Nice June 24, 2008 feature in the New York Times: Preoccupations- I Freed Myself from Emails Grip with an interview of how Luis Suarez of IBM cut the cycles of email by 80% in one week using Social Networking to enhance the experience of global communications, reducing the one way, inefficient methods with a much more efficient way to stay connected.

Viewed in this way, social networking delivers something way more than for entertainment value, transforming team activity, communications, and yes, for all the added touch, for FYI details, it is a very efficient way of creating a way to keep in touch that is "greener" because it does not need to be stored on a hundred separate email servers, it can be conveniently housed by RSS feed, where those interested can control their subscription and better manage information overload.

Social Networking is serious business in it's efficiency and useful value in getting to know one another. Recently I have discovered that "brainstorming" with the universe of common interests is way more interesting than waiting on a muse, and many folks that are participating on the network are also looking for similar experiences, so the very notion of asking a question, answered on a public forum creates a useful business function in and of itself.

PLAYERS THAT ENABLE EFFICIENCY: Twitter, Feedburner, RSS, Ning, Instant Message, Skype Video/IM/Call, LinkedIn.

INNOVATORS THAT CAPTIVATE AND INNOVATE WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING WILL CONSIDER:

1. Broader "inbound" Address Book Import and Sync capabilities. (Plaxo for mid sized networks).
2. REAL scalable functionality such popularity of the tool doesn't affect it's performance.
3. Lighter Mobile Packages allow a minimal approach to functional interaction. (Twitter)
4. Subscription Profiling with Tags, "one login, to many interests" (Ning)
5. Repurpose that RSS Feed. (Feedburner, RSS, Twitter Innovation Tools, Technorati).

Dawn on LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/dmular

In IT, we WANT to be your heroes. To really be of service, we must transcend hero mode to improve our practice! We do more with technology than has been done before. Embrace Change-- 'configuration' include transformation and people, with the organic knowledge they carry. Stop acting on assumption that if we Plan and Organize to do something, it will be architect - ed to deliver continuous support for as long as the project lives.

Perfection is in awareness, balance, and appropriate execution. I have been at Sun long enough to see the metamorphic use of technology for good.. "Technology because we can.. Technology because it's cool. Technology because we must. Technology for business good."

Where have we allowed arcane policy to obscure the business value proposition of eco-business? Where have we allowed marketing buzz to hypnotize us into consumption without critical thinking.. Let's "get green" seems to suggest a notion of going out and buying all new stuff to satisfy a whole new market demand of clearer thinking. "That's not green. That's a little more like insanity."

From the perspective of approach, in a mature service management organization, "Green" business becomes merely a "Conscious, Critical Business Objective". Being a "mature" business process however is not a requirement for lowering our carbon footprint, reducing our power consumption, and making the best use of our most valuable resources. It starts with the notion that we can do business better, and more efficiently than we are now.. And the starting requirement is a decision to begin today, with the intention and actions in harmony.

Sometimes when we discuss the feasibility of IT Approaches, we get so lost in the language, that we lose the requirements an initiative must deliver. If ITIL is about synthesizing the service requirements of Business Priorities, then the adding of a "Green IT Business Plan" could feed right into an existing or emerging IT Best Practice Roadmap.

In definining what is productive, what is counter productive and what is the best possible outcome, this IT hero had the syntax logic a bit skewed. GET OUTSIDE YOUR HEAD to do this analysis to overcome your own "worst enemy thinking" and to recognize what's valuable in what you offer. In today's intentions, let us explore how we recognize the true value of Best Practices.

Aligned IT Services to meet current needs and future problems then becomes even more important as you establish your ITIL disciplines. ITIL suggests remembering that the Business comes first, where techies often confuse their value add for being a hero and solving a problem, ITIL hero'es are those that realize the cost of disruption, and plan to mitigate and resolve that, so heroic efforts are not necessary, and in fact, obstructs IT from recognizing it's true potential by becoming a great partner, consistent in roles, responsibility and service delivery. Perhaps we have misdefined hero??

What happens when a talented IT Program Manager decides to venture out and discover what's next??? Talk about a career makeover! Tu has taken a brilliant IT career and traded it in for a brilliant music career! Rock on, with your amazing voice, Tu!!

What has changed from ITIL Version 3, in your service strategy? If the difference is 'New Improved Version 3' replacing their 'classic' expectations, perhaps some more work needs to be done. For 'NEW' to have sizzle, it must also be improved.

Simplifying IT Process: Improving IT Value. A truly visionary change agent is introspective enough to question assumption to build a better business system.

Somewhere along the legacy of IT, we got off balance-- we embraced our complexity and ability to function in such a higher demand that we came to believe that our VALUE was in our indiscernable processes. You can't get rid of me, if you don't understand me-- whether you like me or not, you still need me.

What's your difference between working 'inspired' or out of 'dutiful habit'? Get interested in life again.
How long has it been since you were fully 'in' to what you do?

'Controlling' success is not about never making mistakes, or knowing how to hide them, it is about recognizing where you are, what distractions exists, and how we can navigate them to get to the better more desirable place. By contrast it requires being positive enough to see the good and the possible, realistic enough to see the opportunities and the distractions.

I have heard it said, 'The person you will be 30 days from now depends upon the books you read, the people you associate with, and the thoughts you think.' Great Change Agents recognize the importance of clarity on articulating the work to be done, how to get organized to accomplish it, and who needs to be involved in getting it done. These are the possibility people that are concerned about creating a favorable outcome, and helpful in providing solutions alone or part of a larger group.

