Lean Partner Teams

The integration of enterprises through global sourcing strategies is a common occurrence today. As part of its sustainability strategy, Nike works with its partners in the value chain to drive principles to the team level and develop an empowered extended workforce. ...

... "Lean principles put the decision making closer to the worker through skill building, teamwork and understanding quality over quantity. HRM builds the factory’s managerial capacity and helps them value an empowered workforce. " ...

Via Nike: Sustainability Strategy

Strategy Execution through Well-Defined Projects

A fair amount of the IT strategy is made up of the portfolio of discretionary investment projects that will drive business growth and/or efficiency. Rightsizing those projects with your team and delivering to your schedules will set the tone with executive leadership. There will be times when you have to push back and reframe the project to continue your track record of success. Don't miss those opportunities. ...

... "That impossible mission should have been challenged by your IT folks at the beginning with supporting data to show the business realistic timeframes. " ...

Via CIO Insight: People and Roles

Org Controls

Decentralized and flat organization model distributes controls into the customer-focused workforce. Hierarchy and team roles are minimized while responsibility and accountability to the customer are emphasized. ...

... "Control rests with the front lines, where it adds the most value. It works. Still, customers visiting FAVI are often astounded at what they perceive to be a total lack of control. " ...

Via Idea Hub at American Express OPEN Forum: Design a Flat Organization

Embrace and Enable Continuous Change

The following article discusses an approach to position an enterprise for successful change. Change is a constant part of what we do, in the project management space, and the pace of business change will only continue to accelerate in the future. This reminded me of the kaizen methods of continuous improvement, that are the foundation for the Toyota production system and company culture. A fabric or mechanism for continuous change, even small changes, builds an organizational competence that can scale. ...

... "In order to take advantage of the improvements or avoid the disruptions, a mechanism needs to be built into the fabric of the company to make change part of everyday work life. When this mechanism is built into the company, the introduction and acceptance of change becomes a lot smoother. " ...

Via TechRepublic: Built-in change processes

Japanese Approach to Strategy Deployment

Methods for strategy deployment in Japan embrace workforce participation and includes processes in the discussion. ...

... "the Japanese Hoshin is concerned with both results and process while using two-way employee communication, and allows their active participation. " ...

Via The Manila Times: Hoshin Kanri

Next Gen Collaboration Research Supports Global Teams

IBM will invest in research to deliver solutions that enable the global collaboration of virtual project teams. The company sees collaboration, communication and visualization as capabilities to engage the next generation workforce, who are used to these advanced capabilities in their personal pursuits. ...

... "The challenges of globalization are forcing companies to become more nimble, using an increasingly geographically-dispersed and virtual workforce to remain competitive. In the world of software development, this means 24x7 collaboration with specialized teams around the globe to pick up where another left off. " ...

Via IBM: Innovations Support Global Collaboration

Align IT and Business on Critical Projects

Leadership alignment sessions, daily status reports during critical phases, and workforce collocation are all valuable techniques for aligning IT and the business on important IT projects and ensuring expectations are met. ...

... "one of the first things that he and other project leaders did was to collocate 20 business managers with 40 IT workers to help them stay in sync on the project's products and timetables. " ...

Via Computerworld: Customer Expectations on IT Projects

IT Talent: Women Professionals Needed

NYT shares insights on negative trend for women undergraduate computer science majors. This is a trend that we cannot afford. The IT profession needs the capabilities that come naturally to women: communication, simplicity, relationship-building, caring, nurturing, etc. ...

... "there is one area in which their presence relative to men is static or even shrinking: computer science. " ...

Via New York Times: Female Computer Science Gap