Our blog articles about strategy, people, performance, decision making, balanced scorecards and culture change
Here is a way into my blog articles, over 300 of them: It is structured into major topics areas linking to the most articles in each topic area. These cover:
- The Strategy Zone
- Communicating & socialising Strategy: An Executive’s guide
- The Decision Improvement Zone:
- The Culture & Behavioural Change Zone
- The Performance Management Zone: A guide to understanding the management of performance
- Modern Balanced Scorecard Zone
- The 4G Strategic Management Zone
- How we look at our organisations and how we manage: The Paradigm Shift Zone
- Thought provoking articles about how we manage our organisations
Simply scroll down through the various topic areas and articles…
1) Strategy choice, approach and implementation articles: Most recent first
A strategy document is different to a strategic plan
A strategy document serves a different purpose to a strategic plan. Confusion between these different documents causes good strategies to be described badly. The difference between strategy document and strategic plan At Excitant, we make a very clear...
What is strategy: Strategy as a persistent pattern of behaviour
A powerful and useful view of strategy is strategy as a persistent pattern of behaviour. When a client tells me "We don't have a strategy", I don't believe them. I use this approach to tease out what their really strategy is, or has been. It is amongst the most...
ISO9000:2015 Strategic Direction – A strategy management perspective
Are you planning to upgrade to ISO9000:2015? If so, this article provides practical advice for organisations wanting to establish and demonstrate the links between their Quality Management System to the ISO9000:2015 Strategic Direction requirements. In this post I...
What stops long term thinking and planning in organisations?
One of the things I find as a consultant is the need to discuss with the client "The presenting problem", and then to explore, to diagnose to find out what actually is the deeper, underlying problem. Only when you find and address that, do you have a sustainable...
Why fly an untested strategy: Testing your organisation’s strategy against the external environment
You would not fly a plane or drive a car that was untested - so why do we sometimes try to execute untested strategies? There are lots of ways to test a business strategy and check its validity. Recently, I was running a strategy workshop for an Executive team of an...
Strategy does not exist without tensions
Many years ago I realised something while working with clients on their strategy. I realised that there were points in the strategy process and in strategy workshops, when the strategy, as explored, discussed and articulated, was clearly NOT complete. We did not...
2) Communicating & Socialising Strategy articles: Most recent first
Communicating your strategy effectively Part 1: What is strategy?
In this short series we look at where strategy has been communicated well, and badly, examine why some succeed and others do not. Don’t expect a description of big conferences and management “tablets of stone” speeches. This is about communicating the underlying...
June is “Effective Communication Month” – No one told me!!!!
I have just found in Alan Steven's (The Media coach) newsletter that June is supposed to be "Effective communication month". Did you know that? Neither did I. It is now the June 24th and this is the first I have heard. Whoever made this up, needs to have a more...
Engaging your staff: the benefits
Want to improve results? The MacLeod review suggests that providing a clear sense of purpose and engaging your people will positively contribute to improvements in results. In this video MacLeod summarises the big messages...
Will 35% of your staff leave, come the end of the crisis?
This weekend I was at a seminar organised by the entrepreneur coaching company that James Caan has set up. One of the presenters Nic Rixon, quoted the following statistic: "When the turn comes, 35% of staff will leave " Now if this is true its a frightening...
Telling the story of your strategy: Don’t start with powerpoint
For years now people have been complaining about death by powerpoint. There is even a powerpoint, about death by powerpoint, on youtube. So how do you break the pattern? How do you get into the practice of not relying on powerpoint? How do you engage the audience and...
Telling the story of your strategy: Make it actionable
"Maximise shareholder value", "The number one in the market", "Excellent customer service", "Raising the Standard", "Bringing Excellence to the Surface.", "..company most admired for its people, partnership and performance." These are all mission statements for...
3) Decision making and decision taking articles: Most recent first
Strategy in uncertainty: what tools are useful?
At an Institute of Director's economic briefing in November, the Chief Economist of the IOD said that we are still facing uncertainty, its just that the uncertainties are changing. I think the uncertainty continues to change, especially with impending elections and...
Judgement and Evidence: Audience Q&A
Using Judgement and Evidence in Modern Balanced Scorecards: the use of subjective and qualitative measures. Audience questions and responses I presented a BetterManagement webinar on this subject, on 14th October, and it received a lot of interest. You can listen...
