Our experts recommend

Vicky Bunyard

Chief Technology Officer
IBM

The CTO Revelation

The CTO Revelation is exactly that, a revelation coming from IBMs Institute of Business Value on how boardroom thinking on technology must evolve at speed, how important it is to rethink responsibility and the rise of the importance of the CTO in what has been called the ´new normal´ or ´different normal´, but perhaps should be considered the ´ongoing evolution of technology at work´

It is part of a set of material developed looking at the whole C-Suite, and much of the learning is bringing through a strong theme on how the C-Suite needs to start thinking differently in order to turn what appears to be digital disruption into drivers for success, for me this is hugely important because it is a balanced look at the bringing different and equally important viewpoints from CTO, CIO, CISO, CDO etc. to drive successful technology transitions in our workplaces.

Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast

You will always hear me talking about Systems Thinking and how essential it is to work to understand the real problem that you are trying to solve, versus jumping to a solution that may seem obvious from our own perspective, but either does nothing to solve the problem at hand, or actually makes it worse. For the future of work and the successful application of technology at work, it is essential that we look at things from all perspectives, understand what we are truly trying to achieve, and not apply technology simply because it is there, or ´because this is what everyone else is doing´ – technology can have the most incredible positive impact, if done well, for the right reasons, in the right way, and can be at best a money pit and at worst a dramatic and catastrophic failure if done badly.

I love this video by Tom Wujec / TED because it helps you to think differently about things that seem obvious, it is a great study in how people think, and it is also a great example of how we talk to each other about even the most simple things and assume that those other people have the same mental model as we do – but they really don´t! It is so important for success to both uncover different points of view, and then come to common understanding – it is a process and it is essential to bringing successful changes and solutions.

What a living whale is worth – and why the economy should protect nature?

Sustainability is the topic of our time, but still we struggle as a society and as businesses to really grapple with the problem and make realistic change. In part we struggle with Data, and also with, quite frankly, where to start. To me this is an area where we have to think differently, we will not solve this by thinking classically. I love this podcast because, again, it helps us to see the world differently, to find different and totally unexpected solutions to our biggest problems by looking through a different lens.

It shows, from a financial perspective, that a living and thriving natural world has economic value, driving very different platforms to support sustainability goals whilst also supporting economic growth in ways that we could not have imagined… I’d love to know what others think?