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Control: The Most Potent Addiction of All
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: The need for control can create a sense of security while gradually increasing dependence, limiting initiative and reinforcing the very conditions we’re trying to prevent. Recognizing the boundaries of our responsibility and influence allows us to make more appropriate decisions without assuming that every outcome must be…
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The Fix Forward Session: Tackling Recurring Roadblocks
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Organizations can conduct increasingly effective meetings while continuing to discuss the same unresolved problems, introducing corrective actions without adequately understanding why previous efforts have failed. The Fix Forward Session™ changes the conversation from repeatedly managing recurring issues to understanding what keeps them in place before determining 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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People either survive in the jungle or exist in the zoo
Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences: Businesses often ask for initiative, accountability and adaptability without examining whether their systems actually allow those behaviours to develop. Before deciding that people need to change, it may be worth asking what the organization has been teaching them to do. I heard this line in The Gentlemen:…
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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 -
Mastery Does Not Exempt Us from Scrutiny
I came across a term I’ve never heard of before, while watching a medical drama: proctoring. In medicine, proctoring occurs when an experienced physician is observed and evaluated by a peer to verify that they can safely perform a procedure. What surprised me was who it applies to. These are not medical students. They are…
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Have You Ever Asked a Doctor for a Refund?
It’s perhaps a strange question to ask but I am curious. A doctor diagnoses a condition, explains what is happening, recommends a course of treatment, and sends us on our way. We may follow the advice diligently. We may follow some of it. We may ignore it entirely. Yet if our condition fails to improve…
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Stop Looking for Perfection in your Leaders
There’s a video clip making the rounds in Trinidad and Tobago of a Government Minister, ranting. He wasn’t venting. He was just vomiting out everything he actually thought about specific people and named races. It was difficult to listen to but after I was literally shaking my head, as if I didn’t want the words…
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Choices Steer your Life…
Ever face a situation in life that forces you to review everything you’ve come to accept – examining aspects of why you do what you do like never before? The situations that bring us to our knees are those where death is involved. Or perhaps I should say, the possibility that death is involved which…
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