Entering the process

An important observation for me today is the process centricity here. I think it's amazing and probably very essential to be process centric in order to have some control over the chaos that could be if there were no process. In large organizations, so many people are doing so many different things that if the structure was weak, it's likely that everything would come crashing down.

In smaller organizations breaks in the system, breaks in the process have a chance of being noticed and caught before anything major happens. In larger organizations because of the sheer numbers of people the chances of deliquents who by pass the process being caught are fairly small and one might never see the act but will surely feel the impact.

I understand the importance of the process but it's still difficult to be caught in it and to have patience while the process is working. By that I mean things like waiting for a building card, or an official computer. I know they have hundreds of requests but of course I think mine is more important.

Having said that, I totally understand the term entering the process, it's what I have just done and the saving grace is that my team mates are extremely understanding and accepting of the fact that it just takes time to ramp up and get going. But of course i want to "hit the ground running."

Working for a large organization

I have throughout my career always worked for a small company. I have consulted with large companies many a time but have not stayed for a long term project and therefore have not been exposed to the many nuances of working for a large organization.
It would seem to me that it would be easy to get lost in a large organization. With so many people doing so many things a sub par performer can get lost easily because there is always someone else to pick up the slack.

Where I come from, both at APQC and Xpediant you are always in the forefront in terms of performance. In smaller organizations "not working" is not an option; there are so few people that it's easy to spot a slacker (for the most part of course).
So now I am here in a larger organization and I realize that I am not entirely correct about my assumption of being able to hide in a large organization.

Although it is only my first day here I find that large organizations are made of small groups. So at a high level it may be business units but they are too large, in a business unit you have functions, within functions you have processes or teams, so even though the organization as a whole is large, your exposure to the team and their expectations of you is the same as working in a small organization.
I am not making any absolute statements of large and small organziations or work behavior, just expressing my opinion based on observation.
I will continue to write about the nuances of working for a large company and point out the similarities and differences. If you have thoughts please feel free to share them with me.

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What is a Leader?

We've always heard people say "who" is a leader? This article explains in very simple language "what" makes a leader. I have always maintained that management is an art not a science. Whether you are a leader or a manager or good at both, you have to have certain characteristics that make you a leader and make other people want to follow you. Do you have any thoughts on leadership? Please share them with us. You can read the article here.

Chatterbacking - A new marketing term

Very interesting write up. It amazes me that "we" never fail to come up with catchy terms for everything. "Chatterbacking" huh! I guess that's a marketers job. To keep refreshing old concepts with new twists.

I wanted to comment on the last few questions in the article. I think trust is essential in anything. Marketing, working, relationships, etc. Doesn't matter.

You have to allow the consumer to decide whether they want to read something sponsored by or written by a company that has a sales twist. Print magazines have always marked the word "advertisement" on their sponsored content whether it's a one pager or a booklet. Does that mean I dont read it? No, if it catches my eye I will read it. I will be a bit skeptical about its claims but if I like what I read I will investigate other sources for credibility. So what I am saying is if your content is well written then there should be no hesitation to mark it as sponsored. In fact being honest has a lot more potential for believability than being duped into thinking something is not sponsored and finding out later that it was. Then you have completely lost your customer forever.

Information Technology or Business Technology

I read this post by George Colony of Forrester where he talks about renaming IT to BT because the use of technology has changed from monitoring a business to running a business. You can read his post here.
Reading this post got me thinking about this whole concept of naming and renaming. The retail product industry does it all the time. They rename their brands, change an ingredient or two and release a new product with a new name. Apparently the reasoning behind this is that we like variety and we like newness so we are more apt to buy products as they "change" than if they look the same forever.Even Coca-Cola attempts new looks every once in a while. A new bottle, a new label, whatever.
So maybe its ok for us to change the term from Information Technology to Business Technology. Maybe a name change will get us the exposure we need with management, maybe changing the name from information to business will help employees understand that the IT department is not akin to Gestapo, its there to work with the employees, to make their lives easier and more productive. What do you think?

The X-Team Files - August 2006

Click here to view Xpediant's monthly newsletter. Please feel free to forward to anyone you think might be interested.

We cover a wide range of issues from business processes, information technology implementation, and collaboration to world issues. This month's focus in on acronyms used by technology vendors such as HRIS, PLM, SCM, CRM, etc.

Complimentary Genius

An excellent article that talks about a different path to innovation. Look for products that compliment your products, look outside the box. I will try this excercise for Xpediant Solutions, will let you know if I come across any ideas. You can click on the title link or read the article here.

Cultivational Culture

It still amazes me how well the Internet works on educating me about things I don't know, I don't know. Now thats not a typo. When we are looking for something we search for it, but the real discovery is when we come across terms or concepts or ideas that we were not looking for but we can use in our daily lives or to understand certain phenomena. This leads me to the real reason for this post. I was reading through the Intelligent Enterprise newsletter and read a brief article called It Takes Two to Tango which talks about the relationship between project selection and value to the business or basically the impact of IT projects on the business. While reading this article I came across the term cultivational culture and it intrigued me, so I googled it and came upon this article titled "Why Good Management Ideas Fail" and while reading it I learned that organizations have four types of cultures. Control, collaboration,competence, and cultivation. So a cultivational culture as the name suggests is one that arises based on the collective beliefs of an organization. All cultures hamper or promote change in some way or the other. In a cultivational culture a process change may be viewed as a slap on the face to the employees of the organization as if insinuating that the process they had in place all along was wrong. Approaching change in such a culture would be very different than a control culture where all changes are likely pushed downward strongly and the organization has a no questions asked mentality. From all my past research on knowledge management and change management I am really glad to see more of us looking at organizations as living, breathing organisms and not as concrete structures. I hope this article (linked in the title) gives you some ideas on how to deal with change in your organization based on its culture or combination of cultures.

Portlets: The Magic Behind Portals

You've heard of portals in the science fiction world. Gateways that take you to another world or another dimension. Well, portals in the technology world are similar. They may not take you to another dimension but they do take you to the land of integrated information which in some cases can be a magical feat to pull off. This article is written in simple terms to help unravel the mysteries behind portals and portlets. Click here to read the article.

Management by Procrastination

I wonder if John Brandt is a nom de plume for Scott Adams? What Adams' cartoon Dilbert says in comic strip form, Brandt articulates succinctly in paragraphs. Do you feel like your organization manages by procrastination or rather by passing the buck? Read this article to understand the Gravity Fed Decision Model that prevails in so many organizations today. Click here to read the article.