If dealing with change is always difficult, to experiment and innovate belongs on a whole different level!

The idea of hosting our own IT forum came after attending several events where we basically shelled-out money to warm our seats waiting for the speakers to finish their marketing pitches. One could understand about the pitches as the bitter pill of hosting the event  but it doesn't necessarilly make for a lively and interesting talk.  After all, attention is not something you can demand these days and time is better spent doing things more valuable than free snacks and a take home bag that contains a folder of product and service offerings from event sponsors.

We just had our second G2iX CIO Forum wrapped up last week and if we thought that we are now experts doing this, clearly we are deluded.  For one thing, we are our own worst critics and we demand nothing less than what we promised.  If we cannot make them appreciate the forum as a vessel of learning, then we definitely have a lot of work to do to make it so and remain fully committed towards achieving it.

Like any other new endeavor of lasting value, I do believe that there are no quick fixes.  Pretty much the same can be argued for innovation.  No instant turn-around, no simple implemementations, no magic pills.  In fact, it could all very well be, a struggle. Jeffrey Phillips at OVO Innovation writes:

Everyone wants innovation, and everyone wants it to be easy, and fast, and painless. Yet they freely admit that their organization will struggle to innovate and that there are many competing interests andgoals. Good innovators understand that innovation is driven by the culture of the organization, the expectation of the people and the leaders and that it is interesting, but hard work to do it well.

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A message of thanks to those who graced the 2nd CIO Forum with their attendance and participation: Meralco, Kameraworld, Bounty Fresh, Shangrila- Hotel Makati and Bayan Telecommunications among them.