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
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...
Managing strategy as a learning process
The Benefits managing Strategy as a Learning Process If, like many organisations, you want a more responsive and agile organisation that is sensitive to the changing demands of your environment, then the answer lies in the way your strategy and plans are managed: Your...
Deliberate or Emergent strategy: when to choose either or both
Deliberate or Emergent strategy: when considering strategy, planning and implementation, one choice is whether to have a strategy and a strategy management process, that is deliberate or emergent. There are, broadly, two ways to look at your strategy process:...
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...
What is the difference? A strategy, Strategic tools and being strategic
The difference between "A strategy", strategic tools" and "being strategic" can cause confusion. The ambiguity between these aspects of strategy often leads to heated arguments. It can undermines how strategy is thought about and designed. To get around this problem I...
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...
2) Communicating & Socialising Strategy articles: Most recent first
Be professional! How a simple wording change can make a big difference.
Working with a Chief Executive last year, he was frustrated that his staff were not following basic practices of timesheets, project reporting and being disciplined. It was hard to get consistent information from them on the various IT projects that were running. Now...
Strategy communication: You start in a different place to your people
"I was in a warm bed... then I woke up in a plan" is a line from a Woody Allen film. If your strategy is communicated badly, this is how it will feel to many people. You have spent months on the strategy: they have not! Having spent a long time developing the...
What you believe affects how you communicate strategy
Many books suggest what you should do to solve various problems. They focus on what to do and how to do it. My experience is that such advice is often limited in its usefulness. How you think and what you believe matters most It is not just doing things that matters;...
Engaging heads hearts and hands in your strategy
Lots of time is spent developing a strategy and planning its implementation. Yet a simple fact remains: no matter how good the thinking behind the strategy, if it is not in the heads, hearts and hands of the people who need to execute it, it has been a waste of...
Only five percent (5%) understand the strategy (Rubbish?)
This is a shocking statistic. Some research was conducted into why many strategies seem well conceived, but poorly executed. It concluded that whilst many organizations have some success with their strategy, almost nine out of ten organizations fail to fully implement...
Metaphors for the economy
How do you describe the economy to your people, customers, suppliers and shareholders? Because how you do communicate to your staff about the economy will also communicate messages about your strategy and will communicate a host of hidden and implicit messages about...
3) Decision making and decision taking articles: Most recent first
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4) Performance management, various types and perspectives. Most recent articles first
Trusting staff to develop and provide measures for you
Do you trust your staff? A post on the PMA forum reminded me of a conversation I once had with a client's middle management team. It was during the balanced scorecard measures design workshop. I suggested they talk to their staff about the measures and targets and...
Be careful what you believe: It will affect how you behave
The other week I was talking with a consultant who works in a large-ish consultancy. He had only been working in the Public sector for two years and said he was surprised by what he found. His description astounded me. He said, "Public sector managers and staff are...
Seeing what you look for: The blindness of performance management
Seeing what you look for:The blindness of performance management. In the last blog we moved from using just one eye, to talking about how that limits your perspective. In the same way limited measurement systems limit your perspective of the business. In this research...
The Balanced Scorecard in small and owner managed businesses
The Balanced Scorecard in small and owner managed businesses I often get asked about how applicable the Balanced Scorecard is in small and owner managed (family) businesses. The answer is very, but not primarily as a set of measures; more as a strategic focus,...
Human Capital: The disenfranchisement of employees
Human Capital: The disenfranchisement of employees For a while now, the phrase "Human Capital" has replaced "Human Resources" as the buzz phrase to refer to people in an organisation. I suspect the well-intentioned people within the "job title and department naming"...
Business plan fiction: Satisfying the accountants, or a deeper cultural issue
Is your business plan realistic? Or is is just satisfying the accountants? Or is there a deeper cultural issue in how some are taught to write business plans? The curious case of the fudged business plan My son came home from his sixth form studies last week and told...
5) How to achieve Cultural and Behavioural change. Most recent articles first
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5) Modern Balanced Scorecards. Most recent articles first
The development of the Balanced Scorecard Approach – lets have historical accuracy please
In a LinkedIn article someone posted a suggested development time line for the Balanced Scorecard approach. In summary they said (the piece in italics): Performance measurement tool (1992) Performance management system (1996) Strategic management and control system...
