Tag: Daniel Burrus

Fresh Links Sundae – July 27, 2014 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates information I have come across during the past week. Often they are from the people whose work I admire or resonate with me. I hope you will find these ideas thought-provoking at the minimum. Even better, I hope these ideas will, over time, help my fellow IT pros make better decisions, be awesome, and kick ass!

Brady Orand and Global Knowledge are running a blog series “11 Common Mistakes of ITIL Foundation Newbies.” I had already featured the first five posts several weeks ago. Here are the last six installments of the series. ITIL Newbie Mistake #6: Being Too Process Focused ITIL Newbie Mistake #7: CAB Meeting Burnout ITIL Newbie Mistake #8: Too Much ITIL Talk ITIL Newbie Mistake #9: Relying on Templates ITIL Newbie Mistake #10: Expecting a Tool to Do the Work ITIL Newbie Mistake #11: Thinking You’re Done. Ever. (Global Knowledge Training Blog)

Some manufacturers’ processing environments can have extreme swings in variability. As a result, those manufacturers need a more granular approach to diagnosing and correcting process flaws. Eric Auschitzky, Markus Hammer, and Agesan Rajagopaul discuss how advanced analytics can provide just such an approach. How big data can improve manufacturing (McKinsey & Company)

In his 20+ years of working in the IT industry, Barclay Rae continues to work with organization on fielding similar ITSM questions. He discusses the most important element for ITSM success that even trumps SLAs and KPIs. Do you have an SLA with your spouse..? (Barclay Rae Website)

Many organizations implements ITSM but neglect to have a CSI process in place. Stuart Rance talks about why he believes CSI is one of the biggest opportunities we have to create value for our IT customers. Building a CSI culture (The ITSM Review)

Many people talk about business digitalization as a portfolio of discrete game-changing technologies. Bob Lewis would argue that the digitization movement is different than what most people think because many have a false assumption about the digitization trend. The assumption of pervasive technology (IS Survivor Publishing)

To most people, innovation is risky, plagued with challenges, and hard to do successfully. Daniel Burrus illustrates how we can predict the changes accurately and be a great innovator. How to Transform Innovation ROI by Using the Science of Certainty to Accelerate Results (Daniel Burrus)

With the availability of many cloud technology and SaaS offering, companies are considering whether to leverage cloud for business intelligence and data analytics activities. John Myers discusses the emerging field of data analytics as a service and what criteria should an organization consider to determine whether it is ready for business analytics. Why Data Analytics as a Service? (EMA Blogs)

Many organizations are setting up the data analytics practice using big data technologies. Andrew Oliver outlines the top 10 worst practices to avoid. The 10 worst big data practices (Strategic Developer)

Fresh Links Sundae – 2014 New Year Edition

A number of reflections from 2013 and what to look forward to in 2014.

The Ideas that Shaped Management in 2013 by Katherine Bell (Harvard Business Review)

Predictions for 2014 by David Wagner (Enterprise Efficiency)

Predictions for 2014: Computing Technologies In The Age Of The Customer by JP Gownder (Forrester Research)

Predictions for 2014: Mind the (R & D IT) Gap by Michael Shanler (Gartner Blog)

Cloud Computing Predictions for 2014: Cloud Joins the Formal IT Portfolio by James Staten (Forrester Research)

Enterprise WAN Connectivity & Optimization – 2014 Snapshot of Evolution by Tracy Corbo (EMA Blog Community)

The 5 mobile technologies to watch in 2014 by Galen Gruman (InfoWorld)

25 Game-Changing Trends That Will Create Disruption & Opportunity (Part I) 25 Game-Changing Trends That Will Create Disruption & Opportunity (Part 2) by Daniel Burrus (Daniel Burrus)

The Top 10 Technology Trends for 2014 by Dawn Kawamoto (Dice News)

The Top 25 Recruiting Trends, Problems, and Opportunities for 2014, Part 1 of 2 The Top 25 Recruiting Trends, Problems and Opportunities for 2014, Part 2 of 2 by John Sullivan (ERE.net)

Big but Underreported Tech Stories of 2013 by Brian Sommer (Enterprise Irregulars)

14 Inspirational Quotes for 2014 by Jeff Haden (Inc.com)

Fresh Links Sundae – April 22, 2012 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates some pieces of information I have come across during the past week. They maybe ITSM related or not entirely. Often they are from the people whose work I admire, and I hope you will find something of value.

