view on the economy and their opportunities. There is plenty of press on these challenges we face (for example, see Thomas Wailgum‘s article, “Why the Recession is Marginalizing CIOs“). On the other hand, there is virtually no press surrounding the opportunities now available to CIOs, VPs, Director and other IT leaders. While everyone focuses on the challenges, few recognize the opportunities before us. Everyone seems focused on “delivering more, with less”. However, this focus does not open our eyes to the realization that there may never again, in our careers, be a better time to accomplish key objectives.

What better time to kill low value projects? For example, that project draining resources for months, producing little value, but is allowed to drag on because it is the “pet project” of another CxO. With a constrained budget, something will have to give. Now you can make that case to the rest of the executive committee that either this “pet project” or the plan to narrow your product margins, delivering bottom line results next quarter, will have to be, at least, postponed. Even the CxO in question would find it difficult to oppose shelving the project in lieu of more timely, cost saving initiatives.

What better time for talent management? There are, sadly, many people losing their jobs today. As an IT Servant Leader, one can see few if any positives in this scenario. However, with some companies outsourcing entire divisions, others cutting to the bone and being required to cut even further, there is amazing talent available today that was not there a year ago. Now is the time to bring them onto your team. And what about the great staff that you already have? Employees are very appreciative to have a job today. Now is the time for you to show how much you appreciate them. But, you say, your budget is cut, preventing celebration dinners? No problem – have BYO events. Just set a time and place for the team to meet for drinks or dinner. It doesn’t always take money to make people feel appreciated. Sometimes just having a job and a little extra time from their manager to say “thank you”, especially outside the office, is all someone needs.

What better time to decommission overhead drains? How many servers do you have laying around, running antiquated software, creating heightened security risks and yet rarely seeing the front of a user’s screen? Come on! Now is your time to stop all that. Make the case to your customer they no longer need it. Point out the countless other applications they could use for the same work. Suggest enhancements to more current applications that could be adapted. Do you think there will be a better time than now to make the argument that maintaining these applications is not worth the overhead?

What better time to innovate? Yes, the budget is tight – virtually nonexistent some would say. But innovation does not always require a lot of money. What are the students in the IT program at your local college working on? Would they be open to researching an idea for your department? What about that new team member in your Business Intelligence area – wasn’t she working on a new idea after hours? Leverage that passion already residing within your team by simply supporting their ideas. With most other IT leaders focused on cost control, few are considering this opportunity to innovate. Those that do, are more likely to emerge with the best products, services and people to tackle the challenges when the economy recovers.

Every time I am confronted by another person in the IT field – be it a college student, manager, or CIO, who sings the “poor me” song, I think back to opportunities like these. It reminds me of that great RE/MAX commercial, where people are kicking themselves for not buying now. As IT Leaders, our problem is not “deliver more, with less”. Instead, our opportunity is to “deliver more value, with less waste”. Rarely before and possibly never again in our careers, will the opportunities and support be greater to gain alignment on this goal. Instead of singing “poor me”, why not view this as an opportunity to ensure you’re not kicking yourself later?

Benefits of Enterprise 2.0

I recently had someone challenge the benefits of social networking for the enterprise, suggesting there was no real value for such technology in the workplace. I came up with a quick list and decided to post it here:

Examples of benefits to social networking in the workplace include:

1. Collaboration: The more your employees can find out about each other, the quicker they can share ideas. For example, if you have a large number of staff, there is a great potential for duplicating research efforts. Through digital networking, it will be easier for your staff to self-identify complimentary projects and align their efforts.
2. Innovation: Your staff may have a great deal of common interests outside the office that could transfer into a profitable new line of business. For example, perhaps you produce electronics and an office club forms around bicycling. The result may be the greatest electronic innovation for cyclists in generations, produced by your company and not the competition.
3. Resource Identification: Content Management systems are great, but what if your staff does not use the right search term? Identifying experts within your company can be much easier, quicker and more cost effective through networking tools than traditional, structured, data hierarchies.
4. Stronger Community: As the famous Gallup Poll pointed out, employees with friends at work are much happier and more productive. Social networking will empower your staff self-identify individuals with similar interests, resulting in larger and stronger community within the workplace.
5. Increased Communication: Industry experts have predicted that social networking is much like email or the web itself – another evolution in communication mediums. As a result, it is not a question of whether to adapt social networking, but when. Mechanisms like chat and forum discussions further empower your staff to communicate more effectively and in a manner that is easy to capture and compile.

These are very high-level and I suspect there will be more as I think about it. However, I will keep running list here as I come across them. If you have some to add, I welcome your comments.

I should preface this one by stating it’s interesting what one’s mind thinks about when you are up for a 4 AM feeding with your newborn. However, I was sitting here staring at our Wii Balance Board during this particular feeding and remembered seeing some pretty fascinating hacks online.

The Wii system itself is pretty interesting. The use of relatively simple technology that is only moderately evolved from the days of the original Nintendo’s Duck Hunt emphasizes the ability of innovation in user interface to produce results as great as, or better than evolutions in graphics. But take that one step further and make these relatively simple technologies an open source platform for others to tweak and you have a plethora of opportunities for new Virtual Reality applications of inexpensive technologies.

Johnny Lee has shown how a nominal additional investment in hardware can produce a digital white board and highlights the benefits for educational institutions. He also shows how reversing the sensor bar and controller can produce a head tracking, VR helmet-like imitation. More recently, the Wii Balance Board has been hacked by guys in a German Artificial Intelligence lab and can be used to navigate Google Earth and virtual environments like World of Warcraft and Second Life. Who wouldn’t love to surf, both physically and figuratively, over their city anyway?

It is fascinating how, like so many successful evolutions of technology, Virtual Reality is not hitting us overnight with some single leap in evolution like so many predicted. Instead, it is creeping in among us through the continuous evolution of innovative interface implementations.

For more material on this topic, check out YouTube Wii Hacks and / or the clips below. As a bonus, in Johnny’s Lee’s famous hack video below, he mentions how YouTube has really expedited the evolution of innovations like these. Roughly quoting Johnny, “In 5 months an idea has gone from experimentation on my desktop to a commercially available product.”

Johnny Lee’s Hack Video, including VR head sensor:

The Wii Balance Board Hacks from Germany:

I have noticed a disturbing trend, for IT leaders (CIO, CTO, VP and Directors) in the mid-market to focus too much on the big picture and overlook the fundamentals. Sometimes, these executives that must also maintain an eye on the tactical become too absorbed in the crisis-of-the-moment and lose sight of the basics.

I was recently browsing one of the leading websites for IT management content, when there was an error in their application. The resulting screen display was the default error page for the web server (blocked out in the copy below):

Within an hour or so, the site was back up and functioning properly. Still, in that short period of time, the organization likely suffered a small impact to their credibility and provided lots of great information (web server version, database and version, method of connection between the two and application code structures) for would-be hackers. What (black-hat) hacker would not love to bring down and IT management content website?

In this case, it was an organization known for IT content that had (apparently) not yet customized their default website error pages. A simple, 15 minutes or so and the developers could have tailored the site for a more appropriate message.

All that said, it is easy to overlook these concerns. I confess, when I came across this error, the first thing I did was double check my own error page (on www.lichtenwalner.net). It is better now…. click here if you don’t believe me.