Planning for Resilience

Part 1:   Individual Resilience For the past year I’ve considered the possibility of creating a course in “Organizational Resilience.”  The reason for my interest centers on the notion that organizations can be top quartile performers from the perspectives of strategic management, foresight, agile organization design, etc. but still fail if their team cannot get up…

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Why does Amazon Succeed? Answer: They focus on their Core Competencies!

In these most challenging of times, organizations are well served when they analyze, embrace and leverage what makes them special in the eyes of those they serve.  Such an analysis is often referred to as a core competency analysis.  Such an analysis defines the bundle of skills and technologies that enable a company (or organization)…

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Achieving a Delicate Balance

boy sitting on teeter totter

I want to make a point about a dynamic that too often occurs in mission driven organizations.  To strike the right working balance between seasoned board members, senior executives and new leaders requires appropriate orientation and training in strategic management roles and responsibilities.  When little or no up-front guidance is provided new board members regarding appropriate behavior…

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Confront the Brutal Facts – Yet Never Lose Faith

A Tool for Improving Your Team’s Emotional Health In an earlier blog Decision Making in Times of Crisis we spoke to allowing yourself and fellow coworkers time to process and move through the COVID crisis in your own way.  We emphasized the importance of being flexible and accommodating and, first and foremost, exercise patience and…

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Challenges with Executing Strategy in the Public Sector

Recent research conducted by George Washington University, Center for Excellence in Public Leadership and LBL Strategies points to this conclusion: The #1 reason strategy fails in the public sector is lack of leadership in executing the plan. In April 2019, several public and private sector organizations serving the public sector at the federal, state and…

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The Benefits of Becoming IASP Certified

IASP logo

When you compare strategies between businesses, you’ll find that no two are exactly alike. Each business is trying to accomplish something another isn’t – ­­however large or small the differences end up being. This fact could lead you to believe that a strategy professional’s talents are unique to each business too, with no transferable skills.…

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Strategy Execution Principles in a Disrupted Environment

Strategy Execution Principles

Too often a gap occurs between formulating and executing strategy. In a disrupted environment this can be a fatal error driving unwanted costs, lost opportunities and, ultimately, failure to execute. And when failure at execution occurs, the losses are significant regardless of sector. According to the 2017 PMI Pulse of the Profession report, which surveyed…

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Bridging the Gap from Strategy to Execution: Leaders Must Lead

We all know the routine.  A leadership team comes together to formulate strategy, then armed with the best of intentions, assign business unit and functional teams to execute the initiatives they’ve chosen. Mission accomplished! Not so fast, often a gap between understanding and performance is experienced by those charged with implementing the initiatives flowing from…

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Is Your Business Transformation Strategy Going Down the Drain?

Transformation Strategy

This post was originally published on July 24th, 2016. It was just featured in PMI Chicagoland Chapter’s Newsletter! How many times have you heard the term “Business Transformation?” Have you ever wondered about the exact meaning of this widely used term? I have. Basically, it is a change management strategy which has the aim to align people,…

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