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Stop Issuing RFPs Based on Assumed Needs
I was asked to review a Terms of Reference a couple months ago for a twelve-month Commercial Marketing Advisor. It was a thoughtful document. The objectives were clear, the scope of work was comprehensive, and the desired outcomes were well defined. As I read through it, however, I found myself thinking less about the proposed…
assumptions, business decisions, business leadership, business strategy, commercial sustainability, consulting, decision quality, Decision-Making, diagnostic thinking, executive leadership, governance, Leadership & Practice, leadership insights, management, organizational diagnosis, organizational effectiveness, organizational learning, pre-decision diagnosis, problem solving, procurement, requests for proposal, RFP, root cause analysis, strategic reflection, Strategic thinking -
What Happens When the Obvious is Misleading?
The obvious deserves attention. It just doesn’t always deserve to be part of the conclusion. We are conditioned to respond to what we can see. Most of us don’t witness the beginning of a problem. We encounter it only after it has worked its way to the surface. By then, what we call “the problem”…
business leadership, business strategy, continuous improvement, critical thinking, Decision-Making, executive leadership, Leadership & Practice, leadership development, Organizational Alignment, organizational development, organizational effectiveness, pre-decision diagnostics, problem solving, root cause analysis, sensemaking, strategic diagnosis, Strategic thinking, strategy, systems thinking -
Seize the Moment, not the Day
We have all heard the phrase Carpe Diem. Seize the day. In Choose Hard, M.J. DeMarco offers a subtle but important shift. Don’t seize the day. Seize the moment. We don’t make decisions in days, weeks, months, or years. We make them in moments. Every conversation. Every email. Every purchase. Every difficult discussion we avoid.…
better decisions, business growth, business strategy, continuous learning, critical thinking, Decision-Making, executive leadership, Leadership & Practice, leadership development, leadership mindset, management, organizational effectiveness, organizational leadership, strategic alignment, Strategic thinking -
Negative Thinking Vs. Complete Thinking
A supplier misses a delivery. A key employee resigns. A client rejects your proposal. A marketing campaign underperforms. None of those situations automatically become business problems. More often than not, the real problem is the way we think about them. To paraphrase Seneca… many of the things we call “problems” are actually collisions between reality…
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Emotional Intelligence Deserves More Respect in Business. Here’s Why.
When emotional intelligence is discussed in business, it is often treated as a nice-to-have. Important, perhaps, for leadership development, communication, or team dynamics, but rarely viewed with the same seriousness as strategy, finance, operations, sales, or technology. Yet many of the challenges organizations struggle with most involve how effectively people understand themselves, understand others, and…
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Human Beings are Messy Data Sets
This is one of the reasons alignment is so difficult, whether in families, teams, businesses, or entire organizations. Systems are relatively straightforward. A process follows a sequence. A policy establishes boundaries. A workflow defines how something should move from one stage to the next. If something goes wrong, you can often trace the breakdown, identify…
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Does EI Affect Decision Making?
This morning I attended an Emotional Intelligence event hosted by Judy Joseph Mc Sween at Brix Hotel. The room brought together a remarkably diverse group of people, including school leaders, members of the military, clergy, professionals from law, banking, and information technology, business owners, consultants, and individuals whose work is centred on caring for families…
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