The CIO Assistant's Blog

“So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to, the question of whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside. For the creator must be a world for himself and must find everything in himself and in Nature, to whom his whole life is devoted.”

This excerpt is from the first letter in a series of Letters to a Young Poet written by Rainer Maria Rilke, a late 19th century poet in response to a request for critique. His advices were addressed to an aspiring poet – a beginner, but could be easily applicable today to an aspiring blogger such as myself or someone looking for the “art of living the beginner’s life” such as my blogger buddy, Christiaan Hillen at his blog Mind the Beginner.

Let’s read on:

“No one can advise or help you – no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must”, then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.”

“Don’t write love poems; avoid those forms that are too facile and ordinary: they are the hardest to work with, and it takes a great, fully ripened power to create something individual where good, even glorious, traditions exist in abundance. So rescue yourself from these general themes and write about what your everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty. Describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember.”

“What else can I tell you? It seems to me that everything has its proper emphasis; and finally I want to add just one more bit of advice: to keep growing, silently and earnestly, through your whole development; you couldn’t disturb it any more violently than by looking outside and waiting for outside answers to questions that only your innermost feeling, in your quietest hour, can perhaps answer.”

Even if written more than a century ago, Rilke’s thinking still resonates very much with me, and in several ways:

1. On Writing (Blogging) – Avoid those forms that are too facile and ordinary. Take the subject of blogging for example. There are too many bloggers writing about “How to blog successfully” or “How to make money from your blog”. Unless this is a subject that you are passionate about and your power to create something individual is great and fully ripened, it’s better to leave it to others.

2. On The Art of Living – Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows. The art of living is to live a full life in every aspect, be it personal, professional or social. Unless you are a narcissist or a hermit, chances are that you spend the majority of your awakened hours interacting with others, reacting to their opinions and emotions. Even when you manage to have some time of your own, you risk spending it on the quick and easy – the mind candy (watching a reality show, reading a detective novel …). Getting in touch with the deep sources of life, either through reflection or meditation, would make you more conscious of self and more grateful for the ordinary things around you. Writing and sharing them with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity would then complete the art of living.

3. On Beginner’s Life – Keep growing, silently and earnestly, through your whole development. Life is a journey full of desire, expectation and aspiration. Throughout the journey, each new place or event provides a new vista and experience. Even if it seems that we have learned something, there is always a new element present. That’s why people of faith have made the annual pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela being the most written about. That’s why practicing Tendai Buddhists performed their annual “kaihogyo”. One of them, Jim Curry, once observed: “I’m always walking the same places I’ve never been before.” On this life journey then, everyone of us, regardless of age or station in life, is a forever beginner. Having the humility and the curiosity of a beginner would keep you growing, silently and earnestly, until the very end of your earthly life. 

What are your thoughts about Rainer Maria Rilke the poet and his advices? Please write and share.

          life, living, Rainer Maria Rilke

Did you have early last year a plan for (how to deal with) the economic downturn? And this month, do you have a plan for its return to growth? In short, do you have a plan for different market scenarios? If you ask the CIOs, the most likely answer is NO. Few would be able to say:

“Yes, we have anticipated the downturn and here is our Plan A to deal with it. By the way, we also anticipate its return to growth x months after and here is our Plan B. Just in case the downturn gets prolonged for another y months, here is our Plan C.”

The sad truth is that the majority of us don’t plan for every eventualities. We don’t have the habit or practice to do so. We don’t have the time to do, so we say. We are good at developing the annual IT plan (mostly a budget, with perhaps a list of projects to do). We are also good at developing topical and ad hoc ones (e.g. Influenza A Pandemic Action Plan). We have plans for every IT aspects: operating plans, project plans, audit plans, disaster recovery plans … We have plans for every business functions: financial plans, human resources plan, marketing plans, engineering plans … We have plans for every time frames: annual plans, monthly plans, daily plans … However, we build plans to response to something instead of to anticipate something. And when we do build plans in anticipation (we call them strategic plans), we put them in the context of a large time horizon (3-5 years). These long-range plans are worse than having no plans at all, they are the albatross around our neck, forcing us to follow through for example with a 3-year implementation of a unified Enterprise Resources Planning system across all divisional units when the business itself undergoes changes at all levels. There is no built-in mechanism to adjust these plans on-the-fly, only an annual revision process. And when the revised version looks drastically different from the original one, we ditch the old strategic plan and introduce a new one, with the same time horizon moving forward by another year.

Is it the way to lead the business nowadays? I think not.

