Strategic Thinking & Strategic Action
Fostering strategic thinking and strategic action by organizational leaders since 2007.
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Action-oriented bias
- Nov 17, 2017 Trump trap: Action-oriented bias Nov 17, 2017
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Approach-avoidance
- Sep 21, 2016 Approach or avoid? Sep 21, 2016
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Bell curve bias
- Mar 28, 2020 We are biased by the bell curve Mar 28, 2020
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Choice
- Oct 5, 2016 Managing choice Oct 5, 2016
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Coaching
- Jan 22, 2024 Coaching and change Jan 22, 2024
- Apr 1, 2021 Let’s not be complacent about our ignorance! Apr 1, 2021
- Mar 10, 2021 So much can go wrong. Here’s how to make it go right. Mar 10, 2021
- Mar 10, 2021 Why settle? Go for the gold! Mar 10, 2021
- Mar 10, 2021 It's time for spring training. Are you ready to play on the A Team? Mar 10, 2021
- May 5, 2020 Avoid “the big fail”! Join a group. May 5, 2020
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Consensus
- Dec 6, 2016 No consensus for consensus Dec 6, 2016
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Decision biases cases
- Oct 19, 2020 Short-sighted thinking: The case of the “hot new smartphone” Oct 19, 2020
- Sep 10, 2020 Changing our thinking to feel better. Yes, we do that! Sep 10, 2020
- Oct 24, 2019 Remember, history is written by the survivors Oct 24, 2019
- Oct 22, 2019 Beliefs about a group matter Oct 22, 2019
- Oct 15, 2019 Not knowing we don’t know Oct 15, 2019
- Sep 19, 2017 Case 12: Not missing the opportunity to lose billions Sep 19, 2017
- Aug 29, 2017 Case 11: Getting bitten by not seeing it Aug 29, 2017
- Aug 29, 2017 Case 10: When what worked didn’t work Aug 29, 2017
- Aug 28, 2017 Case 9: The climbers who perished by succeeding Aug 28, 2017
- Aug 28, 2017 Case 8: No accounting for incompetence Aug 28, 2017
- Aug 16, 2017 Case 7: Blind or incompetent? Perhaps both… Aug 16, 2017
- Aug 16, 2017 Case 6: Seeing what he wanted to see Aug 16, 2017
- Aug 13, 2017 Case 5: Getting burned by past successes Aug 13, 2017
- Aug 2, 2017 Case 4: I’m the boss, so I am right! Aug 2, 2017
- Aug 2, 2017 Case 3: The experts were wrong Aug 2, 2017
- Aug 2, 2017 Case 2: The battle that didn’t go as expected Aug 2, 2017
- Dec 12, 2016 Failure without facilitation: The French Canal Disaster Dec 12, 2016
- Oct 26, 2015 Decision traps, flaws and fallacies: Learn from my unexpected big decision Oct 26, 2015
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Decision making
- Jan 5, 2024 What’s your magic number? Jan 5, 2024
- Oct 9, 2023 AI revisited: Will it ever make perfect decisions? Oct 9, 2023
- Sep 4, 2019 “The instant of decision is madness” Sep 4, 2019
- Apr 23, 2018 Despite our growing ignorance, we must decide Apr 23, 2018
- Apr 12, 2018 Can “Big Data” deliver “the right decision”? Apr 12, 2018
- Jan 18, 2018 The worst accident: “We’re going!” Jan 18, 2018
- Mar 8, 2015 10 surprising mental traps: Why we make bad decisions Mar 8, 2015
- Mar 10, 2014 Often wrong but never in doubt Mar 10, 2014
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Decision making biases
- Mar 10, 2021 So much can go wrong. Here’s how to make it go right. Mar 10, 2021
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Evidence
- Dec 16, 2016 Misuse of evidence can zap your strategy Dec 16, 2016
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Evolution
- Aug 6, 2016 Smart phones on the savannah Aug 6, 2016
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Gratitude
- Oct 25, 2017 Thank you for our connection Oct 25, 2017
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Group decisions
- Nov 15, 2016 #2 error: Not using the group advantage Nov 15, 2016
- Oct 22, 2015 Open up your thinking: Make better decisions in a group process Oct 22, 2015
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Leadership
- Nov 14, 2016 #1 error: The leader problem Nov 14, 2016
