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We've Moved!!
Published on 2010-03-19 22:24:00
All good things must come to an end....or do they? Starting today (Saturday, March 20, 2010) - we're no longer publishing new blog posts here at the Be Excellent blog. HOWEVER - we're not ending the blog - we're just moving our content. Since 2005, the Be Excellent blog has been offering the latest news and commentary on issues related to strategy, planning, execution, alignment, innovation and organizational learning. 400,000 visitors later, the Be Excellent blog continues
Agility, High-Performing Leaders, and Embracing Change
Published on 2010-03-15 06:39:00
A new study from the Institute for Corporate Productivity i4cp shows correlation between leaders in high-performance organizations and agility, but fewer than half claim to be good at it.Those companies that have consistently outperformed competitors in profitability, market share, revenue growth and customer satisfaction - dubbed high-performance companies by i4cp researchers - reported much greater agility than their lower-performance counterparts:Almost 60% of high-performance organizati
Strategic Thinking vs. Strategic Planning
Published on 2010-03-11 11:45:00
Are strategic thinking and strategic planning - the same thing?While they certainly related and complementary, thinking strategically and planning strategically are two different concepts.Let's first consider strategic thinking, which involves viewing your organization from a holistic perspective. Research has determined that strategic thinking can be explained through seven dimensions:A vision of the futureStrategic formulation and implementationManagerial role in making strategiesControlManage
Execution – The Fine Art of Getting It Done (Part II)
Published on 2010-03-08 10:56:00
(The following post is authored by Eric Kurjan, President of Six Disciplines Ohio. Six Disciplines brings “big company” process improvement to organizations looking to jump beyond the status quo. For more information visit www.SixDisciplines.com/NWOH , or call 419-348-1897)###Execution – The Fine Art of Getting It Done (Part II)In last month’s newsletter, I shared the key processes for building the strategy (see the original post here) . In this article I will share some of the fin
Six Disciplines Business Coach Offers Advice To PGA Golf Professionals
Published on 2010-03-02 11:55:00
Eric Kurjan is president and owner of Six Disciplines Ohio/Indiana, with licensed Six Disciplines business coaches operating in both states. He's also the president of a private golf club (Findlay Country Club).In this article, recently published in PGA Magazine, Kurjan offers his advice and explanation of the Six Disciplines methodology to PGA professionals.
The Top CEO Concern Three Years Running: Excellence In Execution
Published on 2010-02-25 09:25:00
According to the latest results from the CEO Challenge 2010 Survey produced by The Conference Board, the critical issues of excellence in execution and consistent execution of strategy by top management once again remained at the top of the list.In addition, this latest survey (which was fielded October-December 2009) revealed such growth-oriented challenges as sustained and steady top-line growth, customer loyalty/retention, and profit growth received higher ratings as "greatest concerns."Also
CEOs are Priming for a Return to Growth
Published on 2010-02-25 09:15:00
According to results from the CEO Challenge 2010 Survey produced by The Conference Board, CEOs appear to be emerging from recession mode and priming for a return to growth.Other key results from the survey:The critical issues of excellence in execution and consistent execution of strategy by top management have consistently remained at the top of the list. Participants in the latest survey, (which was fielded from October to December 2009), place such challenges as sustained and steady top-
Too Many Strategic Initiatives?
Published on 2010-02-25 06:49:00
Is your organization "drowning" in too many strategic initiatives?If you're evaluating far more opportunities than your team can realistically handle, it's time to do a serious screening of those initiatives. According to Robert W. Bradford, President/CEO of the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, your organization should only take on between 3 - 10 strategic opportunities, depending on the size, breadth of your team and its resources. (We've found the fewer, the better.)Bradford reco
The Benefits Of A Formal Strategy Execution Process
Published on 2010-02-23 11:11:00
Scott Cleveland reports that a managing director of the Palladium Group (think: balanced scorecard) conducted a survey that compared two groups, one with and one without a formal strategy execution process in place.A formal process in their terminology means "strategy maps, derived projects and process improvements from it, and associated key performance indicators (KPIs) with targets reported in scorecard dashboards and cascaded down into the organization."The results?70% of organizations WITH
Welcome Business Strategy Execution!
Published on 2010-02-23 09:25:00
Welcome Business Strategy Execution, Inc. to the growing network of licensed Six Disciplines business coaches.If you're in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, and want to find out more about the services offered locally by Six Disciplines, contact Jim Crisafulli at 401-356-0030 or visit them on the web.
Top Companies for Leadership Reveals Differentiators
Published on 2010-02-19 08:52:00
HR consulting firm Hewitt has released their "Top Companies for Leaders 2009" study, which reveals that leadership is more important than ever before.Their research has found that the Top Companies for Leaders are never satisfied, and use a number of tools in their leadership and talent planning efforts. In short, they bring a "measurement mind-set" to the often inexact process of developing the next generation of leaders.Click here to view the highlights of the report.
