Encapsulating this flexibility in response to change is what the authors call "the Lego-Bio organization", an emerging model that combines the reconfigurability of Lego blocks with the adaptability of a biological model. "One of the things that is going to have to happen it seems to me is that we're going to have to allow for much more innovation in information processing and the whole information area, and instead of following procedures, people are going to have to start thinking about other ways of doing things," Brown says.

That puts IT in a very difficult position, as the part of the organization perhaps hardest hit by the need to support constantly shifting organizational shapes. The answer is to ensure all of your IT investments are dedicated ultimately to the benefit of the customer, Brown says.

"For instance, all of the supermarkets have got really computerized set-ups now. It's not like the old days, where there was just a cash register. But if you're a shopper going through the lines in the supermarkets, you're not necessarily going through those lines any faster than you did in the old cash register days. And that's because the technology in the store is there for the benefit of the store, not for the benefit of the customer.

"What has to happen in the retail establishment is that the IT people have to figure out how to use the technology for the benefit of the customer, not just for the benefit of the store, because the customer is the key to the future success of the store. That's why numbers of supermarkets are going to check-yourself-out technology, because that makes it easier for the customers.

"You've got a make it easier for the customer. It's nice for the store that can use the technology to keep track of its inventory and do all of these other things, but if it does not ultimately benefit the customer, it's not cost-efficient," he says.

Learning to Forget

In a time of change it is common for people to talk about the need to move up the learning curve. Brown thinks we would all be much better off moving up the forgetting curve, since what prevents you from learning is often what you think you already know, and in a time of rapid change, a lot of what you know is no longer useful to you.

"You have to find a way to discard useless information so you can make room for necessary new information," he says. "I think the successful IT executive of the future is going to be a questioner - constantly challenging not only other people's assumptions but his own all the time."

"Give a man a fish," say the Chinese, "and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he feeds himself for life." Brown and Weiner say their book is about learning to fish. Free your mind to think in ways that will sustain and nourish your organization in the sure-to-be tumultuous years ahead, they suggest, and you will be feeding not only the organization, but your own career. v

SIDEBAR: Back to the Middle

In the techies vs Luddites battle, only the informed will perform

During the early 19th century in England, in the early years of the Industrial Revolution, bands of farm workers roamed the countryside intent on destroying the new machinery in farming that they feared would cause them to lose their jobs. Known as Luddites, they were forerunners to those who came to fear that we and our ways of life would be replaced by machines and technology. It was a position of extreme technological fear.

Then there are the technology devotees, who have been with us forever. They were the ones who used fire, the wheel, metal, gears, motors, invisible waves, atoms and computer ships for what they saw as advancing the physical condition of humanity. Scientists and technologists have been key contributors to making great societies and thriving economies. Many people believe we owe everything to them, and all the problems we can foresee in the future will be resolved by them. This position might be characterized as extreme technological optimism.

Both extremes hold potentially legitimate perspectives that must be evaluated with an untrapped, unbiased mind in order to ascertain the movement of the vast middle, say Arnold Brown and Edie Weiner, co-authors of FutureThink: How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change.

For instance, those in the middle want their governments to both foster and regulate the virtual world. The Council of Europe cyberspace treaty ratified in 2001 sought to create uniformity of law in the 41 member nations regarding hacking, fraud and child pornography. The Hague Convention, governing 48 member nations, would hold an online store liable under laws of any member state.

"It will be interesting to see what global protocols will be devised as a result of being informed by extremes - one looking for standardization, and the other calling for diversity," the authors write.

Surveillance devices allow electronic tracking of automobile use to determine insurance premiums. It is already possible for companies to track someone's virtual travels on the Net, as well as someone's virtual location when using a mobile phone. Who will draw the line, and how? The US Congress has sought to respond to consumers' demands for control of their private information even while more people embrace the Net and mobile phones and tracking systems like OnStar.

"You, like your peers, are going online but attempting to protect your identity. You, like your peers, rely heavily on e-mail but are learning how to get out from under the tidal wave of spam and messages. You, like your peers, are making the changes and are somehow accommodating the extremes as you seek balance in your own life," the authors write.

"The techies and the Luddites will continue to hurl considerations, objections, lawsuits, scenarios and political threats at each other as technology marches on," the authors continue. "But through it all, the middle, hearing what the extremes have to say and seeing what the extremes envision, will be much more informed and will pick and choose from new technology, new behaviours and new forms of relationships. The middle will move."

And so, they authors might add, must CIOs.