Category Archives: Change

Trust Your Gut

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We are change and strategy practitioners. We have the privilege of working in many corporate settings and on a wide range of projects. Over time, when you do what we do, patterns start to emerge.

In previous articles we have written about the psychology of program management and the role of optimism and human biases in project failures and delays. We have also explored why strategic plans fail and suggest a number of remedies.

One of the reasons that strategic plans and associated projects stall is a failure to follow thru, a failure to take account of varied, and sometimes diametrically opposed, inputs and pick a way forward. Sometimes this is a change management issue, a failure to inspire and galvanise a team with an achievable plan designed to overcome human and technical hurdles. But surprisingly often, it just comes down to an unwillingness to make a “big bet”. Continue reading →

The “Executive SuperTemp”

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In their article “The Rise of the Executive Super Temp”[1] , Jody and Matt Miller describe the growing phenomena of highly skilled executive level independent consultants in the market.

“Supertemps are top managers and professionals from lawyers to CFOs to consultants who’ve been trained at top schools and companies and choose to pursue project-based careers independent of any major firm. They’re increasingly trusted by corporations to do mission-critical work that in the past would have been done by permanent employees or established outside firms.” Continue reading →

Psychological Sleight of Hand – Part 1, The Optimistic Ape

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Anthropologists estimate that four or five million years ago, an ape moved down from the trees and looked out of the forest across the tall swaying grasses of the Savannah.  Likely driven by local climate changes and a need for food, he rose on two legs to see over the long grass. Grass that hid dangers, predators and unknowns. Others had tried to cross, with mixed and often tragic results. But he knew that he was bigger, stronger and more sure footed. And he knew that he would persevere where others had failed.

He was an optimistic ape.

Thus began a spiral of human evolution that led to better diets, higher birth rates, bigger brains and tools. His optimistic outlook, so fundamental to successful evolution, persists in us today. It is central to our ability to function, plan, conceive of new opportunities, to seize the day and make progress.

Perversely it also sets us up for persistent project overruns and schedule slippage. Continue reading →

Why Strategic Planning Fails, And What to Do About It

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Many companies do a great deal of strategic planning and presentation preparation and then go offsite for a few days once a year to establish the company’s goals and direction for the next 12 to 36 months. The executive correctly understand that they needed to engage in this exercise to get everyone on the same page.  It is also an annual perk for the staff involved.

Unfortunately, in our experience, these sessions can be generally useless unless the underlying process is very well developed and executed. There are many traps that can sideline good intentions. In fact, most executives that we have engaged over the years say that they’re unhappy with their strategic planning process. So while they know that strategic planning is necessary, they don’t fully realize the benefits they were hoping to attain from it. Continue reading →

The Five Stages of Strategic Grief

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Way back in 1969, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote the book “On Death and Dying” in which she described a model commonly referred to as the “five stages of grief”.  Applied to terminally ill patients, the stages were: denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance.

The model stuck and has been used in many settings. It transpires that a variation on the theme has relevance in the field of business marketing and competitive forces.

Surprised and intrigued? We were. Continue reading →

Known and Unknown

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In February of 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense for the United States, made his now famous “There are known knowns” statement.   Love him or leave him, Rumsfeld’s remarks were widely quoted and have since found their way into numerous writings. It transpires that although we believe that his statement is logically incomplete and it has been criticised as an abuse of the English language [1], it is worth dissecting as it relates to the development of business strategies. Continue reading →