Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good is a new book by Ann Mei Chang and I am pleased to highly recommend it. The book takes general concepts from The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries, and applies them to the social sector. Here are the three core guiding principles of the book: *Think Big. “Be audacious in the difference you aspire to make, basing … [Read more...] about Lean Impact: Guiding Principles
Implementation
Your Rebel Coalition
You just discovered a big potential problem at your organization. Or maybe you just became aware of an amazing new opportunity! What do you do??? How about running straight to the Big Bosses with your hair on fire??? You may be tempted to do this or even think it is the “right” thing to do. Resist the temptation. You are far better off to start out a bit more … [Read more...] about Your Rebel Coalition
Collaboration vs Consensus
In many workplace cultures, the process of pursuing consensus for nearly all decisions is creating inefficiency and frustration. With the best of intentions of including others and gathering wisdom from throughout the organization, “consensus” has become the default decision-making process in many places. Certainly, consensus has its place in organizational … [Read more...] about Collaboration vs Consensus
The Hardest New Year’s Goal
New Year’s Resolutions are quite a tradition. In a piece I wrote for The Washington Post a number of years ago, I recommend setting “Goals” vs “Resolutions.” But regardless, one of the most popular of these – and I believe the hardest – is the goal to “lose weight.” Having some experience with this goal myself, here are some tips to support you in reaching the goal. Set … [Read more...] about The Hardest New Year’s Goal
Results List vs To Do List
Here’s a New Year’s Goal idea for you – replace your To Do List with a Results List. A To Do List is Stuff you are going “To Do.” A Results List are Results you are “Committed to Producing.” They are Outcomes. Then you can connect a “To Do” list to every Result on your List. But that is not how most “To Do” lists work. They usually exist separate from a commitment … [Read more...] about Results List vs To Do List