Let's get right to the point: if you have to ask how to measure the impact of an initiative, it means you got things back to front. (more…)

A high-leverage strategic change initiative promises so much more than an ordinary one. But what exactly defines high-leverage? (more…)

Most organisations have lame corporate KPIs. They don't align to strategy, give evidence of impact, or offer actionable feedback. If they can't do these things, they can't really be called corporate KPIs!

The implementation of evidence-based leadership is iterative. It's too profound a shift to happen in one go. And it will never happen if we wait to thoroughly research our current state, detail a change management plan, save enough budget to resource it all, and delay until the time is just right and the planets have lined up.

Strategy execution more often than not feels like work, rather than true execution. Sometimes it feels like rework, when we keep redesigning it. Other times it feels like guesswork, implementing without really knowing if it’s working. And then there are times when it’s just plain hard work to get anything to happen. What we want is smooth execution to take the place of the work.

Do you believe that strategy is about projects and initiatives, so you don't need to measure your goals? Do you monitor your actions, because if they're completed, that means your goals are achieved? Do you rely on Staff Turnover Rate to assess how engaged your workforce is? If so, you're wasting your goals!

In the Harvard Business Review this month, Martin Reeves of the Boston Consulting Group writes an interesting piece on how our increasingly uncertain world requires us to have a more deliberate strategy. He says our strategy needs a strategy. But with increasing uncertainty, is there still ...

Experiments are what scientists use to stop assumptions from limiting how much they learn about the natural world. And we can use them in business to stop our assumptions from limiting how we can elevate performance, and from wasting the resources we invest to do it.

Instead of implementing our change initiatives as long, drawn-out projects, we can run them as a series of iterations. Iterating our way toward a closed performance gap is going to be faster than trying to close that gap with a single big solution.

They will never admit it out loud, or even to themselves, but many leaders are scared of KPIs. And it's for the same reasons most people are scared of KPIs. (more…)