Wednesday, January 3, 2018

The Monthly Foresight: Think Forward and Get Out of Comfort Zone in the New Year Jan., 2018

This continuous moving "out" of your comfort zone is complemented by the cycle of self-development.

The effects of an increasingly digitalized world are now reaching into every corner of businesses and every aspect of organizations. Digital is the age of creativity and innovation, creativity is the most wanted trait for digital leaders and professionals today, and innovation is the light every organization is pursuing. 

Which themes shall you set to advocate digital transformation? What are your practices for building a hyperconnected and ever-evolving digital business ecosystem? And can you think forward, and move out of the comfort zone to kick out the New Year?
 

 Think Forward and Get Out of Comfort Zone in the New Year


The Digital Leader’s New Year Crystal Ball: How to Predict and Prepare the Next Level of Digitization: Just as the industrial revolution did a century and a half ago, the digital revolution is reshaping the way we live, we think, and we work. The digital world is dynamic, interconnected, and interdependent, with the abundance of information. A digital paradigm is an emerging digital ecosystem of principles, policies, and practices that set limits or boundaries; and also offers the guidance for problem-solving or creating something new to achieve a state of dynamic balance. Leadership is all about making directions and driving changes. Forward-thinking digital leaders: how can you predict and prepare the next level of digitalization at the end of the year?

Can you “Move out of your Comfort Zone”? Change is the new normal. Change is situational. It happens when something starts or stops, or when something that used to happen in one way starts happening in another. But acceptance of change is transitional, and “moving out of your comfort zone" can be used at all levels and as a starting point for change. It might sound like a cliche, the trick is understanding that moving out of a comfort zone leads to the creation of a new comfort zone which in turn will require you to move out "of" it again. This continuous moving "out" of your comfort zone is complemented by the cycle of self-development. There is a classic fable about a lion and a gazelle to analogize such a "surviving and thriving cycles": The lion wakes up and starts running otherwise it will not catch lunch. The gazelle does the same but, in this case, to avoid becoming lunch. Either way, you have to move to survive. This principle can be applied in a physical sense as well. The human body is designed for motion and physical effort.

Three Insight about Digital ADVANCEMENT Human history is an evolutionary journey to keep advancing economically, technologically, and sociologically. Advancement is about forward-thinking, progress, improvement, fresh knowledge, modernization while the opposite of advancement is primitivity, outdated concept/tradition, static mindset, negative behavior, etc. The modern society is a dynamic continuum with collective human progress. Real societal advancement is made through the work of progressive minds, update knowledge, and progressive activities. When the world is catching up with the most advanced mindsets, stepping into the further-looking perspective, aligned with a positive attitude, fitting into the new digital dynamic, and integrating into upward movements, it makes a LEAP of collective human progress. The true advancement is about QUALITY, DELIGHT, SIMPLICITY, BRIGHTNESS, and INTELLIGENCE.

The Further-Looking Board The digital enterprise consists of an amalgam of socio-systems, techno-systems, bio-systems, and Econo-systems. BoDs as the top business advisor role need to have sufficient knowledge to understand the business ecosystem and sense that the digital transformation is multifaceted; they should have the business vision to predict the emergent trend of business, technology or industry. Therefore, to make the role highly effective, digital BoDs not only need to be forward-thinking, they have to be further looking, thinking longer term, guide the executive team toward the right direction and play the management advising role effortlessly.


Accelerate Digital Transformation via Reducing Unnecessary Pains As many organizations are at an inflection point in digital transformation, that transformation represents a break from the past, with a high level of impact and complexity. The goal of the digital paradigm shift should look beyond immediate symptom fixing, the focus should include the mind shift and actions designed to solve real problems, sustain performance improvement and anchor change as a new opportunity. Some say, no pains, no gains; but to be fair, it is also important to reduce unnecessary pains and speed up to ride above the change curves. Because there are so many obstacles need to overcome, and numerous pitfalls on the way; it is so important to keep the end in mind, and laser focus on the most critical things, continue tuning the business to get digital ready.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 2 million page views with about #4300th blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

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