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
Getting your strategy on a page – meaningfully
This Chief Executive ran a £100m organisation and considered her environment complex. As is often the case, her strategy document ran to some 50 pages. It was a complex environment with multiple stakeholders, different groups of customers customers with...
Strategy on a page – well four actually
I was recently contacted by a client in a large charity who wanted to get their complex strategy on a single page. They had worked through the strategy with the board, and subsequently with key members of the management team. The ideas were captured in a word...
Moving to Emergent strategy: Make sure your balanced scorecard does not stop you
Talking with a Chief Executive the other week about a new strategy map and balanced scorecard for their organisation, he had realised the importance of emergent strategy and wondered how the modern strategy map and scorecard supported it. Deliberate strategy Like...
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...
What is the difference between strategy and planning?
What is the difference between strategy and planning? I get this question a lot. It is not that people don't understand planning, but there is often an unclear line in their minds between where strategy stops and planning starts. Others think that a strategy is a...
Lessons from another Strategic Planning workshop
One of the difficulties with strategic away days and strategic planning days is in their name: they are only a day. Last week I had a day and a half with a team: A team that hardly new each other as they were coming from four different countries and different...
2) Communicating & Socialising Strategy articles: Most recent first
They don’t get the strategy
"They don't get the strategy!" These were precisely the words the chief executive used. ‘They just do NOT get the strategy!’. This was not a small company: it was listed on the FTSE100. So what was the situation? It was not a particularly new strategy, as they had...
Why I wrote Communicating strategy
In early 2006, I noticed that my websites were getting a lot of activity on the topic of ‘communicating strategy’. It was closely behind ‘strategy’ as a topic of interest. As I researched the Internet to see what else was available on the topic, I realized it was a...
Don’t over complicate – talking is better
Sometimes you can substantially over complicate a messageWhilst browsing googledocs I came across this lovely little video they have made for Youtube. It is only 1 min 30 long and beautifully illustrates how we often overcomplicate a simple...
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...
Don’t boil it down too far – You can’t swim in sea salt
Do you ask your staff to boil down a message? Just give me the one page version" they say. The danger is you can boil down the ocean until there is nothing left but the salt, the sea salt. And you cannot swim in sea salt. Let me explain. I was chatting to a client...
Socialising Strategy (or Socializing strategy)
Our clients love the idea of socialising strategy, rather than merely communicating their strategy. They understand the distinction between socialising and communicating strategy. When they are socialising their strategy it makes a big difference to how they think...
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
Does having a balanced scorecard improve your financial results?
The case for balanced, structured, performance management. [Note: This article was written in 2005, but still has relevance today even though the sources are now quite dated.] What difference can it make to an organisation? Almost every organisation has introduced...
5) How to achieve Cultural and Behavioural change. Most recent articles first
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5) Modern Balanced Scorecards. Most recent articles first
NHS and GP Practices’ Balanced Scorecard: Its better but historic
In the last post on GP Balanced Scorecards in the NHS, I lamented that the GP Practice balanced scorecard from Southwark PCT provided a very limited view of the GPs practices in their area. In fact i was concerned that NHS balanced scorecards rarely pass the basic...
The Balanced Scorecard in the NHS and GP Practices: Oh no its not!
I was surprised to come across references to the King's Fund research where they suggested that the new commissioning arrangements for GPs taking over fund holding might be managed using a "balanced scorecard". Frankly I was shocked. You see the NHS do not understand...
Performance Management Systems & Culture: Advice to a Chief Executive
On a LinkedIn discussion the Chief Executive of a Housing Association asked For some practical experience of implementing performance management systems and cultures.How best to go about he process of identifying and measuring leading performance indicators. Two quite...
Surely, one more beer/KPI won’t do any harm
Chatting with a client the other day I was describing how some management teams, without a disciplined method to select and choose measures, will add extra measures into the collection, "just to make things clearer". A problem that results in measure mania. He...
Changing the incentive and reward system using the Balanced Scorecard approach
In this video, (the third of three) Steve Lunn talks to Phil Jones about how he changed the incentive and reward system at Anglian Water using the Strategic Balanced Scorecard Approachas a central part of their Transformation project. A significant part of the...
Transformation, the Balanced Scorecard, engagement and results
After several years of diversification, Anglian Water decided to revert back to its core regulated business and needed a transformation project to achieve it. In this interview Steve Lunn describes how he used strategy maps and the balanced scorecard, amongst other...
6) Fourth Generation Strategic Balanced Scorecards and modern methods of management. Most recent articles first
Using shareholder value or return at the top of a strategy map or balanced scorecard
Are you thinking of using shareholder return or shareholder value statements at the top of a strategy map or balanced scorecard. Some organisations want shareholder value at the top Rather than linking their financial objectives to profitability, some organisations...
Balanced scorecard and risk management
How do you manage risks with the balanced scorecard? How is risk management integrated with the balanced scorecard? I've been thinking about this. A little thought brought me to three conclusions about the balanced scorecard and risks. To get to these conclusions I...
Strategy maps and balanced scorecards need an organisational purpose statement at the top
This post is about the structure of a strategy map and the importance of using a purpose or mission statement at the top to anchor the strategy you are describing. Before we detail the financial perspective we must position the organisation’s purpose or mission...
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...
Rapidly evolving and changing strategy
How do you handle rapidly evolving and changing strategy with a strategic balanced scorecard? We often feel that the environment around us, is changing rapidly. So, we need an approach to strategy planning, communication and implementation that can accommodate a rate...
Modern Balanced Scorecards: The important Sesame Street connection
Modern Balanced Scorecards: The Sesame Street Connection To understand the Balanced Scorecard you have to understand where the originators were coming from. This article provides insights into how the originators thinking influenced the underlying principles of the...
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
Don’t boil it down too far – You can’t swim in sea salt
Do you ask your staff to boil down a message? Just give me the one page version" they say. The danger is you can boil down the ocean until there is nothing left but the salt, the sea salt. And you cannot swim in sea salt. Let me explain. I was chatting to a client...
All plans should be burnt
All plans should be burnt.... ...and the Chief Executive did just that - in front of his 50 senior managers. Recently the Managing Director of a client organisation was presenting their strategy to the senior managers. He started by openly admitted that he got the...
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...
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"...
“Work-Life balance”: A dangerous way to think about the issue
"Work-Life balance": A dangerous way to think about the issue. You hear it all over the place nowadays. "I need a better work-life balance". "People have their work-life balance wrong"."You need to improve your work-life balance". What this all suggests is that work...
Valuing companies – starting from first principles.
Several times recently I have been in discussions about company valuation and, in each case, the topic has moved to earnings multiples. If I have this sort of company, then it is worth/values on 1x, 3x, 10x whatever earnings, revenue, EBIT, etc. You know the...
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