I am teaching an evening IT class this semester, and some of the students are already in an IT position. The rest of the class are young students working towards a computer or management degree. Has been a real refreshing experience, and I have to admit I am learning some things right along with them. A fun class!
One of our discussions turned towards organizational Senior Management, and how they read an article in a magazine, then all of a sudden that is what the organization needs to be doing, or at. Ever wonder why is that? Is it the fear of appearing out of touch, the organization will loose competitive advantage? What about bragging rights at the club house? Who writes these articles anyway? Are they fact, fiction or desire? Who's standards are they? Do these standards vary with size of the organization? Ever wonder if a best practice for a $20B corporation makes sense for a $20M corporation, or a $2M corporation? I guess your management needs to help guide that discussion.
I often ask myself if these analyst that write for these magazines ever built a server, worked a service desk, or configured a router. Do they really have some real world experience to have an opinion? Maybe we should look beyond the good grammar and easy read to see what substance is in the article. I find many of these articles fuel the technology hype that burns a great deal of organizations. Takes a sharp CIO or CTO to read between the lines, and determine what and how much any of it applies to their organization. One doesn't always have to join the hype cycle to be a good leader, or stand tall at the club house.
Organizations that have a roller coaster experience from chasing magazine technology leadership have staff churn, burn out and lack focus. I am not saying all articles or all magazines are bad, there are some good ones out there, and there are some great articles by great people. It is just that, their opinion, their thoughts and insight. Take it for what it is, another opinion for you to consider as you lead your organization through technology direction setting. I would say just like this blog.
Next time - just pass the article on to your staff for a good read and let them determine it's value.
Keep it positive!
Scott Arnett
scott.arnett@charter.net
About Me
- Scott Arnett
- Scott Arnett is an Information Technology & Security Professional Executive with over 30 years experience in IT. Scott has worked in various industries such as health care, insurance, manufacturing, broadcast, printing, and consulting and in enterprises ranging in size from $50M to $20B in revenue. Scott’s experience encompasses the following areas of specialization: Leadership, Strategy, Architecture, Business Partnership & Acumen, Process Management, Infrastructure and Security. With his broad understanding of technology and his ability to communicate successfully with both Executives and Technical Specialists, Scott has been consistently recognized as someone who not only can "Connect the Dots", but who can also create a workable solution. Scott is equally comfortable playing technical, project management/leadership and organizational leadership roles through experience gained throughout his career. Scott has previously acted in the role of CIO, CTO, and VP of IT, successfully built 9 data centers across the country, and is expert in understanding ITIL, PCI Compliance, SOX, HIPAA, FERPA, FRCP and COBIT.
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