I’ve been honored once again to be included in the EMC Elect group. You can find out more about the official charter on ECN (http://thinka.be/1O3f2iT) but my personal charter extends this basic meaning and my post here serves to outline that viewpoint. My vision is to be a thought leader focused on creating consistent content of business value both upstream and downstream of the IT organization.
The first attribute of a strong member of the EMC Elect team is engagement. This comes in many forms, but the usual form is via social media. This can be a traditional blog such as Gotdedupe, micro-blogs like Twitter and Facebook, a mix similar to what is found in LinkedIn posts, and a multitude of other avenues. Additionally valuable are the face to face interactions that occur at events that happen through the year. Not every member of the EMC Elect is a speaker. Not every member attends every show of the year. But you will be sure to see each of us in our community in some fashion. Since the makeup of the team is mostly technical folks, and a large portion from the EMC and Partner environments, these interactions are typically supporting a sales motion in some form or another, but more on that in a bit. The last area of engagement and one that I judge myself poorly on is engagement in the official ECN channels. This online community was created to allow customers, partners, and prospects engage to help with everything from the introduction to a concept through the complex operations of their chosen solution. You will find a treasure trove of valuable minds at your disposal and in many cases the answers to questions your can’t find anywhere else.
Back to the face to face engagement I spoke about earlier. All too often I find myself ambling around at a conference or show, checking out booth swag, and popping into sessions to see what’s new and interesting. Little value The EMC Elect take that a bit further and part of my commitment this year is focused on spending more time educating this year. As you have heard, I started the Remain Silent Podcast (http://thinka.be/1DGpdH8) as an additional way to help with that education process. Podcasting is something that requires time and effort to keep momentum with. My peers Brian Carpenter (@inthedc) and Brent Piatti (@brentpiatti) have taken this concept and shown mastery. I hold the Hot Aisle as the very high bar I want to achieve and it’s because of the thought leadership shown here. My goal for 2016 is to bring similar content to the Remain Silent podcast throughout the year. Trust me, there will still be plenty of silly to enjoy, but mixed in with some real nuggets of brain food. The other side of engagement for me this year is focused around more presenting. Since I left EMC and joined a business partner, my engagements have been more specific customer focused. This year I intend to leverage the fact that I have more widespread audience than just the traditional data protection and primary storage audience I once spoke with. I will work to get out into the community and start a conversation instead of just delivering another pitch.
Commitment is the second strength an EMC Elect member brings to the conversation. A commitment to EMC is pretty self explanatory since this is in fact EMC’s recognition program. But also a commitment to being consistent with the message and consistent in the velocity and volume of that message. Too often, just like the Remain Silent podcast at the end of 2015, things get in the way and the conversation is muted. I have found inspiration from peers that still look forward to my updates, and my new content. That inspiration always brings me back to the table to expound on the topic at hand. It is important that I inspire myself this year, and that I inspire the next group of EMC Elect to keep their commitment to the community. Things can’t keep getting in the way, if the thing is the way. I am committing to making the thing the way again this year.
The last mark of am EMC Elect is leadership. In fact, it’s the leadership of folks like Brian and Tommy Trogden (@vtexan) that helped me elevate my own game to even be considered for the EMC Elect originally. Its the folks like Matt Schneider (@md_schneider) that challenge me to think about business from the office of the CxO. It’s folks like Mark Browne (@dathbrun) that try to herd a group of cats with little more than a short piece of tattered yarn. I could go on and on about the folks that have been leaders for me, but it’s not just the guidance that those in the EMC Elect community contributed, but the forward thinking view of our industry they provide day in and day out. They are forming a basis upon which organizations are building their future. I recently finished reading the Phoenix Project and the world that Bill Palmer creates for his teams is the kind of world that thought leaders like the EMC Elect are creating for IT across the globe.
Finally, a thank you to everyone for continuing on this journey year after year with me.
Digital IRL 