The great ‘business bake-off’
In our experience helping hundreds of organisations with strategy development and execution, we have found that those that adhere to six critical steps (Frame, Align, Cascade, Task, Oversee and Review) avoid the common strategy execution pitfalls. To truly excel at strategy execution however, organisations must go beyond this basic recipe and discover their own ‘Ex-FACTOR’.
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Right Lane Review – Fresh approaches to old challenges
‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten’. In this edition of the Right Lane Review we discuss how to break away from formulaic approaches to strategy and planning and explore powerful new approaches to tackling long-standing challenges.
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Three levers for enhancing your organisational network
In our work, we often witness leaders affecting remarkable changes within their organisations. We take a closer look at the underlying networks that enable these organisations to thrive and examine three different levers through which leaders can leverage these networks to affect change.
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Build and maintain the momentum of strategy execution with quarterly ‘best next steps’
Too often we see strategies with a long list of actions. The fear for potentially taking the wrong action grips, overtaking the fear of taking no action at all. To overcome this ‘paralysis by analysis’, we urge organisations to develop and embed internal processes to help define their next act.
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Scaffolding strategic projects – giving them the help and support they need
As projects are becoming the default way to get things done within organisations, we’ve found that ‘scaffolding’ project teams – that is, giving them the necessary support – increases the chances of their success.
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Organisations that deliver – five elements that set the best apart from the rest
Strategy without execution is just a collection of ideas – successful execution requires committed effort across the organisation. This article outlines five elements for effective strategy execution.
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Bridging the gap between strategy and performance
Abhishek Chhikara and Debbie Williams – February 2017
In our work in strategy and planning, we often find a gap between our clients’ strategy and performance. We outline ways to bridge this gap.
Cascading strategy – options for alignment
Dr Marc Levy – May 2016
Cascading managers’ strategies is a useful exercise to promote alignment, but there are many approaches and no dominant paradigm for doing it.
We recommend approaching cascading in a stepwise fashion; keeping it simple; and building interrelated logic, systems and processes over time as the value becomes evident and the organisation’s appetite for alignment grows.
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Top team off the beam? Engaging the ‘all officers group’
Dr Marc Levy – December 2014
All officers groups, or senior leadership teams, are a feature of most organisations. This article explains how to establish direction and focus for this group to get the most out of it.
Seeing is believing: visual metrics displays
Lauren Spiteri – December 2013
How do you display how the organisation is performing against its strategic objectives? A visual metrics display (VMD) is a visible, visual representation of the progress you are making on your strategic objectives and your priorities, along with key how/who resolutions.