Create Your Strategy Map
04/December/12 Filed in: Development Opportunity
Get Everyone Working on the Same Page….
By Using This Powerful Leadership Tool
for Providing Direction
Throughout Your Organization
What can a strategy map do for you? How about…..
If you are in the Triangle NC area, here’s a great way to get started…..
By Using This Powerful Leadership Tool
for Providing Direction
Throughout Your Organization
What can a strategy map do for you? How about…..
- Align effort throughout your organization
- Focus on what matters most
- Amplify customer results
- Enhance performance….and decision making….and communication
If you are in the Triangle NC area, here’s a great way to get started…..
Half-day executive course in beautiful Chapel Hill NC
Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
Find out more > here
******
Can’t make the workshop?
Check out the upcoming online Strategy Map Course > here
read more about strategy maps here
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Articulating Direction
20/September/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
As Yogi Berra artfully observed, “If you don't know where you're going you might not get there.”
Establishing the direction of your organization - and then communicating that direction to everybody who is involved in your organization - is a fundamental leadership responsibility.
This article covers four elements of direction that require leadership attention….
Read More...
Leadership and the 8th Muda
27/July/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
…are you wasting your company’s most valuable asset?
As a leader in your organization,
do you add muda or subtract it?
Muda is a Japanese term for waste. As pioneered by Toyota and adopted worldwide as LEAN processing, top businesses strive to eliminate muda - any waste that does not add value for the final customer.
Seven mudas are traditionally recognized: overproduction, waiting, unnecessary transport, over-processing, excess inventory, unnecessary movement, and defects. Jeffrey K. Liker, in his excellent book The Toyota Way, adds an eighth muda – unused employee creativity.
Liker describes the eighth muda as the waste of “losing time, ideas, skills, improvements, and learning opportunities by not engaging or listening to your employees.”
Too many organizations suffer from….. Read More...
As a leader in your organization,
do you add muda or subtract it?
Muda is a Japanese term for waste. As pioneered by Toyota and adopted worldwide as LEAN processing, top businesses strive to eliminate muda - any waste that does not add value for the final customer.
Seven mudas are traditionally recognized: overproduction, waiting, unnecessary transport, over-processing, excess inventory, unnecessary movement, and defects. Jeffrey K. Liker, in his excellent book The Toyota Way, adds an eighth muda – unused employee creativity.
Liker describes the eighth muda as the waste of “losing time, ideas, skills, improvements, and learning opportunities by not engaging or listening to your employees.”
Too many organizations suffer from….. Read More...
Big Planning Retreat Errors #3
20/July/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
retreat error #3
Internal Goals, but NO CUSTOMER OUTCOMES
What the error looks like….
The retreat results in a well-crafted and thoughtful plan that nicely outlines what people in the organization will do, how they will do it, and how the quality of what people do will be measured.
What’s so wrong with that? …..
Read More...
Big Planning Retreat Errors #2
18/July/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
retreat error #2
Action List, but NO STRATEGY
What the error looks like….
The retreat consists entirely of listing problems or issues - maybe even putting them in priority order - then one by one discussing particular solutions. The group then creates an action plan to implement each solutions.
What’s so wrong with that?
Action items are handled independent of each other, without attention to how they are interdependent or how they work in combination to produce results.
Checklists are an awesome tool, but do not a strategy make. Read More...
Big Planning Retreat Errors #1
16/July/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
retreat error #1
Lots of Effort, but NO DIRECTION
What the error looks like….
The retreat consists entirely of listing problems or issues - maybe even putting them in priority order - then one by one discussing particular solutions. The group then creates an action plan to implement each solutions.
What’s so wrong with that? …. Read More...
Reframing Emotions in the Workplace
27/June/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
Emotions are More Essential Than You Might Think….
Imagine you and a colleague hop in a car, pull out of the parking lot, and head for the interstate highway. As you approach the on-ramp, your colleague reminds you that at high speeds your car can careen out-of-control - and to prevent this you should turn your car off.
Nonsense? Of course! Yet I can practically guarantee that you have experienced something similar and just as ridiculous. Anyone who has spent a few years in the world of work has heard someone warned to “leave your emotions at the door” or otherwise advised to “turn off” emotions – they don’t belong at the office.
Turning your emotions off because they get in the way of work is as misplaced an idea as turning off your car because it has the potential of speeding out of control.
It’s an expensive misconception - here’s why……
Read More...
Get On the Same Page with a Strat-Map
08/April/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
A Powerful Leadership Tool for Providing Direction
Throughout Your Organization
In the way that a master chef’s recipe describes the essentials for creating a distinctive dish, a Strategy Map describes the essentials for creating a distinctive organization.
Ask This One Question...
28/March/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
Your Answer Informs How To Align the 5 Key Priorities of Leading an Organization
If you want to create and sustain an exceptional organization, one that stands out from the rest, the most important question you can ask is ….
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The 5 Priorities of Leadership
19/March/12 Filed in: Leadership Articles
What to Focus On So Your Organization Gets Results
A universal hazard of leading any organization is being pulled in so many different directions that you lose sight of what is important. So where should leaders focus energy, effort, and attention? Answer: focus on priorities of leadership concern.
I believe there are 5 key priorities for leading an organization - direction, performance, innovation, structure, and culture. These 5 concerns apply to leading organizations of every size and in every sector - business, non-profit, and public.
Read More...