Tag: Tobias Nyberg

Fresh Links Sundae – September 22, 2013 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. More importantly, I picked these articles to help my fellow IT professionals be more successful. 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!

Working in IT organization often involves working with consultants, and conflicting dynamics can emerge between management, consultants, and practitioner employees. Tobias Nyberg provides suggestions on how to deal with those situations when one of those conflicting dynamic surfaces. Practitioners: Do you feel unwelcome in your hometown? (The ITSM Review)

Defining IT services should always be done from a business perspective. Ryan Ogilvie explains what elements are necessary when working with customers in defining and implementing IT services. Baking Up IT Services – Swedish Chef Style (Service Management Journey)

According to Patrick Gray, enterprises are losing their emphasis on the bread and butter of IT, and the need for server technicians and systems administrators seems to be diminishing. He advises how IT professionals can plan around this trend. Make a plan as enterprises hollow out IT (TechRepublic)

As a data scientist, Cathy O’Neil receives lots of attention and emails just for her my job title and Ph.D. in math. While it is flattering, she also points out that some serious headwinds are forming in the sea of big data. The bursting of the big data bubble (mathbabe)

As a new business analyst, it can be a challenge to figure out how to learn everything you need to know to be successful. Laura Brandenburg articulates the type of knowledge you need and how to document and synthesize the information you pull together. How to Learn About a New Business Domain (Bridging the Gap)

There are a number of writings that talk about and define leadership. Peter Saddington presents his definitions of leadership using the Agile perspective and outlines questions that can help you evaluate your leadership strengths and weaknesses. Agile Coach Leadership Traits (Agile Scout)

Andrew Dlugan believes that poor speakers often fail to understand the concept of the ladder of abstraction. He proceeds to define the ladder concept and explains why it is essential for all speakers to know. The Ladder of Abstraction and the Public Speaker (Six Minutes)

We may work with some people who, for one reason or another, choose not to be committed, to their work and also to the full experience and the team that they are a part of. Mitch Joel explains why it is necessary to periodically examine our own perspectives with the question “Why are you doing the work that you’re doing?” Opt In To Your Work (Six Pixels of Separation)

According to Jeff Haden, being stuck on measuring yourself against the entrepreneurial greats like Steve Jobs is only self-defeating. He suggests striving for a much better goal. The Best Kind of Entrepreneur to Be (Inc.com)

Referring to his book Linchpin, Seth Godin talks about what will the quality jobs of tomorrow look like. Q&A: Linchpin: Will they miss you? In another similar discussion, he talks about whether the war for talent is real or merely perceived. The truth about the war for talent (Seth’s Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – June 23, 2013 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates information I have come across during the past week. They maybe ITSM related or not quite. Often they are from the people whose work resonates with me, and I hope you will find them at least thought-provoking or something of value.

Just graduated and looking for a job? Bob Lewis has some excellent insights on how to position yourself to get the job. I think the same suggestions can also be beneficial to the more experienced job seekers. Commencement 2013 (IS Survivor Publishing)

Robert Stroud advocates that the meaningful IT metrics are those used to run the business. He suggests some questions to ask when creating dashboards to help drive business outcomes. Metrics to Drive Outcomes of Business Value! (CA Technologies)

Based on the feedback he received from a recent Forrester forum, George Colony outlines ten suggestions on how to use technology to win customers. 10 Things The CEO Can Do To Drive Digital (Forrester Blogs)

In IT, we implement many processes to solve various problems or requests that come along. Patrick Gray points out that questioning and understanding why we perform a process in the first place is just as essential as assembling the process. Is your shop corrupted by unnecessary processes? (TechRepublic)

Asking the question of whether what he is sharing via the social media actually has any value to others, Tobias Nyberg explains why we should be selective with what we share. Do you clog your social media channels with useless crap? (The ITSM Review)

In an increasingly hyper-connected world with social media, Bret Simmons advocates the absolute necessity of operational excellence for any business. Operational Excellence (Positive Organizational Behavior)

Jim Taggart believes the top-down, compliance-oriented communication style is not as effective today as it was. He argues that today’s leaders should focus on an enrollment mindset where people follow an individual towards a shared vision. Creating Your Leadership Footprint through the Practice of LESS is MORE (ChangingWinds)

It’s hard to fix or improve something if you don’t know what is broken. Seth Godin reminds us that we should take the effort to understand fully what metrics in our businesses truly matters. Ping me when it’s broken (Seth’s Blog)

All other things being equal, what skills will help someone rise above the leadership pack? Marshall Goldsmith explains why the higher up you go – the more important your people skills become. Nice Guys Can Finish First (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Here is an inspiring and uplifting story to close out the post. Susan Cramm shares her observations about the program Workforce Opportunity Services, which helps underserved young men and women gain access to educational and workplace opportunities for rewarding and robust careers. A Workplace Love Story (about Consulting) (Strategy+Business)

