“Use your imagination!”
What do you picture? A toddler in a superhero cape perhaps, or holding some crayons?
We tend to think of imagination as the territory of the young, and as an individual pursuit. But what would it look like if imagining were reclaimed by groups of adults? What might we unleash together?
Continue reading “Imagination”In the work I do with non-profits, a great deal of what gets done happens through collaboration. And truly impactful collaboration requires a great deal of trust. Often, that trust is extended as a leap of faith out of commitment to the desired impact more than as a result of past history of working successfully together.
Continue reading “Trust Exemplified”Trust is widely understood as a necessary ingredient for effective leadership and collaboration. But it’s another word we tend to be sloppy about.
Trust requires more than having integrity — or “being trustworthy.” It also requires actually being trusted.
Continue reading “Trust”Being strategic involves more than strategic planning, but that planning cycle is one place it often shows up. When I think about the strategic planning work that has been most impactful over my career, the impact has come not from the content of the plans themselves but from the commitment of the leaders behind them to use the strategy as a decision-making guide. These are people who have embedded the intentions of their strategic plans into the daily workings of their organizations over the long haul. As a result, they have plans, as I say in the strapline of my book Sightline, that “gather momentum not dust.” Here are two such examples, in the early stages of their strategy implementation cycle:
Continue reading “Strategy Exemplified”We tend to be sloppy about the word “strategic.” If we were sitting in a group and I asked you to define it, I suspect people would struggle with the task. They’d probably default to someone who can write a strategic plan. Yawn.
Continue reading “The Secret Sauce of Strategy”