Creativity and Purposeful Innovation
Published on 2010-02-18 09:42:00
"Creativity, a quality more traditionally associated with artistic endeavors, has been slow to find its acknowledged place in the business world. "So begins an article from the Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge site called "Getting Down to the Business of Creativity."Key points:Business leaders must manage and support creativity just as they would any other asset. People have their best days and do their best work when they are allowed to make progress.Their research suggests that most
How To Build Accountability Into Your Organization
Published on 2010-02-12 11:17:00
Many of the top-performing organizations we work with every day - have expressed a real need to build accountability into their organization.Take a quick minute – and consider the following key questions:Does each of your team members understand exactly what they are responsible for?Does your leadership team set consistent expectations for accountability?Do your new team members know exactly what’s expected of them – Day 1?Are all of your team members self-managing?Do you have a standardiz
Top Five Reasons Why Strategic Initiatives Fail
Published on 2010-02-10 14:02:00
Next time you consider embarking on a strategic initiative, be aware of the following five factors that are common elements of failed initiatives (from IndustryWeek's article: "Top Five Reasons Why Strategic Initiatives Fail")Strategy is Not Clearly Communicated to the StakeholdersLack of Support by Key Leaders in the OrganizationDecision-Makers Do Not Understand the Relevance or are Unable to Measure ProgressLack of Impact on Employee CompensationTechnology Needed for Implementation is Not Avai
Achieving Sustained Growth - Take Two
Published on 2010-02-09 10:08:00
As reported in the Harvard Business Review's Daily Stat, the consulting group Bain's updated global database of Sustained Value Creators found only 12% of companies worldwide managed to grow profits and revenues more than 5.5% over the 10 years ending in 2008 and earn back their cost of capital. Here's another take on the same issue: As reported in the best-selling book Six Disciplines Execution Revolution, (How Big Is The Challenge, page 29), a recent McKinsey study concluded tha
Trends Affecting Leadership Development in 2010
Published on 2010-02-09 09:16:00
The most significant emerging trends affecting leadership development, as identified in a Human Resources Executive recap of the 2009/2010 Trends in Executive Development: A Benchmark Report, are: Impact of the Economy. It means that there is more pressure now than before to prepare leaders who can weather the storm and navigate their companies successfully through the turbulence.Bench Strength is No. 1. "Lack of bench strength" was identified as the second most influential factor impacting
Do You Need a Consultant, or a Business Coach?
Published on 2010-02-09 07:38:00
What is the difference between a business coach and a consultant?A consultant completes projects for you based on their own technical expertise. Often, a consultant will provide suggestions and direction for what needs to be fixed, however, rarely will they help the business leader actually implement the fix.A business coach guides you in growing your business:Business coaches provide business leaders with awareness, education, and accountability through regularly scheduled coaching sessions and
New Leaders Need Coaching Too!
Published on 2010-02-09 07:33:00
Only 23 percent of new leaders — or employees who have advanced from being individual contributors to supervising or managing others — receive the coaching they need to reach their full development potential, according to a survey conducted by Right Management, a provider of integrated human capital consulting services and solutions.Key findings from the survey:While organizations see value in providing coaching to strategic and developing leaders, coaching is not offered as frequently to ne
Identifying Growth Leaders In Your Organization
Published on 2010-02-08 09:38:00
According to a Wall Street Journal article, "Growth leaders - most companies have managers who can turbocharge results. The trick is finding -- and nurturing -- them.""Indeed, powerful catalysts for organic growth often exist deep within an organization, hidden and untapped. We're talking about a special breed of midlevel managers -- men and women who possess the vision, leadership and entrepreneurial talents that together make up what we refer to as a growth leader."The chart above offers a way
How to Make Organizational Change Enduring
Published on 2010-02-08 08:51:00
Here's a real shocker:In a survey of 3,300 senior managers and human resource professionals reported by Rob Lebow in his Washington CEO magazine75% of all organizational change programs fail Why is change so hard?Most organizations say their most important assets are their people, but few behave as if this were true. Change initiatives typically devote most budgets to structural issues such as technology and processes, not staff issues. There is still a whole notion of focusing on tangible
Replace Annual Performance Reviews? Where Ya' Been?
Published on 2010-02-08 08:00:00
In his book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions, author Gary B. Cohen proposes a "radical practice": ......replacing annual performance reviews with monthly ones. Monthly! The heart stops at the thought. And yet...take a look at the process the author describes. The reviews are conversations about the best way forward, not critiques of the past. Look in particular at the issue of timing. Might not this approach, if practiced regularly, lead to a whol
Execution – The Fine Art of Getting It Done
Published on 2010-02-08 07:31:00
(The following article was written by Eric Kurjan, President of Six Disciplines Ohio/Indiana. Six Disciplines brings “big company” process improvement to organizations looking to break beyond the status quo. For more information visit www.SixDisciplines.com/Ohio, or call 419-348-1897)###Execution – The Fine Art of Getting It Done!Most of the organizations I run into fall into one of two camps – the first and most common is the organization that does not have a strategic plan to guide the
To Understand Strategy, Look At What People Are Doing
Published on 2010-02-08 07:21:00
Here's a profound observation from management guru, Gary Hamel:"If you want to understand the real strategy, look at what people are doing!”Indeed, more often than not, there are disconnects or gaps between the strategy that is formulated by the senior leadership team, and how the strategy is executed by the rest of the workforce.Why the gaps?Could be for a number of reasons:The strategy is not accessible/available to the workforceThe strategy is not soundThe strategy is not well understoodMos
Strategy Execution - The Scary Statistics
Published on 2010-02-04 07:32:00
Most organizations suffer a major disconnect between strategy formulation and its execution.And while it's more pronounced in larger enterprises because of complexity, smaller organizations need to make sure they do something (anything!) to remove the barriers to execution.Unfortunately, the research doesn't bode well for most of us. Consider the following:90% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution. 60% of typical organizations do not link their strategic priorities
The Stop Doing List
Published on 2010-02-02 10:20:00
The essence of strategy is deciding what not to do. If your organization doesn't develop the discipline to do this, our wonderful free market system will.BusinessWeek recently published an article entitled "Are You Losing Control of Your Business?" in which it advised: "No. 1 on your to-do list? Make a "stop doing" list"BOTTOMLINE: As part of the annual strategic planning process, the Six Disciplines strategy execution program has, in Discipline I. Decide What's Important, a distinctive step cal