-
Clarify Before You Amplify. But Don’t Build a House There.
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal Post in two sentences: Every important decision needs clarity, but clarity has a point of diminishing returns. The challenge isn’t reaching 100% certainty, but recognizing when you already have all the understanding you need to move. Clarify before you amplify is my tag line, but it’s also the one sentence that guides everything…
-
What Can Pigs Teach Us About Decision Making?
Today’s 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 in two sentences: Sometimes the most valuable lessons in decision making come from the places we least expect. Pigs remind us that good judgment is not about knowing everything, but about consistently observing, remembering, discerning, adapting, and choosing well. A Surprising Teacher As a young adult, I absolutely LOVED National…
-
The Anatomy of Business Dysfunction: When the Head and Gut Disconnect
Today’s 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 in two sentences: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗼𝗺𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝘆𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲. A fish stinks from the head has become shorthand for a simple truth: when organizations fail, leadership is usually to…
business dysfunction, business leadership, business strategy, Decision-Making, execution, Leadership & Practice, leadership development, middle management, operational excellence, organizational culture, organizational design, organizational effectiveness, organizational health, strategic alignment, strategy, systems thinking, workplace culture -
What To Do When Your Brain Hijacks Your Day
Some days your brain hijacks the whole thing. That was today. A personal matter reached in, took the wheel, and drove off with the hours I’d meant to spend elsewhere. By the time I looked up, the day was mostly gone. Lost to total derailment. I want to be honest about it, because I think…
-
Bob’s Your Uncle… and What We Stop Questioning
If you’ve ever watched a British cooking show or listened to someone from the UK explain how to fix something, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Bob’s your uncle.” “Tighten the screw, reconnect the cable… Bob’s your uncle.” Today, it simply means “…and there you have it,” or “…it’s as easy as that.” It’s a cheerful…
assumptions, Best Practices, business leadership, business strategy, change management, context, continuous improvement, critical thinking, curiosity, Decision-Making, discernment, history, Language, Leadership & Practice, leadership development, leadership insights, organizational culture, organizational effectiveness, organizational learning, problem solving, Process Improvement, sensemaking, strategic alignment, Strategic thinking, systems thinking -
Yes Does Not Mean Agreement
One of the more subtle ways organizations derail themselves is by confusing agreement with commitment. The distinction seems almost insignificant until you begin looking for it; and once you find it, you will realize just how many strategic decisions are built upon an assumption that was erroneous. We tend to believe that a meeting has…
accountability, agreement, business leadership, business strategy, change management, commitment, Decision-Making, execution, execution gap, Leadership & Practice, leadership communication, leadership development, Organizational Alignment, organizational behaviour, organizational culture, organizational effectiveness, strategic alignment, Strategic thinking, team alignment -
Your Comfort Zone is Not the Enemy
I’m currently reading Choose Hard by MJ DeMarco. He reframed the comfort zone in a way that made me reconsider one of the most common ideas in personal and professional development. For years, we’ve been encouraged to “get out of our comfort zone.” The implication is that comfort itself is the problem. If we’re comfortable,…
-
Before Your Next Move, Seek Understanding
One of the most enduring poems in the English language, The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was inspired by a military disaster during the Crimean War. I kind of half learnt it because my eldest brother had to memorize it for a school assignment and would walk around the house reciting…
⚙️ Sensemaking in organizations, Decision-Making, Human Dynamics, Leadership & Practice, Strategic Sensemaking, Systems, Structure & RelevanceAlignment, businessleadership, BusinessStrategy, changemanagement, clarity, communication, criticalthinking, decisionmaking, diagnostics, execution, Leadership & Practice, leadershipdevelopment, leadershiplessons, management, organizationalalignment, organizationalculture, sensemaking, strategicthinking, strategy -
The Leaders We Have Vs. Leaders We Need
One of the defining strategic challenges of this decade is the widening gap between the leaders we have and the leaders we need. This is not simply a leadership shortage. It is a leadership mismatch. Organizations continue to promote people into roles that were designed for yesterday’s problems while expecting them to solve tomorrow’s. The…
adaptive leadership, business strategy, change management, continuous learning, executive leadership, future of leadership, future of work, Leadership & Practice, leadership design, leadership development, leadership mindset, organizational culture, organizational development, Strategic Alignment Journal, strategic leadership, systems thinking -
After 365 Days…this is what I know
Today marks 365 consecutive days of writing the Strategic Alignment Journal. When I published the first article, I couldn’t have predicted where the journey would take me. I thought I was writing about leadership, alignment, organizational culture, strategy, decision-making, systems thinking, psychology, philosophy, and constraints. Looking back, I realize I wasn’t writing about different subjects…
Get Clarity before the Fix
