Realizing the promise of employee engagement
Ensuring your Great Expectations don’t turn into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly As the old joke goes, in a ham-and-eggs breakfast the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. That isn’t far off the mark for the difference between employee involvement and true employee engagement. Someone can be involved in something as a bystander, but they have to take action to be engaged. Today’s article is the first of a 3-part series for leaders who are considering making employee engagement an important part of their strategy. In today’s article – part 1 – we’ll talk about what...
Read MoreHow to prioritize for faster strategy implementation
The hard choices of strategic prioritization So you know you have to finally decide Say yes to some and let the other ones ride There’s so many choices, not all can be tried Yes you know you have to finally decide (With apologies to the “Lovin’ Spoonful”) In last week’s article we discussed the importance of setting a few critical strategic priorities to accelerate implementation, and the reasons why teams often neglect this important step. This week we’ll set out guidelines for prioritization to help your team become very clearly focused on the most critical...
Read MoreWhy plan in a retreat setting?
Retreats can be highly productive During my career I’ve worked with more than 100 client organizations, public, private, for-profit and not for profit. The most productive planning meetings I’ve facilitated have been multi-day meetings held offsite, usually in locations requiring an overnight stay. The reason for selecting a retreat location is well known to those who have participated. These meetings are nobody’s idea of a vacation. It’s common to work 10 to 12 hours per day, interrupted only by breaks, and without the distraction of people rushing off to deal with “emergencies” or...
Read MoreIf you can’t answer this question, you may be a sitting duck!
What is your business model? Lately we’ve taken to asking every prospective new client the same question in our exploratory discussion: “What is your business model?” A bit of history will help to explain why we think this question is important. When I began consulting on strategic management, I thought it strange that in the five days it typically took to create a strategic plan, very little time was spent actually discussing strategy. We devoted many hours to SWOT lists, mission statements, climate goals, objectives and action plans. Strategy was implicit in many of these discussions, but...
Read MoreIs Creative Thinking An Oxymoron in Your Strategic Planning?
Why strategic thinking stops during strategic planning In his book, “The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning”, Henry Mintzberg noted that strategic thinking occurs more or less continuously in most organizations. Paradoxically, it seems to stop only during strategic planning sessions! After leading strategic planning sessions for 22 years, I agree. During strategic planning sessions ideas are presented, socialized, debated and polished . . . but seldom actually created. The vast majority of the new ideas presented in planning sessions were conceived before the planning session – often long...
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