Strategy is more about what you believe than what you do.
If you believe there is enough to go around, rather than believing that resources are scarce, you can develop strategies that are grounded in possibility and generosity rather than constantly striving to play a stressful zero-sum game. Can you see how it’s a question of perception?
Continue reading “The Core Driver of Effective Strategy”At the risk of getting a bit technical, I wanted to offer a tip for adding measurability to your strategic plans because it’s come up in conversation several times this week. It comes from one of my clients who, when presenting a new plan to her Board of Directors, explained, “We’ll hold ourselves accountable for the verbs.”
Continue reading “Accountable for the Verbs”A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about lessons on adaptability I was learning from a new board game our family enjoys. The post generated lots of interest (including eliciting requests for more board game recommendations, which of course I was happy to provide!), so it’s stayed on my radar.
One insight has taken up residence in my mind since then:
There are lots of ways to win, but if you try to win at all of them, you’ll lose.
Continue reading “Too Many Ways to Win”If you’re in sales of any kind, you know what a pleasure it is to have sales just rolling in without much effort on your part. This flow is far from automatic; it’s usually a reflection of strong positioning and a lot of previous work which is now bearing fruit.
Continue reading “The Right Work”I am a fan of collaboration and co-creation — they build buy-in and reduce blind spots every time. But I am also committed to meaningful engagement. Too often when people are planning stakeholder consultations or community engagement, they are doing so because they feel they should or have to, but when you scratch below the surface, they actually don’t have anything worthwhile to ask people. Instead, they either just have information to share, or they are simply “ticking a box.” (For more on this, have a look at the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation. If you’re at the “Inform” end of the scale, be there clearly and proudly!)
Continue reading “Tell Don’t Ask”