Think of a Meeting as a Process

For years, we heard from our clients about their love-hate relationship with meetings. Meetings are critical not only to our work with others, but they a core to just about every organization’s success. In our research, we found hundreds of very tactical recommendations; but we did not find any overall, structured approach to meetings. This article recommends Thinking of a Meeting as a Process.

How To Adopt Agile Business Practices: A SAFe 5.0 Flyby

Determining how to adopt agile business practices is best aided by a comprehensive framework. In SAFe 5.0 Flyby (Part 2) we build on a conceptual foundation of Lean-Agile utilizing 7 group areas to structure and understand more than 100 elements of the scalable, comprehensive SAFe approach. Part 2 of a 2 part series.

Getting to Your Next-Normal

Getting to the next-normal requires 3 key, but common, building blocks: a stress-tested strategy, a vision and an adaptive roadmap. And, requires three dynamic capabilities: Agile leadership for organizational adaptability, Scenarios to bound uncertainty, and Supply Chain for operational resilience

Scenarios to Bound Uncertainty, At-A-Glance

Scenarios, along with Agile Leadership and Supply Chain, is 1 of 3 COVID/crisis-era capabilities supporting the path “Getting to your next-normal.” This at-a-glance article quickly outlines key elements to consider when leading within a highly uncertain environment.

Results’ Catalyst- Leading and Managing Change

Leading and managing change can successfully catalyze results, but it requires an integrated approach including: 1) support of individual change; 2) support of organizational change; 3) nimble planning and execution; and, 4) relentless integration

Why Agile Management? Because it is an increasingly VUCA world

Agile is an effective approach to managing in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. We share how to think about uncertainty through the lens of the Cynefin framework’s domains of simple, complicated, complex and chaotic. And, we illustrate several management approaches mapped to the Cynefin frame

Safe Execution: Business-IT risk discussion

Getting away from C-I-NO! Discuss Business-IT risk more rationally by considering the 4A’s of Availability (of business processes), Access (by the right people), Accuracy (of the information) and Agility (of change). But the most critical element is start the dialogue with IT.

Change Leadership

Our approach to change is focused on delivering business outcomes and is steeped in practical experience of designing and managing hundreds of initiatives. While implementing change to achieve objectives with speed, predictability and control is complex, the elements summarized in this article are common to most strategic improvement efforts.

Risk Management

As risk is endemic to business, we can never eliminate risk, but we can identify and manage risk through 5 generic approaches to quantified risk: avoid, transfer, mitigate, manage and accept. For project management a convenient frame is to consider the “iron triangle” dimensions (e.g., scope, schedule, cost) as drivers of project risk.