IT leaders take note: The future is what you create
The
new
year
brings
with
it
enthusiasm
for
new
priorities
and
accomplishments
to
come,
resolutions
to
seize
opportunities
and
overcome
challenges,
and
the
opportunity
to
assess
takeaways
from
the
previous
year
and
turn
the
page
on
projects
and
misste
The
new
year
brings
with
it
enthusiasm
for
new
priorities
and
accomplishments
to
come,
resolutions
to
seize
opportunities
and
overcome
challenges,
and
the
opportunity
to
assess
takeaways
from
the
previous
year
and
turn
the
page
on
projects
and
missteps
past.
In
the
ideal
beginning
of
the
year
scenario,
organizations
would
have
completed
celebrating
and
cerebrating
on
accomplishments
of
the
previous
year
and
performing
forensic
root
cause
analyses
of
the
smattering
of
initiatives
that
failed
to
meet
expectations.
Now,
rolling
into
Q1
with
heads
held
high
and
bursting
with
confidence,
the
enterprise
should
be
enthusiastically
embarking
on
programs
designed
to
realize
the
full
promise
of
explicitly
articulated
goals
and
objectives.
This,
however,
is
not
the
situation
in
many
—
probably
most
—
IT
and
digital
organizations
today.
Having
just
completed
my
walkabout
of
the
C-suite
in
12
vertical
markets,
I
have
found
that
the
three
words
most
frequently
used
to
describe
the
general
attitude
toward
2023
were
“uncertainty,”
“headwinds,”
and
“conservative.”
This
has
led
me
to
conclude
that
the
No.
1
job
of
IT
and
digital
leaders
in
2023
is
to
“un-cancel”
the
future.
They
have
to
get
their
organizations
to
believe
and
behave
as
if
2023
is
going
to
be
better
than
2022.
Navigating
a
tsunami
of
macro-pessimisms
The
general
message
from
a
multiplicity
of
disciplines
is
lack
of
hope
and
optimism.
“Doom
Porn”
—
for
example,
books
resembling
Paul
Ehrlich’s
The
Population
Bomb
and
Nouriel
Roubini’s
MegaThreats:
Ten
Dangerous
Trends
That
Imperil
Our
Future,
And
How
to
Survive
Them
—
continues
to
top
non-fiction
best
seller
lists.
Forecasters
at
my
former
hangout,
The
World
Bank,
tell
us
that
growth
will
be
a
less
than
breathtaking
1.7%.
My
classmate
at
Carnegie
Mellon,
hedge-fund
manager-extraordinaire
David
Tepper,
told
CNBC
viewers
that
they
“can’t
fight
the
Feds”
and
that
equities
are
not
going
anywhere
in
2023.
“More
than
two-thirds
of
the
economists
at
23
large
financial
institutions
that
do
business
directly
with
the
Federal
Reserve
are
betting
the
U.S.
will
have
a
recession
in
2023,”
according
to
The
Wall
Street
Journal.
In
the
foreign
policy
community
gloom
has
become
commonplace
across
the
“West”
in
recent
years.
Important
voices
in
the
environmental
movement
counsel
that
we
are
to
adopt
a
“future
of
less,
a
restricted
life,
purged
of
joy.”
Robert
Silverberg,
in
his
introduction
to
This
Way
to
the
End
of
Times:
Classic
Tales
of
the
Apocalypse,
reminds
us,
“the
market
in
apocalyptic
prophecy
has
been
a
bullish
one
for
thousands,
or
more
likely
millions
of
years.”
We
may
like
our
fictional
future
dark
and
dystopic
but
science-fiction
novelist
William
Gibson
is
concerned
that
people
have
given
up
on
the
future
they
will
actually
live
in:
“All
through
the
20th
century
we
constantly
saw
the
21st
century
invoked.
…
How
often
do
you
hear
anyone
invoke
the
22nd
century?
Even
saying
it
is
unfamiliar
to
us.
We’ve
come
to
not
have
a
future.”
Re-branding
the
future
The
fact
that
the
macro-picture
is
less
than
rosy
is
not
an
excuse
to
sit
back
and
coast
through
2023.
IT
and
digital
leaders
need
to
re-introduce
stakeholders
to
a
future
they
want
to
live
in.
2023
can
be
a
great
year.
For
this
to
happen
IT
and
digital
organizations
need
to
re-establish
trust
that
their
agency
will
make
things
better.
Step
one:
IT/Digital
needs
to
clean
house.
We
need
a
skills-
and
attitude-driven
purge
of
the
incompetents
who
inhabit
so
many
critical
positions.
Cheryl
Smith,
former
CIO
at
Keyspan,
McKesson,
and
West
Jet
and
author
of
The
Day
Before
Digital
Transformation:
Unlocking
Digital
Transformation
for
Business
Leaders,
has
long
lamented
the
lack
of
credentialing
in
the
CIO/CDO
arena.
Lawyers
are
required
to
master
a
basic
body
of
knowledge.
As
are
doctors,
nurses,
and
accountants.
Any
yahoo
who
can
steam
a
mirror
can
be
a
CIO/CDO.
Debra
Hockemeyer,
who
has
designed
and
managed
multiple
digital
transformations
in
multiple
industries,
is
similarly
shocked
at
how
IT/Digital
is
being
managed
in
many
major
enterprises
today.
“There
is
a
way
to
consistently,
reliably,
and
affordably
deliver
the
benefits
of
digital,”
she
says.
Put
very
simply,
basic
IT
blocking
and
tackling
snafus
such
as
those
that
recently
devastated
Southwest
Airlines
and
the
FAA
should
not
be
allowed
to
occur.
Applying
the
words
of
Glenn
Kelman,
CEO
of
Redfin,
to
the
tech
and
digital
arena,
we
need
to
“stop
doing
stupid
stuff.”
US
Secretary
of
Transportation
Pete
Buttigieg
is
spot
on
when
he
demands
a
root
cause
analysis
of
exactly
what
happened. The
names
of
the
sic
IT
professionals
who
brought
the
entire
aviation
infrastructure
to
a
screeching
halt
should
be
plastered
over
every
science
classroom
in
the
country
with
the
admonition,
“Don’t
be
these
guys!”
The
contractor
they
work
for
should
be
banned
from
all
government
work
for
no
less
than
five
years.
Let
me
be
perfectly
clear:
I
am
not
against
making
mistakes
in
the
IT/digital
realm.
This
is
the
only
way
our
discipline
can
grow.
I
am
advocating
that
we
make
new
mistakes.
We
cannot
—
like
so
many
organizations
—
be
so
afraid
of
“breaking
something”
that
we
conduct
no
experiments
and
stifle
all
innovation.
The
blow
ups
at
Southwest
and
the
FAA
were
not
innovations
gone
awry.
They
were
malfeasant
acts
by
incompetents.
Step
two?
Collaboratively
imagine
a
future
that
works
—
and
that
we
can
work
toward.
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