Great post by Gary Cokins on Education in Performance Management and Business Intelligence. I couldn’t agree more.
Any professional in the field of BI and PM should think of themselves a learner – nobody has got all the answers and we should all make it a point to continuously educate ourselves on the latest practices. Perhaps, more importantly - we should continuously question if the practices we are currently applying are yielding the required results.
As Gary notes, there are many ways for the community to educate itself – it may start by asking questions at your own organization, working with your clients, connecting with thought leaders, researchers, professors and authors.
I want to add to Gary's point on industry events and the importance of connecting with authors specifically. The last thing we want this community to do is to NOT connect with as many people as possible – here I mean authors of course, but peers, leaders in their field, service providers and even competitors.
Industry events present great networking opportunities - here I’m not just thinking of just Gartner, AMR, Forrester events but also specific vertical events such as NRF. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to attend and present at many of them. I did most of them this year, (particularly as it related to the launch of Drive Business Performance) and have learned to make the best of them (in fact, I won a top networking award from Gartner this year!). I’d encourage everyone to think about industry events not just as a big lecture but as a way to connect with people who share your problems – attend most sessions of course, but reach out to people, listen, ask questions – there is so much more beyond just sitting down by yourself.
Specifically, on the readers/authors connection - there are many reasons why it’s important to connect authors and readers as part the education process. The connections are valuable for BOTH the readers and the authors.
More specifically:
•As an author – I learn a lot through the many interactions I’ve had with CXOs, managers and others prior, during and after my presentations. Over the last two days, I had the opportunity to present three times on Business Intelligence and the experience is an absolute thrill. Not just the presentation, but the interaction with the audience and the questions they ask. Their opinion matters to me and their personal experiences often enrich, reinforce my material. When our views differ, interactions are all the more important because they help both of us think about the issue from our respective vantage points. Finally, I often re-use examples brought up by the audience and might bring their arguments in my next speech, article or book. It ends up benefiting me and the community as a whole.
•As a reader – you want to meet the author. Period. Not for the autograph, not just for the condensed presentation but for the background stories and all the knowledge that never made it into the book! I have countless human stories, soundbites that didn’t find room in my book. These stories are very instructive of why I wrote certain passages and they provide more color to a point. In fact there are so many, it could probably fit another book!
In short – I’d advise the community to continue network, exchange views and continue to think of themselves as constant learners. This comment also applies to authors by the way (check out Jim Collins bio for an example of what I mean – he considers himself “a student of companies”). Go to as many events as you can – talk to as many people as you can. Argue, ask questions and share your passion – nothing can replace the human connections of a community – our people, their ideas and the diversity of their opinion is what enriches our debates and what will make our industry advance.
Wednesday
Response to Gary Cokins's blog - Am I a Bad Person?
Great post by Gary Cokins on Education in PM and BI. I couldn’t agree more – check out my response @ http://ping.fm/hgnsS
Tuesday
Friday
Aberdeen: BI is expected to have the highest impact on organizations over the next two to five years @ http://ping.fm/a4HBf
Thursday
Wednesday
Bill Gates: Better data mean better schools. On the importance of measurement and accountability in Education @ http://ping.fm/mn40R
Tuesday
Monday
Phone market to fall more than 10% but LG's shipments to jump 10%-20%. Secret: give PM more responsibility @ http://tinyurl.com/n2r2cn
Sunday
Monday
Saturday
@tosolini: the twitter report shows the importance of analytics in the world of social media - see sysomos video @ http://ping.fm/3sXnh
Friday
bill hostmann told me about this article:http://ping.fm/GueDu Netflix's competitive edge: its analytics. When does netflix buy hulu?
Thursday
Sunday
See you at the Worldwide Partner Conference!
Between the European and US CIO Summits, the Canadian Leadership Summit and the Gartner BI Conference, there has been many opportunities to hear that interest in BI is strong despite the economy (check out this article for more).
In July, I will be presenting and signing at the Worldwide Partner Conference 2009. Ping me to connect if you are attending.
Also, my Cranfield School of Management interviews are now published here - take a look and let me know what you think!
Business Performance - Top priority again!
Over the last few months, I have had the opportunity to meet many Entreprise CIOs and quite a few of you confirm the results of Gartner's recent EXP survey (here). Business Performance is top of mind.
I had this opportunity to meet retail CIOs at the recent National Retail Federation Show (here) in January. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you at the events I will present/sign books these next few months:
EMEA CIO Summit (here)
Gartner BI Conference (here)
US CIO Summit (here)
Also, we made a couple of updates to www.cultureofperformance.com and www.brunoaziza.com. Find one of the videos in this blog and let us know what you think.
Culture of Performance tweet - Acumen Fund's Novogratz: kpis provide a false sense of precision but are necessary: http://ping.fm/qNVof
