Six Disciplines

08/05/2021

A manager should be focused on one thing: results through teamwork. That's it. Not results by any cutthroat tactic possible. Not stirring up that team-loving spirit that is often trite and impotent. No, a manager has one job: pushing his/her team members to their work potential.

08/04/2021

If you want to be ignored, create a vision document and talk at people about it. If you want to be resented, airdrop some significant changes on your team, no questions asked. If you want to be followed, then get down in the trenches; work with each team & each team member to align their goals to the vision.

08/03/2021

Innovation and making strategic change (in your life or your organization) is less about being smart and more about having the COURAGE to commit to your change roadmap. You will have to leave some cherished things behind.

08/02/2021

We all fight for efficiency, so we tend to "steal" improvement ideas from our competitors. But slowly, like teens all wearing the same one-of-a-kind clothes, we become just like them. We lose our competitive advantage. We lose our unique identity. The essence of strategy (thank you, Michael Porter) is to answer the question, "What will make us different?"

04/10/2019

Nicholas Pearce on HBR's IdeaCast | He has three jobs – but one vocation. He says too many of us are looking for jobs without thinking about purpose. And he says companies as well should be as purpose-driven as they are profit-driven.

Nicholas Pearce, clinical associate professor at Kellogg School of Management, says too many companies and individuals go about their daily business without a strong sense of purpose. He argues that companies that are not simply profit-driven are more likely to succeed and that the same goes for peo...

04/08/2019

Sears' latest attempts are a reminder to all of us that doing the same thing as everyone else but trying a little harder is not strategy.

This week Sear announced a new off-the-mall format to showcase its once dominant home brands. Alas, it's a repeat of many things that were tried unsuccessfully in the past and it's clearly too little, too late.

04/04/2019

This will take your strategy to the next level. If you are serious about improving performance, you have to become serious about improving your strategic vision focus and your strategic themes.

This will take your strategy planning to the next level. If you are serious about improving performance, you have to become serious about improving your stra...

03/29/2019

37% of all employee activity is waste. To recapture wasted resources, make strategy crystal clear and equip people to displace lower-priority activity with higher-priority activity. Check out our new YouTube upload to learn more.

37% of all employee activity is waste. To recapture wasted resources, make strategy crystal clear and equip people to displace lower-priority activity with h...

03/29/2019

Highly productive people, according to Pozen/Downey’s HBR article from yesterday, 1) Develop daily routines 2) Plan their schedule, 3) Cope with messages, 4) Prioritize and execute, 5) Run efficient meetings, 6) Hone communication skills, and 7) Delegate. http://ow.ly/iuF430ofiua

03/22/2019

Don't get caught fighting your direct competitors and then blindsided by the other 4 competitive forces. Michael Porter's first Harvard Business Review article published in 1979, updated and expanded in 2008, remains today, in our opinion, cutting edge. http://ow.ly/RN1I30o9eVh

03/21/2019

New video on our YourTube channel. Our brain, at only 2% of our body mass, consumes more than 20% of our energy. When we introduce change to the organization, our natural physiological response is to resist it.https://youtu.be/zFhR_KY7KrE

03/21/2019

Subscription pricing strategies are all the rage. But subscription fatigue is wearing consumers down. 47% of U.S. consumers are frustrated by the number of streaming services required to watch what they want, Deloitte found. Check out their findings http://ow.ly/wSG930o8mKt