Recently I wrote about how to do tactical planning, the step in a strategy-setting process where the strategies get translated into something that can actually be implemented over several years, to make strategies a reality. But, you may (wisely) say, easier said than done. This is a complicated process, involving nothing less than the future …
There’s an avenue of academic inquiry about strategy that, honestly, I have trouble working up much interest in. These are the studies that explore whether strategies fail more often in substance (the strategy was just wrong) or execution (it didn’t really get done). I’m just not that interested. Unless a strategy gets implemented, it’s unbelievably …
Not to be a total bummer, but there are, really, so many ways to fail. We might fail if we’ve misunderstood something important about the outside world. We might fail if we’re wrong about our basic ideas about how we are going to be successful. We might fail if we’re wrong about how to get …
Sometimes, if you talk about something for a while, or even if you ignore it while it sits in the back of your mind, it starts to crystallize. It gets nice and simple. (Sometimes, of course, it goes the other way and gets more and more muddled, but that’s another post.) Obviously, I spend a lot …
Serial, if you aren’t already among its listeners, is a wildly compelling NPR podcast, which investigated a 1999 murder in its first season. The fact that someone is in jail for the murder doesn’t keep this from being a terrifically engaging story which – spoiler alert – has its frustrating moments. One of the many things …
Occasionally I think to myself “Yup, this is the moment where this client gets their money’s worth on this project. Right here.” And it’s not because of a complicated report or a big piece of research. Or – and this hurts my ego a bit to admit – a delightfully compelling piece of analysis. It’s just because of a …
Your answer to the following question might be “No, I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m far too well-adjusted for that.” Fair enough. Let’s see. Do you know that feeling you can get deep in your gut that something is just wrong, just deeply, intensely wrong about what you’re doing? You don’t have words for it, …
Maybe I know a lot of keeners, getting a head start on their New Year’s Resolutions? For whatever reason, I seem to be having quite a few conversations lately where we’re talking about how far we’ve gotten in the past year. Some of these are formal, reviewing an organization’s progress against its strategic plan. Others are …
Really, it doesn’t get a lot more awkward than a facilitated session that goes sideways. I was talking with a friend at dinner the other night about a strategic planning session she was part of, which had gone so badly that both the CEO and the President of the Board had tried to step in …
Yes, yes, of course, we’re in the new world of the porous organization, where we’re supposed to listen and be responsive and all that good stuff. But the reality is, if you listen to your members, your customers, your employees, especially if they’ve just been surveyed, you’re going to get a laundry list. By which …