Bending the failed expectations curve - 10 Questions with Jay Gardner of NetIQ

After 30 years in IT, Jay Gardner has landed as the GM and VP at NetIQ, a recent acquisition of Attachmate, privately held company that seeks to "bridge the divide between open source and proprietary source software.

Jay talked with me about getting IT value and bending the "failed expectations curve" when it comes to technology adoption.

"The failed expectations curve is really a financial picture of the business case where the Y-axis is value and the X-axis is time... There is going to be a certain amount of deterioration in the value, or at least a diminishing gain, as the adoption curve levels off and you go from the value of implementing to the value of maintaining and improving... it often comes down to the talent in the organization that makes things happen..."

Once we had covered ten questions on this topic, I also asked Jay to draw on his experience for his best recommendation on making a remarkable business presentation.

"My best recommendation is to tell a story. Always try to relate an example of what you're talking about, either a business process or a customer story. Make it memorable and credible, and unique. That's the way to get people's attention and keep it. Data can support it, but people have to be able to relate to what you're talking about in an illustration rather than bullets. When you can tell a good story, being persuasive is a natural outcome."

You can read the complete interview with Jay on the CBS Interactive site.

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(* Did you already read my interviews on cloud computing with Jimmy Harris and virtualization with Mark Egan?)

Virtualizing your Reality

Mark Egan, whose company VMware is synonymous with trailblazing and dominating the area of virtualization, recently talked with me about his perspectives on the future of real technology in a virtualized world.

"...if you think of social-media apps, for example, how do we take some of these systems with a Soviet-era interface and make them look like Facebook and be as easy as Twitter? I believe the user interface trumps functionality."

Another insight from Mark was on his top recommendation for making a more remarkable business presentation.

"I always like to see a speaker who keeps the focus on the question, 'What is the business problem we're trying to solve?' and ultimately answers it. In my humble opinion, as a CIO I should always be focusing on three areas for the company: growing revenue, reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction. Everything I do should track back to those three. Sometimes in our presentations I think we lose the translation to those areas. Those are the things I think we need to see made relevant, and in some cases I've seen my peer presenters get sidetracked to other things."

You can find the entire discussion with Mark in the article out today at CBS Interactive.

Why IT is not a department anymore

My ten-question interview with longtime technologist and top Fortune 100 executive, Julius Tomei, is out in today's TechRepublic. His job covers 50,000 end users in 45 countries, and his experience runs the gamut of technology-related positions. Among other topics like outsourcing, mobility and consolidation, Julius talks about his perception that IT should no longer be thought of as a department.

I also asked Julius for his insights on delivering remarkable presentations, both the ones he gives and the ones he has attended:

"Two things stand out to me when it comes to Powerpoint: getting the right number of slides, and using good graphics and illustrations. What I see most often is either more slides than necessary or not enough. Then there are people who are good at developing very elaborate slides that actually end up losing the audience's attention. Using relevant pictures and graphics is the way to keep people focused. I try to put together slides I can talk to and not read from, and discuss the background behind the slides.

In 2007 I was invited to speak at the annual itSMF conference in Atlanta on the topic of how I got ITIL to work. I took them through the process by illustrating in terms of golf. You don't win by hitting holes in one every time. You do it by making a series of putts. So I was able to keep the discussion at a high level for a larger audience. I can get technical when I need to, but in this case I needed to make it very accessible. When I do include technical information in a presentation, I like to keep it to one or two slides. What people really want to know is, 'How did you come to think of that? What was your thought process?' In this case it was to run a lights-out data center very efficiently and at the lowest practical cost. I needed people to speak the same language and operate from the same framework, and that was ITIL. Explaining in those terms really resonated with the audience."

You can also find this and other technology leadership interviews at 10QatAtime.com.

Looking from the outside in

Southern California tech veteran Ian Clayton talked with me recently about his three decades of work in IT as well as his secrets to making a great personal presentation.

