As you all know, we have conversations throughout the year. By phone, by email, on the floor at a trade show, and, at times, a private invitation for a conversation with a guiding coalition of leaders. You may have seen an invitation from me in the past.
Recently we had several of these at the GSX 2019 in Chicago.
We talked about their front of mind issues. We asked them to pull a thread on issues they were confronting that others could learn from. And we asked them about the future of their profession, their program and their organization.
These are special moments. They can range from painful leadership and program lessons, to major bets they are making on special projects, programs or people.
They can involve how they are organizing their people, creating relationships with the business and administration, and creating metrics that matter to them and the business.
At one dinner, we were drawing on a paper tablecloth, creating a flywheel for a security program. We used the flywheel recipe by Jim Collins who expanded on a concept he originally wrote about in Good to Great.
I have seen that look in a leader/manager’s eyes when one of their peers has hit a nerve or opened a perspective they have not seen before.
These are the conversations that feed The Great Conversation.
In 2020, we are working on the an evolving case study around a new business model for security that may be launching in February at the conversation in Palm Beach, Florida, updated on the implementation in the June discussion in Seattle, and a metrics of performance discussion in October/November in Plano, Texas.
We are staying close to the technology vendors watching closely the change in business models as they attempt to develop products and services that will feed your need for managing and making sense of the data streams that are coming from your sensor-driven world.
And we are seeing a new definition of the role of the CSO emerging; one that may radically change the way we think about security and the organization.
The Path to 2020 represents not only a Great Conversation on the future of our industry; but also will speak to the future of you, the leader, that will make tomorrow happen today.
We are having conversations all the way through. Join us in creating a guiding coalition of innovation and change. Contact us at info@the-great-conversation.com to become more involved or to simply to register at one or more of the forums.
Ron Worman
The Sage Group
Ron@The-Sage-Group.com