Strategize

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In the “Strategize” curriculum, you will understand how to make strategy that results in shared commitment regarding what your organization should – and should not – do.  In addition, you will review case studies of successful business process and technology strategies that should be considered during the strategy making process.

Because we live in a complex world, it is easy to get muddle headed and let project lists and initiatives get out of control. It’s then hard to fight the uphill battle against organizational entropy and keep a clear, exiting agenda in front of our organizations.  

Defining and communicating a shared IT-enabled vision, strategy, and tactical objectives provides your organization with a foundation to stand on… and stand behind. Successful leaders understand how to implement an efficient, participative, and iterative strategy making process that factors in relevant transformative concepts from business and technology.  Furthermore, these leaders know how to translate strategy into action using portfolio management, balanced metrics, boundary rules, high level implementation roadmaps, and clear accountabilities.


Strategize Articles

Date Article Curriculum
7/7/10 What To Do If Your IT Group Doesn't Deliver
There are two major reasons an IT organization is "bad," and what you do about it differs depending on the root cause: Mismatch between your expectations and the role OR Inability to fully deliver on the role. If you decide to serve yourself, make sure that you follow these 4 steps.
Strategize
10/15/09 The Business and IT Must Work Together. Can You Help?
My last post asked you to be the judge of whether a business sponsor of a major initiative should take the advice of their consultants to "go big" or the advice of their IT counterparts to "go small."
Strategize
6/2/09 Find the IT Innovator Within
Eric Hippel, in his book Democratizing Innovation, says that every organization has "lead users" who "engage in developing and modifying products" so that they get "exactly what they want, rather than relying on manufacturers to act as their (often very imperfect) agents." In the midst of this half-empty economy, it's comforting to know that innovation is happening at the front lines of every organization.
Strategize
2/18/09 Making the Most of Electronic Health Records
Have you heard? Thanks to the new stimulus package, electronic health record (EHR) systems are now on sale! Better hurry, though. There are an estimated 525,000 doctors that need them and only $19 billion dollars to go around...
Strategize
1/26/09 The Right Way to Be an IT Change Agent
By definition, a dead change agent isn't a good change agent. Most leaders have attended the requisite change management workshops and it’s good stuff - as far as it goes. Problem is, no one ever tells you that to be a good change agent, you have to be willing to die in order to thrive.
Strategize
12/2/08 Use Technology to Help Your CEO Accelerate Change
Last week, the Conference Board announced that CEOs, Chairmen, and company presidents "were especially concerned about speed, flexibility, and adaptability to change" in the face of the credit crunch and slowing global economy. The ability to change has always been a competitive advantage - now more than ever. With each breaking day, companies are making it up as they go along. Remember when Citibank was the acquirer rather than the acquiree? Change isn't easy, but some executives make it harder than it has to be by ignoring the tools at their disposal. Many executives are unaware of the systems capabilities in place that can be used to rapidly propagate digitized changes to business processes.
Strategize
10/14/08 Why Your Top Priority Probably Isn't
There's a big difference between having a top priority and being ready to act on it. Most of the "top priorities" of your organization have been roaming around for quite a while. They appeared a few years ago as potential risks or opportunities and grew up to become problems, and then top priorities, because, even though they were easy to discuss, they weren't easy to resolve.
Strategize
8/20/08 How To Get IT Projects Approved
Many managers find it difficult and to get IT projects approved. They don't know how to justify projects in a way that that unlocks the various governance doors that stand between good ideas and good, hard cash. Key to gettng projects approved is to link the initiatives to business strategy - but often the business strategy isn’t written down or articulated in a form that can be easily applied to drive I.T. decision making. What distinguishes leaders from managers is the ability to develop strategic context for their organizations and initiatives in spite of the absence of an actual strategy document and formal processes.
Strategize
7/22/08 IT Centralization or Decentralization?
When leaders think about reorganizing IT, they usually start with the assumption that they have two options: To centralize or to decentralize. Of course, in the real world, marketplaces are too complicated and nuanced to be served by one or the other of these two extremes. Organizations architected to run like either a central Soviet economy or a volunteer cooperative are destined to fail. It’s possible to break through this binary thinking by approaching organizational design differently. Instead of starting by deciding on a structure, you can start by deciding who gets to make what IT decisions.
 Strategize
7/2/08 How You Can Help IT Serve the Enterprise
There is a lot of important work in IT that isn’t getting done. Problem is, as we’ve discussed, IT is so busy managing the trees, they can’t afford to even think about the forest. IT spends 75% of its time managing lights-on activities and the remainder of its time fielding enhancement and project requests that overwhelm the department. On average, the IT backlog (what other business function has backlogs?) is between 1-3 years, a preposterous number for a technology world that works in, at most, 6-month cycles.
Strategize
6/5/08 8 Reasons Why You Should Love IT
Most of what we hate about IT is based in the unpleasant reality that the system is designed to protect ourselves from ourselves. But too often we confuse hating the system with the people who work in it. We should love the people in IT who are doing their best to make the best of a bad situation. Let’s look at the 8 Things We Hate About IT from my last post from the perspective of IT. Here’s why they deserve love, along with a little insight into what they think about you.
 Strategize
6/2/08 8 Things We Hate About IT
It's hard to remember the time when criticizing IT was controversial. Now, it's ceased to be even interesting. The now-classic HBR article "IT Doesn’t Matter” resonated so clearly because it underscored the pervasive belief that IT mediocrity is the norm. And how bad is an industry's reputation when a major outsourcer, Keane, can get away with insulting its target market with the slogan, “We Do IT Right”? It’s not personal – nobody hates the people in IT – it’s the system that’s broken. And here’s the rub: IT doesn’t like it either.
Strategize
5/29/08 How To Reduce IT Demand by 50%
One of my favorite Druckerisms is, “I have no interest in someone who plays the minute waltz in 56 seconds.” Drucker goes on to explain that, “In terms of technology, we have people trying to play it in 56 seconds when it shouldn't be played at all. Very little of our computing capacity is well used.” When it comes to IT, this quote hits home, big time. Do a random sample of the typical IT request queue and at least 50% of the requests there would bore Mr. Drucker senseless. In my experience, 30% of the IT requests aren’t worth the effort and 20%-30% can be accommodated by leveraging existing systems.
 Strategize
9/21/07 Strategies That Stick
How to develop strategies that get implemented by working a process that ensures broad participation.
 Strategize
3/2/07 Maturing Your Demand Management Practices
The demand for IT resources appears to be immune from business and economic cycles as technology becomes embedded within every aspect of the business.
 Strategize
9/1/05 How to Get IT Research You Can Use
"Help the IT consultancies understand what kind of research you really need to align with business."
 Strategize
5/15/02 A Crash Course in Strategic Planning
"We all feel better when we are strategically fit."
 Strategize
1/15/01 Focus on Your Focus
"How to make your IT agenda the talk of the office elevators."
 Strategize