- Feb 1, 2016 Leaders who mislead: A tale of two movies Feb 1, 2016
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Pre-mortem
- Sep 12, 2016 Thinking “as if” Sep 12, 2016
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Risk
- Jun 9, 2020 The Black Swan and us Jun 9, 2020
- Jan 10, 2017 The risk of ignoring risk Jan 10, 2017
- Oct 14, 2016 Risk and regret Oct 14, 2016
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Strategic planning
- Apr 10, 2024 Bridge the strategy gap Apr 10, 2024
- Feb 23, 2024 Don't waste your time planning, unless... Feb 23, 2024
- Dec 18, 2023 The secret sauce of successful plan implementation Dec 18, 2023
- Nov 20, 2023 How to build commitment to change, revisited Nov 20, 2023
- Oct 3, 2023 Success Starts With a Big Vision Oct 3, 2023
- Aug 24, 2021 Sometimes you get what you need Aug 24, 2021
- Feb 25, 2021 Do you measure up? Feb 25, 2021
- Jul 28, 2020 Forget business as usual Jul 28, 2020
- Oct 9, 2014 What’s driving your organization? Oct 9, 2014
- Feb 20, 2014 This is not an infomercial Feb 20, 2014
- Feb 11, 2014 The Big Fail Feb 11, 2014
- Mar 12, 2013 Parsimony and planning Mar 12, 2013
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Strategic thinking
- Feb 27, 2024 Desirable difficulties Feb 27, 2024
- Jan 13, 2024 Business model question: Produce or provide? Jan 13, 2024
- Jan 5, 2024 What’s your magic number? Jan 5, 2024
- Jul 5, 2023 Think wide to succeed: How will you compete? Jul 5, 2023
- Mar 25, 2014 Flight 370 and strategic thinking Mar 25, 2014
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Strategy
- Apr 8, 2024 What do your customers expect? Apr 8, 2024
- Nov 13, 2023 Demand a great brand! Nov 13, 2023
- Oct 31, 2017 Why not plan to be great, like Elon Musk? Oct 31, 2017
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Success
- Jul 24, 2019 22 principles I have learned from being an athlete Jul 24, 2019
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Sunk cost fallacy
- Mar 21, 2015 Sunk cost fallacy: Throwing good money after bad Mar 21, 2015
Bridge the strategy gap
With the recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in nearby Baltimore, bridges are on my mind.
Given my romance with epic bridges, it is no surprise that I have often likened creating a strategic plan to building a bridge to the future.
I have used the bridge analogy for years. As president of the Association for Strategic Planning (now the International Association for Strategy Professionals), more than a decade ago I started my quest to bridge what I (and others) called “the strategy gap.”
What do your customers expect?
Targeting markets and customers/clients is an essential element of a strategic vision. But deciding who to serve is not enough. Knowing and addressing what the target market/customers/clients expect from the organization (or anyone aiming to serve them) is essential.
You need to determine targeted customer/client expectations.
Desirable difficulties
Too often I see organizations and leaders take the easy road, the worn path, the usual course, going with the flow. The organizations and leaders I work with should not expect me to endorse that approach to business (or life). There is a direct line between difficulty and achievement, whether for athletes or business people. The easy road is almost never that direct line (ignoring the element of luck).
Don't waste your time planning, unless...
I deal daily with clients setting goals and assessing goal achievement. That's at the heart of strategy implementation and client success.
My hard-earned guidance: Don't waste your time planning, unless you are prepared set and achieve goals.
Coaching and change
My fellow coaches and I use the Pygmalion Effect, not as a trick but as a valuable tool, by seeing the best in and expecting the best from our clients, building them up so they can excel at whatever they want and need to be good at and at progressing toward their loftier goals.
Simply, by expecting the best behaviors, we are more likely to see the best outcomes. Rise and shine!
Business model question: Produce or provide?
