It is inevitably the first question people ask when they attend a conference or tune into a Webinar: “Will you be able to provide us the slides?”
Even in an era where most of us walk around with laptops or smartphones at the ready, getting down all the details from an engaging speech or workshop are nearly impossible. That’s part of the value behind SlideShare, an online resource that has quickly been accumulating what may be the world’s richest collection of presentation decks.
While it may not generate the excitement of social media services like Twitter or Facebook, SlideShare has been emerging as a channel to sift through the latest thinking on a variety of management topics. Its content is primarily B2B focused and although LinkedIn users can upload decks on their personal profiles, SlideShare is arguably easier to search across users to whom CIOs may not be personally connected. Plus, many executives will give an untold number of presentations over the course of their professional careers. It may make sense to have a place outside of LinkedIn to share them all.
CIOs have to make a lot of their own presentations, of course, but many of them probably do so from scratch. Yet much of what’s on SlideShare already speaks to some of the issues they tell us concern them. This includes cloud computing, mobile apps, IT security and how to develop their staff. This sparked an idea: Why not offer up a selection of SlideShare decks that could help CIOs put together their own, or simply keep on hand as handy reference material? All of the decks included here are less than a year old. Some are aimed specifically at CIOs but many are not. Hopefully most of them will prove valuable.
Have you posted a presentation to SlideShare or know someone who has posted something great? Add to this list by creating your own SlideShare profile or sharing your suggestions in comments to this article online.
Justify (and explain) what CIOs do
Malcolm Ryder, principal at San Francisco-based research firm Archestra, has put together a deck that manages, in only 14 slides, to provide a capsule history of why the CIO role was created, how it functions in relation to line of business executives, and how strategy and competency interconnect. This may not be a deck you’ll show to your peers in senior management — or anyone really — but it might be a great source of affirmation on the days when CIOs wonder if their days are numbered.
Master the art of coaching
“Masterful coaches believe that anything is possible, every situation is transformable, there is always a path forward.” That’s just one of the 29 inpsiring one-liners in this deck from a firm that specializes in helping leaders lead. Keep this handy the next time you’re about to chair an IT department meeting, or work through a difficult situation with a staff member. Better yet, share it with your staff to help them understand the best practices here that you’re applying — they should understand what they need to do when and if they ever get the CIO job themselves.
Set the tone for IT security
It’s a lot of text for an audience to read in a boardroom, but this consulting firm’s document gives an extremely detailed overview of everything from backup and virus protection to account adminstration, shared folders, procurement issues and more. The next time someone wants to pretend IT governance has no reason to exist, put this on screen and show them exactly what a thought-through framework for protecting the enterprise should look like.
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