After starting at Ross Perot's EDS International not long after the On Wings of Eagles rescue mission in Iran, Ian went on to do consulting work with clients around the world like Caterpillar, American Express and Australia Telecomm. In the 1990's, he helped to bring the ITIL framework over from the UK as one of the cofounders of itSMF-USA.

More recently, he has been among the first to anticipate information systems as a service, even before the term cloud technology came into vogue. Ian's presentations are most often around a table of technology executives interested in a new way of looking at things. Which is what he provides them.

Here's Ian's recommendation for applying new perspective to delivering a remarkable presentation:

"Instinctively my idea of a best habit in making a presentation is being able to take an outside-in, you-based position. Speak to the problem or challenge and needs of your audience using their language. Start by making the leap of translating your own views into theirs, and connect with them right from the get-go. A habit I've seen that needs breaking is leading off with a description of the 'what' and the 'how' before explaining the 'why.'" Those are the presentations that seem to take longer, get less stakeholder buy-in and don't help the audience."

Read the full ten-question discussion on "Viewing IT service management from the outside in" in today's TechRepublic. Also watch for Ian's second book, Outside In Service Management, to be coming out this summer.

Going from podium to Web

You've put together a stellar presentation for the big conference and are counting down the days. With a week to go, a tsunami/tornado/oil spill interrupts the plan and the conference is cancelled.

After hearing your practice run, your boss says, "We're going with this! Get Webex on the phone!" No problem, right?

Turning a classroom presentation into an online meeting requires some planning and rethinking. It's more than just making your delivery on a conference call.

A bicycle and a unicycle are two ways to get from here to there that seem similar, but the difference can add some new challenges. What you've done behind the podium may not translate seamlessly over to a web meeting.

Winning priority is the first major difference to consider:

Unlike a physical event, attendance on a web presentation is entirely up to you and your team. You don't have the luxury of being an alternative in a handful of speaker sessions. Your message is competing with all the normal (and ever-increasing) priorities of everyone's workday. Clicking on an invitation is a routine commitment for most people. Each reminder of the value you've promised to deliver is more important than the last, up to the final "one hour from now!" e-mail.

Read the rest of the article in today's TechRepublic.

When Your Job Depends on Your Presentation - my interview with Bill Keyworth

As research director at Gartner, Bill Keyworth was consistently rated as one of the top presenters. Which is a good thing, because his job depended on it.

I talked with Bill recently about cloud computing and technology marketing for an article in TechRepublic magazine. He also described some of the underlying beliefs about why his largely technical presentations have always been so well received across a variety of audiences:

"One primary thing is keeping the visuals a support mechanism and not letting them become the presentation. People are going to remember a very small percentage of what you say even two or three hours later. So what is it you want them to remember? You want them to do something differently. Everything you do should be driven by that, including your visuals.

When I was at Gartner, every presentation got a feedback score that was posted, and not being in the top twenty percent was not good. If you weren't in the top half, you should start looking for another job. At first I had no idea why I scored so well, and then someone told me my strength was my credibility. I believed in management technology and processes, and I believed it would make a difference.

Some presenters can tell a great story but can't answer the basic question of how things are run, managed or controlled. They'll explain that those details are 'coming out in the next version.' For me, non-managed is an unacceptable answer. So even when people don't remember everything I said, my belief in the importance and necessity of those management answers comes through in the credibility of my presentations. It has to come from the heart."

You can read the full interview with Bill Keyworth in today's TechRepublic article here.

Bill's newest venture, the BSM Review, features a complete panel of experts from across the IT spectrum blogging on business service management.

REthinking the WORKplace - My Interview with 37signals' Jason Fried on Better Work and Remarkable Presentations

One of the things I point out in Ten Breakable Habits is that the slides are not the presentation, and if adding visuals doesn't improve your presentation, don't use them. 37signals founder (Basecamp, Campfire, Ruby on Rails, etc.) Jason Fried talked to me recently about his web applications business and about what he's learned about presentation delivery over the course of his career as an international speaker.

