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Greg Githens is the author of How to Think Strategically (2019). He is a recognized thought leader in designing and delivering strategic initiatives.-
Read these recent articles
- The Skills Stack for Resilience
- Five tips for speaking truth to power
- Better Conversations Generate Better Strategy
- Insights Are the Secret Sauce of Strategy
- How a Strategic Decision Differs From a Tactical Decision
- Unlearning, learning, and a culture of strategic thinking
- How Mapping Can Improve Your Strategic Thinking
- How to Measure Business Acumen
- Strategy Execution as a Learning Process
- Why I favor a mental stance of disorder
- Critical Asking
- Transcending the Status Quo
- Connecting Strategy to Execution
- Complexity: Four Principles for Program Managers
- Use the PAVER Framework to Assure Strategic Commitments
- Strategic Experiments & Agile Responses
- Avoiding Four Pitfalls of Rapid Growth
- Operational Excellence or Strategic Excellence?
- Design Thinking: Five Landmarks for Strategic InitiativesÂ
- Seven Must-Do’s for Better Strategy Execution
- Strategy as Problem Solving: An Example from a Large Technology Organization.
- Five Mental Anchors that Impede Your Strategic Initiative
- Five Must-Know Patterns of Disruption
- Beginners Guide: Competent Strategic Initiatives
- Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, & Ambiguity (VUCA)
- Four Recommendations for Effective Program Governance
- Six Strategic Thinking Skills: Developing the Proactiveness Habit
- What’s the #Strategy? Let Me Tell You a #Story
- Benefits of Being a Visible Expert
- Strategy is Not Long-Range Planning, Vision, Mission, or Values
- Five Ways to Involve Smart New Voices in the Strategy & Agile Innovation Conversation
- Is it Possible to Have a Perfect Strategy?
- Facilitating the Business Model Canvas: A Few Lessons Learned (Part 1)
- Designing Strategic Initiatives for Results: The Two Kinds of Coherence
- Perspective is More Powerful than Vision
- The Real Reason Strategy Implementation is Difficult (and the Solution to It)
- Grasping Essentials When You’re NOT the Expert
Talk to the Expert
Need a strategic planning facilitator, implementation coach, neutral mediator, workshop, seminar, or hands-on program manager? Greg Githens provides coaching, workshops, hands-on, and more. Contact him at GregoryDGithens@cs.com or 419.424.1164Categories
- Ambiguity and Strong-Minded Thinking
- Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders
- Examples of Strategic Initiatives
- How to Improve Your Story Telling Chops
- Incremental Benefits Delivery
- Interpreting Strategy Documents
- Program & Portfolio Management
- Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives
- Strategy
- Strategy Coaching and Facilitation
- Strategy, Ambiguity, and Strong-Minded Thinking
- Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives
- Transforming the Organization
- Uncategorized
- Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tag Archives: case study
Strategy as Problem Solving: An Example from a Large Technology Organization.
A case study from MajFin shows how to think about causal links needed to deliver value. Continue reading
Grasping Essentials When You’re NOT the Expert
What can a person do when he needs to quickly grasp essential knowledge and there is little opportunity to delegate the decision to an expert? This article provides you learn a technique for improving the effectiveness of your learning of specialist knowledge. I discovered a solution that finds a middle ground between formalized textbook-style learning and muddling through. This approach, works by asking focus questions and constructing propositions. The result is a hierarchical concept maps that renders a scaffold of relevant knowledge.I heartily endorse concept maps as a useful tool and hope you will practice and build skill. They are deceptively simple when you see a good one that has been developed by someone else. I encourage you to persist.
Apple versus Samsung: Three Lessons for Strategic Initiative Leaders
Here are three lessons for strategic initiative leaders drawn from analysis of the Samsung Apple iPhone patent infringement verdict. 1. Tell the better story. 2. Make better strategic bets. 3. Value originality. Continue reading
Why Your Organization Will Perform Better With Fewer Strategic Initiatives: Six Bits Evidence
Companies that have fewer strategic initiatives more likely to be at the top of their industry. Why? The discipline and focus of strategic choice! Too many projects and initiatives tend to cause fire fighting, distraction, frustration, etc. This article will provide you with examples and good talking points for maintaining focus on the “vital few” strategies rather than the trivial many. Continue reading
Posted in Program & Portfolio Management, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives
Tagged case study, evidence, prioritizing initiatives, Strategic initiative, strategic initiatives, Strategic planning, strategy execution, Texas Instruments
6 Comments
Strategic Initiative Case Study: Delivering Large Cost Savings in Healthcare IT Infrastructure
How a manager saw an opportunity to align his work with executive vision for IT cost savings, and drove significant benefits through a large healthcare organization. Summarizes value of elevator speech, key actions, team building, managing around a boss, and incremental benefits delivery. Continue reading
Posted in Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, Examples of Strategic Initiatives, Transforming the Organization
Tagged Business transformation, case study, elevator speech, health care, Information technology management, IT infrastructure, Kaiser Permanente, Leadership, program management, strategic initiatives, Strategic management, strategic thinking, transformation, vision
4 Comments
A Guide to the Three Types of Strategy and Business Model Scope
Strategic initiatives arise to support three types of strategies. Corporate strategies have to do with market selection. Business strategies have to do with competing within a business model. Functional strategies have to do with effective specialization. Each interact with the business model’s value proposition. Continue reading
Posted in Examples of Strategic Initiatives, Interpreting Strategy Documents, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives
Tagged Business, Business model, Business Model Canvas, business value, case study, Domino's Pizza, Greg Githens, Initiative, Management, Microsoft, Nokia, program management, resource availability, strategic alignment, Strategic initiative, Strategic management, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Strategy, strategy execution, strategy formulation, Swiss Life, transformation
18 Comments
Vice President, Director, Manager of Strategic Initiatives: Position Description Best Practices
Greg Githens reviewed a number of employment opportunities for individuals with the phrase “strategic initiatives” in the job title (and the trend is upward). Examples are Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, Director of Strategic Initiatives, and Manager of Strategic Initiatives. This article provides a snapshot of five positions and commentary on trends and omissions. Continue reading
Posted in Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, Examples of Strategic Initiatives, Program & Portfolio Management, Success Principles for Strategic Initiatives
Tagged American Express, balanced score card, Balanced scorecard, case study, Chief financial officer, Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, Conifer Health Solutions, director, enterprise strategic program manager, Green Dot, growth, job, Management, Mattel, Organizational Development, position, program management, Project management, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Strategic initiative, Strategic Initiatives Group, Strategic management, Strategic planning, strategy map, The Hartford, transformation, vice president, vp
8 Comments
Google’s Strategic Initiatives Team
Describes 5 leader competencies, and how applied to Google’s Strategic Initiatives Team. Comment notes that Microsoft has developed similar strategic initiative team. Continue reading
Posted in Competencies of Strategic Initiative Leaders, Examples of Strategic Initiatives
Tagged ambiguity, Business, case study, Google, google strategic initiative team, growth, Initiative, innovation, leader competencies, microsoft strategic initiative, organizational structure, strategy execution
4 Comments
Leading Strategic Initiatives 