During the summer, it’s important to take a step back and reflect on goals and priorities when there are often fewer pressures and stresses. Breaks are especially helpful for leaders to get out of the weeds, recognize what’s changing in the world, and rethink strategic priorities. It’s equally important for innovation leaders who use breaks to recharge their creative spirits.

And I’ve written about summertime escaping before, including advice for CIOs on taking summer vacations, IT leaders, and digital transformation leaders. Advice in these posts includes teaching/learning something new, getting hands-on with a technology, and brainstorming with the DevOps team.

Reassess your objectives and priorities this summer

My advice for summer 2022 follows similar themes, but because so much is changing in the world so quickly, I provide specific advice on using this summer to reset and realign. I hope you will consider all of these points, especially #5.

1. Schedule a fun team activity and alleviate the stress – I posted several ideas on reducing stress in hybrid teams – from fun activities such as hosting team pot luck lunches to watching a movie together. Other ideas include day trips and game nights, all options we haven’t had for the last few summers. 
2. Lead a fun brainstorm-to-POC with a new agile team – One way to “teach/learn something new” is to mentor a new team around scrum and agile methodologies. You’ll always face new questions and challenges when teaching teams new practices, especially when applied to different program types. 
3. Visit a customer and walk in their shoes – If you don’t believe how much times are changing, go visit select customers and learn how and why their businesses are evolving. Speak to end-users about their challenges and what you can do to make things easier. I guarantee you’ll walk away with new perspectives and fresh ideas to jumpstart digital transformation.
4. Prune and prioritize the tech debt list – Having miles-long tech debt lists and griping about how little time DevOps teams have to address them creates stress. Sitting with teams to prune and prioritize lists in specific areas with medium-term impacts, then brainstorming easy and close-to-optimal solutions – well, that’s smart and exactly what Digital Trailblazers would do.

And now, point #5!

5. Read Digital Trailblazer with your team

My new book, Digital Trailblazer, publishes this week! I am excited to share my stories and lessons on leading digital transformation with you, and while it’s not beach reading, I believe you will enjoy reading it this summer.

It’s a book you’ll want to read with your team. With ten chapters of stories, I am certain you’ll find ones that will lead to discussions. Maybe it’s the chapter around what led to an IT Ops leader wearing the CEO’s diet coke, the stories I tell about being buried in bad data, the vexing stories on handling innovation detractors, or the ones about forming the right diverse leadership team.

The book will accelerate your technology leadership through the 50 lessons that I leave in the book. And one secret – there’s more, as book readers get access to my Digital Trailblazer Community.

I can’t wait to hear your feedback and questions. Happy summer.