Just a month before I left TI, I spoke about TI's E2E community in Chicago at GasPedal's Word of Mouth Supergenius conference w/ Telligent's George Dearing. It was quite fun and I especially enjoyed meeting a lot of very smart people :)
How Texas Instruments' E2E Community is Driving Engagement -- presented by George Dearing and Devashish Saxena from GasPedal on Vimeo.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Think Big. Start Small. Move Fast.
At a recent professional gathering, I ended my talk by urging people to "think big, start small, move fast." Interestingly enough I stated that we usually do two of these three really well, and fail miserably at the third. Then I invited people to join me in "starting small". I sincerely believe that is really important.
We want to be open to big ideas. We want to be creative and let that creativity drive us to explore new and unchartered paths. All good.
We also want to execute fast. You have been in those project meetings where the entire time is spent discussing the schedule and trying to hit a date (something that may be a little overrated - but that's another post). The desire and need to move fast is universal across industries and organizations - primarily driven by a goal of creating a first-mover advantage.
However, often we don't start small. And then you have something BIG, and you are trying to move FAST. And this increases risk of failure in multiple areas. Missing planned delivery dates is just the beginning, compromising on scope comes next and most importantly delivering something after a long development cycle completely exposes you to the chance that the market and user needs have already shifted - and that is the biggest risk of them all.
Hence the importance of starting small. Starting small allows you to move fast. Deploy incremental work. Watch real user usage and use that behavioral data to adapt and iterate. Reduces the above risks. Costs less to get first iteration out - something basic, that you can continue to build on.
Try it. Think Big. Start Small. Move Fast.
We want to be open to big ideas. We want to be creative and let that creativity drive us to explore new and unchartered paths. All good.
We also want to execute fast. You have been in those project meetings where the entire time is spent discussing the schedule and trying to hit a date (something that may be a little overrated - but that's another post). The desire and need to move fast is universal across industries and organizations - primarily driven by a goal of creating a first-mover advantage.
However, often we don't start small. And then you have something BIG, and you are trying to move FAST. And this increases risk of failure in multiple areas. Missing planned delivery dates is just the beginning, compromising on scope comes next and most importantly delivering something after a long development cycle completely exposes you to the chance that the market and user needs have already shifted - and that is the biggest risk of them all.
Hence the importance of starting small. Starting small allows you to move fast. Deploy incremental work. Watch real user usage and use that behavioral data to adapt and iterate. Reduces the above risks. Costs less to get first iteration out - something basic, that you can continue to build on.
Try it. Think Big. Start Small. Move Fast.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
New Guy/Gal Syndrome
I started a new job about three months ago. And in my first few months at the job, I have heard several comments alluding to the following central theme:
"Ha, you are still new. Let's see if you still feel this way in a few months"
"I felt the same way when I started ... hope that you are able to do more w/ it than I did"
"It's good to see you pushing for some of this stuff - but you are still fairly new"
"Dude, you still got the 'new guy syndrome'!"
Implying that:
The desire to push for positive and wanted shifts in an organization is inversely proportion to the length of time you have worked in that organization. Or that as you get more comfortable and acquire a longer tenure at the organization - your desire to change things goes down, primarily driven from a lack of success (I assume).
And the funny thing is most everyone around you assumes that will be the likely scenario.
What a shame!
My response:
"If having the 'new guy/gal syndrome' is what drives an individual to objectively look at organizational processes and strive to drive more effectiveness and efficiency, than as a leader I hope that this syndrome is contagious and that I can infect everyone else around me with it!"
There. Now you have it. Go, spread it. Go :)
"Ha, you are still new. Let's see if you still feel this way in a few months"
"I felt the same way when I started ... hope that you are able to do more w/ it than I did"
"It's good to see you pushing for some of this stuff - but you are still fairly new"
"Dude, you still got the 'new guy syndrome'!"
Implying that:
The desire to push for positive and wanted shifts in an organization is inversely proportion to the length of time you have worked in that organization. Or that as you get more comfortable and acquire a longer tenure at the organization - your desire to change things goes down, primarily driven from a lack of success (I assume).
And the funny thing is most everyone around you assumes that will be the likely scenario.
What a shame!
My response:
"If having the 'new guy/gal syndrome' is what drives an individual to objectively look at organizational processes and strive to drive more effectiveness and efficiency, than as a leader I hope that this syndrome is contagious and that I can infect everyone else around me with it!"
There. Now you have it. Go, spread it. Go :)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Enterprise 2.0: Changing the way we work
Good video from MIT's Andrew McAfee on the topic of Enterprise 2.0. I don't think there is a template answer to how this would work for any given organization. You have to adapt your approach based on the culture of the enterprise in question. However, in my experience what is tougher is not identifying or rolling out the platform, but changing people's behavior to do meaningful work using these new tools.
I have found that people who are avid users of 2.0 tools in their personal lives are (as you would expect) early adopters of similar tools in an enterprise environment. This is partly due to familiarity, but also because these individuals are more likely to spot how work that is done in a traditional manner in an organization can be done using the E2.0 toolset in a more effective and efficient manner.
I also agree w/ Andrew that you can not force people to behave in a certain manner (well, you can ... but it may not lead to long term adoption). Instead my hypothesis is, you let the early adopters build some small success stories that they get excited about, and let them pull others via their passion. In reality, a hybrid approach of structured/top-down and organic/bottoms-up seems to offer the best chances for success. The balance will be organization dependent.
What have you tried? What worked? What didn't?
I have found that people who are avid users of 2.0 tools in their personal lives are (as you would expect) early adopters of similar tools in an enterprise environment. This is partly due to familiarity, but also because these individuals are more likely to spot how work that is done in a traditional manner in an organization can be done using the E2.0 toolset in a more effective and efficient manner.
I also agree w/ Andrew that you can not force people to behave in a certain manner (well, you can ... but it may not lead to long term adoption). Instead my hypothesis is, you let the early adopters build some small success stories that they get excited about, and let them pull others via their passion. In reality, a hybrid approach of structured/top-down and organic/bottoms-up seems to offer the best chances for success. The balance will be organization dependent.
What have you tried? What worked? What didn't?
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
