• Four Dimensions of Sustaining Change Leadership

    One of the paradoxes of strategic change is that the most important things are often the easiest to defer for matters that are more pressing but have less impact on success.  Sponsorship, engagement, and accountability are the greatest drivers of lasting and meaningful change.  However, the activities that sustain ownership, such as communication, governance, and…

  • For Successful Change Leadership, Emphasize a Culture of Engagement and Accountability

    I previously wrote about the challenges that change leaders face as they deal with a “new normal” that is increasingly competitive and volatile.1 Today there are great opportunities for creating new value streams and bringing them to market more quickly, interacting more meaningfully with customers, and building more collaborative and engaging organizations. At the same…

  • Realizing the Value Promise of Analytics

    As markets and companies have emerged from the recent downturn, executives have looked to the future with concern. The slow and inconsistent recovery, combined with the disruptive effects of globalization, technological change, and regulation, has made it clear that what happened was not just another cyclical swing. It was reflective of a deeper economic and…

  • A Key Data & Analytics Challenge – Agility vs. Control

    Only a small percentage of potential analytics users have any meaningful access to data. In addition, many data and analytics initiatives fail to deliver the business goals originally set. Knowledge workers spend too much time looking for and manipulating data, and not enough time analyzing information. IT is kept busy with growing demands for data…

  • Engaging Executive IT Leadership

    In a recent post,((Business Engagement Is Lost when Architecture is Technology-Focused.)) I discussed the value of architecture in structuring people, processes, information, and technology into solutions which address business challenges and enable the organization to deliver business value.  In this way, architecture provides a crucial link between business and technology capabilities, but it also helps…

  • Technical Mechanics vs. Executive IT Leaders

    Marianne Broadbent and Ellen Kitzis1 write about technical managers vs. trusted executive leaders of the enterprise. Technical managers are experts in the mechanics of IT.  They “keep the lights on and do it cheap.”  This role is essential, especially in today’s environment of cost-cutting and rationalization of services.  However, this role can also minimize the impact…

  • Business Engagement Is Lost when Architecture is Technology-Focused

    Gartner defines enterprise architecture (EA) as the process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key requirements, principles and models that describe the enterprise’s future state and enable its evolution. The scope of the EA includes the people, processes, information and technology of the enterprise, and their…

  • Getting Serious about Program Success

    Every executive who has lived through even a moderately complex business capability implementation program is familiar with the challenges to successful delivery.  Many, if not most, of them have scars to show for it.  However, despite overwhelming evidence and past defeats, organizations and executives regularly move their programs toward failure.  Though there will almost always…

  • Non-Technical Factors are Key to Program Success

    Although each program to implement a business capability is unique, some fundamental challenges are common to many transformation efforts. These are often the result of leadership and management issues rather than technical skill deficits.  The Utrecht study referenced in my previous post1  assessed the importance of a several contributors to success and failure in implementation projects.…

  • The Cost of Program Failure

    The statistics on business transformation failure are overwhelming.  Particularly where technology implementation is involved, and where the stakes may be highest, studies consistently report that over half (and up to almost three quarters) of all programs do not deliver the intended value.  For example, Michael Krigsman examined several analyst reports of the rates of failure…