Accelerating Innovation Using Enterprise Architecture

At a recent enterprise architecture (EA) conference I challenged enterprise architects to avoid EA compliance and to begin using EA as an enabler for innovation. This challenge appears to resonate with architects and business leaders alike. In addition to numerous articles and posts, I've been asked by InfoQ's Jeevak Kasarkod, a number of clarifying questions regarding this view, so here are details which focus on what we mean when we say innovation, how maturing EA frameworks are impacting innovation, the concept of IT alignment, and other notable events that impact use of EA as a tool for innovation.

Innovation Found in Female Leadership Traits

It may be time for you to tap into your "female" side in order to succeed in today's business environment, according to the book, Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business (Wiley/Available now). Author Barry Libert contends that the profound cultural shift that's taking place as social networks grow in popularity will raise the value of executives whose management style includes traits that have been traditionally considered "female."

Primary Traits listed include;
1) Listening
2) Knowing what you are not
3) Sharing Rewards
4) Understanding that Business is Personal

Diverse Teams Improve Innovation

Why is it that our star performers do not necessarily create star teams? Is it even possible to improve the collective intelligence of a team and make them more innovative? That’s the question that a team of academics set for themselves.
Being a team themselves, of course they believed in collective intelligence but the harder question was: can it be measured? Is there a group equivalent of IQ? Can the collective intelligence of the group as a whole go above and beyond the abilities of the individual group members? And, if it can, what factors contribute to making a team smarter?

Leading Change in a Web 2.1 World

Recent advances in Web 2.0 technology enable new leadership processes and guidelines that can create great value for organizations. In this important new book—the first title in the new Brookings series on Innovations in Leadership—management expert Jackson Nickerson proposes a combination of processes and guidelines utilizing Web 2.0 technology, which he refers to as Web 2.1, that will not only lead and direct change in an organization but actually accelerate it. He calls this set of processes and guidelines “ChangeCasting,” and it should be an important part of any organization’s leadership toolkit.

Innovation in Mobile Computing for Science and Technology

Enterprise mobile computing is a significant innovation having impact across all professional disciplines. The future vision for mobile computing is influencing science and technology and mobile applications have been developed to enhance education, access to global scientific references, chemical and biological utilities and medical tool sets. New mobile applications for science and technology can be hard to find so I thought I'd compile a list. I listed more that 70 science, research and technology applications designed for mobile devices.

Let me know if you find other great mobile science and technology application and I'll update this list.

Leadership 2025, Essential Qualities for the Future

A recent report on executive leadership reveals that conveying a great sense of vision, as well as a knack to anticipate business developments and respond to them in nimble fashion - will be the most critical leadership qualities for executives to cultivate through 2025. Leadership traits that served executives well in the past, such as a talent for boosterism or an ability to get everyone "on the same page", are now taking a backseat. These conclusions arrive after a decade in which the speed and volume of information has skyrocketed, while a rocky economy and globalization have presented a host of unique challenges demanding an overhaul of the leadership skills need to meet them. "Gone are the days where people are seeking a leader who simply embodies great salesmanship and builds consensus among followers" said Michael Kemper, president and CEO of MWW Group. "In today's global world-and due to the perfect storm of economic crisis, unprecedented competition and limited access to capital that we've experienced in recent years - people are longing for leaders who can anticipate, rather than react".

What leadership qualities do think will be essential in the future?

Picking a Business Coach, Learn from Apple and Google Exec's

Have you ever considered getting a business coach. Apple's Steve Jobs and Google's Eric Schmidt are arch rivals in the mobile phone business, yet they share at least one thing in common. They both rely on Bill Campbell as a mentor and business coach. Campbell is the former CEO of Intuit (now chairman of the board) and he did exactly what Jobs and Schmidt are trying to do; build a publicly traded consumer-oriented technology company.

So how do you find a mentor and business coach? The key is to find someone who has done what you are attempting to do. Like Steve Jobs, Bill Campbell had led a company in which engineers wanted to make things complex while customers preferred easy-to-use products. Campbell successfully balanced those two interests at Intuit and therefore makes a good coach for Jobs. Eric Schmidt led Google from entrepreneurial leadership under Sergy Brin and Larry Page to an era of professional management while Brin and Page were still in the building. Likewise Campbell led Intuit while founder Scott Cook was still actively involved in the company. Campbell found a way to involve Cook without undermining his own authority to lead. Therefore Schmidt made a good choice in selecting Campbell as his coach.

Who is your mentor or business coach and how did you select them?

Leadership Under Pressure

What is it that makes a good leader under pressure? A more important question is can one learn the traits required to lead under pressure? New York Times business writer Paul Sullivan, author of  Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don’t recounts a talk he gave at West Point on the subject.
All leaders under pressure display five traits, he said: focus, discipline, adaptability, being present, and fear and desire.