Why a “rules based” approach to Change Management always fails Glen Taylor discussed why rule-based change management practices have limited effectiveness and why risk-based approach is the better target. (ITSM Portal)

COBIT 5 Miscellany Geoff Harmer gave his initial impression of COBIT 5 and how it differs from the previous version of the framework. (ITSM Portal)

IT Metrics Planning: The Business Meeting Julie Montgomery suggested ways for IT and business to work together and come up with metrics that can help both organizations. (Plexent Blog)

At the Helm of the Data Refinery: Key Considerations for CIOs Perry Rotella discussed that “data refinery” is the new strategic operating model for companies and why CIO is the executive best positioned to lead the enterprise forward in this new model. (Forbes)

5 Ways to Access the Power of the Hive for ITIL Initiatives Jeff Wayman discussed ways to leverage a diverse group of people for the benefit of ITSM initiatives. (ITSM Lens)

7 Benefits of Using a Known Error Database Simon Morris gave an in-depth discussion of KEDB and suggested ways to extract values and benefits from it. (The ITSM Review)

The ABC of ITSM: Why Building The Right Process Matters Ben Cody discussed the human aspect of ITSM and why a positive dedication to “process” should be at the heart of how organizations solve complex IT services challenges. (The ITSM Review)

How to Make Your Company More Like Apple Daniel Burrus talked about how companies, large or small, can build their future by competing on things other than price. (Strategic Insights Blog)

An Asshole Infested Workplace — And How One Guy Survived It Surviving a toxic work environment is not a trivial undertaking – you do what you could and had to do without spreading the toxic atmosphere further. (Bob Sutton)

How to fix IBM in a week Robert Cringely wrote a long series of blog entries discussing what is going on within IBM, what is wrong, and how to fix it, maybe. (I, Cringely)

Fresh Links Sundae – April 8, 2012 Edition

IT Service Management And ITIL Thinking – Brawn, Brains, Or Heart? Stephen Mann discussed ITSM people “stereotypes” and what we can learn from them in terms of communication, education, and ITSM tool selection. (Forrester Blogs)

The 7 Tenets of Providing Great Service at the Help Desk Jeff Wayman discussed seven principles a service desk can follow through to provide great IT services. (ITSM Lens)

3 Ways to Simplify IT Reporting Julie Montgomery provided suggestions on effective IT reporting. (Plexent)

Eating the ITIL elephant one leg at a time Rob England discussed why sticking with the premise that an ITSM initiative is assembled from the ITIL processes could be missing the real point. (The IT Skeptic)

Dev-Ops? New-Ops? Cloud-Ops! Martin Perlin discussed what impact cloud computing has on the interaction between the Dev and Ops teams. (Evolven Blog)

Team Building without Time Wasting Marshall Goldsmith explained a simple, practical, and efficient process for team building. (Marshall Goldsmith)

Make Less Decisions Mark and Mike discussed the importance of prioritizing and making decisions ahead of time can make later decision-making easier and to avoid distractions (Manager Tools)

The Biggest Mistake You (Probably) Make with Teams Tammy Erickson discussed which is more important to promoting collaboration: a clearly defined approach toward achieving the goal, or clearly specified roles for individual team members? (Harvard Business Review)

The Things Customers Can Do Better Than You Bill Lee gave examples where customers can do things better than the organization thinks they can. And why an organization should involve their customers more help grow its business? (Harvard Business Review)

Where’s the Web Heading? A Prediction Daniel Burrus gave his takes on the direction of technologies where web 3.0 and even web 4.0 might be going. (Strategic Insights Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae

While ITIL is still the framework of choice for many infrastructure and operations organizations, Stephen Mann suggested that ITIL plus another framework or strategy is needed. USMBOK may be the second framework used in conjunction with ITIL. It’s Time To Realize That “ITIL Is Not The Only Fruit” (Forrester Blogs » Stephen Mann)

CEO of a large retail chain visited Bob Sutton’s Stanford class and talked about the customer service warning signs that can be hard to tell from operational statistics alone. Perhaps we in IT also need to develop similar metrics for our customer service efforts? Greetings and Bathrooms: One CEO’s Metrics for Retail Stores (Bob Sutton)

Daniel Burrus discussed some approaches to transform and save the U.S. manufacturing sector. I believe all of the suggested approaches can also be used for the continual improvement effort in IT. How to Save the Manufacturing Sector (Strategic Insights Blog)

Jeff Wayman suggested five common areas where a Service Desk could automate, in turn increasing productivity for both the customers and the staff. Free Weekends for the 24-Hour Help Desk (ITSM Lens)

Marshall Goldsmith talked about how the action of commitment to quality speaks much louder than common buzzwords such as “empowerment” or “customer delight.” Putting Quality on the Line (Marshall Goldsmith)

Gina Smith discussed that, while all the breathless coverage of the consumerization trend taking place, one recent study maybe debunking some of the myths. Five consumerization of IT myths debunked, maybe (TechRepublic)

Something Seth Godin said in this blog got me thinking — the same situation can also be said for IT. We have been operating IT a certain way for a long time. Maybe it is time to take some fresh thinking or different approaches. The map has been replaced by the compass (Seth Godin’s Blog)

Robert “Transformed” Stroud discussed how the increasing business’ involvement in selecting/using information technologies will force some transformational influence upon IT. IT will transform or be transformed (CA on Service Management)

Charles Betz discussed how using enterprise architecture techniques can help to develop an understanding of an IT management system and how it needs to evolve. Too Many Tools: Integrating a New IT Management System (Charles Betz)

Because this is the Academy Awards weekend, Wired Magazine gave some instruction on how to throw a geek Oscars party. Throw a Geek Oscars Party (Wired)

Credit: Image Courtesy of Wikipedia