by Phil Jones | Updated 7 Mar, 2024 | Quality of conversation, Thought provokers
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...
by Phil Jones | Updated 26 Oct, 2017 | Managing uncertainty & risk, Quality of conversation
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...
by Phil Jones | Updated 17 Oct, 2017 | Decision Making & Decision Taking, Quality of conversation, Thought provokers
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!...
by Phil Jones | Updated 31 Dec, 2017 | Decision Making & Decision Taking, Quality of conversation
We like decisive decision making. However we often see that quick consensus leads to bad decisions. In a team situation, forcing quick consensus can easily lead to taking bad decisions. To avoid this, effective decision makers even organise dissent to improve the...
by Phil Jones | Updated 27 Oct, 2017 | 4G Balanced Scorecard, Behavioural & cultural change, Culture of performance, Paradigm shifts, Quality of conversation
Most of what we see in “Balanced scorecards” are technical tools. Many of the questions we see and hear on balanced scorecard forums are technical questions. Many balanced scorecard projects are seen as, primarily, technical projects. This applies to of...
by Phil Jones | 19 Dec, 2013 | Communicating & Socialising Strategy, Quality of conversation
Insight 5: It’s about the quality of conversation: It is good to force out arguments, ambiguity and conflict This insight is part is a series of six insights into strategy, people and performance, derived from working with my clients in 2013. When working on strategy...
by Phil Jones | Updated 31 Dec, 2017 | Decision Making & Decision Taking, Quality of conversation
Making good decisions and executing them well is fundamental to an organisation’s strategy and its performance. How teams and organisations make and take decisions, and their whole decision process, is at the heart of this. Over the years we have helped teams...
by Phil Jones | Updated 18 Oct, 2017 | How we make & take decisions, Quality of conversation
The more I talk through the idea of “quality of conversation” with executives and managers i meet and work with, the more I have absolutely no doubt that the quality of analysis and decision making that goes on in an organisation is directly related to the...
by Phil Jones | Updated 22 Feb, 2018 | Decision Making & Decision Taking, How we make & take decisions, Language of strategy, Quality of conversation
Some time ago I was talking to a client about some decisions that they were dealing with and the problems they were having. The situation involved their strategy, who was involved in the discussions and who had decided what, already. I suggested that the heart of...