Here's how Jason describes his speaking style:

"Something I've started doing more recently is speaking without slides, or if I use slides, they are just pictures with few or no words. There's certainly nothing where I'm reading or anyone is reading off the screen. I have a set of ideas I like to use for topics and I just run with them and see where it goes. I much prefer the question and answer part of things anyway. I want to be prepared, but I don't want to over-prepare or think too hard about it. I avoid getting to a place where I'm thinking about what I wanted to say."

You can see the whole interview with Jason in today's TechRepublic article here.

Jason's third book REWORK is due out next month.

Ten Breakable Habits (for a remarkable presentation)

Here's an excerpt from this week's TechRepublic with a preview of my new book on presentations, coming out on February 12th. If you're looking for an easy way to get your next presentation to the next level, these are the first five of my ten recommendations for do's and don'ts:

1 - Stop: Being an information resource.

Start: Being the funnel, filter, and guru.

Put away the teleprompter. Presenting is more than giving a speech. You're changing data into information, knowledge, and with a little luck, wisdom.

2 - Stop: The train - there's no track.

Start: With the end in mind.

Invest the amount of preparation time in your presentation that will make it a winning experience for you, like an athlete whose first goal is self-improvement.

3 - Stop: Trusting the human ear.

Start: Polishing your shoes.

Don't keep it simple; make it simple. Transform a complicated thought or process into something that is easy to see and appreciate.

4 - Stop: Explaining your slides.

Start: illustrating your ideas.

The images you use will create lasting impressions if they connect with your words. We're a visual culture and need the combination of content and visual emphasis.

5 - Dont: Focus on everything.

Do: Build around a unique value proposition and an unrefusable offer.

The ability to define your message in terms of a UVP and UO is the central piece of making your presentation remarkable. Keep your other points ancillary to these two.

For a list of all ten breakable habits, see the article in TechRepublic's "10 Things" column here.

You can find more details on the book at www.tenbreakablehabits.com.

The Art of the (Amazon/Zappos) Deal

Here's a memo out today from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh about his commitment to keeping his business-as-usual approach, and at the same time using Amazon to take Zappos to the next level.

The deal between the two online retailers was finalized over the Halloween weekend. If you missed it earlier last month, here's a link to my ten-question interview with Tony in TechRepublic.

Ten Questions with a Driven Climber: CIO John Golden

My newest IT leadership interview with CIO John Golden is out today in TechRepublic. Along with driving the technology decisions behind insurance giant CNA, John also went through 23 surgeries to allow him to walk. Then, instead of just walking, he decided his rehabilitation also ought to include an expedition to the top of Mount Everest, and a couple of the other significant peaks in the world along the way.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Thanks to John for sharing his inspirational story and for creating the LiveActive Foundation. Watch for the full version to come out on the Discovery Channel next month.

Top 10 Twitter Rules

Speaking of twitter, if you're a twitterphile/twitterholic with half a million followers, you already know what works for you. If you're still skeptical that there's any real value in conversations made up of 140-character sound bites, here are ten rules that will help you to keep it real in both your "following" and "followers" columns.

10 Rules for the Twitter Neophyte

(don't follow the white rabbit.)

* does twitter stand to gain from a "Facebook Exodus?"

Like this article? Pass it along at StumbleUpon

Inflight Wi-fi - still disconnected?

Last year I wrote a piece for TechRepublic about wi-fi on domestic airlines. I'm still suspicious that encroachment into this last haven of being disconnected may not be welcomed across the board, but inflight web access continues to expand its reach every day.

The Gogo Inflight offering by Aircell is at eight dollars for mobile access and ten for normal wi-fi on flights of three hours or less. American Airlines and Delta have this now. United has a plan in the works. Here's a link to the corporate video from Aircell's CEO.

Tip: you can also save 25% by using promo code "wifi25" through 7/3/09.

