“The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew” (Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough”, 1785) If poet Robert Burns were a CEO in today’s operating environment, we expect he’d use that line…often. In fact, is there a better way to manage expectations for a strategic plan with leaders …
Chicago, IL: The Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s largest project management member association, named LBL Strategies as a Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.). The R.E.P. title corroborates that LBL Strategies met PMI’s rigorous standards for quality criteria for course content, instructor qualifications, and instructional design. The Project Management Institute’s network of registered education providers is approved to deliver professional education …
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 3,234 professionals globally researchers, in …
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 the strategy. This gap invariably …
Dubai was such a great experience for LBL last May that we had to go back! This time we sent our President, Randall Rollinson, to train a new batch of strategy professionals. Equipped with our new and improved Mastering Strategy Boot Camp program, Randall and 16 professionals from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Uganda spent five days learning together …
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a popular topic in the realm of business. From predicting IT failures to which new song will become a hit, AI presents many exciting opportunities. This begs the question: how is AI affecting the most critical element of any business — its strategy? MIT Sloan Management Review recently partnered with The Boston Consulting Group to …
At Agile Strategies, we apply the lessons of both Agile software development and organizational learning to the whole enterprise, particularly the process of formulating and deploying strategy. Here are the guiding principles we work with: #1: Sense and respond An agile organization senses and responds to disruption and opportunity in real time. This is the only way to address the high levels of …
As a chief strategy officer or someone involved in business performance management, you know firsthand the struggles associated with getting your team (or more broadly, your organization) to execute on strategy. There are so many obstacles to overcome, including those associated with using Excel or PowerPoint as your performance management system. Fortunately, there is a way to save a tremendous …
We use the term “strategic management” often, but what exactly does it mean? To some, it might seem obvious, but the reality is that the term has a lot underneath the surface that is worth unpacking. To understand what strategic management is from a base level, let’s turn to our friends at the Association of Strategic Planning (ASP) who define …
Part 2 of our blog series. Elon Musk is a unique person. The CEO of his own space exploration company, Space X, and the genius behind the premium car brand, Tesla, Musk is constantly pushing the edge of what’s possible. Often referred to half-jokingly as a real-life Iron Man, Musk seems to always be on the forefront of technology and …
We’re excited to unveil our brand-new referral program for past and current training participants! If you thought your time with LBL was impactful, we encourage you to pass along your experience to someone you think would benefit from our training. Serving strategy professionals is our true passion and so, for a referral, we are giving back to you, our dedicated …
Gene Kranz helped build NASA from the ground up in the late 1950s, developed the space program through Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, and he was the flight director for missions including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. He’s the guy that ran mission control, one of the key players in achieving the goal of “landing a man on the moon and …
Strategic planning is all about the unknown. What will my business look like in six months? What will happen if I make this decision? How can I improve as a strategic planner? The list of questions is endless, but fortunately, there have been many individuals to go before you who can provide answers. It’s rare to find yourself in a …
When it comes to setting organizational goals, finding the right measures to track your success is a crucial part of the process. If you want to keep up with a changing market, you should know how well you’re doing, how you can improve and what effect your actions are having on your overall strategy. Needless to say, the pursuit for …
Our VP of Operations, Doug Maris, is in Dubai – and not just for the nice weather! Doug brought our Strategic Management Performance System Boot Camp with him to help professionals from across the globe build skills required in all phases of business strategy. Learners from Dubai, UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and Egypt have been experiencing intensive, hands-on …
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, process and technology initiatives of …
The term “performance management” has many meanings in the world of business. A common one is “employee performance management,” where businesses track how well an employee is contributing to the organization. This is not the type of performance management we’re talking about here. Performance management takes on a new meaning when brought up in the context of organization strategy. To …
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. But, when you look into …
As the rate of innovation, disruption and change accelerates across all sectors private, public and nonprofit, the requirements of strategic planning are called into question. New methodologies, techniques and tools such as OKRs come to the fore challenging organizations to adopt shorter timetables and be more nimble in the formulation of strategy, evaluating performance and making course corrections. In the …
The topic of innovation can be daunting, filled with vague terminology and mysterious processes. How does an organization innovate? How does one create a culture of innovation? And how does one guard against – or create – disruptive innovation? And what does all of the above even mean? Steve Jobs said it best, “Creativity is just connecting things. When you …
