I have worked in organisations that have had great attraction, recruitment and selection processes.  Most of them had poor training and development processes.  Those companies did not provide suitable training or suggest suitable training providers.  Even when I found training that aligned with my role and career, I was told it was not ‘relevant enough’.  I felt stuck because I couldn’t grow my capability.  My motivation and interest dropped and I left the company. Capability development drives employee engagement and organisational success.  It can be tough to s ..read more

Source: juicy fish on freepik Leading successful change can be paradoxical.  There is a drive to disrupt the status quo while embedding new ways of working. Familiar processes get upturned and new processes need to be learned. We replace systems with new ones and map and transform data to fit.  People have to give up their habits and behaviours and commit to new ones.  Conflict between agility and innovation We seek agile organisations which can rapidly adapt to changing circumstances.  At the same time, customers expect consistency in the products and services they buy.&nb ..read more

Source: freepik Can we reduce costs and add value at the same time? Yes. You can. But it takes some objectivity, some research and reflection and a willingness to change. Cutting costs while providing more value sounds counter-intuitive but it need not be.  My experience in consulting, and in management prior to that, is that necessity is the mother of invention.  When you are forced to produce something for less you can come up with ways to produce more value for clients or customers.  A strategic review can turn things around. The key ingredients are: At least one fresh set o ..read more

Learning from mistakes is good.  Learning from someone else’s mistakes is better.  Learning from what went right is better still. We have all done things that didn’t go so well – sometimes we fail spectacularly. We tend to remember those moments. The embarrassment and sense of failure fades with time but we retain a lesson from the moment and gradually become wiser. Mistakes I have made include: Planning work before engaging stakeholders fully Not recognising signs of stress in a team early enough Failing to insist that a client backfill key roles in a project so the day job still ..read more

I work with a team which helps implement strategy – turning strategic objectives into results.  Funnily enough, when we meet a new client the strategic drivers and objectives are often far from clear.  Executives come to us because they want to do something and they want to make it happen quickly. That’s fine. We can help with that.  Among the first few questions we will ask are: Why do you want to do this? What will success look like for you? What other options have you considered to achieve that success? This always sparks interesting conversations about the logic behind th ..read more

Strategic Doing is a powerful way to achieve meaningful change and address complex problems.  Complex, or sticky problems have no clear solution. They can absorb a huge quantity of resources – and often little obvious progress is made unravelling the issues or developing a viable way forward. They need a fresh approach to address these challenges. An approach that embraces complexity, drives innovation, engages stakeholders, and delivers measurable and achievable outcomes.  Strategic Doing is an innovative but proven approach that does just that. Strategic Doing is action orientated ..read more

In many organisations, there’s an aura of mystique surrounding strategy.  It can seem disconnected from the everyday, from business as usual, from what people do.  I’ve found this especially true of the “strategic roadmap”, a mysterious document concocted by gregarious people after a session in front of a whiteboard at an off-site somewhere.   Strategic roadmaps tend to show higher-level things in an organisation’s desired future: big decisions, investments and changes.  They can be difficult to relate to if you don’t understand the strategy that led to them being drawn up ..read more

Image by pch.vector on Freepik The city I live in has a big problem with its water pipes. The region’s water provider, Wellington Water, estimates 45% of the drinking water it supplies is lost through damaged pipes. The loss is from over 3,000 leaks in the water mains, not dripping taps on private property. Historic underinvestment, messy governance and an earthquake a few years ago have all contributed to the problem. For over a year there have been leaks from the water main that runs up my street. A steady stream of water flows down to a drain in the gutter outside my house.  I and othe ..read more

Projects implement strategy.  The Project Sponsor (or Executive Sponsor) is the person responsible for the success of a project.  They provide strategic alignment, necessary guidance and resources to the project manager and team.  In most cases, they are the original champion of the project, but may also have inherited it from a predecessor.  A key aspect of the role is the authority to fund and support the project and make key decisions. The success of a Project Sponsor depends on their personal traits, experience and the maturity of project governance in the organisation ..read more

Photo credit: https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/5-active-nba-players-failed-reach-potential Otto Porter Jr. was a promising young player (#3 in the draft) but wasn’t able to reach his full potential due to a hip injury. In the National Basketball Association (NBA), teams frequently offer players multi-year contracts, based on performance or potential. However, various factors like aging or injuries can lead to a decline in these players’ performance over time. In some cases, despite the initial promise, these players may not meet expectations. They are a sunk cost. Despite this, teams may ..read more