Blog Articles about Strategy Execution
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April 29, 2010
Your pillows can be almost any colour of blue
I was in a meeting with a client and we were discussing his plans to make some changes in his organization. He knew exactly the steps that needed to be taken and he had been working through his plan. He was stalled. His boss had just said “no” to a key part of his plan. He was angry. He was discouraged. He looked at me and asked for my thoughts. I said “blue pillows”. He sat back in his chair and pushed away from the desk. “Blue pillows?!” He said.
I said, “Yes. I like to decorate. I know from years of decorating that if you need blue pillows, there are many, many different colors and patterns of blue that will work. If you can’t get your favorite, you will eventually find another one that works. It is like that with work. If one approach isn’t available to you, there are many, many other approaches that will also work. Your job is to pick another color of blue.”
My client had just finished a renovation and he completely got it. He went back to the drawing board and started looking for other options for his plan. It took some work but he eventually found that other option and he learned something. The war is far more important than each individual battle. You can lose a lot of battles over blue pillows before your run out of different colors of blue.
February 06, 2010
Beware the Second Wave
This week I spoke with four people who have lost faith in their organizations. All four are successful. All four have very valuable and difficult to replace skill sets and business contacts. All four are feeling disaffected and not supported. All four are in different organizations.
These four people weathered the recession quite successfully. They came out of the other side of that recession tunnel, looked around and were disappointed. People they cared about had left their organization. There are new leaders and they don’t like them all. There is a new strategy and they are not at all sure it is right.
These four people may be part of the second wave. The first wave of change happened last year as most organizations restructured in response to the recession. For most organizations these changes resulted in planned terminations.
The second wave is when you lose your best people. They stuck it out and they are not sure they like what they see. Beware.
December 02, 2008
Change is good. Even when it is bad.
Some would call me "the eternal optimist". In fact, I think I am.
I wake up early every morning, sit and read the paper look on the bright side. I love what I do. IMPACT is an organization of coaches who do really great work. I am really proud of the work we do. We have a diverse set of clients who seem to appreciate our work. I think about these things and I think, "We will be fine. Just keep focusing on quality work and stay in the market."
This morning I woke up and felt tired and frankly almost battered. The current Canadian political situation (there is a crisis of confidence in our current minority government) has tipped me over the edge. It is very difficult to remain an optimist in the face of relentless, negative press on the front page of the paper.
I am happy to report my exhaustion and pessimism was short lived. By the afternoon today, the optimist is back.
I read an article this afternoon from McKinsey and it helped me move back to the "bright side". This article reminded me of something I already knew but really needed to reminded of. Change is an opportunity even when it is bad. How is it an opportunity? Change "unfreezes the status quo" and is an opportunity to do what you've always wanted to do and fix what you've always wanted to fix. (See Kotter's 8 step change model for more on this)
November 20, 2008
Silence
My blog on performance management got a lot of positive energy and comments. My last blog was met with a thud of silence.
When I reached out, not everyone liked what I was proposing for compensation. Open systems are scary. Agreeing on salaries could take forever particularly with “some” people. I am not going to defend my suggestions because, truth be known, I’m not sure I’ve nailed it yet. But I will re-enforce a few things that I don’t think should be lost in the debate.
Remember my first blog? Performance management really doesn’t work very well. Everyone (almost) agreed with that. There was a feeling of “finally, someone said this” to your comments. Well, since performance management doesn’t work very well, we can’t link it tightly to other things. We should not link it to salaries.
October 28, 2008
A Bad Economy is Good
Why? A down economy drives a lot of really good decisions. We are all tightening our belts. Our priorities shift. Things we thought were so important a month ago suddenly seem unimportant. For many, the shift is towards things that have lasting value and away from things that provide fleeting satisfaction. We take more time to enjoy that great glass of wine. Suddenly it seems more important to savour every sip. We delay purchases to focus on what we already have. A good wash and tune up and that old car still gets us to where we want to go in style. We spend more time having family dinners and less time in fancy restaurants.
These shifts are good for us personally and professionally.
September 17, 2008
Don’t Give Your Strategy a Haircut.
The front page of every newspaper is full of doom and gloom today and almost every client I know is the midst of business planning.
What is their temptation in this environment? Give your strategy a haircut. Cut back on everything. No new initiatives. No new hires. No business travel. No external consultants. No big pay increases.
What is the impact? Mediocrity.
July 10, 2008
Blah, blah, blah
Leadership communications -- blah, blah, blah! That's how most people experience most leadership communications. Most are long winded email updates written by someone other than the leader or quarterly presentations on fancy Powerpoint slides (also written by someone other than the leader).
The subject matter of these communications is usually the organization's strategy. The strategy often comes off as sounding like platitudes. People feel preached at, bored or leave wondering what their role is. So how can you be different?
February 13, 2008
Making strategy more than a glossy document.
Here's the bottom line on strategic planning. It is very time consuming and often has little impact on most people in the organization. How do you change that? An effective strategy means that most people in your organization understand the strategy and know their role in making that strategy happen.
To test the effectiveness of your own strategy, ask ten people (from various levels and places in your organization) the following questions: 1. In your opinion, what is the single most important thing we are trying accomplish in this organization? 2. Again in your opinion, what are the two or three most important things we need to do to accomplish this thing (above)? 3. What is your role in this? What is the most important thing you can do to help this organization meet it's objectives?
If you ask ten people, I can almost guarantee that the answers you get will vary widely. If they do, that is a problem. The most effective way to run a business is to run it in a way so that everyone knows what they should be doing to make that business successful. Easy to understand. Hard to do. Here are my thoughts on how to do it.
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