There are three things business leaders can learn that will help them be successful under pressure:

1. Focused on a goal. Everything they do prepares them for the pressure filled moment and they know the responsibilities and the risks. Do you know what your primary mission is at work?
2. Continuous improvement. They develop an organization that is continually striving to be better. When a mistake happens, they try not to let it happen a second time. Are you aligned with the right organization? Or if you’re leading that organization, are you prepared to change things that aren’t working, even if change could be hard or even a reversal of something you implemented?
3. Practice for success. They know they have to be able to perform a task perfectly under normal conditions before they can expect to do it in a stressful situation. Can you say the same thing? Are you able to do your job at a high level every day? If not, then you should not be surprised when you make the wrong decisions under pressure.”

Will following this advice make you can lead under pressure? Well, maybe not–some people are just hard-coded for success in tough situations. But working at focusing on the objective, adaptability to the environment and improvement of skills sure puts whatever natural abilities you have in the best position to succeed when the going gets tough.

Have you developed any traits that help you lead under pressure?

10 Things Good Leaders Do!!

I've had good and bad leaders influence my career. I've thought about all the qualities that make up a good leader, and while its hard to always do them I've got the top ten. Everyone has different experiences so these are based on my own experiences, good and bad.

1. Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but respect must be earned.
2. Inspire your people. Inspire people by sharing your passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.
3. Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.
4. Build team spirit. Great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.
5. Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great leaders; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.
6. Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every leader delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers. Good leaders delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.
7. Tell it to people straight, even when it’s bad news. One of the most important things any leader can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.
8. Manage up … effectively. Good leaders keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.
9. Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.
10. Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. People learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.

These are my top ten, any thoughts??

Innovation featured on Fox Morning News

Some of the work I'm doing in Cloud computing has resulted in the development of two innovative mobile applications. BiometricID, a biometric enabled identity management application and Open911, an open source incident reporting and emergency management application will be featured on WTTG channel 5 Washington, DC morning news, Thursday October 21, 5:30am - 10am. Reporter Holly Morris will highlight the advanced technology associated with these Cloud applications and demonstrate how they solve real problems. Holly will report on this demonstration as part of the first National Science and Engineering Festival and Expo (www.usasciencefestival.org) on the national Mall in Washington, DC

The Quest for Innovation

Organizations express a desire to be innovative. It is the oft-cited statement from countless corporate leaders who evoke it in mission statements and look to it to drive growth. But like many corporate goals, innovation is often more a vague, conceptual symbol that a clearly define process. On closer examination, few organizations truly commit to innovation in a measurable way with head count, process management, or funding. Gartner research recently identified five myths that threaten to derail even the best laid plans. They are:

1) Innovation just happens

2) Innovation only happens in R&D

3) The best innovation comes from inside

4) The more innovative ideas we generate, the better

5) We have lots of smart people, so innovating will be no problem

Dealing with the new economic normal of doing more with less, organizations need to offset the effects of this uncertain business environment and address these innovation myths.

Innovation will require structure and planning focused at recovery, return to growth and the resolving of the organizations most critical challenges.

By addressing the myths about innovation and by developing a new model for leadership organizations will be better positioned to achieve these objectives.

Innovation outside of R&D in areas like process, service management and user interface that  will increase the success rate and speed of new product, process and service development and deployment.

Organizations will continually look to outside collaborative innovations sources. strong leadership will harness innovative technologies to drive deeper more meaningful business relationship. New business models will be developed that increase business flexibility and speed to market.

Welcome to the 21st Century Leadership and Innovation Blog

Webster’s defines leadership as the office or position of a Leader; the capacity to lead; the act or an instance of leading.  While the fundamental meaning of leadership has not changed much since the beginning of recorded history, this blog will focus on the new 21^st Century definitions of leadership. We will discuss some of the key challenges leaders face today including:

• Knowledge Driven Age
• Rapid Change
• Organizations without boundaries
• Inter-Group Leadership
• Impact of Knowledge Workers

Leadership in the 21st century is no longer a fixed role.  Today’s leadership operates in a fluid, dynamic environment where innovation rules and leadership can come from any direction including outside the group. 

Innovation, which is different from invention – developing great ideas, can be defined as ideas applied successfully in practice. Innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, entrepreneurship, design, technology, sociology, and engineering. While innovation is usually associated with the output of the process, this blog will tend to focus on the process itself, from the origination of an idea to its transformation into something useful, to its implementation and its impact on the system within which the process of innovation unfolds.

So please join me in the discussion of what makes 21^st leadership and how the innovation drives the continual evolution what it means to be a leader.