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Designing With People, Not Just for Them
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Organizations often introduce new systems and processes without adequately involving the people who understand how work actually gets done, only to interpret subsequent workarounds and inconsistent adoption as employee resistance. Designing with people rather than simply for them brings practical knowledge and experience into decisions about what…
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When a Mistake Becomes a Position
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: A mistake may begin as one decision, but the effort to defend it can gradually create problems far greater than the original error. Recognizing when a decision needs to be reconsidered is an important part of leadership, accountability and strategic alignment. In organizations, mistakes often begin with…
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What Happens When the Answer Comes Before the Understanding?
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: We can become so convinced that we have the answer that we stop examining whether we’re asking the right question. A recent exchange about politics and relationships reminded me how easily we substitute familiar principles and solutions for the understanding needed to determine whether they actually apply.…
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You Don’t Have to Prove You’re Making Progress
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: You can be making meaningful progress without having anything impressive to show for it. The challenge is recognizing when the need to demonstrate success begins influencing the decisions we make about achieving it. You can make progress without announcing it. You can experience success without displaying it.…
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Certainty Is Useful…Until It Closes Your Mind to Possibility.
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: We naturally seek certainty, particularly when the stakes are high, but even our best plans, decisions, and efforts cannot guarantee the outcomes we anticipate. Perhaps the greater challenge is learning to act with conviction while remaining open to possibilities we hadn’t considered and confident in our capacity…
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There Is a Difference Between Doing Your Job and Letting It Become You
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Commitment asks us to bring ourselves to our work, but overidentification can lead us to surrender our sense of self to it. When our roles become our identities, we risk compromising not only our well-being but also our judgment, our relationships, and our capacity to help others…
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“We’re training them to stand up so that we can stand down.”
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Leaders must prepare those coming behind them to stand up so that, when the time comes, they can responsibly stand down. This requires developing their judgment, giving them the authority to act and ensuring they can carry responsibility when the leader is no longer in the room.…
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No One Gets to Enjoy Their Own Legacy
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: No one gets to enjoy or control the final meaning of their own legacy because that meaning will be determined by people who interpret our choices after we are gone. Rather than performing for an imagined future audience, leaders might pay closer attention to what their decisions…
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Everyone Has the Right Answer Until They Have to Own the Decision
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Everyone has the right answer until they have to own the decision. Responsibility changes the conversation by forcing the cost, trade-offs, implementation demands and consequences back into view. From the outside, the answer can look obvious. Fire the employee. Replace the manager. Restructure the department. Change the…
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When Winning Becomes the Only Measure of Worth
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: A declaration by Friedrich Mahler, the leader of a fictional group of assassins in Kill Jackie, raises some very real questions about how organizations define performance, reward contribution, and determine the value of their people. When winning becomes the overriding measure of success, we need to consider…
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