Making IT visible at Accenture

Here's an interview I just did with Bob Kress of Accenture that was published today in TechRepublic. Bob is a very interesting guy and has streamlined their technology at the same time the company has been going through phenomenal growth. His philosophy of showcasing the efficiency of his IT operation at Accenture is a model other companies should (and Bob says they can) emulate.

Technology and the 2016 Olympics

If you're interested in what kind of part is played by technology in the 2016 Olympics, and specifically the bid by the city of Chicago against the other contender cities, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid, here's an interview I did with Ellen Barry for TechRepublic.

Ellen is the CIO of the MPEA, which includes McCormick Place and Navy Pier. The level of technology, overall space and versatility Chicago offered to the International Olympic Committee in their recent visit is astounding. I'd say we've got a good shot at it. Be sure to check out the photo gallery link for some great shots - nice screensavers for Chicagoans (or former Chicagoans).

Apropos government, happy day between tax days! Today falls between Tax Freedom Day and Tax Day (the regular IRS one).

Just how important is a smart healthcare IT executive?

Not many issues approach the universal concern over the healthcare situation (crisis?) in this country.  The changing role of the CIO at a hospital or other health service provider seemed like a great topic for a few questions.  

So I asked Patrick Moroney, who is among the best authorities out there in this area, for his candid opinions.  Here's the interview with Patrick that came out in TechRepublic today.  (Add your comment and/or vote if you like it.)

Thanks!

Have IBM and Google noticed the $20B ERP market?

If you haven't seen it already, I hope you'll take a look at my interview with Jeffrey Carr on ERP in TechRepublic.  If you like it, be sure to click on the "worthwhile?" voting button at the top right.  It's also portable in a free PDF download (link right below the intro).

* Speaking of free downloads, you can get a free sample of Starbucks new Via instant right here.  Not in time for this month's survey, but give it a try.  (thanks Jon -)

Ten Questions on Risk and Compliance with Joe Degidio

Got risk?

If you're a small (or large) business looking for new ideas and some prognostication on risk and compliance over the next few years, here's an interview I did with compliance expert Joe Degidio in TechRepublic today.

You can post a comment or add a question below the article. (FYI - they are going to ask you to do a one-time registration to make a comment, but this is a great publication and you should be registered anyway.) Thanks!

The New Realities BSM Interview with Casey Kindiger

A couple years ago, the top-returned item in a google search of "BSM" was the "British School of Motoring." So it's a great leap forward already just to get to the clarification that it generally refers to "Business Service Management" (at least stateside).

Now for the next question, when a company says they do "business service management," what does that mean exactly? The entry in Wikipedia describes it as a "methodology for monitoring and measuring IT services from a business perspective" including both process and software. What it really amounts to is one of Peter Drucker's new realities of how you view and use technology to make your business work better every day.

If anyone knows what's at the heart of BSM, it's the CEO of IBM's top-ranked Tivoli partner and service management software reseller, Casey Kindiger. Here's an interview that just came out in TechRepublic where I sat down with Casey to ask ten questions about what is really at the heart of this new way of looking at the purpose of technology in business, as well as the three types of BSM players out there today.

How much is your degree worth?

A good percentage of the people I hear from and work with have technology backgrounds - including degrees in information technology of one kind or another.  Here's an interesting survey being done this week by the innovative people over at TechRepublic for all of you who have pursued technology as an academic endeavor (and for managers and recruiters who hire people for IT positions!)  The anonymous results will be the basis for a special report on IT/IS undergrad programs and will include the importance of that piece of paper vs. hands-on work experience.  

(HINT: All of you who were at my presentation yesterday in Chicago should be interested in this!)

Web 2.0 and Problem Resolution

If your IT department is still using a traditional knowledge base to speed problem resolution, you'll want to consider stepping up the pace by automating the process.

Wiki-based automated runbooks take advantage of collaboration and clickable fixes with advantages similar to those of Wikipedia over a hardback Brittanica. I wrote a short article describing the new breed of RBA that the good people at TechRepublic were kind enough to publish this week - you can link to it here.