How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! 1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, …. When you break it down, a lot can get done in a year. Especially when you learn how to manage the not-urgent-yet-important activities in your day-to-day business tasks.

To be successful, you don’t have to be good at everything, but you do need to be good at the right things. The end of the year is a great time for reflection, to evaluate what went well last year, and what needs to improve or change in the upcoming year. With that, let’s take a look at some potential areas to improve your technology management capability in 2011.

First, take it down a notch

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
— Serenity Prayer

Start with recognizing your scope of control and influence within your organization, its processes and structure. As you formulate your goals for 2011, make sure to keep this in perspective to ensure achievable outcomes.

Also, as you work through your list, include areas of personal growth and development. In many cases, you will find your technology management agenda will interlink with your personal development and growth.

Second, make a list and check it twice

Create your list of interest areas as you think through your organization’s current capabilities. Make sure to include seeds that you already planted in 2010, but which haven’t matured yet. Here are some good starting points:

• Innovation research studies, such as Booz & Company’s annual study The Global Innovation 1000.  Their 2010 research emphasized understanding of emerging technologies, broad consumer & customer insights, engagement with customers, product & platform management, and pilot-user selection/controlled rollouts as critical innovation capabilities.
• Walk through your core competencies, your degree of innovativeness,  your innovation and product strategy (first mover, fast follower, low cost leader, differentiator strategy, …) to identify any additional areas of focus.
• Consider cultural and process related improvement areas, including rigorous decision making, strategic alignment, talent management, improving usability and quality, breaking silos, …
• Think through your experience with technology expectation gaps and various lifecycle frameworks to evaluate your organization’s current capabilities.

As you create your list, ask yourself:

1. what frustrates you the most in your existing processes;
2. what you believe is the biggest barrier for your organization;
3. what do you think you would need in order to double your success in 2011;
4. what do you think will bring the biggest return in investment;
5. what changes you foresee in your business, industry, competitors, …

Third, establish your theme for the year

As you narrow down your list to the vital few items which will have the biggest impact, make sure to focus on areas in which you have control and that you are passionate about. Also, I recommend limiting your agenda to 1-2 areas at most, as these are big elephants!

Now, using your list as a blueprint, look for an overarching theme for the year. In addition to your agenda, this theme will act as your anchor, guiding you in your day-to-day activities. Here are some examples:

• Increase organizational agility for faster time to market;
• Strengthen customer touch, visibility and connection within your R&D team;
• Explore emerging technologies and expand IP portfolio accordingly;
• Align technology strategy with corporate strategy for better technology investment decisions and talent development.

Fourth, break it down

Once you have your theme for the year and your agenda(s), break it down into specific goals and tasks, and make them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Where possible, I recommend developing a mini-roadmap that you can use to establish deliverables and due dates, measure progress and capture results.

You can also look at using Balanced Scorecard dimensions (learning & growth, operational excellence, customer, financial) to set a broader take. And, make sure to share and delegate as appropriate.

Fifth, establish the right habits

Create the needed rituals and habits to revisit and check your progress throughout the year. Remember to stay flexible, and recognize when you are beating a dead horse (learn and let go!). When necessary, you may need to change trajectories, refocus or even abandon your goals.

Now that you’re on your way into the new year, what’s on your agenda?

Wishing you a very productive and fruitful 2011!