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
Using the “Good Strategy – Bad Strategy” approach to develop a strategy
This post is about using the approach in "Good Strategy Bad Strategy" to question, review and develop an organisation's strategy. I think "Good Strategy - Bad Strategy" by Richard Rumelt is one of the best books on strategy I have come across. I was one of the...
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...
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...
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...
2) Communicating & Socialising Strategy articles: Most recent first
When a strategy announcement puts the organisation in an hypnotic state!
Have you ever noticed that something you may have said in a conversation, may have sent that person's mind thinking, to the extent that they are no longer listening to you, but are processing their own ideas and thoughts. Moreover you have no idea what they are now...
Mission statements: A failure to communicate
Mission statements can be fraught with problems but one I came across the other day wins an award for the worst I have ever seen. What sort of organisation do you think this mission statement comes from? Welcome to (Our company) and a team that’s passionate about...
Communicating redundancy and bad news
We sometimes have to deliver bad news, communicating redundancy, closures or similar change. Here is practical advice on planning and delivering the messages. Communicating redundancy, closures and other bad news At times you have to make tough decisions: to make...
Misuse of Mehrabian statistics
Do not misrepresent and misuse the Mehrabian statistics on non-verbal communication. I would be very surprised if some presenter has not trotted out Mehrabian's statistics about not verbal communication is only 7% of the communication. 99 times out of a 100, when I...
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...
When communicating strategy, just be yourself
If you are not a natural presenter, just be yourself... Recently I was working in an insurance company and one of the top directors was an Actuary. I don't know if you know many actuary jokes, but most centre on them not being great communicators. Typically, "How do...
3) Decision making and decision taking articles: Most recent 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.
4) Performance management, various types and perspectives. 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.
5) How to achieve Cultural and Behavioural change. 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.
5) Modern Balanced Scorecards. Most recent articles first
Implementing strategy, getting engagement, using the Balanced Scorecard Approach
Ever wanted to ensure you engaged people and managed to change attitudes and performance, as you rolled out your strategic balanced scorecard? In this video, Steve Lunn talks to Phil Jones about their work together at Anglian Water (AW) as AW rolled out a strategy to...
What is a Balanced Scorecard, when everything gets called a balanced scorecard?
The problem when Everything gets called a balanced scorecard Mistakes to avoid: When every performance measurement approach is a “Balanced Scorecard” and every collection of measures is a “scorecard”, it creates a real problem with the language of performance. The...
Lean Thinking and Balanced Scorecards: 4) Performance Hubs.
In this article in a series on Lean thinking and the balanced scorecard we look at how operational measures are represented in balanced scorecard terms and the increasingly popular "Performance hub". At an operational level it is extremely useful to categorise...
Do not use a People perspective: Put Learning & growth into your balanced scorecard
An important aspect of balanced scorecard thinking is to understand what drives performance. The objectives in the learning and growth perspective are vital for this. The problem is many organisations change the name of the learning and growth perspective and rename...
Lean Thinking and Balanced Scorecards: 3) The customer perspective
Both lean thinking and the balanced scorecard are very popular techniques, which on closer inspection overlap in their thinking and approach. Of course this is reassuring because both approaches are based on a degree of common sense. It is also true of six sigma...
Lean Thinking and Balanced Scorecards: 2) Developing the underlying capabilities
Lean thinking and process improvement is extremely popular and rightly so. Lean thinking uses a number of practices and approaches to ensure that the processes in an organisation are as efficient as possible and, most importantly, address what the customer wants. In...
6) Fourth Generation Strategic Balanced Scorecards and modern methods of management. Most recent articles first
Integrating rolling and continuous budgeting with your Strategy
Increasingly businesses are aware that traditional, annual budgeting can constrain, as much as it controls and plans. No-one is saying, "Ignore the money". However, it is a tool designed for centralised planning over relatively long and stable periods. The forecast we...
Cascading balanced scorecards
How do you cascade a balanced scorecard? Here are some simple rules that I use when when cascading balanced scorecards, learnt when I worked with Norton & Kaplan. Ones that I continue to apply with my clients. 1) Cascade objectives rather than measures. While...
How do I use a Balanced Scorecard in an uncertain environment? (Part 2)
Eight ways your balanced scorecard should be helping you in an uncertain environment (Part 2) This article provides four more ways that a good balanced scorecard should be helping you. It also includes a check list you can action immediately. In the last article I...
How do I use a Balanced Scorecard in an uncertain environment? (Part 1)
Your balanced scorecard should be helping you in an uncertain economic climate The current environment is an excellent test of your balanced scorecard. Does it still serve you well as the economy changes, with credit tightening, interest rate and exchange rate...
Strategy maps and the tangible future
Balanced scorecards need a strategy map to orientate them towards the strategy. Strategy maps need a tangible future to describe the future that the strategy will deliver in a way that is tangible and clear. Strategy maps and the tangible future wok together. Strategy...
Strategy maps are about cause and effect
Strategy is about change and improvement, so Strategy maps have to reflect that change and balanced scorecards have to be able to track that change to manage performance. Modern, third and fourth generation, balanced scorecards have strategy maps. These contain the...
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
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...
Of course the best way to find out what we think is to Contact us