When designing (or redesigning) how the organization works, consider the question of production versus provision. The organization’s underlying business model is designed to deliver products or services to customers, to create and capture value. But there is no reason that the starting assumption should be that the organization is the entity that creates the services that it delivers.
What’s your magic number?
As humans, we are programmed to use heuristics, that is, mental shortcuts, to enable us to act without knowing all that could be known and taken into account to shape our actions.
The secret sauce of successful plan implementation
I have been working diligently with my clients the last quarter of this year to assure that they have their strategic business plans in place for the New Year.
Each now has a vision of great success, strategies for getting there, and action steps and strategic initiatives laid out for the next 12 months to move them toward their vision.
You might think with their action plan written, my clients are ready to achieve greater success when January 1 rolls around.
Well, without something else, maybe you can call it the special sauce of execution, the odds are too high that they will not implement their plans or that implementation may peter out after a strong start. Just like so many New Year’s resolutions are abandoned.
Open Up Your Thinking: Make Better Decisions in a Group Process
We’ve become convinced that the most powerful way for leaders to realign their organization is to publicly confront the unvarnished truth about the barriers blocking strategy implementation.
How to build commitment to change, revisited
Implementing a strategic plan by executing action steps is a large-scale organizational change process. However logical and essential the change seems to those driving it, others will resist change and be a barrier to successful implementation. Gaining and maintaining commitment to the plan and its implementation is a critical step.
Demand a great brand!
I have been editing the second edition of the seminal book on strategy for strategy professionals, Strategy in the 21st Century, written by my friend and professional colleague Randy Rollinson. It references developing a clear brand as a key driver of strategic success. Amen! That echoes what I know: Success demands great strategy and a great brand.
On our mind: Get out of the way!
Get out of the way so your business can grow and prosper!
AI revisited: Will it ever make perfect decisions?
In our book, BIG DECISIONS, published in 2022, we took on the topic of whether artificial intelligence would soon (or ever) become the answer when we are looking for the right decision.
The idea is that we can maximize our gain from decisions is by using machines to help us make them or even have machines make them for us. But the question then and even more so now with the sudden emergence of OpenAI’s Chat GPT, Meta’s Llama 2, Anthropic’s Claude 2, Google’s Bard, and other groundbreaking AI large language models (LLMs), is can an algorithm be perfected to always yield "the right decision"?
Success Starts With a Big Vision
I challenge clients - and you - to pursue a big vision, for your organization, for yourself professionally, and, hey, why not for your own life, as well?
Think wide to succeed: How will you compete?
In my ongoing work with organizations and decision makers, a host of problems, issues, and opportunities repeatedly surface. My client may raise a topic worthy of wide thinking or I may see its shape looming around us as we work toward a better future.
Sometimes you get what you need
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (middle left in the 1965 photo of the band) died today. He was a great drummer. He was unassuming and did not care much for the flamboyant lifestyles of his peers in the band. Watts quietly focused on his craft for more than 50 years.
But, you ask, what does that have to do with strategy? Let me digress and you soon will see that it has all to do with strategy.
Let’s not be complacent about our ignorance!
My mother encouraged me to read and learn. But she cautioned me, “The more you learn the less you will know.” That was her way of saying that learning opens whole domains about which we were previously ignorant and shows us how much more there is to learn.
So much can go wrong. Here’s how to make it go right.
Being part of a support and accountability group led by a qualified and experienced business coach/facilitator can help you navigate away from the mental traps and biases that can otherwise lead you to bad decision making, inaction, or misappropriate action.
Why settle? Go for the gold!
A business coach who “has been there” and has the right skill sets for coaching, planning, decision making and implementation, can help you develop and execute a winning plan, guide your decision making and actions along the way, motivate you, and hold you accountable.
Why go it alone when you can have a coach who can help you go for the gold?
It's time for spring training. Are you ready to play on the A Team?
When I coach a group of business owners, leaders, and professionals, I think of it as developing an A Team for the members. We are leveling up, with my help as the coach, and playing as an increasingly capable team to help improve one another's businesses and results. Everyone wins! Here's your opportunity to join the A Team.