How CIOs Get Ahead, Stay In Front, And Not Lose Those Who Follow

What worked in the past doesn’t always work well for you now. It’s not always the sacred cow that needs to be toppled; sometimes it’s your favorite pet.

I sat in on a consultation this week. It was valuable. The expert was representing an organizational system that’s effective and has been around for awhile.

That was the problem though. It’s been around, which means it has enduring wisdom, but how it was presented has been around for awhile too. It seemed aged, like grandpa telling a great story, only we’ve heard the story and know the punchline.

I pointed out to the presenter afterwards that the illustrations were old, the stories had been told before and the book recommendations have been read for over thirty years and likely by those in the room.

I wondered what my young adult son would have thought about it all? Which led me to wonder:

“What am I doing that is aged?”

Or.

“How much of my leadership approach is aging out?”

It doesn’t require being older, as I am, to rely on beliefs, patterns and mindsets that are falling behind.

The risk is critical. Fail to address this and you:

• Breed a lack of engagement
• Fuel a movement of apathy
• Miss out on crucial connections
• Overlook significant opportunities
• Yawn off a generation or two

The Two Essentials

Invigorate The Aging

In my leadership, I have had to evaluate what is no longer effective even if it is a favorite or habit of mine.?

It’s not easy to let go of what seems natural to us, as if it is in our being, a crucial distinction of our identity.

Until we remember why we do what we do. We would rather be effective than tolerated.

I use two questions to help me identify what is aging and needs invigorating:

1. What am I doing that is starting to disconnect me from those I’m influencing?
2. What is so well known that to refer to it is more distracting than defining?

I have been a public speaker for decades. I love a good oration. But I had certain practices that became less appealing to newer generations. I have dialed down energy, increased creativity, and became more the voice of wisdom than the battlecry of a warrior. My former way of speaking had become a disconnect.?

Similarly, I am a storyteller. I love stories. And I was becoming predictable. All of a sudden, my audiences were evaluating the stories I told instead of embracing the message they held. The stories became distracting rather than engaging. I still love a good story, but I’m smarter on how and when I tell it.

I have a list of things I had to change to avoid disconnection and distraction. At the same time, invigorating how I do things invigorates me.

Anticipate The Coming

Over 60% of you responded to a poll on AI usage as “just getting started.” Almost 60% of you said that upskill training is important but an issue with budget.

I have good news for you.

There is a difference between adopting new technology and anticipating how it can be used.

Take AI as an example. For most people, AI is about creation. Content creation. Code creation. You name it, a lot of activity is in what early users have said it has done for them.

That’s called The Pitch.

The Pitch isn’t bad. I use AI to create. But don’t buy the pitch as if the pitch is all there is.

Seth Godin writes, “Most visions of the internet in 1995 were about individuals interacting with content online. It turns out that the internet (inter plus net) is actually about connection. The apps and businesses that were most successful connected people–to ideas, to things or mostly, to each other.”

What if the next frontier of AI is greater connection?

Godin again: “You’re about to throw out an old board game from the attic. The AI whispers, “Hold a sec, I think a neighbor down the street has been looking for something just like that–want me to sell it to him?”

“A company seeking RFPs invites all its suppliers to submit confidential overviews of their supply chain. An AI reads the material and creates Pareto optimal connections, building a confederation of several suppliers who can work together to build something faster and more efficiently than any could do alone.”

To anticipate what is coming, to get ahead and to stay in front, means not buying the pitch so that usage ends with what everyone else is doing.

Anticipation begins with the question, “What if?”

It’s a question your team will love to participate in. And here’s a secret. If you don’t want to age out, disconnect or distract, engage people earlier so that you are doing “with” more than you are doing “for.”

The fountain of youth is found in the fluidity of the aged.