Manoeuvres – your key to having an ACTUAL strategy

If you don’t feel like reading, you can watch my video below or by clicking here,

Three things all clients want from strategy days, which I know because they tell me when we meet.

1. Practical actions
2. Avoid waffling
3. Keeping ‘interesting’ participants in check

There is a simple word I use which gives us all three of these, and that’s

manoeuvres.

I first heard this word in the context of strategy from Lucy Loh and Patrick Hoverstadt, authors of the brilliant book Patterns of Strategy, and for me it was a game-changer.

Let me elaborate.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Star Wars Can Teach Us About Org Structure?

This time I go through a scene from the TV show Andor…so it’s better to watch me do this on video.  To do that, click here.

And if you can’t…I’ll go through it now.

Have you seen the show Andor?  I’ll bet you didn’t know there’s a lesson in there about organisational structure!

The show is part of the Star Wars pantheon, but it’s different.  Deeper, and goes right into the effects of colonisation, imperialism and how that can turn individuals. 

And…we get to see what’s called the Imperial Security Bureau in action, which we can picture as an Executive Team of an organisation.  Here they are:

The scene I go through is a meeting of the ‘Supervisors’, who are the equivalent to Executives, with the boss being Major Partagaz who we might say is the CEO.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Get That Work Landed!  Lessons from Air Traffic Control

Prefer to watch rather than read? Click here to watch the video – 4 mins, with captions.

Air Traffic Control has it’s act together.  Because if it doesn’t, things go wrong.  Really wrong.

Here’s four lessons we can pick up that are easy to apply in your organisation to lift your performance in getting strategy delivered.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

More Projects Delivered with Less Stress – Part 2: The Practicalities

Prefer to watch rather than read?   Click here, five minutes, with captions.

Last time I went through the principles which simply let you deliver more projects with less stress.

Yes, totally true.  Read it here.

The super-short summary is that by lining them up and focusing on finishing instead of starting, you get benefits earlier which lowers stress and interruption, while also reducing switching cost.  It’s one of the key aspects of the method I call The Project Factory.™  

Here’s a picture of the principle:

I finished by saying: “I know what you’re thinking – ‘great, but that’s not how the real world works’. 

I know – I live in it too.  Which is why there’s a Part II to this article coming soon…”

Which is what you’re reading right now.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

More Projects Delivered with Less Stress? It’s True! (Pt 1)

Prefer to watch rather than read? Click here, five minutes, with captions.

There’s so many projects on, it’s overwhelming.  Yet, when we look at the total work and the total salary budget…we should be able to get it all done!  We get the seemingly absurd situation of not being able to spend that very capital or project funding we worked so hard to get!

What’s going on here?  Luckily…it’s something quite natural…and quite simple.  And it’s also one of the key aspects of the method I call The Project Factory ™

Goes like this:

Line ‘em Up!

We’ve got three projects, Blue, Red and Green.  All equal value.  All due the same time.  All break down into four parts, each part takes one month.  This isn’t a trick, they’re all equal.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Just a Spoonful of Capacity Cuts the Wait Time in HALF!

Prefer to watch rather than read?  Just click here, under 5 mins with captions.

In office work the queue doesn’t snake out the door.  Its piles up emotionally in the form of the ever-expanding Inbox, and the increasing rates of friendly-but-scary “where’s my thing?”  It feels like there’s no way out….but it turns out just a spoonful of capacity goes a long way.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Retention Strategy? No! Do this instead.

(Prefer to watch rather than read? Click here, 5 mins, with captions.)

“We need a retention strategy”.  A common cry.

The thing is…you don’t.  What you need is to set things up so talented people want to stay.  And the good news is…they are the same things that make your organisation productive.

Which is good.

There are just two things:

1. People can use their abilities to be useful
2. People don’t mind who they are working with.

That’s it!

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Why Modern Work Sucks…and what to do about it

(Prefer to watch on video than read?  Click here.  5 minutes, with captions.)

What’s the standard response to “how’s work going?”  It’s the deep sigh.

It seems that a lot of modern work just sucks. I’ve got some good news – there are reasons for it, and there are also some things we can do.

A quick warning though – this is NOT the solution. Anyone peddling that is a charlatan. Instead, it’s a few ideas to help. Because that’s all anyone can ever give you.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Wait, Broccoli Is A System? A Primer on System-Thinking

(Prefer to watch rather than read?  Click here, 5 mins with captions.)

“System-thinking”.  It’s been around for decades and gets increasingly more popular as complexity ratchets up.  But what does it mean?

Broccoli

I recently had 24 hours off life (I have three  kids) and took the chance to read “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, great writer from the New York Times.  One piece stood out to me as a great way to explain systems thinking.

Pollan talks about “nutritionism”, the idea that we can work out what’s good in food by breaking it down to its component parts.  Take broccoli – we generally consider that to be healthy, and you might know about anti-oxidants, those things that fight baddies inside us.

Here’s what’s interesting – when certain anti-oxidants are isolated, removed from the food and administered, they don’t always have the same healthy effect as when they are consumed as part of eating the vegetable.  This means there’s something going on in the way the whole thing works together to create the healthy effect…broccoli is more than just a delivery system for anti-oxidants. 

In other words…broccoli is a system!

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.

You are not failing! Understanding organisational growing pains

Prefer to watch on video rather than read? Click here, 5 mins with Captions.

I often help growing organisations that have been successful, yet are starting to feel like they are overwhelmed as well as grinding to a halt.  This often comes with a feeling of failure in the CEO and perhaps the Exec team, with good old imposter syndrome usually raising its head.

The good news is…. the situation is not a failure at all.  It’s completely normal. 

And to explain this as well as to know what to do, I often lean on the brilliant work of Dr. Ichak Adizes, in particular his Business Lifecycle.

I help leaders to confidently reach the full potential of their organisation. We work together to craft a clear strategy, redesign the organisation to enable people, and develop value-adding leadership. Arrange a time for a chat by clicking here, or connect with me here on LinkedIn.