I recently was part of this three day intense, mind numbing, exhausting, thought provoking, (I'm running out adjectives ) Innovative Engineering session provided by Eureka Ranch very own Doug Hall. If you ever caught the series of American Inventor Doug was one of the judges, he put Simon Cowel to shame if you want a picture of this dude.
I mention this because several times during Doug's presentation he would site how several of the "death treats" to various projects which would have caused derailment of the project was IT. The observation was vague and the venue didn't provide for a chance to drill down on the details of why as I'm sure every IT obstacle has it's roots that could be explored. But what scared me from his statements was how he insinuated that it was OK to proceed without IT. That the big bad wolf for innovation were the block heads running IT - grrrrrr.
For any successful venture to compete in today's market you need tech - it's that simple. And in some organizations the tech NEEDS to be as integrated with the strategies of the organization more now than ever before, not less and no doing an end run of IT, as Doug had suggested in the training, is ever going to help organizations especially NPO's run successful programs. Communications is key, sharing success and failures keeps us moving forward and thinking, dialoging and collaboration happens via tech solutions all the time.
I've always been a believer of breaking down the barriers between tech and non tech - bending the rules is key, being flexible in solutions is key, meeting the needs and partnering on the mission . . . . key. Yes we have to have standards, but built into those standards has to be a means to listen and adapt. IT is not The Borg - assimilation was never the plan.
What drew me to this title and several of the concepts the authors are promoting is how IT doesn't have to be the driver but instead is the glue that holds the book together. IT driven projects have a tendency to fail more often than program sponsored projects - I know this, I have lived this. Partnering with the opps programs is key to a successful tech program, I get that - always have but something has to be sure the programs are in sync with each other . . . could that something be IT?
So Doug Hall - next time you mention IT as being a "Death Threat" to innovative thinking all I have to say is . . . hey nice pad stylus attached to your Mac which was connected to the WiFi along with3 very different projectors - guess all that tech was just laying around. Anybody want fries with their tech?
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