Looking back through the history, I see that there existed a model for effective planning: The General Staff organization of the Prussian empire (1808 – 1871) which is recognized as the most advanced warfare planning institution and one that was subsequently studied and imitated by virtually all other military powers (British, French, Russian and American included). The Prussian General Staff was largely responsible for the success of the Prussian army throughout this period (1) and beyond:

“Prussian and German military victories would often be credited professionally to the Chief of Staff, rather than to the nominal commander of an army. Often the commander of an army was himself a member of the General Staff, but it was now institutionally recognized that not only was command leadership important, but effective staff work was a significant key to success in both pre-war planning and in wartime operations.”[Source: Wikipedia]

One reason for its success can be attributed to its legendary level of preparedness:

“As early as 1843, when Europe had been largely at peace for nearly thirty years and most major nations had no plans for war, observers noted sheaves of orders at the Prussian War Ministry, already made out to cover all foreseeable contingencies and requiring only a signature and a date stamp to be put into effect.”[ibid]

Modern CIOs, do you think that you can benefit from the thinking and teaching of these historical Chiefs of Prussian General Staff?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 (1) I purposely make the reference to the Prussian army in this particular period in order to avoid any debate about the German General Staff organization and its role in the World War II. Consult this Wikipedia page for more information on the role of Chief of General Staff in various countries and time lines.

          CIO, General Staff, leadership, planning

There are recently a host of posts inquiring about whether the CIOs of the world are joining the social media bandwagon or not. One is from NetworkWorld with “12 CIOs who Tweet”. The most recently one is from fellow CIO blogger George Tomko with his post “Why CIO are not using Twitter?” in which George made the following remark:

“Very few CIOs use Twitter. This is not to say that they are against using Twitter. It also does not mean that they are not interested in social networking tools. Three major factors contribute to the slow adoption by CIOs and, ultimately, the companies for whom they manage the deployment of such technology.”

He went on to describe these 3 factors which I would encourage you to come over and read more about, it’s a great post. I posted my comments there:

“As with any good questions, there is no straight answer to “Why CIOs are not using Twitter?”. I would say that its adoption/use by the CIOs depends largely on 3 factors:

1. The persona of the CIO – Some are more techno-inclined, hence more techno-advanced than others in using new tools. There is no evidence to say that one is more capable than another in terms of making an informed decision when the time comes.

2. The level of maturity of IT in the organization – Depending on whether IT is highly effective (optimized in my terminology) or not, issues of security, privacy and productivity may or may not be easy to tackle.

3. The nature and culture of the business organization – Some are more “social” or “media”-centric than others, hence the different rate of adoption. Likewise, the risk averse mentality is more of a corporate one than a particular CIO trait. A risk-averse CIO won’t last long in a high risk-tolerant company.

and would like to expand on it here.

1. To Tweet or not to Tweet, it depends on the Persona of the CIO  - Teeting is a personal, professional and social activity at the same time. Some use Twitter to “follow” newsbreak or celebrities the way many of us following CNN and the like. Others use it to stay connected and exchange tidbits of information among their communities of friends. Others yet use the platform in a creative way for marketing reasons. There shouldn’t be any difference from a CIO user to a non-CIO one. To tweet or not to tweet is more of a personal choice depending on his/her persona.

2. To Tweet or not to Tweet, it depends on the maturity level of the IT organization - As explained in an earlier post (A Darwinian view of a successful IT organization), the challenges facing an IT organization in the early stage of evolution (Optimization) are different from those in the later stage (Growth). While on surface they all need to cut costs and add values, those still working toward an Optimized state (similar to the Level 5 of the Capability Maturity Model – CMM) do not have in place yet a process or mechanism to automatically and effortlessly adjust to technological changes. Social Media in general and Twitter in particular are good examples of those changes. The apparent slow adoption of changes is not because of the unwillingness or risk-averse attitude (of those CIOs) but of the un-preparedness to deal with such ramifications as threats to security, privacy and productivity.

3. To Tweet or not to Tweet, it depends on the nature and culture of the Business – One statement making the round lately is that “CIOs as a lot are more risk averse those days”. Some like Brian Gillooly from InformationWeek [Ref. 1] even called the risk-averse attitude “inherent” and “potentially disastrous for the company”. My take is different: I think that it depends on the Business and we cannot make a blanket statement for all. If some CIOs exhibit a risk-averse approach to social media or any other new technology, it could simply because the CIOs in question are in tune with the Business or with its risk-averse culture. It is then neither inherent nor more disastrous than some CIOs too eager to push through new technologies in the name of innovation while the Business doesn’t warrant one.

By understanding these 3 factors, the smart CIO would listen hard to the stakeholders to understand their perception and expectations in order to address them accordingly, resist the temptation to follow the crowd and stay true to his/her image of a no-nonsense business leader. To tweet or not to tweet, that is a personal choice. To adopt Twitter or other social media corporate-wide is a business decision to be based on demonstrated benefits and values, not on any ideological or personal preference.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Ref. 1] Global CIO: Have CIOs Become More Risk Averse? by Brian Gillooly, editor-in-chief of events for the InformationWeek Business Technology Network.

          business, CIO, CMM, maturity level, optimization, persona, risk management, social media, twitter