Strategy? Yes. Plans? Yes. Strategic Plan. No. Not exactly. What organizations need is a Strategy – an overarching general explanation of how they are going to guide their performance during the coming years. Then they need to build specific Plans to implement the Strategy. The Strategy should be targeted toward Strategic Stretch Goalsthat are designed to significantly … [Read more...] about Strategic Plan? Oxymoron.
More Effective SWOTing
Conducting SWOT analysis (identifying an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is one of the most commonly used activities in strategic planning. It is also an activity most often done poorly. Here are three ideas to improve your SWOTing: 1. Be Systematic. Don’t just ask people on your strategic planning committee what they think your SWOTs … [Read more...] about More Effective SWOTing
Crosswalk Convert
This blog has nothing to do with strategy, leadership, or teamwork. Then again, maybe it does . . . I moved to a new neighborhood a couple of years ago. This changed my commute and took me down a street with a crosswalk in the middle of a very long block. I wasn’t used to a crosswalk that was not located at a street corner, so I did what everyone else did – I sped … [Read more...] about Crosswalk Convert
Building Cathedrals
What are your dreams? If you could have it any way you wanted it, what would your organization be like – so that you could make the greatest Mission Impact possible? Dream and dream big. It was Longfellow who once wrote: Let us build such a church that those who come after us will think we were madmen’, said the old canon of Seville . . . Perhaps through every mind … [Read more...] about Building Cathedrals
New Year Resolution for Excellence
It’s New Year’s Resolution time and here is a common resolution I hear: Level 1: “I’m going to step it up this year. I am going to re-commit myself, work harder, and put in even more time.” This one gets repeated annually unless, hopefully, a light goes on: Level 2: “I’m going to keep working harder, but also work smarter!” And the process of learning about best … [Read more...] about New Year Resolution for Excellence