Dune, the Maginot Line, and Wikileaks

How comfortable are you with sharing data within your organization these days?

The news surrounding Wikileaks, especially the possibility of it extending to the corporate world, has put a chill into the notion of using technology to increase sharing and dissemination of data. It was, after all, efforts to improve sharing of information across various government agencies that enabled just one individual to access huge amounts of sensitive data that then ended up being made public.

What can be done?

Meet the Mentat

In Frank Herbert’s “Dune”, addressing the vulnerability of technology was taken to the extreme. Rather than trusting important information storage and calculations to machines that could be compromised*, human “mentats” were used. These were individuals trained to have superhuman cognitive and analytical abilities and basically removed the technology factor and its inherent weakness from the equation completely. But the value was still there; the need for it had not gone away.

Well, we can’t train mentats yet, so we’re stuck with computers, networks, etc. to provide the storage, analysis, and collaboration value we need to be competitive. But we’ve seen already just how vulnerable we are when these systems are compromised. We store so much information in these systems, both for the ability to recall it when we need it as well as to gain powerful insights through analysis of it. We also get huge value from collaboration technologies, but they can also make us susceptible.

So what to do? If we can’t eliminate the technology, should we instead look for that perfect technological solution?

Fighting the Last War

The Maginot Line was built after World War I, with the memory of the horrific casualty rates of trench warfare etched into strategists’ minds. The technology of rifles, machine guns, and artillery had reached peak lethality, so the mindset of “defensive” technologies took hold. What followed was intense research into creating an impenetrable defense to virtually “guarantee” that the enemy could not attack successfully. The technology was impressive, but ultimately ineffective, because the ways used to defeat it never came into the thinking of its design.

So it is that much of the mindset around information security is about trying to set up impenetrable defenses to “guarantee” the security of sensitive information. Well, just as the Maginot Line proved less than effective during the subsequent blitzkrieg warfare of World War II, so it is that current information (and airport, etc.) security measures and strategies frequently turn out to be not as effective as we would like. Instead, we see what seems to be a lot of “reactive” steps, such as forbidding removable media, backscatter x-ray, etc. put into place after the proverbial horse had left the barn.

But this doesn’t mean technology has no part to play, either.

Technology + Mindset

So let’s bring a science fiction novel, a military misstep, and current events together. The point is that neither eliminating technology nor just depending on technology is the answer. We must instead constantly be questioning our mindset regarding information security and technology’s role in it. Whatever the technology, it is ultimately people, their thinking, and how they apply technology that determines the success of security, or the lack thereof.

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*or worse, turn against their human masters (but that’s not an issue for us to concern ourselves with, yet.)

Dune cover via Wikipedia

Hochwald historic photo via Wikipedia

 

Are you a knowledge hoarder?

Intentional or not, knowledge hoarding isn’t going to get you anywhere.

In the past, people have sought comfort (and possibly power) in their prized knowledge – dispensing it only on an as needed basis.  This worked in a world that operated on one-to-one expertise transactions.  But the world has changed, and, as John Hagel points out in his research (Power of Pull), we need to focus on knowledge flow.  Knowledge is not a specific piece of information, but rather an idea that builds momentum and evolves.  What makes things even trickier is that this knowledge is often unformed and difficult to express in the early stages. (John refers to this as tacit knowledge)

If we don’t really know what we know or how to express that knowledge, it makes it easy to hoard knowledge.  How do we share a spark of an idea, something seemingly unimportant, but could potentially change the business? From personal experience, I find this really hard.  First, I’m an introvert.  Second, I’m a contemplater.  Basically, I spend a lot of time in my head.  Meanwhile, I want to share.  I know I should share and I can appreciate the benefits that occur when I do share.  So how do I overcome the fear of sharing those unformed, ridiculous thoughts?  I build trusting relationships.  I find and build a network of people to whom I can express raw thoughts – people who will appreciate them, add to them, contradict them.  Even though I think rationally, I allow myself to connect emotionally – to open up to others.  Even so, I have to work hard and remind myself that it’s OK to share the silly thoughts, the inkling of an idea.  It’s not so scary.

I had the pleasure of attending a talk by John a couple of weeks ago at the TEDxBayAreaWomen event.  John – thank you for the great insight – I am now as big of a fan as Mark  John’s key message was that we need trust-based relationships to create knowledge flow and you can’t build trust without expressing vulnerability.  Ultimately, I believe this kind of thinking will be just as important as, say, developing a growth mindset – in terms of building successful people and organizations in the future.

Picture source: Dilbert.com

The 20 Best Leadership Blog Posts

For all you leaders out there looking for advice … check out Dan McCarthy’s fine collection of leadership blog posts from 2010.  We are proud of our own Mark Bennett who is featured along with our other favorite industry thought leaders.

Also, if you haven’t already, please check out Dan’s own blog Great Leadership.  It is the best of the best – a great source of practical leadership advice plus great insight into the workings of leadership development organizations (both good and bad!).

How I accidentally crashed a TEDx event

Had you asked me five years ago to describe myself, I would have told you I am a follow the rules girl.  In recent years I’ve been working to tone that down a bit, especially when it doesn’t serve me.

As luck would have it I have two excellent role models in this area, my husband and Amy.

So, yesterday when I arrived to the TEDx Bay Area Women event to find they had lost my registration, I decided to not let that dissuade me.

I stayed.

And it was fantastic (as I knew it would be).

An amazing  group of speakers covered a wide range of topics and passions including citizen science, preserving history, entrepreneurship, food, health, innovation, motivation, reinvention, art and community.

For those of us who are passionate about learning and sharing you really cannot do any better than TED.

If you are interested to see some of the conversation, you should check out the tweet stream at the TEDxBAW hastag.

Special thanks to Tatyana Kanzaveli for making this event happen and to SAP Labs for the hospitality.

Quit making time for the wrong things

Busy has become the rule these days.  For me, it often has replaced “fine” as the proper response to the question “how are you?”.

Busy, isn’t really a bad state if you are busy doing the right things.  Things that matter. Things that are important.

So how do you make sure you are working on things that matter?  You do this by being purposeful in how you spend your time.  You do this by having a plan.

But I’m too busy to have a plan you say.

I would respectfully suggest that you are too busy to not have a plan.

So make a plan.  No excuses.  Figure out what matters in your career and your life.  And then set some goals to make sure you are spending your time on what matters.

You will always be busy.

This year give up the fitness goals, go ahead and continue smoking and eating junk food, but get a plan for how you spend your time.  Don’t wait for January to figure this out.  Do it now.

It matters.