Warming up the crowd, as tradition, are Gene Hall and Peter Sondergaard.

The presenting analysts for the keynote are interesting in that I’ve never seen the same analyst twice within a 3-4 year period.  This year’s opening lineup is…drum roll please…

Andrea Di Maio Yvonne Genovese Nick Jones

Eric Knipp Hung LeHong Mark P. McDonald

• CIO Town Hall: Social Media
• Social CRM: The Next Generation of Customer Innovation
• The External Information Crisis: Will IT Step Up?
• Desperately Seeking Insight? Mine Social Networks
• Managing Social Software Maturity: Supporting Pioneers and Settlers
• How to Develop a Rational and Realistic Social Media Strategy
• Social Media Solutions and Management
• E-Commerce in a Socially Mobile World

To me, the real question is, “how should we approach collaboration”?  It almost certainly varies from org to org.  Many factors come into play like industry, size, culture, etc.  Yet, it seems that not a lot of time gets spent understanding these variables in trying to devise the best way to foster collaboration.  Just because you put a group of people in a room together doesn’t mean that magic will happen.  They may work together but never truly collaborate.

So, what are some tools or techniques that you’ve used, seen or heard to understand your team, department or organization in order to better craft a plan around collaboration?

1) Netflix Prize – $1M to the team who could make the greatest improvement to Netflix’s recommendation engine.  The team that won, BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, was comprised of statisticians, researchers, scientists and engineers.  As Gavin Potter commented, it took 3 years before someone finally cracked the 10% improvement threshold.  Innovation doesn’t always come within, right?  Well, I suppose the idea for the contest did.

2) I do have a bunch of Threadless tees that keep me smiling.  It’s like agile development meets fashion.  New designs come out every week.  People vote on the designs.  The winners get printed on tees in a finite quantity.  When they’re gone, they’re gone.  Communist Party really clicked for me since I had just returned from a stint in Shanghai.  It was the first, but not the last, tee I owned from them.

3) Doritos “Crash the Superbowl” had other people developing their Superbowl commercial for them for 2 years in a row.  The game is great to watch.  But at the water cooler, real or virtual, everyone always chatters about the commercials.  With a different slant more product focused, Mountain Dew’s DEWmocracy developed three new flavors for the people by the people, which will be narrowed to one by the people’s vote.

If you look at this from a business perspective, you have a wide range of functions that were effectively outsourced including marketing, product development, R&D and innovation.  The wisdom of the masses correctly harnessed can yield tremendous power.  So, do you have any great examples or stories to share?

I liked Keith so much that I’ve added both of his books, Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back, to my “to read” list.  I think we get so caught up in the things that we do that we often forget about the human component.  At the heart of that function in IT, finance, HR, etc are people.  And, in order to get anything done, it’s all about how you manage those relationships.  People are willing to help people.  So in a world where repetitive actions seem to start feeling transactional, my important take-away is to not only be professional, but to be kind.  An acknowledgment, recognition or simple “thank you” will go a long ways.

Doug had two wow factors for me.  First, the simplicity of his presentation was astonishing.  I’m sure you’ve experienced “death by powerpoint” at least once in your life.  This was the antithesis.  Words were at a minimum, and it was very visually appealing.  It’s a skill that I’ll have to work at diligently to master.  Second, most of his presentation focused on the way folks at IDEO collaborate.  I’ve seen plenty of intranets/portals in my days.  But, this was something quite different.  Again, like his presentation, it was simple in layout.  Most notably, people had quick and easy access to the information that they needed within a click or two.  This seems to be something that all companies strive to do.  Yeah, DUH, it makes sense.  Yet, it seems such a challenge to achieve.  I mean, how many of you can really claim that you can quickly and easily get to all the information that you need that would make you the most efficient in the job that you do?

So, here’s the bottom line for me.  One, be kind to people and cultivate good relationships.  Two, keep it simple (presentations, emails, whatever).  If you attended CIO Leadership Forum, what were your “a-ha” moments?

So, let’s get through some formalities.  I go by A.C., which is short for Antony Chan.  I’ve had folks all my life try to insert an “h” in my first name.  I got so fed up with it early on (first grade to be exact) that I started going by A.C., and it stuck.  Two letters are just easier to remember.   Only my mom calls me Antony…kind of like “Mr. Chan” is my father.

I’m the new Blog on the Block, but not a new guy at Gartner.  No, I’m not an analyst.  I’m part of Executive Programs, going on 4 years now.  I have the privilege of working with CIOs to guide them through the world of Gartner.  It’s all about the right advice at the right time.

Why blog?  Well, I can’t publish research since I’m not an analyst.   But, I see and hear a lot of interesting things working out in the field.  Occasionally, I’ll have a neat idea.  So, this will be my outlet.  I plan to focus on things at the intersection of CIOs and collaboration (what, why, how, etc).

I welcome you to take this journey with me, and to be my eyes and ears!

— P.S.  You can follow me on Twitter too.