Zeitgeist Inflection
Most strategists will clock and respond to a change in interest rates or cheaper competitors. But what about a change in vibes when the customer’s desires shift? Strategy never sleeps. No matter how brilliant your plan is, small changes can undermine it. Changes come in lots of forms, some obvious, like a cheaper competitor or […]
The Low-Hanging Fruit Dilemma
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. -John F. Kennedy “Pick the low-hanging fruit.” It’s so common a phrase that very few of us ever interrogate it. The low-hanging fruit –the projects we can knock off our list fast. […]
Are You Playing the Wrong Game?
Watch the matching video. One of the hardest things to gauge in a new organization is what is expected. At the grandest level, we call this culture. But the broadness of the term “culture” can obscure the insidious ways it messes with us. Here’s a different cut at the culture question –and one that intersects […]
How Was Next Year?
Happy New Year! Watch the video here! Take a minute and imagine that you were an Olympic diver. As preparation for the world championships, part of your training includes regularly visualize that winning dive. In your mind’s eye, you see and feel yourself walking up the steps to the board, taking the steps to the […]
They Won’t Come Back to the Office
One of my clients, Larry (not his real name), is dealing with a post-pandemic dilemma. The company he works for— let’s call it Alpha, Inc.— is a big, multinational infrastructure company. He’s the head of a substantial engineering portion of the company, and so has hundreds of developers and engineers reporting to him. For the […]
Diagnosis without Treatment
We spend a lot of time as consultants and coaches observing how things are, whether they work and what is broken. This isn’t just a consultant’s pastime, it is also a favorite past time of most human beings — not to mention, politicians. We are all critics-at-large. In our businesses, as leaders, we do the […]
And You’re Off!
At last, the day is here. You have your mission and twelve monthly milestones to keep you on track. And today you perform your first, new action to keep your resolution on track. Maybe you’re a bit hungover from a lot of festivity — and maybe you don’t much feel like doing your one action. […]
Forget Everything and Dream!
To this point, I have tried to bring research to the process of creating a structure for the process of setting resolutions and succeeding. But now, the real countdown to the end of 2015 has begun. Today, on the first day of the last working week of the year, you are probably about ready to start seriously […]
You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything
As I have been researching successful new year resolutions and talking to people about their own plans for self or business improvement in the new year, I have encountered an interesting trend. Many of the people who write or call me, folks who are enthusiastically approaching the new year and their resolutions, lots of them seem to […]
The Management of Dreams
As we look at the New Year approaching and experience a sense of hope – a vision for a different quality of life, health or financial security — it’s easy to forget some of the basic tenets that help us succeed in our professional lives. Even smart business people seem unable to take their basic […]