Fresh Links Sundae – November 25, 2012 Edition

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

The inability to reach workable decisions often contributes to the perception or reality that IT is a bottleneck to the business. Bob Lewis explains how playing the game of bridge can offer a lesson in business decision making. Next-gen IT trump card: Trust (InfoWorld)

While preparing for her upcoming presentation at TFT12, Kirstie Magowan shares her thoughts on what impact social technologies and events like TFT12 will have on professional association membership in general. The future is now…be part of it (Common Sense and Service Management)

Working with his ITSM colleagues, Tobias Nyberg discusses what he had to do in order to overcome an organizational inertia of getting other members in the organization to adopt the use of the ITSM tool. Not invented here (The ITSM Review)

As an IT manager, I believe hiring technical professionals can always benefit from a consistent, structural approach that is fair and thorough. Chris Foot outlines the approach that his organization uses to recruit and screen DBA candidates. The Art of the Interview (Remote DBA Experts)

During a recent interview with Oleg Skrynnik of Cleverics, David Ratcliffe shares his views on the Pink Elephant conference and the future prospect of ITSM. Talking About The Past, Present & Future Of Pink & ITSM (Pink Elephant)

Reacting to a recent research report on IT customer service impact to the business, Rob England gives his interpretation of the report, and why he does not quite accept the premise that there is a causal link between high levels of service and productivity. How interpretation of statistics can distort any picture (The IT Skeptic)

We often find ourselves selling and promoting many products or idea. Mark Goulston suggests four tactics to use to get people to take notice and tune in to your messages. How Do You Grab People’s Attention? (Usable Insight)

We often choose to follow someone as a role model based on how much similarities we see between us and the role model persons. Jeff Haden advises why such approach can be problematic and how we can look at this differently. Role Models: Why You Might Need a New One (Inc.com)

Using a camping example, Seth Godin talks about how setting up a camp fire can also apply to how we market and promote. Wasted kindling (Seth’s Blog)

Communication breakdowns in organizations can hinder or adversely affect their operations. Marshall Goldsmith discusses why these lapses happen and how they can be avoided. Sharing is Caring (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – September 16, 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 resonates with me, and I hope you will find something of value.

ITSM SaaS solutions have been gaining popularity with many IT shops. Stephen Mann discusses the selection criteria and the considerations when selecting an ITSM toolset, SaaS or not. SaaS for ITSM: Getting Past The Hype (Forrester Blogs)

While many IT organizations try to avoid dealing with projects that are considered “shadow” and under the radar, Bob Lewis explains why it also makes sense for IT to find and support the “shadow IT” projects. Never mind shadow IT. How about shadow projects? (IS Survivor Publishing)

With a number of discussions and the push for Green IT concept, Rob England shares his feelings about the movement and why he believes the impact of green or sustainable IT will be negligible. Green sustainable IT is a sop to middle class consciences (The IT Skeptic)

Many outsourcing arrangements frequently bundle ITSM tools implementation as part of the deployment. Ros Satar explores ways to improve the effectiveness of the ITSM solution without getting lost in the deployment shuffle. Will it ever be possible to innovate in outsourcing deployments? (The ITSM Review)

Because technologies progress and change quickly, strong problem solving practices have always been an important part of IT. Simon Morris demonstrates a problem solving example using the Kepner Tregoe Problem Analysis process. A structured approach to problem solving (The ITSM Review)

Running a service desk can be a complex and labor-intensive operation. Benjamin Whitehead suggests ten things the service desk should avoid doing for efficiency and effectiveness reasons. 10 Things your IT Service Desk should NOT be doing (ITSM Portal)

The Knowledge Centred Support (KCS) concept has received some attention from the ITSM community lately. Aprill Allen discusses her early impression and the approach of leveraging KCS using forum-based knowledge bases. Adapting the KCS article lifecycle to Zendesk forums (Knowledge Bird)

After years of focusing on costs, many senior leaders are finding that their organizations are not up to the task of searching for and attaining the top line growth. Susan Cramm outlines ways anyone can use to renew her focus, to build better relationships, and to improve results. What Would Your Successor Do? (Valuedance)

Replaying from his person experience, Tobias Nyberg suggests ways to make progress in the ITSM initiatives from a grass root level and without explicit management support. Guerilla ITSM: When management doesn’t care [] (The ITSM Review)

Leveraging ideas from J. Allan McCarthy’s book, “Beyond Genius, Innovation & Luck: The ‘Rocket Science’ of Building High-Performance Corporations,” Don Tennant shares the author’s tips for building a successful, effective team. Best and Brightest, Like Star Players, Need to Be Able to Work as a Team (From Under the Rug)