Essential Reading Series: Successfull digital workplaces are build on transformative leadership and trust.

Just as a last action before the weekend I would like to share with you my weekly essential readings – some recommended articles that came to my attention this week. This week’s edition starts with some technology driven discussion and ends with important cultural values. Enjoy the reading!

Ephraim Freed: Analysis of Gartner’s “8 building blocks for the digital workplace”: Nice review of Gartner’s take on the “digital workplace” with the following statement: “Basically, Gartner has escaped the trap many technology-focused firms fall into of seeing the digital workplace purely through a technological lens. We’ve seen some “digital workplace evaluation” services offered that focus only on cataloguing and optimizing enterprises’ technology. Gartner’s “eight building blocks”, thankfully, offer a much more sophisticated analysis that looks at strategy, organizational culture, change management and technology use.”
Brian Hopkins: The Top Technology Trends To Watch: 2016 To 2018: A short overview of a recent Forrester technology trend prediction with a nice chart (unfortunately restricted to include – see here!) – and great analyst’s speak: “Trend 6 is about the impact hyperconnected hyperadopters are having. They elevate the importance of customer insights and agile investment planning practices as a way of coping. And trend 3 analyzes the resurgence of interest in APIs, not as technology for SOA but as key way of coping with the hyperconnected, mercurial business environment.” Means for me: early adopters of the E20 crowd will drive the digital transformation!
David Roe: Collaboration Software Beats Email, Vendors Claim: Good list of five practical reasons why it’s better than email for managing projects!
Peter Fuda: Leadership: The most important lever of transformation: “We’ve discovered through our practice that leadership is the accelerator or handbrake for everything else. It’s the single biggest influence on culture, and ultimately sustainable performance. How leaders motivate and encourage others to behave is typically at the root of every success or failure, making leadership impact as important as every other alignment lever combined.”
David D’Souza: Trust – you can’t find it in books: “It is hard to learn how to generate or earn that level of trust from reading a book or going on a course- you learn it through seeing and understanding how others generate trust. Transparency, openness, authenticity. honesty, reliability – it is seeing those things in action that creates your personal template for trust, not just understanding how the words fit in a sentence. Trust doesn’t mean you never question, it means that sometimes you can just take it as read.”