Why do we set targets to begin with? Targets are an element of proving whether we are achieving our strategy or not, and the purpose of measuring our strategy is to improve our organization’s performance, especially performance that we don’t currently have enough control over (and thus are in our strategy to begin with). Targets [...]
Your number one audience for your strategy is those whose responsibility it is to take on the change needed to achieve your organization’s desired future. Buzzwords are their enemy because this fuzzy language leaves employees guessing at the real meaning of the words and the leaders’ expectations. Corporate jargon inflicts huge damage on a leader’s [...]
If you have attended one of my 2020 PuMP Blueprint Training workshops, you will have heard me mention Nick Desbarats of Practical Reporting.  Nick’s name comes up when we discuss performance dashboards, specifically when we explore the common practice of comparing two points of data and how it, too often, gives us the wrong information [...]
I love techniques like “appreciative inquiry” and other such approaches that help us focus on the positive descriptors of what’s working and when we are at our best. However, for cases when specific skills are needed to achieve something important and when risks are high, it’s just as necessary to be able to spot when [...]
One of the worst problems with corporate strategy is the excessive use of corporate jargon, fuzzy language and “weasel” words. It causes business and non-profit leaders all kinds of issues when they try and execute on and measure their strategy. These empty and inert words, such as “sustainable, efficiency, holistic, quality”, sound important but fail [...]
It’s time again for the quarterly strategy review meeting and the executive team has gathered to discuss progress. Most CEOs have become used to receiving the following report-outs: A financial report comparing standard financial measures from this quarter to previous quarter and to the same quarter last year A round of good news about the [...]
You know what they say, don’t you? If you want a different result you have to change your approach. If you want performance measurement to be easier, faster, more engaging, more meaningful AND to hit more targets, you have to change your approach. […]
Are you struggling to find the right KPIs to measure your strategy? Do you want to have more people buy-in and take ownership of improving performance? Great measures focus people on the results that matter most, but most organizations don’t have them because people struggle to develop and use performance measurement well.  […]
Want your team to remember your Strategic Plan? Have them draw it! When executing a strategic plan, leaders universally complain of the lack of early adoption. Leaders thought it might be the size of the strategic plan, so the “one page strategic plan” emerged. Leaders summarized that if there is less information to read, employees [...]
