FLAPPING TO FLYING - 2nd Edition
Getting VALUE not GRIEF from Information Technology

It’s time for another injection of information leadership. With more mind tools, examples from web 2.0, SharePoint, our assignments and a consolidated approach to change management, it’s our internal training manual– shouldn’t it be yours as well?

Available now. Contact us for your copy

What’s new in this Second Edition?
More change management tools and thinking from our latest experiences
Information design – findability, learning styles, our take on intranets
Our latest war stories and models developed from assignments
How web 2.0 and Gen-Y is changing the business and records landscape
SharePoint – why you need to pay attention to it and examples of its use

Foreword to the 2nd Edition

Much has happened in the four years since Flapping to Flying was first published. In terms of global IT trends we see the emergence of cloud computing that will remove much of the complexity (and ad-hocery) of providing and maintaining IT infrastructures.

Poor Change Management still remains the biggest source of IT project failures. IT professionals and business leaders continue to struggle to get to grips with the necessary change initiatives and how to integrate these successfully into project design.

Web 2.0 is well established in our many people’s personal lives and is starting to have a significant impact in business. The new tools support at-a-distance and asynchronous collaboration and connection between people and a culture of “I want information now”.

SharePoint is becoming as ubiquitous as Windows itself, as a “good enough” platform for collaboration, web publishing and document control. Between this Microsoft technology and the growing sophistication of open source products, traditional EDRMS and web content management solutions are either declining or joining the trend with add-in products. However, like Microsoft Access databases in the nineties, SharePoint often goes feral due to lack of information design, governance and change management.

Much has happened for us and Information Leadership in the last four years. Since its inception, Information Leadership has won significant assignments with a new organisation about every three weeks. This is now accelerating further. The consultancy has undertaken substantive projects a large number of organisations in the last four years, covering Science, Health, Education, Engineering, Utility, Financial Services, Local and Central Government. We have taught, lectured and consulted on the tools and thinking embedded in this book.

Our clients have shown us innovative ways they have found to apply them, with at times exciting and surprising results, that in turn spurs on our creative juices. They have given us perspectives and sharpened our thinking with IT, IM and change management assignments over health, science, engineering, utilities, central and local government and education.

This new edition draws upon our experiences over the last four years as well as the changing IT environment. Other global and national trends are influencing our thinking. The “more for less” mantra kicking in from late 2008 that is limiting budget spends means that new IT and the value we should be getting from existing IT is under the microscope.

The one biggie that hasn’t changed with all the new hardware and software is the “wetware” – the need for people to change their behaviour. IT has always been just a vehicle for getting information to the right people in useful and usable ways. This has always been the heart of our “information leadership” thinking and business.

In this edition we have articulated more techniques, models and tactics that change the nature and effectiveness of what is conventionally called “change management”. We believe that change management is really around bringing together and resourcing project design, change design and information design – each of which gets its own full part in this book.

The techniques in this book address how to do this, in more useful and effective ways than traditional change management ‘messages” that try and explain away poor design, execution and support. Gen Y and Web 2.0 have however upped the ante. Previously we would put up with poor interfaces, lengthy development cycles, search that doesn’t work, slow response times and draconian rules from the IT overlords. This has changed, with the expectation now that IT is there to deliver for people. Like Google; Amazon and Facebook we all expect technology to be easy to use, fast, useful and usable.

If you think this is just another fad then consider this – the current generation of rising IT professionals and managers has been immersed in these higher expectations. So, it may be that you need to “get with the programme” and understand the new skills, thinking and processes that are needed for you to become an “information leader”, or get out of their way...

Grant Margison and Sarah Heal

(c) 2009 Information Leadership Limited