Kathy Harris

I’m in Orlando, Florida at Gartner’s annual U.S. PCC conference. We have a great agenda, a great crowd of attendees and an impressive vendor show. As for my role in the conference, I’m presenting on two management topics (with one presentation Monday morning and another on Wednesday morning). 

My first presentation is titled “Machiavelli’s Guide to IT: If Nicolo Were a CIO” and I have to thank my colleague Tina Nunno, the original author of this excellent work, for the opportunity to present it. I enjoyed this presentation as much as any I’ve ever given – what a great piece of work. Here’s an excerpt from the presentation: 

“Machiavelli was wrongly accused and imprisoned. This experience gave him a slightly different world view than that of CIO’s. Specifically, Machiavelli believed that among your stakeholders: 

• You have a smaller number of friends than you think you do.
• You have a higher number of enemies than you think you do.
• Everyone else is in the category of potential enemies (not potential friends but potential enemies).

This means if you want to deal effectively with the world at large, you need to look at people not as either neutral or potential supporters but as potential enemies who will throw you under the bus just because they feel bad that day; and some will throw you under the bus on a regular basis because they’re in that mood every day.”

My second presentation is titled “The High Performance Workplace: A Guidebook for Managers and Leaders”. This focuses on the organizational and management changes needed to deal with new behaviors, teaming, collaboration and so on as a result of the web, social computing and other related technology trends. Here’s an excerpt from this presentation: 

“Managers and executives face a rapidly changing world. They often feel out of control and are constantly seeking guidance on how to navigate and manage through uncertainty and ambiguity. Whether they work in culturally aggressive companies or culturally conservative companies, managers will steadily be expected to behave and inspire like leaders. They will have to champion change, spur innovation, unify people across disparate constituencies and be role models of adaptability. Those who cannot reach that higher level of leadership will lose their way in the 21st century business. Specifically,

• Managers often point to the inertia of organizational culture, lack of employee skills and even users’ unwillingness to change as obstacles to their success. In many cases, managers are themselves impeding progress.
• Managers are attempting to lead their organizations using a manager’s platform built on disciplines and organization styles that are quickly becoming obsolete.
• A new manager’s platform is emerging that integrates emerging responsibilities resulting from new business, workforce and organizational models. “

So, if you’re attending the PCC conference, consider attending these sessions or taking a look at the full presentation in your archives. If you’re not attending PCC,  look for continuing research on these topics at future conferences.