By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

The Second Law of Thermodynamics [SLOT, also known as the law of entropy] is the general tendency of the universe to move from order and structure to lack of order and lack of structure. I believe the Second Law of Thermodynamics partially holds true in societal and business spheres as well. I believe that moments of equilibrium - what Henry Ford referred to as “saner and sweeter” times - are inevitably followed by moments of disequilibrium. H. James Dallas, the just retired Chief Operating Officer at Medtronics, labels such moments “wilderness moments -times when you don’t know what you should be doing but you definitely know that you need to be doing something else.” Wilderness moments are to be expected. Of concern to us here is that following each wilderness moment comes the leadership responsibility of recalibrating governance [i.e., setting in place the processes that ensure that institutions are doing the right things the right ways].... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

Our species has an unhealthy addiction to certainty. Certainty and lack of doubt are way over-rated. Let me give you a quick and admittedly superficial example. Imagine that you were coming to an event featuring a bow-tie wearing futurist as keynote speaker. Would it be preferable to not be 100%, absolutely certain what the speaker had to say, or would it be preferable, as is the case of so many sic “thought leaders” on the rubber chicken circuit, to know exactly what they are going to say?... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

In next generation flight simulators, while you watch the simulator, the simulator watches you back. While this has proven to be a fantastic tool for quickly and affordably creating pilots with superior judgment and impressive flying skills, in other use cases the role of machine “eyes” observing human behavior is surfacing questions.... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

Innovation is not a synonym for invention or novelty. Innovation is the conversion of ideas into cash. Invention/discovery/research on the other hand is the conversion of cash into ideas. EVERY organization innovates [i.e., has a mechanism whereby ideas are converted to cash or in the case of public sector entities – mission value].... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

A recurring leitmotif in science fiction is the evolving relationship between humans and machines. In the Terminator franchise, machines [Skynet] become self-aware [i.e., wake up] and seek the extinction of all humanity. In the real world, Cisco believes that only 1% of the machines in the world are currently “awake” [i.e., situationally aware, connected, capable of communication and agency]. The Internet of Things [IoT] is going to change this. In 2020 most of our devices [~50 to 75 billion] will be awake. What are the implications of this? A good place to begin your preparation for the IoT disrupted future is to inventory your assumptions about the future.... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

High performance organizations are most definitely on a trajectory of abolishing ignorance. However, the migration out of cognitive darkness is not universal or evenly distributed. What is universal is that all enterprises – in all vertical markets will face the consequences of what they don’t know.... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

In the United States, as the days grows shorter and the nights become crisp, a not insignificant portion of the population turn their attention to the nation’s semi-official sport - baseball. Simultaneously with this redistribution of popular attention is the reluctant refocusing of the executive mind on the fast approaching autumnal rites of budgeting [i.e., where is money going to be spent]. In my last blog I introduced the concept of the exceptionally managed though poorly led enterprise. Such an enterprise can be characterized as very efficiently going nowhere. And herein enters the topic of this blog – executive direction setting [i.e., strategic intent] or lack thereof.... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

In the late sixth century Gregory of Tours opened his fascinating survey of the early days of the Dark Ages [History of the Franks http://goo.gl/WIyFCJ] explaining, ‘A great many things keep happening, some good, some bad.’ This fifteen hundred plus year old opening can be used today to describe the state of the Mobility landscape. In the modern mobility space there is a lot going on – some of it good, some of it bad and most of it interesting. Unfortunately, mobility has been ghettoized in the executive brain pan as being “something having to do with smartphones.” It is so, so much more. The mobility space is rich in opportunities to create both sustaining and disruptive innovation [innovation being the conversion of ideas into cash].... Read more

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

Research conducted at several universities and a variety of think tanks suggests that there are significantly more organizations that are “well managed” than “well led.” I think this means that many organizations are – with great efficiency – going nowhere.
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By Tim Mead
Managing Director - Gustin Partners

The ability to create cadence may be more of a human trait in a leader than something bolted onto him or her in an MBA program, though it is likely that a meaningful apprenticeship at company or organization with a distinguishable forward pace tends to bring the trait to the fore. ... Read more