I had the pleasure of attending, ‘The Knapp Leadership Lecture Series.’ The day’s presenter was Gary Acromite, Chief Information Officer, Gavilon Group, LLC. Gary’s distinguished career in IT and supply chain leadership roles has given him a number of insights relating to management and IT strategies.
Why is strategy like downhill skiing? It's all about the center line.
Gary talked of the importance for documenting your strategy, making it available for people to review, and following up to see if there has been any deviation from the ‘centerline.’ Gary compared this process to downhill skiing. When skiing you traverse back and forth across a fall line, there is some deviation needed to stay upright; any more than that and you are off course, wasting time and energy. It was mentioned that ‘fall line’ wasn’t the best term to use in a business setting, and I’d have to agree. Gary also stressed the importance of guarding against biases when participating in forward thinking exercises; especially cynicism, which has a negative impact on everyone’s time and energy.
On a personal note, Gary believes that our time will be filled with something, so use it wisely. Making reports ‘pretty’ is wasted time for Gary, and likely many other high level executives, as it is not a value added activity. To guard against this Gary recommends defining your ‘good enough’ factor. That way people won’t feel the need to impress by dressing up reports that don’t need it. A few other important reminders for us all: Talk less, listen more. People are inherently good, want to do the right thing, but may not know how; so show them. And be decisive!
Looking forward, Gary says we will all be IT people. For me, a prospect that is both sobering and exciting.