Getting a sense of perspective: Similarities between the balanced scorecard and how our eyes work
Getting a sense of perspective Similarities between the balanced scorecard and how our eyes work Yesterday I got something in my eye and it irritated the lens surface so much I was going around much of the day with one eye closed. Not only was it very painful and...
4) Performance management, various types and perspectives. Most recent articles first
Inputs, Outputs & Outcomes – Making sense of a misunderstood model
Understanding the origins of outcome based thinking, the deeper techniques that lie behind it and how you can improve outcome thinking, definition and delivery in your organisation The input-output-outcome model is used extensively in the UK public sector. The model...
Putting human beings back into the way we manage performance
When working with clients we often use the phrase "Putting Human Beings back into how we manage performance". Let us give you an example. One client described a place she used to work. She was given no context about the business, no information about their...
Measurement and target cultures: the problem and solutions
If you are in an organisation that has too many measures and targets, or relies on measures and targets to communicate your strategy and intention, then read on. This will help you diagnose the problem and point to some solutions. Watch the video and you can look at...
A Culture of Performance: What do we mean and how do we create one?
What do we mean by a culture of performance, and how do you create a culture of performance, avoiding dysfunctional behaviours and other games that the wrong culture can encourage? If you are are you concerned about the culture and behaviours that performance...
Performance management challenges 2: Driving performance
Challenge 2: Driving performance - KPI and driver models Having got control of their organisations, (Challenge 1), executives then want to drive change and improvement. So, a popular second stage is to attempt to focus effort and create change using a combination...
Using basic balanced scorecards to get control of an organisation.
Challenge 1: Getting control - operational balanced Scorecards Many Executives start in a search for control and the basic discipline of management reporting. What we call, “Getting a grip on the organisation”. The approach they use is often to collect a wider view...
5) How to achieve Cultural and Behavioural change. Most recent articles first
A Culture of Performance: What do we mean and how do we create one?
What do we mean by a culture of performance, and how do you create a culture of performance, avoiding dysfunctional behaviours and other games that the wrong culture can encourage? If you are are you concerned about the culture and behaviours that performance...
Does “Culture eat Strategy”? Really? What is the alternative?
You have probably heard the expression, either as "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" or "Culture eats strategy for lunch". In essence what they are saying is that the culture of the organisation is stronger than the strategy and the planned change. The strategy...
Communication during acquisition
Having recently being involved in the due diligence phase of an acquisition process, it was interesting to think through the communication during acquisition, from the seller's perspective. Also from the perspective of the people employed in the plant that were were...
Communicating your strategy more effectively, Part 5: Communicating through your actions
So you have told the story of the strategy, but do you back it up with actions. Are you communicating your strategy through your actions? Examples of communicating your strategy through your actions 1) I want to encourage excellent customer service. I measure the time...
Communicating your strategy effectively: Part 3 – Communicating the why of strategy
It is vital you communicate the why of your strategy, otherwise your people will not engage in your strategy or message. There are two Whys of strategy: The “Sense of purpose?”; and the “Why change?”. Communicate the why of strategy purpose The first “Why” is about...
Doubts about social media in communications? This should convince you
If you have any doubts about using social media in communications and customer interaction, then read this article. The Dell Social media Command centre picture should be enough alone to convince you that social media is vital in the presentation of your organisation...
5) Modern Balanced Scorecards. Most recent articles first
The Balanced Scorecard at 20: Balanced Scorecard Conceptual Foundations
I will be frank. I am heartily sick of articles attacking the balanced scorecard written from an incorrect premise, by authors that have failed to read any of the literature since 1992 and usually have their own axe to grind. Most have never had any training in modern...
Balanced Scorecard at 20: Norton’s predictions for the balanced scorecard’s future
It is 20 years since the first Harvard Business review article by Kaplan and Norton in 1992. Now, in 2012, 70% of organisations claim to have a balanced scorecard and the approach has moved on significantly. To commemorate the success of the approach , on 12th...
Balanced Scorecard at 20: Kaplan tells some academics they should have read more up to date material
When I saw a that an academic journal, the "The Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change" (Volume 8 issue 4, Published: 2012) was doing a whole series of articles on the Balanced Scorecard at 20, and including Bob Kaplan's thoughts as well, I though they...
