Ow! Too Much Tech - What does all of this mean?

Throughout my career I am often asked in meetings by my fellow technology leaders, business leaders and colleagues about the various technology trends. Most of the questions are about why some of the technologies are being used, for what reasons, how are they doing generally speaking, and what could it mean to businesses and individuals. It is not only my technical perspective that they value, but additionally the non-technical one.

From my perspective, technology has created some radical changes across a variety of industries affecting numerous businesses and individuals. The challenge is pretty simple: how to recognize what is needed out of a sea of change. Firstly many professionals amazingly still see that many of the changes are simply not that many nor necessarily that much of a change agent. This typically means that these individuals will have a lot of learning to catch up on and a lot to digest resulting in a natural selection/de-selection of what is important or not. Often times I point to the mobile industry disruption that Apple caused resulting in the rise of Apple iPhone, Google Android and Microsoft WP7 and the decline of Nokia and RIM. Simply ignoring what is up-and-coming and not really taking careful consideration of why things rise and more importantly who would be the target customer has been demonstrated to be tremendously dangerous for existing market leaders and professionals no matter how long they have been there, how experienced they may be, or how much subject matter expertise they have.

From a high level viewpoint there are several technology trends that have significant impacts both to businesses and individual professionals:

Technology	Meaning to Business	Meaning to Professional
Mobile	Appeals to customers in a different manner; fast, mobile, effective, efficient.	Looking at customers differently and learning techniques to address them effectively.
Social	Word-of-mouth counts more so than ever now. Need to be able to tap into it.	Highly dynamic and fluid. Requires engagement and voluntary participation.
Big Data	Lots of key learning and competitive advantage in data.	How to understand the difference between big data and traditional data.
Cloud	A different way to react quickly to changing business needs.	How to make a complex process, simple, effective and fast.

For businesses the changes mean looking at customers differently, understanding that speed to market which has always been a great challenge is even more important, but also that quality and price matter. If one looks at Apple for example, they have sold a lot of iPhones and continue to sell a lot of really good products at a higher price than competitors. However their customers love the company and are willing to spend their hard earned dollars on what they see as a great value. Many companies definitely want a similar level of passion with their customers though often times are not able to achieve it. 

However for every business that wants to tackle the challenge there are the individuals that need to carry it out. This is where many times professionals find themselves at a disadvantage in that they themselves are not necessarily familar with the changes which makes it difficult to execute. For example many technical professionals I speak with are not very familiar with how mobile platforms differ from their back-end counterparts in terms of developing solutions, managing them, and the like. Similarly even in well defined and well known approaches such as Amazon Web Services are not understood to a point where most IT shops could deploy similar services within their own organization even with outside vendor or Open Source products. 

Often times being able to take even simple steps towards incorporating these trends into existing solutions is a prime example of the how contentious the viewpoints are within organizations. A blend of ill will from prior IT/Business conflicts, lack of knowledge, and plain old stubbornness often times bogs down initiatives unnecessarily resulting in negative impacts to a business in the forms of missed opportunities and even talent loss to competitors. 

While it is true that there are indeed many different changes that continue to emerge at a rapid pace that both businesses and individuals have to deal with, the reality is that if observed with a calm, cool and determined mindset, these can be sorted out into workable and beneficial solutions.

Leadership vs. Management

This is often one of those topics that generates quite a bit of discussion and sentiment. There are in fact many great perspectives on the these topics. However it is usually far more helpful to take these higher level concepts and boil them down to more simplistic or at least more tangible examples for different members of an organization.

From my experience, the best way to differentiate the two is that leadership embodies the ability to guide and provide direction for individuals and organizations whereas management is more the ability to control specific processes. Both are needed within an effective organization.

For many organizations, there is an abundance of management. They are very good at coming up with controls and procedures for their various processes which over time also applies not only to projects but to individuals within projects. The problem of control is the span. In most organizations every significant decision is driven to a gatekeeper. While this method insures control it is slow, ponderous and consequently unable to adjust to rapid changes. While many college courses and experts agree that a more flexible control structure is required, it is rarely implemented effectively in existing organizations. The fundamental issue is based on a principle that I have learned from Toyota which is "mutual trust and respect". Employees do not trust nor respect their managers, and managers do not trust nor respect their employees. This situation almost always results in strong control spans which in turn create inflexible organizations.

This condition in my opinion is based on the second missing component in these organizations which is leadership. While teams typically have someone they report to, it is very rarely a leader in the necessary sense of providing true vision, guidance and direction. In many cases teams instead are lead by project or operational managers who are very good at assigning work to individuals and driving to a deadline. Hence many teams create their own leadership networks that are usually not tied to their direct manager. Instead these leaders are often members whom they respect on a professional level yet are not organizationally responsible for the teams directly. This creates a situation that is all too common where loyalty and respect falls to these non-team leaders that can lead to significant roadblocks in terms of motivation and deliverable quality. After all, if you do not respect the person you report to, you have very little reason to rise to your full potential.

So these are two very dangerous combinations for any organization: inflexible control via outdated management and minimal emotional investment and loyalty via ineffective or non-existent leadership.  This poses not only problems for existing individuals within a company but also future recruitment and retention. After all, if the environment is perceived with a bad reputation, word of mouth quickly spreads among professionals via valued peer relationships that can taint an organization with regard to how it is viewed by talented individuals. This reputation can take years to repair once detected even if the organization demonstrates commitment towards improvement.

This is why especially during difficult times such as this recent recession those companies that actually worked to establish strong leadership and evolutionary management practices are more than capable of delivering strong results rather than others. Implementing changes for both areas is tremendously difficult for any organization and takes time.

So how do these concepts influence technology professionals? In truth it affects any professional in that many organizations may be in for a very rude awakening when the economy improves. Many of the individuals I have spoken and interact with are in fact disenchanted and dissatisfied with their current situation but due to a variety of factors are unable to move on. When the economy improves, it is almost a certainty that they will move onto opportunities outside their company that are more to their liking.

I make it a habit of talking with my directs and listening to what they tell me. Often times in their various stories I can sense their discontent in almost every example they cite. In as many cases as possible I work with them to understand their issues and work out plans with tangible deliverables so that they can see improvements to their situation. I may not be able to convince all of them, but more often than not they respect the fact that I am trying to address their concerns. Also I provide feedback to my management peers about what I have seen, what I have heard, the actions I have implemented, the results to date, and solicit feedback and guidance for improvements.

While such actions may not totally reverse nor necessarily prevent situations of talent churn in organizations who have gone too long without addressing their leadership or management processes, there are noticeable improvements which if planted and nurtured correctly can serve as a solid foundation for a more sustainable future.