Sarquol Limited

I was recently reading various articles about the use of “Evidence” in Management. The basic idea is that it is all too easy to start management initiatives based on a prejudice of what is going on. The result can be that inappropriate action on a situation. An example would be if a manager were to believe that  his team were unproductive and needed extra motivation there are actions that might be taken to improve motivation, or apply control to demand more output. The reality of the situation might be very different, with the individuals motivated and wanting to produce more – but being hampered by an inability to work effectively in the environment. The appropriate actions here would be quite different, and action on the perceived problem would have no effect. It could even make it worse. Worse still, the problem might be that the team are productive but too much is expected of them for what is achievable in the situation.

 What solution is proposed? Continue reading ‘Evidence in Management and IT’ »

Gartner is trying to help us all out with our strategy again, or maybe this is an early “next year prediction” article. Either way Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies have been published: here. To be honest, my biggest surprise is that there isn’t something newer in here. They seem to have selected only technologies that are relatively mature, and some of them are what I would consider to be positively mainstream. I suppose that in recommending strategy to major corporate customers they are not going to select technology on the bleeding edge. This selection is more “look what you should have been doing this year” than “get on this band wagon now”.

I have recently read with interest various Gartner hype-cycle reports. There is an example here, and here is wikkipedia’s comment on it. The idea is fairly simple, and based on the adjustment trend that new technology tends to go through towards gaining mainstream adoption. Once a technology is started it tends to gain an undeserved (according to its current capability) reputation to be the best thing that will save the world. As this continues people realise it actually has some limitations, and so it loses credibility rapidly. The story then continues as people realise that it is useful, even with its limitations, and so the reputationbuild again. To anyone that has been around a bit none of this is news. Continue reading ‘The Hype Cycle’ »