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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
- 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 Initiatives
- 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
- Agile Thinking, Habits, and Strategic Initiative Leadership: Transcending the Buzz for Useful Insights
- Coherence: It is Only a Good Plan (Strategy) If It Makes Good Sense
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
Author Archives: Greg Githens
Better Conversations Generate Better Strategy
There is strong evidence that conversation is ofttimes a turning point for strategy. Billy Beane’s conversation with Sandy Alderman pointed towards an unorthodox logic that evolved into the underpinnings of the Moneyball strategy. Lou Gerstner’s meeting with Dennie Welsh led … Continue reading
Insights Are the Secret Sauce of Strategy
The future is an essential navigational beacon of strategic thinking. The navigational beacon of insights is just as important. The IBM turnaround is an excellent example of what one insight can do. Gerstner [IBM’s CEO] declared that the services strategy … Continue reading
How a Strategic Decision Differs From a Tactical Decision
As I mentioned in the first chapter, people often use the adjective strategic rhetorically to signify importance. An example is that many people use the adjective strategic to contrast with tactical. The best explanation is that the strategic level is analogous to the brain and the tactical level is analogous … Continue reading
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Unlearning, learning, and a culture of strategic thinking
Organizational culture is relevant to both strategy and operations. Most agree that culture includes a set of shared values (about what is good and bad), beliefs (about the relationships of cause and effect), and assumptions (about the things that can … Continue reading
How Mapping Can Improve Your Strategic Thinking
It’s an inconvenient truth that many executives are lost, unable to grasp the essential concepts of strategy, crafting it, or conveying it to others.[i] In addition to orientation, maps help you frame and answer questions like these: · Where could I go? … Continue reading
How to Measure Business Acumen
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) finds that business acumen trails only leadership and ethics as an essential executive quality. Unfortunately, it is a gauzy and subjective buzzword. I propose a simple evaluation for business acumen. Imagine that an … Continue reading
Strategy Execution as a Learning Process
I’ve been teaching the idea that the strategic initiative leader (the program manager) functions in the role the Chief Learning Officer (CLO). Here are three essences of the CLO role: Establishing an attitude and culture that is friendly to learning. … Continue reading
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