As the business world’s dependence on data collection and analytics continues to grow, many strategic planners are left wondering what their role is going to be in this new era of computer-driven decision making. Is the old-school CEO going to be usurped by technology, or is there still room for someone with professional experience to make the call? The answer …
Everyone has been in a meeting that lacked structure, leaving it to suddenly veer wildly off track. Maybe someone takes too much control over the conversation, or discussion devolves to off-topic complaints or topics. Whatever the reason, as a meeting organizer you’re left in a tough place. At this point the reason you assembled everyone in the first place – …
Over the past several months we developed a strategic thinking course for one of our primary clients. As we got into the design and development of the course, we discovered that managing risk is a critically important consideration in thinking strategically. Solid strategic thinking related to executing the organization’s strategy includes assessing the trade-offs involved in selecting a particular course …
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, process and technology initiatives of a company more closely with its business strategy and vision. Assuming we can generally agree with this definition, I’m …
A few years ago our team completed an intense assignment with a mid-sized organization located in the Midwest. Our charge was twofold. In Phase 1 we helped the organization set and communicate a new strategy for the future. As part of this process we conducted a thorough environmental assessment with more than fifty key stakeholders. We took the findings and …
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 it can enable …
In working with clients on developing “Strategic Thinking” skills within an organization, there is a lot of attention on ensuring that every employee within the organization has “line of sight” from their respective role to the high-level mission and vision of the organization. The need for this connection is obvious . . . as most organizations struggle with the challenge …
Recently a client asked a very simple, and yet extremely complex, question: “What’s the difference between ‘strategic thinking’ and ‘strategic planning’?” Great question! A quick Google search reveals that academics have pondered and debated this question since the early 1990’s. One extremely helpful scholarly overview can be found in the June 1998 volume 31 of Long Range Planning, in a …
To effectively and efficiently implement an organization-wide strategy requires many factors come into alignment before successful implementation can occur. First, an accountability model must be clearly defined and embraced for each element of the strategy. Who owns each objective in the plan? Who is responsible for each of the organization’s strategic initiatives? Who is responsible for defining, collecting and reporting …
There are countless ways to derail a strategic planning process. Sometimes a process is undone by the tyranny of the urgent. Other times the process can be intentionally sabotaged by c-level staff who fear the process encroaches on their territory. But most often, when a strategic planning process unravels, it is due to one of the following sure-fire methods, virtually …
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” (Carl Jung) Carl Jung’s work in understanding the human psyche (conscious and unconscious) fundamentally informed the development of modern psychoanalysis. His quote elegantly frames the challenge within the human condition to find balance between what we want (desire) …
That is an excellent question! It’s always exciting when your organization comes to consensus about where you’re headed and the strategies to get you there. Once you get to the point of determining the objectives you expect from each strategy, the obvious next step is to determine the initiatives and projects that will help accomplish those objectives. Sounds easy, but …
There is no one answer to this question. The level and scope of the initial program should reflect the best use of management capabilities, and equally important, leadership preferences on how to initiate strategic management activities—regardless of the ultimate level and scope of the strategic management process aspired to and eventually realized. Organizations, even those performing the same functions and …
No one can predict with any certainty what will occur over the next few years. The transformation taking place in the global and domestic economy is unprecedented and it will take some time for new economic patterns to sort themselves out. Regardless, history tells us that there will be winners and losers in every industry. Some industry participants will …
To create an effective strategic plan and management system is a major challenge for any organization. To do so without the necessary preparatory steps will, in all probability, result in wasted time, energy, misdirected efforts and can even lead to the resulting plan failing. Having a clear understanding of where your organization’s journey begins is vitally important and too often …
If you’re looking for the difference between KPIs, KRAs and OKRs, you can find that article here. A key result area (KRA) is an strategic factor either internal to the organization or external, where strong positive results must be realized for the organization to achieve its strategic goal(s), and therefore, move toward realizing the organization’s longer term vision of success. Key result …
In this the second segment of our “Radar” post. We offer insights into facilitating the learning and strategic thinking processes in leadership teams of mid-sized organizations. Whether it is in a private sector, public sector or nonprofit organization we believe these principals apply. Let’s begin with a clear statement of our baseline assumptions. Accurate assessment of any strategic environment is …
To build strategic information radar requires executive management interact with key managers and staff on a continuous, scheduled basis to gather and evaluate strategically significant information of potential relevance to the strategic management of the organization. We begin construction by acknowledging what we consider key characteristics of “strategically significant information” to be: Information from any source, direct or indirect, primary …
