Here’s the idea behind the series. In the technology business, we often SAY that success is 80% people, 15% process, and 5% technology, but we ACT as if the proportions ARE EXACTLY REVERSED.
This show is not about multiple layers of technology stacks on beautiful PowerPoint slides that somehow miraculously connect. Nor is it about all of those triangles and squares and ovals in those lovely process workflow charts. This show will focus on PEOPLE who do amazing things and what makes them tick. What is it about the rare individuals who actually bring visions to life?
Most people fall into one of two camps -- those who endlessly dream but never actually implement, and those who work on a perpetual set of never quite perfect-enough detailed plans. Those who truly change things -- at work, in their communities, or even in the world -- are rare. They are The OxyMorons, the Practical Dreamers and Visionary Pragmatists among us who seem to know some secret sauce denied the rest of us. What is it?
My guest this week is my old friend Atle Skjekkeland, who was gracious enough to be my beta test for the program, and on top of that is one of the biggest OxyMorons I know. Although during the many years that we have worked together, we both likely have been tempted to leave off the “Oxy” part of the noun in referring to each other. I will also add that when my auto-transcription service translated his name, it came out “Atlas Shakhlin,” which might be an awesomely cool pseudonym. Atle is now CEO of Infotechtion, a vendor independent consulting firm specializing in information governance and protection for Microsoft 365 and beyond. They are based in Europe, UK, and the US with global clients in highly regulated industries with up to 300,000 employees. [Disclosure note: I have a relationship with Infotechtion.]
Critical background facts about Atle:
Favorite TV binge watch during COVID - Formula One Drive to Survive on Netflix.
Surprising item on your Spotify playlist - The algorithm constantly recommends Oktoberfest drinking songs.
Favorite book over the last 12 months - Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption by Geoffrey Moore.
1 - Where do your best ideas come from? How do you maintain a creative edge?
I like how Thornton May from the Digital Value Institute uses creative images to communicate big ideas. One of my favorite images he uses is the one by Van Gogh depicting the outskirts of Paris. The lamppost way outside of town reminds me that Paris has taken a huge leap into the future by building infrastructure that is not needed right now, but anticipating that it will be needed in the future. And it starts me thinking in terms of our industry, “Where are the lampposts on the outskirts of our industry? What are the lampposts that I need to build now to allow my organization to grow in the future?” An image like this forces me to think about the big picture.
2 - How do you validate what you think is a great idea?
I think one of my key lessons learned is that you can only keep ideas to yourself for so long. You tend to endlessly play around with them, but ultimately you have to actually talk about the idea. Can you communicate it? Can you share it? What do other people think of it? And of course, you have to test it with possible customers. There's the old saying that you first sell new things to existing friends or customers before you try to sell new things to new people. Try a new idea first with the people you know and see if it sticks.
3 - When you begin to pursue a great idea, who or what pisses you off?
For a long time, I would get really frustrated with glass half-empty people. Everything was always no, no, no. But I’ve come to realize that they bring value to the discussion because they make you prove your value proposition. Skeptics actually help you in the process. In addition, in the last few years as I’ve thought about how organizations translate their high level policies and goals into concrete action, I’ve grown more and more frustrated with people who sit in their ivory tower and don't really see the implications of their policies or how their decisions impact users and customers.
4 - How much do you worry about failing?
The short answer is that I always I think about failing. Any person who doesn't worry about failing is a danger to their organization. They will go into things without thinking and spend money and lose money. So you have to worry about failing. But analysis paralysis is perhaps an even great danger. Even the best idea in the world can be analyzed to death. The key question to address is not only how you ensure that your great idea makes sense based on the big trends in the market, but also how does it bring value in the short run. That means finding a balance. Failure is not necessarily just a bad thing, because the road to success is full of failures. But how can you fail fast and cheap and learn from that to improve and get to success?
5 - What do you consider to be your secret sauce?
You need to have a big goal of what you want to achieve, a goal that is far beyond the horizon. I like to think in terms of some big change or trend that is occurring in the market and then set a big, hairy, audacious goal based on that trend. But you can't go into every day thinking only about that big goal, you have to focus on what's in front of you. When I begin the workday, I find myself inevitably thinking about when that first coffee break will be. So, I try to just focus on doing as good a job as possible for that 60 or 90 minutes until that coffee break comes. And then the next break after that might be lunch. You go on a similar sprint, maybe adjusting direction a bit to reflect obstacles you hadn’t anticipated, but continuing small steps toward the bigger goal. And so on. You focus on what comes until the next small milestone. What you do on a daily basis is focused on the micro tasks and obsessing on them like it's the last task you will ever do.