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A Confused Mind Always Says “NO”
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: A confused mind says “no” because confusion makes commitment difficult. If I cannot clearly understand what I am being asked to decide, why would I say yes? “A confused mind always says no” is an idea frequently used in sales and marketing. The premise is simple: when…
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Worry is Cul-de-Sac Thinking
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Worry keeps the mind engaged, circling possibilities, consequences and uncertainties without necessarily moving us forward. The challenge is recognising when our thinking is helping us understand what requires our attention and when we have reached a mental dead end. Worry can masquerade as serious thinking. We can…
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Non sine periculo: A sound business motto
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Entrepreneurship is non sine periculo: risk comes with the territory. The discipline is to understand what you are risking, what could be gained or lost, and whether the risk is worth taking. Perhaps every person starting a business should be handed a crest with three Latin words…
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Are We Solving the Problem or Servicing It?
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Organizations can become increasingly effective at responding to a recurring problem without ever changing the conditions that keep producing it. Before investing in another intervention, ask whether it will reduce the problem itself or simply improve your ability to manage its consequences. Some problems become very expensive…
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How Many Jobs Are Hiding in That One Hiring Description?
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Job descriptions often combine several related but operationally different functions because having one person cover them can make economic sense. The question is whether that calculation takes into account the actual work, its volume, competing priorities and the capacity one person has to deliver all of it…
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A Decision Does Not Contain a Predictive Component
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: A good decision does not tell us what will happen. It simply reflects the quality of the understanding from which the choice was made. What makes one decision better than another? When we make a decision, we are not saying, “I know what will happen.” We are…
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Knowing Enough to be Wrong
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: We can know enough about a situation to develop a convincing explanation and still be unaware of what that explanation has failed to account for. The confidence created by partial understanding can be more dangerous than knowing very little at all. You can know enough about a…
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When the Right Decision Makes Things Worse First
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Crocs deliberately accepted declining sales while it reduced discounts, restricted supply and cleared stale inventory from the market. Its experience shows why the earliest result of a decision does not always tell us whether the decision was right. When Crocs found itself with too much inventory and…
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What Is the Minimum Condition Necessary for Your Purpose to Be Fulfilled?
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: We often confuse what we are accustomed to doing with what must be done, gradually adding conditions until the threshold for action becomes unnecessarily high. Asking what minimum condition is necessary for the purpose to be fulfilled can help us separate what is essential from everything we…
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Why Does Rest Have to Justify Itself?
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: We talk about rest as though it must improve our performance before it can earn a place in our lives. When productivity becomes the measure of whether time was well spent, even leisure can begin to feel like something we have to justify. I am a poster…
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