-
Join 735 other subscribers
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
- Unlocking Strategic Thinking for Business Success – A Summit for Leaders and High Performers (Free)
- 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 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)
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: Strategic management
Advice for Strategic Initiative Charters
Strategic initiative charters are different than typical project and program charters that are expecting a pre-determined result. Greg Githens explains the functions of strategic initiative charter. He provides practical advise such as the “two page” rule and outlines 12 elements that should be found in a strategic initiative charter. Continue reading
How to Improve Strategic-Operational Collaboration
You can build support for strategy by understanding and using the strategy-operations polarity map.First, you acknowledge the values of the operational perspective (e.g., it gets results) and the downsides of strategy (it consumes time). Then, you can introduce some of the benefits of strategy work. This article will help the strategic initiative leader assure that the initiative does not flounder. Continue reading
Posted in Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives, Strategy Coaching and Facilitation, Strategy, Ambiguity, and Strong-Minded Thinking, Transforming the Organization
Tagged Business operations, change management, commitment, culture, Leadership, polarity map, polarization, strategic initiatives, Strategic management, Strategic planning, Strategy, strategy execution, transformation
6 Comments
Strategy-as-Story: The ABCDE Model
This tip for strategy and story telling (third in a series) describes the ABCDE model (assess, baseline, components, delivery, evaluation). It explains that strategic initiatives are chartered in the C to D steps. It also provides four useful questions that help gain strategic perspective: Where are we at? Where do we want to be? How will we get there? How will we evaluate ourselves? It also provides an example story that illustrates the principles. Continue reading
Posted in How to Improve Your Story Telling Chops, Strategic Planning Issues for Strategic Initiatives
Tagged ABCDE model of strategy, balanced score card, benefits, leading strategic initiatives, story telling, strategic initiatives, Strategic management, Strategic planning, strategy execution, strategy formulation, vision
2 Comments
HSBC’s Powerful Idea: Separate “Change the Business” from “Run the Business”
Strategic initiatives are intended to change the business, but have to compete with run the business imperatives for resources. HSBC has a simple powerful concept for portfolio prioritization: it’s either run the business or change the business. Greg Githens explains the concept, and covers three lessons for leaders of strategic initiatives: use this as a first cut, pay attention to the follow-the-money story, and think more deeply about the question, What is strategic alignment? http://wp.me/pZCkk-z6 Continue reading
How to Be Strong Minded (3 Capabilities and 5 Tips for Strategic Thinking)
Strong minds produce strong ideas. Strong minds do not fail. Strong minded thinkers have three competencies: 1) they are good a probing and sensing, 2) they imagine the logical future consequences of decisions and actions, and 3) they look for opportunities to apply ingenuity. The article provides practical questions that will help the reader develop these competencies. The article also provides five tips for robustness: avoid mistakes, develop emotional resiliency, reflect, and generate alternative solutions. Continue reading
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
How to Build Consensus in the Strategic Initiatives Team
Consensus is a vital skill for strategic initiatives. Consensus means that there is 100% agreement to support the IMPLEMENTATION of the decision. Greg Githens explains the two necessary factors for achieving consensus (define the team and have a visible signal) and describes a personal experience in helping an IT group reach agreement on requirements. Continue reading
A Template for Strategic Objectives (Benefits Propositions, Part 3): A.D.V.I.C.E. & Business Drivers
This article explains how to write a strategic objective with a verb that addresses a business driver. The ADVICE acronym is provided for the verbs. Several examples of strategic objectives are provides. Part of a series on benefits propositions for strategic initiatives. Continue reading
Posted in Incremental Benefits Delivery, Program & Portfolio Management, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged benefits, Business, Business model, CFO, Chief financial officer, Chief information officer, Disney, Google, program management, Stakeholder (corporate), strategic initiatives, Strategic management, strategic objectives
5 Comments
Director Business Transformation: Position Description & Relationship to Strategic Initiatives
Provides three examples of Director Business Transformation roles at Hertz, Sears, and SuperValu and suggests that there are similarities and distinctions with roles for VP, Director, or Manager of Strategic Initiatives. Continue reading
Posted in Examples of Strategic Initiatives, Transforming the Organization
Tagged Best practice, Business, Business transformation, change management, Chief financial officer, director, Greg Githens, growth, Hertz, Information Technology, job, Management, Organizational Development, position, program management, Project management, Sears, Strategic initiative, strategic initiatives, Strategic management, Supervalu, transformation, transformation initiatives
6 Comments
Three Templates: Strategic Initiative Benefit Propositions (Part 2)
How to write benefits propositions by stating “Because of ___” and “you will___.” Greg Githens calls the three templates direct mail, brag, and experiences. He provides an interesting graphic that displays the tradeoffs of benefits where the claims (brag) style is more objective and economic and the experience style develops more profound commitment to the strategic initiative. Continue reading
Posted in Incremental Benefits Delivery, Useful Practices & Management Tools
Tagged benefits proposition, buy in, claims, commitment, Decision making, economic benefits, emotive benefits, experience, program management, strategic initiatives, Strategic management, templates, value proposition
7 Comments
Leading Strategic Initiatives 