Social Media Scorecard – an excellent example
This is an article about Dell's management of their social media. Frankly it is a real eye opener to anyone who was sceptical about it. Of particular interest in their "social media scorecard". They call it a "Social Business Scorecard". "Social Business...
Strategy roll-out: Which part of the balanced scorecard elephant to eat first
A client recently asked an important question. They are in the middle of strategy development and planning. They want to move to more useful measures and a better grip on the organisation. They are considering a strategic balanced scorecard approach. There is so...
Strategic Balanced Scorecard in a manufacturing environment
If you are in manufacturing, or are simply looking for joined up working, then you will find this case study of an integrated sales, design and manufacturing strategy map and scorecard useful. A few years ago we were approach by a manufacturing company wanting a...
Paul Moody CEO Britvic talks about the benefits of their Balanced Scorecard
This is an interview on the BBC Radio 4 programme, Bottom Line, where Paul Moody explains how they communicate their message to around 3000 employees. It is as good an explanation as I have ever heard of what the balanced scorecard approach is all about. Using the...
Should you use a Balanced Scorecard for Strategic Planning?
stimulaYou might be wondering whether you should use a Balanced Scorecard for strategic planning process. Here is my response to that very question. Don't use "a balanced scorecard": use "The Balanced Scorecard Approach" and use it to create the conversations and...
6) Fourth Generation Strategic Balanced Scorecards and modern methods of management. Most recent articles first
What we want is strategic agility and speed: What stops us and helps us?
Back in the dot.com boom around 2000 I was Chief Technology Officer of a start-up that changed direction 180 degrees in 6 months. Within the first six months we had speed: we had our solution up and running to demonstrate a net-market for trading materials between...
Strategy roll-out: Which part of the balanced scorecard elephant to eat first
A client recently asked an important question. They are in the middle of strategy development and planning. They want to move to more useful measures and a better grip on the organisation. They are considering a strategic balanced scorecard approach. There is so...
New models of customer interaction & engagement
We are seeing new business models emerge: Can our approach to managing strategy and performance accommodate them? The traditional models of customer intimacy, differentiation, and markets being “talked at” by companies, are being replaced. (See Grant Leboff, Sticky...
What planning horizon for my Balanced Scorecard and my strategy
So what planning horizon should I use for my balanced scorecard? 1 year, 2 years, 6, 10 perhaps? First recognise that different tools in the overall Balanced Scorecard approach to strategic management are for different planning horizons. Tangible future for 10...
Your Balanced Scorecard’s Architecture
The importance of thinking through the balanced scorecard cascade to ensure you develop line of sight, and planning the overall architecture of your set of balanced scorecards…
Strategy vs operational effectiveness: be clear of the difference.
Sometimes I hear people say that their strategy is operational effectiveness. However Michael Porter explains that operational effectiveness is NOT a strategy, and should not be seen as a strategy. Why? Operational effectiveness as viewed by Michael Porter...
7) Paradigm shifts that affect our organisations and how we manage.
Most recent articles first
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7) Thought provokers, designed to make you consider thinking differently about how we manage and our organisations:
Most recent articles first
Should you copy strategy? Or must strategy be different?
I frequently see postings and hear statements where people suggest that strategy is about being different. Strategy is about differentiation. Saying strategy needs to be different is a myth. It is only a competitive strategy in a market to create distinct profits...
Do you have employees, or people in your business
Whilst researching my next book, I was discussing with a Chief Executive how he communicated the culture his organisation. He explained that they published the revenue, margin and profit from every deal on the wall. Everyone knew what the overheads were so that they...
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...
Our capacity to manage, dictates our ability to improve the world.
Being a manager rarely gets the credit it deserves. Flicking through Gary Hamel's blog on Management 2.0 for Wall Street Journal, I came across this excellent quote "Our capacity to improve the state of the world is ultimately bounded by our capacity to manage." If...
Only five percent (5%) understand the strategy (Rubbish?)
This is a shocking statistic. Some research was conducted into why many strategies seem well conceived, but poorly executed. It concluded that whilst many organizations have some success with their strategy, almost nine out of ten organizations fail to fully implement...
What is a good strategy? A behavioural view
There was a question on a LinkedIn forum recently - "What is a good strategy?" Many have taken that to mean, "What is a good business strategy?" - but I want to widen this, to be a behavioural view of strategy... A view of strategy as behavioural If you take a much...
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