The danger of “What gets measured gets managed” and a better approach
You often hear: "What gets measured gets managed". I want to put a different perspective on this because our experience is that it is far too simplistic. Management is a far richer than simply measurement, isn't it? A better phrase might be: "Don't manage what you can...
Hoshin Planning and the Strategic Planning process
A recent question on Linkedin was about deploying Hoshin Planning as a part of a strategic Planning process. Few respondents seemed to have come across this in action, so here was my response: Untangling problems with Hoshin Planning Let me tell you about a client I...
A short history of balanced scorecard design
What really makes a balanced scorecard, balanced? If you are used to balanced scorecards that simply have measures in a variety of perspectives, this article will help you. Even if you are familiar with the cause and effect model you will learn about how simple...
6) Fourth Generation Strategic Balanced Scorecards and modern methods of management. Most recent articles first
Managing amidst uncertainty: How to positively affect shareholder return
What sort of decisions about the crisis improved, or worsened, shareholder value? It is useful to look back at the types of responses and decisions various organisations had to the credit crisis, and their speed, to see if there are patterns that influence...
Do 9 out of 10 strategies really fail? I don’t think so!
In this article we look at a really common statistic that was popularised with Norton & Kaplan's approach: the "statistic" that 9 out of 10 of business strategies fail due to poor execution. Now, I have never believed it. It is attributed to Fortune Magazine in...
Strategy Mapping for Learning organizations is now available on Kindle
My publishers have been busy and there is now a Kindle version of my book, "Strategy Mapping for Learning Organizations." You can get it from the Kindle store on Amazon.co.uk (and I assume other Kindle stores)....
Balanced scorecards do manage risk – it depends on the class of risk.
The way that balanced scorecards manage risks is completely misunderstood. It is nonsense to suggest that they do not mention, address or manage risks. Balanced scorecards do manage risk, when used as part of a strategic balanced scorecard approach. Then, Strategic...
Rigorous, intellectually honest, learning about our strategy
Isn't that a great phrase, "Rigorous, intellectually honest, learning".The phrase comes from a book called Nail it, Scale it by Paul Ahlstrom and Nathan Furr. The book is designed for entrepreneurs who are developing a proposition for a market. The idea being that you...
Outcome thinking and balanced scorecards: Making them work well together
Outcome thinking and balanced scorecards look like two unrelated approaches to managing performance and results in organisations. However, they have very close connections. Learn how knowledgeable application allows these two, apparently different approaches, to work...
7) Paradigm shifts that affect our organisations and how we manage.
Most recent articles first
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
7) Thought provokers, designed to make you consider thinking differently about how we manage and our organisations:
Most recent articles first
In Business: Beware of sentences with the word “Just” in them
I am sure you have heard the advice. It usually begins, "It is easy...." and continues.... You just run a bit faster to improve your marathon time You just go out and get some more clients, and sales will increase You just pull all your blogs together and you will...
Good consultancy is about how to do things, not simply what to do
Boy was I getting frustrated! I was reading the latest version of ISO9000:2015 and the link it says organisations should establish between its quality management system and the organisation's strategic direction. As I spend all my time helping clients with their...
Organisations do not exist: Think social systems
Whilst organisations appear to be organised, social systems emerge naturally and connect, despite organisational structures and boundaries. In reality, we need to view and understand our Organisations as Social systems. If we forget that we miss how people, human...
The six frogs and decision making
Here is a question for you: There are six frogs on a wall. Two frogs decide to jump off. How many frogs are now on the wall? OK, I’ll save you the embarrassment: there are six. Why? The two frogs only decided to jump off; they did not actually jump off. Sorry!...
Strategy does not exist without tensions
Many years ago I realised something while working with clients on their strategy. I realised that there were points in the strategy process and in strategy workshops, when the strategy, as explored, discussed and articulated, was clearly NOT complete. We did not...
First choose your approach to strategy, then choose your strategy
In the world of strategic thinking and models there are many ways to think about strategy: but there are also several levels. In this post I want to explore three levels or dimensions. Let me take a simple example. Some people are quite keen on the Michael Porter...
Of course the best way to find out what we think is to Contact us