"GE" coined the famed 'workout process' which provides tools for communication strategy that fit nicely into the Sigma Process-- many other companies call this "CAP" - Change Acceleration Process or Change Acceptance Process.

Kitta Reed's book "The Zen or Proposal Writing", creates the strong case for considering the naysayers as part of the fabric of your process improvements. She takes this strategy to a new height, suggesting we are actually "relishing rejection, and savoring acceptance". Like most of our trade, this is a practiced art.

The link takes you to the top 10.. Karl D. Williams ran a great article in iSixSigma.com called the Top 10 Program Mistakes Software Green Belts in Training Make . His process influences were steeped in traditional experience including CMM, CMMI, and a Master Six Sigma Black Belt and has performed over 160 customized assessments at over 100 organizations in 19 countries.

In this blog, I will explore those favorite lessons that I experienced on my road to Green Belt and establishing working ITIL best practices.. Not the kind you checked a 'done' box with, but the kind you use to move business decisions with!

The successes are possible by starting where you are and setting the framework to baseline, improve, and continue. Success is possible whether your model is cost center or profit center, if you keep the financial elements in mind. ITIL has way less to do with whether you outsource or not, whether you blended source or not, it IS about the recognition that for as long as there are services, applications, hardware, and software elements, there will be process and performance requirements for keeping them up.

Probably little surprise that
ITIL Version 3 is moving towards 'Service Management' and moving the required IT core competencies up a notch to managing a service live cycle. This is different than understanding volumes and volumes of complexity, and more about integrating and delivering the complexity with simplicity and agility. This requires more corporate level accountability to requirements, costs, and managed capabilities.

Ecologically speaking, Information Technology trending is about more green than just funding. Virtual IT Trending can save a whole lot more than money.

In your industry:

* How are you seeing IT prioritization for the risks of compliance, and at what level are they assessed?
* What is your best practices for integrating Service Management with Compliance?

WHATs ITIL: It is a mechanism for differentiating roles and responsibilities and a common language for how to Deliver Products for Service and Support, and how to Deliver Services for managing value for investment in people, process, and technology.

I have learned much about my approach to career development from Leslie Lambert. Go Leslie, Go! Ever onward, ever optimistic, ever willing to make the big changes! Thanks for the lessons on the path...

Happy April Fools! Send me other great spoofs you find!

Are you in Colorado this week? I am visiting and working a few days in Broomfield Building 2, stop by and say hello! I DO miss being in a place where "everybody knows your name", and certainly I felt that friendly camaraderie in Colorado. Perhaps that is why, despite the time away from my precious kids, I am looking forward to this visit.

Today is my birthday, and I hear 40 is a big one. Somehow I spent my 30's in deep ponderance on what I can do to get ahead of the worry of what I can do to fulfill my life responsibilities.

As 40 is supposed to be meaningful, I choose to make it so, not just accept the rumor of expected behaviour. I intend to renew my commmit to a life fully lived, fully engaged, and fully inspirational.

It is not hard to turn 40. It is hard to lose the extra weight I put on thinking I was too busy to take care of myself. It is hard to retrain my type A personality to be as serious about balance. I know my genes, and I get this honest, but to use the best parts of my creativity to benefit my employer, my family, myself, and those I get to live around... well that must be about as close to centered as one can get.

This week I reflected on what it takes to be one of the Best Places to Work in IT. ComputerWorld does this annually, and as part of my style, I study the attributes of what makes a company "best". The answers differ depending on your point of view, but the "best" companies are "best" at staying in touch with the talent they have, the problems they need solved, and the opportunities that must have innovation to solve them. "Solve" means not to complete a project, but to contiually deliver a product with the right resource, time, and output that the customer requires. What happens in the environment comes from being "best" regardless of the view.

I choose Sun IT as one of the Best Places to work for it's innovation and dedication to introspective action. , leadership, drive, and flexibility. I choose Sun as a best place to work in IT because I truly believe if there was a better place, I would be there now. I choose my environment and my partnerships and Sun has the best mix of compensation, recognition, challenge, vision, and balance for a person like me, for a group, like I happen to work with, and for the world of diversity that I have come to enjoy as a benefit of being part of someething way larger than office cubicle work!

Hey the coolest Linked In widget YET was introduced to me yesterday. Hey and Mark Dixon.. Mr Identity, wondering what you think of this? Check out the widget that is LinkedInABox.com a way cool portable profile using your Linked In profiling, and your choices of "skin" and Graphics Backdrop. Neat huh!

And I will have the warmth of this keyboard.. while the powers on... I am saying that if I disappear for a few hours from email for the next few days while this storm has us socked in.. fear not, I will be back on the job as soon as I am feeling the power.. and warmth of this nice toasty keyboard.

Deborah Gilburg wrote a Generation X opinion piece on how t6o leverage the mind share of retiring Baby Boomers to advance your career. In my quest for truth and reality, I found this piece very intriguing. We are doing all kinds of things to forecast the future, but truly 77.5 Million retirees leaving the workplace in the next 5 years is likely to be a tangible issue affecting our workforce. Thus the questions, what can and should we be promoting in our cultures to make ourselves more change ready and capable than change impacted and paralyzed? To those NOT retiring, this has everything to do with you and the corporate executive workforce.