This article was originally published on http://itpeernetwork.intel.com
About six years ago, I got my first inkling that something had changed. I just wasn’t quite able to put my finger on it.
I was working on a process improvement project for a very large financial firm — something that I had done several times before. But this time something just seemed different. There was a different sense of urgency. You could just tell that the stakes had gotten much bigger — I just didn’t understand why or what it would mean.
While I didn’t know exactly what was happening, I knew that something was happening. So like some crazy street preacher telling you to “Repent for the end is near”, I began calling on IT executives to transform their IT organizations from every bully pulpit I could find. Eventually, people began to be worn down by my unrelenting chorus and so they started asking me, “Ok, Charlie — we get it. We need to ‘transform’ — but into what? What’s coming?”
Frankly, the question kind of stumped me. I still hadn’t really figured things out. But I knew they were right. If I was going to keep on “preaching”, I should know why. I began contemplating what I saw happening around me and coined the phrase “The Quantum Age of IT” to represent the new era that I believed we were entering and what it means to both IT organizations and IT professionals.
THE FUTURE UNFOLDS
As I began speaking at events and conferences everywhere, I realized that people expected me to tell them what the future would bring. At first, I laughed. Then I began getting scared. People were really expecting me to tell them what was going to happen. The truth is that I don’t really know. As humans, we’re really bad at predicting the future with any certainty. But we can observe what is happening around us and try to make sense of it all.
That’s really what my book is about. I believe that as we observe what is happening, here is the one thing that we can say for certain: Our future will not look anything like our present looks today. Which is why I opened my book with the line, “IT as we know it is dead.”
But while an uncertain future can be scary, it can also be exciting. I actually believe that we are in a time of great hope and opportunity for those IT organizations and IT leaders who see this future unfolding and step forward to lead us into it. Our future may be uncertain, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot prepare ourselves to thrive in uncertain times.
That’s what the Transform IT show is all about.
GUIDES FOR YOUR JOURNEY
The good news is that while IT may be dead, our future may be uncertain and everything we know may have changed — it doesn’t mean that we’re completely on our own. The truth is that this future has been unfolding for quite a while and there are a number of smart and progressive leaders all over the world who saw this happening and have been doing something about it. They have been boldly living in this future and have been stepping out to break all the rules and do things differently.
Transform IT will be a show about their stories. We will hear about their triumphant successes. And we will learn from their failures and struggles. Most importantly, we will be inspired by their vision of the future and the lessons that they will offer us as we strive to step forward and lead ourselves and those around us into this exciting, but uncertain future.
I’m so excited that my organization, The IT Transformation Institute, is partnering with the Intel IT Center to produce this show. I believe that through it, we will share stories that will have the power to literally help change our industry for the better. More importantly, I believe that these stories will have the power to change YOU. Your future lies in front of you. It is a time of great hope and great opportunity. But you must understand what is happening and be prepared to act upon that knowledge. Through this show, we hope to do our part to help. But the rest will be up to you. Are you ready?
Make sure to register today for the first Transform IT Web Show on Tuesday, September 16th at 9:05am PST. The show will feature guest, Charles Lee, Former CIO, of Taco Bell. The first 30 who register will receive a free copy of, “The Quantum Age of IT”. There will also be a live Twitter chat throughout the show starting at 9:00am PST. Make sure to use #ITChat and #TransformIT to be part of the conversation.
Note: In my next blog post, I’ll tell you a little bit more about the show itself and how you can best prepare to take advantage of what you will learn. Stay tuned!