1. Future Forward Thinking
IT Directors Community of Practice Jan 14, 2010 San Francisco, CA Terry Bledsoe, Catawba County Government

2. 80
“There is a force for change that’s basically invisible using old ways of seeing. It’s a force we have to let collide with and even destroy our old ideas about how the world should be before we can hope to make any sense at all”
Age of the Unthinkable, Ramo 10

3. ? Events Cause us to 9/11 recession Job Losses 15.7% Oil China
Terrorist
technology
greed

4. Constant
Change
Instability
And

5. Re
thinking
Every
thing

6. How? Do You Continue Providing Services With Revenue Shortfalls?
Planning
Building a Base
Adapting

7. How? Do You move an Entire County to a Higher Level? Sharing
Partnerships
Connections
Opportunities

8. What is the Future Forward Thinking?
Yes
BUT
What is the Future Forward Thinking?

9. Future Forward Thinking
Strategic
Planning Vs
Future Forward Thinking

10. Traditional Strategic Planning
Mission
Objectives
Situational Analysis
Traditional Strategic Planning
Strategy Formulation
Implementation
Control

11. Sustainable IT Excellence
Principle 1: Recruit, train, and retain World Class IT employees
Principle 2: Build and maintain a robust IT infrastructure
Principle 3: Field an effective Project Development and Portfolio management process
Principle 4: Ensure partnerships within the IT department and with the business
Principle 5: Develop a collaborative relationship with external partners
World Class IT by Peter High

12. Future Forward Thinking Starts by Asking the Question “What will the future look like?”

13. ? Scanning The World Trends Patterns Drivers Weak Signals Factors
What’s new

14. Not trying to predict the future
Not trying to predict the future. Not looking for what everyone else is doing.
Note

15. Mapping the Possibilities
there is no one future
The future is what I expect.
The future is better than I expect.
The future is worse than I expect.
The future is weirder than I expect.
there are multiple factors

16. Thinking it Through How do I deal with each of the futures?
How do I move toward the future I want?
How do I minimize risks?
How deal with the future that I don’t want?
Can I deal with a future that I did not envision?

17. Future Forward Thinking
Asking the Question
“What will the future look like?”
Scanning the World
Mapping the Possibilities
The future is what I expect.
The future is better than I expect.
The future is worse than I expect.
The future is weirder than I expect.
Thinking it Through
Scan -> Plan -> Adapt

18. Yes
BUT
What do you do?

19. Weak
signals
are seeds of change that exist today and they can tell about big trends in the future. are something odd or strange today.

20. signals Trends and Weak
For the first time in human history, children are authorities on a central innovation – the new digital media. This generation gap has its implications
Universal connectivity. What does that mean?
Jobs that do not require proximity.
Universal competition?
Ubiquitous, unprecedented access to information.
Universal collaboration?
signals

21. signals Trends and Weak
On Christmas Day, for the first time in history, Amazon.com sold more digital books than the old fashioned kind.
According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, more than one in five U.S. homes (22.7%) had cellphones - and no landlines - during the first half of 2009, up from 10.5% during the same period in 2006.
On Tuesday, Panasonic and LG Electronics, two of the top television makers, are to announce that they are integrating the free online calling service Skype into their Internet-connected high-definition televisions . Universal connectivity. What does that mean?
Augmented Reality and it’s role in Public Safety
signals

22. Questions
signals
What was it like when we couldn’t get an answer in 5 minutes or less?
Could you manage your staff in 140 characters or less?
Could a Tweet overthrow a dictator?
How did Social Media affect the elections?
What is Apple really up to?

23. Regular Basis - Practice
Scan the world
Internet
Twitter
Social Networks
Blogs
Magazines and Other Types of Media
Scan Internally
Information Shared Multiple Ways (Transparency)
Collaboration with Collective
Creativity Encouraged/ Expected (Creative Destruction)
Change Your View – Look in as Opposed to Out
Customer Service vs Customer Experience
How Can We Improve Services?
signals

24. Make Connections
Step 1: Defining—Define the problem you’re trying to solve. Step 2: Borrowing—Borrow ideas from places with a similar problem. Step 3: Combining—Connect and combine these borrowed ideas. Step 4: Incubating—Allow combinations to incubate into a solution. Step 5: Judging—Identify the strength and weakness of the solution. Step 6: Enhancing—Eliminate weak points while enhancing strong ones.
Borrowing Brilliance by David Kord Murray

25. Creativity
is just connecting things ………..
Steve Jobs

26. Something I Need
Contact Vendor
How Much?
How Long?
Wait, wait, wait…
Resembles what I Need

27. Siloed

28. Issue: Public Officials are being called by the press seconds after a call is dispatched.
Issue: Paging process too slow. Press gets to officials before pages.
Solution: Page simultaneous with dispatch.
Issue: Telecommunicators need to focus on incident.
Real Problem
Solution: Page by incident type
Solution: Vendor is working on solution, will be ready in 9 to 16 months, with next release.

29. Traditional Thinking Real Problem
Issue: Public Officials are being called by the press seconds after a call is dispatched.
Issue: Paging process too slow. Press gets to officials before pages.
Solution: Page simultaneous with dispatch.
Issue: Telecommunicators need to focus on incident.
Solution: Page by incident type
Solution: Vendor is working on solution, will be ready in 9 to 16 months, with next release.
Real Problem

30. Wait, this does exactly what the vendor charges for.
Trip to Surry County
Page on incident
Keep officials notified
Use current technology
Reduce workload
No additional costs
Can we key off of incident and send a page?
Do you know you can see it with a Blackberry?
No problem, display locally.
Great! Can we adjust to small screen?
Could we get the code and adapt?

32. Creativity
is just connecting things ………..
Steve Jobs

33. Future
Forward
Thinking

34. Closing
If every IT organization does not come out of this recession changed, they have missed an opportunity. Look for opportunity in everything you do.
Thoughts…

35. Future Forward Thinking
IT Directors Community of Practice Jan 14, 2010 San Francisco, CA Terry Bledsoe, Catawba County Government